Mr Branson is said he was "happy with progress" at the media launch regarding customer service....
Yeah, right. Richard? read this....
A while ago, I was lured by the promise of 16 meg Broadband at a cheapo price from Sky, but they screwed my line up at the exchange before they even came round, and left me with zero faith in their abilities.
NTL, meanwhile in the shape of a nice man called Bernie McSweeney was in contact, and he wanted to woo us with an upgraded package to keep us...he had an advantage over the sky droids (he was human) so having dumped sky as totally unreliable we said yes.
Now, I know that telewest/ntl/virgin (now known as virgin media) were going through a difficult multi layer admin process re-adjustment, but...
First we got a call on the Wednesday saying they wanted to collect our set-top box...fair enough, we were going over to cable modem, but it would have left us without connectivity, so I said please collect it on the Saturday that we got the cable modem installed, as we were upgrading.
That nice Mr Bernie McSweeney intervened and phoned me off his own back just after I'd received a few phone calls from completely separate departments, to say the cable modem tech would collect the set top box equipment on Saturday at the same time as we were upgraded, so it's all sorted.
That same evening, all our email accounts disappeared, a chancer in Shilpa Shetty land created a whole new account, but said the others "did not exist".
This took an hour and a half on the phone...
I personally tracked down that nice Mr Bernie McSweeney the next day after getting a load of dead numbers and full answering machines. He got someone in the same office as him (Steve) to look at it, and our accounts were back in 20 minutes, minus whatever mail anyone had sent to us while we didn't exist.
It gets worse..
The tech turned up on Saturday 31st of October, plugged in the cable modem and told me to give it 20 minutes.
He then disappeared TAKING THE NOW REDUNDANT SET TOP BOX WITH HIM (please note..!!!)
Login didn't work, our account was dead, it took me the rest of the F**ing day to contact that nice Mr Bernie McSweeney Who spoke to his mate (Steve again) and sorted it out. In 10 seconds. For everyone on the ball ntl has like Bernie and Steve, they also have 100 cretins by my reckoning, but at least we were finally sorted.
This was months ago.Suddenly today, we got threatened AND FALSELY ACCUSED by NTL/ Telewest/ Richard Branson/I don't care any more... here is the letter, in all its glory....;
"Our Ref. **********
18-Jan-07
PRE-LEGAL NOTICE PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY
Dear ********
Account Number: **********
We previously contacted you about collection of your NTL equipment, however this still remains seriously
overdue.
If we do not receive all equipment outstanding within 5 days of the date of postage of this letter, we
will instruct our debt collection agency to recover these on our behalf.
The Debt Collection Agency may take LEGAL ACTION against you, which could result in:
• A Judgement in your name and address entered in court records.
• A court bailiff may be instructed to seize goods from your premises.
• Your employer may be ordered to deduct payments directly from your salary.
Each of these steps will incur additional costs that you will have to pay. This may significantly increase the
balance outstanding on your account.
Debt Registration
NTL participates in the registration of bad debts with credit referencing bureau. This may seriously affect your
ability to obtain credit in future.
Avoid Action.
You will also be charged £250 for each item of unreturned equipment.
You can contact our contract partners, Kelly Communications, by Email at
pickups@kelly.co.uk
or by phone on 0800 389 0959 to arrange a collection.
If you have already returned the equipment within the last few days there is no need to contact us. Please
disregard this reminder.
Yours sincerely,
Ntl:Telewest
ntl Group Limited
Registered office:
ntl House
Bartley Wood Business Park
Hook
Hampshire
RGZ79UP
Registered in
England and Wales
number 2591237"
...Still "happy with progress", Richard? I have complained and got nowhere except for Bernie saying he would find out why I got the letter, but that was weeks ago.
Updates (if not when) can be read here...
http://www.lifeandshopping.co.uk/php...ic.php?t=10488