NTL Shambolic service!!

[Argyll]

Rather than try to explain my problem with NTL I have posted a copy of the letter of complaint I have sent to NTL , as of today the problem is still un-resolved and I have recieved no promised call backs , any advice as to where I can go with this now would be gratefully recieved.



Date 10th August 2006
Customer Services Manager
NTL Limited
PO Box 50
Wythenshawe
Manchester M22 0BA




Dear Sir

Re: Account Number *********

I am writing to you to complain in the strongest terms about the service I have received from your Company in the last few weeks.

On 24th July 2006 I was contracted by one of your operators concerning the balance on my account, I informed him that I would clear the balance in full on 31st July with my debit card, your operator informed me that if I gave him my card details immediately he would post date the payment for the following week, this he informed me would †œprotect my servicesââ‚à ƒâ€šÃ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ÂÂ� and ensure that I †œwould not attract a £20.00 reconnection feeââ‚Âà ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ÂÂ� (this call you have on tape).

On Tuesday 25th July 2006 you disconnected my phone line, I contacted you again on Wednesday 26th July, and explained the call I had had with your operator 2 days earlier, only to be told that †œhe wouldnââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t have said thatââ‚ ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ� but that they would check the tape of the phone call and get back to me.

On Wednesday evening I had a call from you to inform me that the operator HAD promised me that the service would be protected, but you had had a policy change on the Tuesday 25th July 2006!! So there was nothing he could do.

Surely a company of NTLââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s size and integrity would honour a promise to a long-standing customer? Apparently not!

However believe it or not your service actually got worse when on Monday 31st July 2006 I received another call from one of your operators to tell me that the operation who initially took my debit card details did so incorrectly and would I give them again, which I did only to find that you took the payment (in excess of £146.00 ) twice within a matter of hours!!

Once again I had to contact you to attempt to get a refund, once again my card details were taken and I was promised that the extra payment of £146.00 would be refunded within 24 hours.

3 days later the payment has still not been refunded and after another phone call (all at my expense!) I was told that the refund actually takes 7 working days! Not 24 hours as was told.

On Monday 7th August, 1 again phoned as the payment still had not been refunded and I was given the news that once again the operator had taken the details incorrectly and I will have to wait a further 7 days for my refund.

This is holy unacceptable, whilst £146.00 might not be a massive amount of money to a company like NTL, I have so far received 2 penalties of £38.00 each from my bank for insufficient funds, and have not been able to access any of my money for what will be 14 days, (if in fact you manage to repay my money by Monday 14th August 2006 as you have promised.

After many years as a customer of yours subscribing to the highest TV package and broadband, I have now cancelled my TV subscription, not once during this sorry episode has anyone even apologised, and I feel that you should consider a compensation payment to me that certainly exceeds the £76.00 bank charges, and amount of money I have had to spend contacting you.

I look forward to hearing from you at your very earliest convenience.

Yours faithfully



*********

N.B. This is a copy of a letter sent on 10th August 2006 to your registered office and has not yet received a reply.

As of 16th August 2006 the promised refund has still not been credited to my account, and despite more phone calls and promises that manager will †œcall me backâ₠¬Ã‚Â� the matter is still unresolved.

The amount taken in bank charges is £152.00 (£38.00 x 4) all due to lack of funds as NTL are unable to make a simple refund to a debit card.

If the amount owed to me and a satisfactory offer of recompense is not made to me with 7 days from todayââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s date (Wednesday 16th August 2006) I will be forwarding this complaint to OTELO and proceeding with legal action.

[Paul K]

Did you send it recorded delivery? The forum team have contacts within NTL and a resolution escalation procedure which has helped numerous people up till now. No doubt a team member will be along to offer assistance very soon.

[Russ]

Yep! PM me your name, address and account number and I'll get this passed on tonight.

[Argyll]

Yes Paul it was sent recorded delivery
Details sent Russ....thanks

[SLM]

I hope you get this sorted out as its a poor service from ntl.....however i think there is a lesson to be learned, pay your bills straight away.

[Nicky]

Just a thought - have you contacted your bank to tell them that it's NTL's fault for debitting you twice?

Once you do, they may agree to lift their charges, as the overdraft was outside your control.

Anyway - it pays to keep them in the picture - because it should remove any bad credit rating from your account.

[gavnad]

as i understand it manchester has a huge backlog of letters/complaints!

[Argyll]

I hope you get this sorted out as its a poor service from ntl.....however i think there is a lesson to be learned, pay your bills straight away.



I normaly do pay my bills straight away, but I'm recovering from an operation , and struggling on sick pay at the moment

[popper]

Originally Posted by SLM

I hope you get this sorted out as its a poor service from ntl.....however i think there is a lesson to be learned, pay your bills straight away.

NO, the lesson is , dont go giving your card details to people over the phone assuming they will hold up their end of a verbal contract.

he should have took his bill with the details on it, to any paypoint outlet and got his slip, then tell the accounting department when they ring, the no on that slip, and were he payed it, they can see that info onscreen and all he's then doing is confirming the fact its payed.

---------- Post added at 22:48 ---------- Previous post was at 22:32 ----------

Originally Posted by Argyll

I normaly do pay my bills straight away, but I'm recovering from an operation , and struggling on sick pay at the moment

hmmm, and why would NTL accounts care if your struggling on the sick or not?.

if they ring you up and demand the money for next month and you cant pay it for the time being, but you have been a good payer overall, wouldnt you expect them to aggree to a short term payment plan and stick to it?.

perhaps now you would expect them to say anything just to get you to pay no matter what, then find your phonline outgoing calls blocked and even crazyer on their part, not even allow you to call the NTL accounts department to resolve the problem due to someone at NTL:TW setting the blocking wrong.

you might need to have a full read of the default-hell thread
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...ault-hell.html
if you find you now have a default (as bad as a CCJ) and charges+interest on your credit file & bank account due to NTL:TW taking unauthorised? money out of your account making it overdrawn.

one final tip:
make sure you save off any web pages you might want to reference later to your harddrive incase you loose your internet connection and cant then get back to them later when you need to.

[Argyll]

Still no resolution to this matter.......since I originally posted I have phoned NTL 5 times only to be told that a manager would phone me back , they never have , in fact I phoned this morning at 11.00am and was guaranteed that a manager would phone back within the hour it's now 5.30pm and guess what.....correct......no phone call