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Originally Posted by ian@huth
Is it stupid or is it just a money making scam? If the company knows what is happening then they should be taking action to correct the situation even if it means having to manually alter the bills until such time as a workable computer solution is provided. It may only be a small sum extra on the customers bill but it could seriously affect some customers especially if they are reducing services because they cannot for some reason afford them. NTL are laughing though as they bank that money for a month and earn interest on it. The small amount they gain this way from a customer can soon become a large amount when multiplied bu the number of customers it affects.What would NTLs reaction be if the customer cancelled their direct debit to prevent this unwarranted charge being taken. Would a non-DD excess be applied in this situation?
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Thing is they don't gain a penny because the money is all credited back on the next bill and it is all righted that way. It's definitely not deliberate, they just don't have the time or resources to devote to things like that. They won't pay to have it changed because it would be a really major expensive change to a billing system they intend one day to phase out.
If the DD is cancelled the charge may well appear automatically within days...it is meant to...but you could always ring and ask for your DD to be amended downwards to exclude the line rental charge, this will then carry over to the next bill, and the ensuing credit for TV services should wipe it out leaving no carry over. The risk here is that if there IS a carryover of even a few pence, this will hit the customer's credit rating, which is one of the reasons this isn't advised by staff.
It's just a bit of a pain...and as it mostly affects customers who are reducing or cancelling services, I would guess it's not seen as a major priority. It's just too expensive to fix with a new billing system on the way that won't have the problem in the first place.