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Originally Posted by James Henry
They need to get the cost reductions going as ntl still aren't a profitable business and they need to get profitable and get investing fairly rapidly.
Of more concern is that some of the things that made Telewest more profitable are being chopped in the name of attracting customers. One particular thing of note being that while Telewest do actually credit check customers and will refuse to install to those who present a risk ntl will quite happily install to anyone regardless. Telewest employees are getting the same targets as ntl ones now, even though they have different criteria. ntl have been known to let people off of arrears on their bills to retain them as customers. Again the figures are everything, apart from the profit column.
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i cant speak for other area's but that seems wrong on several points (nothing against you james you understand) in my area, wythenshawe,south manchester (right in the heart of manchester airport), the so called largest 'garden city' in europe has in excess of 34,000+ council houses, probably near the same again in combined private houses/shops/business with currently around 76,000+ people with a potential of 110,000+, virtually every single house has nynex/C&W installed cable running past it with cabs on every other corner, with the main baguley center (is that classed a main hub for NTL operations like the other two mentioned all the time?)a mile away.
its fair to claim wythenshawe as a major potential customer base for NTL,
NTL do perform credit checks on all new customers every time here,and i think thats plain wrong considering your always paying the direct-debit at least 2 or 3 weeks in advance of any due bill and by definition always in credit by default.
the most stupid rules concerning their direct cashflow/income are whats keeping customer No.s far lower than they need be, this rule is the fact that they refuse to take cash payments for the broadband.
dont take my word for it, walk up to any saleman in your local high street/civic center and they will ask if your a customer etc, tell them your interested in broadband and want to pay 'a month upfront in cash' and continue to pay by cash, they will say 'ntl do not allow it in any way' and press you to pay by DD and or CC,tell them you dont have a bank/BS account, but stress the point about you will pay upfront 'two months cash' if thats ok just to get the service you want, again they repeat the same mantra, 'NTL do not allow it in any way'. its the same with several NTL sales people on the phone over several days too, so its not just the wythenshawe civic center staff.
iv also been informed that this only appys to the stand alone modem,
they also said you can infact pay cash as your inital payment for the 3 for 30 package (and even pay by paypoint card NTL will issue you to pay the subsquent bills at any paypoint shop if you want) alas thats not confirmed as fact.
what is fact hower is i (and at least 4 people i know)asked about the 3 for 30 package as well as the stand alone modem and got the exact same 'ntl do not allow it in any way', so eather ntl 'dont', or 'dont but do' take cash payments depending on the truth and who you try and sign you up for an inital package, eather way its wrong they discriminate against cash (or paypoint for that matter) customers.
the simple fact is ntl are loosing 100's perhaps 1000's + of new customers because they do not take cash (coin of the realm) as a valid payment for inital install, you might wonder what the investers and commercial bankers would make of this ntl rule if they know about it,i know i do.