[harmonyinfo]

Bit of a catch-22 - NTL services are felt by some to be poor, so people look for discounts to match the service actually received which means NTL have less money which means they can't improve the services (or pay their staff a good salary), so those people continue to see the services as poor.

But anyway, if someone has all the cables etc already installed (at least for TV/broadband) isn't the monthly rental almost pure profit? I've not had a problem for years that has required NTL to do anything to fix. I have the same cable box and modem. So for me (ignoring the initial cabling costs!), my payments are almost pure profit to NTL (other than to pay the billing system charges). So I can understand why NTL might be willing to give customers half price deals to retain at least 50% of that profit. I can't see they make a loss on those deals. They would make a loss if the customer went elsewhere or if a large number of people were given the 50% deals. But then it would be their own fault for offering the deals to all those people.

If NTL believe their standard pricing deals are good value and give their customers the best service amongst their competitors, then perhaps they should just have a bit of courage and let people go if they say they can find a better deal elsewhere. If NTL really do have the best deals they will soon attract someone new to replace them.