How am I best going about cancelling my NTL broadband?

[emjayhaych]

Hi, I'm a university student, we've had NTL at our student house for 2 years, and this June I will be needing to cancel our subscription because we're all graduating and moving out. The account is under my name, just for the broadband, we don't subscribe to any TV channels. I'm worried because I've read many horror stories of accounts not being cancelled when wanted, so I wondered if anyone could offer any advise as to the best and most sure-fire way of getting a confirmed cancellation? I intend to use the service til the end of June (I get charged at the end of every month) so I intend to take action now, with a months notice in hand. What is the best action to take to minimise risk of them keeping charging me after the period I wish to cancel by? Should I email, call, write a letter.....? Thanks a lot! Mike

[ppolo99]

yeah im in same boat, iv got 9 month contract which ends about august, but i need to move out end of june, was wondering how long in advanced i should notify them. and like above how.
(sorry to invade thread, felt appropriate)

[opelfruitcase]

For both, 1 month notice is fine - just as long as the person who speak to adds a forwarding (home) address onto the account then any reminders of overdue/outstanding balances will go straight to that address rather than where you had the services installed. This hasn't always been done correctly on a small number of previous occasions hence the problems with debts from previous houses for accounts that should have been cancelled.

[emjayhaych]

So you're saying that when I call up customer services I should make sure he's notified of a forwarding address to be used after the date of cancellation? What I've gathered to be the best process so far is this - Call 0800 052 9403 with a month to go until the date you wish to cancel Note down the name of the person you're talking to Tell them a straightforward reason why you want to cancel, and make it clear you're not moving house and taking your NTL service there when you go. Write down the confirmed cancel date. Notify them of a forwarding address to be used after the cancellation..... Send a letter via recorded delivery to NTL House Bartley Wood Business Park Bartley Way Hook Hampshire RG27 9UP In the letter, confirm your account details and your cancellation, the name of the customer service guy you confirmed it with, and the date of the cancellation. Then on the day after the date of cancellation, cancel the direct debit at your bank. If anyone recommends a different method, I'd like to know, thanks!

I would advice that the DD is not cancelled until the last payment day that you expect otherwise it will only lead to NTL adding on charges!!

[Mr Angry]

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=47538

Originally Posted by xathras

I would advice that the DD is not cancelled until the last payment day that you expect otherwise it will only lead to NTL adding on charges!!

Go's without saying...

General rule of thumb, you dont close the DD until 1 month has cleared with no debits being taken.

[gavnad]

dont think ntl offer any freephone numbers now??..excepting collections?

[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by Slyder

Go's without saying...

General rule of thumb, you dont close the DD until 1 month has cleared with no debits being taken.

Usually yes, but rules of thumb, in fact rules generally, don't normally apply when the other party is NTL. Personally I wouldn't afford them the opportunity of making a mistake, to your detriment.

Give them the normal 30 days notice and confirm that they acknowledge same. On day 30 if / when they disconnect your broadband then immediately cancel your direct debit (in writing) to your bank.

NTL should shortly thereafter issue you with a closing statement which you then pay and, hey presto! you're sorted.

Assuming the closing statement can't be issued until you have fulfilled your statutory obligation under the terms of the contract (30 days notice) they cannot levy an additional £4.00 charge for you deciding on payment by a method other than by direct debit because you are no longer under any contractual obligation to them.

[emjayhaych]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

Usually yes, but rules of thumb, in fact rules generally, don't normally apply when the other party is NTL. Personally I wouldn't afford them the opportunity of making a mistake, to your detriment.

Give them the normal 30 days notice and confirm that they acknowledge same. On day 30 if / when they disconnect your broadband then immediately cancel your direct debit (in writing) to your bank.

NTL should shortly thereafter issue you with a closing statement which you then pay and, hey presto! you're sorted.

Assuming the closing statement can't be issued until you have fulfilled your statutory obligation under the terms of the contract (30 days notice) they cannot levy an additional £4.00 charge for you deciding on payment by a method other than by direct debit because you are no longer under any contractual obligation to them.

What is this 'closing statement' I'll have to pay?? How much is it? And what if I've gone through the procedure of cancelling as mentioned earlier, but find my connection is still working the day after the proposed cancellation date? Do I still stop my direct debit?

[opelfruitcase]

Originally Posted by emjayhaych

So you're saying that when I call up customer services I should make sure he's notified of a forwarding address to be used after the date of cancellation?

Yes, for the simple reason that its seen as a house move cancellation with NTL - thats why they're offering a 9 month contract to students because they know your moving out of the property at the end of the academic year. As for all disconnections due to a house move, they must take a forwarding address - if no forwarding address is taken, the disconnection request will not be actioned.

If you want to pm me your account number as well as your nus or uni enrolement number, date of moving out, if you want the services to resume next year and a forwarding post code and house number then I'll take care of the rest for you.

If only a house move request for an associate account could be as smooth - as for that, thank goodness for Fingy - thanks!

[emjayhaych]

Originally Posted by opelfruitcase

If you want to pm me your account number as well as your nus or uni enrolement number, date of moving out, if you want the services to resume next year and a forwarding post code and house number then I'll take care of the rest for you.

Thanks but no thanks, lol, I'll be glad to be rid of ****ty NTL, over the two years we've had it it's been mostly rubbish. We were meant to get a line upgrade to 1mb from 512k by the end of april, but we're still stuck on 512k, and when it's wireless, it's hardly what you'd call fast....We can't afford any more than £18 a month though, and we didn't wanna go with the 2mb upgrade because of the bandwidth cap. Between 6 of us, it equated to hardly any downloadage, and 2 of us like to whore the bit torrent, lol And if you're wondering why I went with NTL, when I wouldn't if I had a choice, well our phone line is set to incoming only to prevent phone bill hassle between the 6 of us....so we had to go with cable internet, and NTL seemed like the best option. But yeah, after I move out of here, I'm goin back to living with my parents, and they have Tiscali 1mb, so I'm happy with that.

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by emjayhaych

Thanks but no thanks, lol, I'll be glad to be rid of ****ty NTL, over the two years we've had it it's been mostly rubbish. We were meant to get a line upgrade to 1mb from 512k by the end of april, but we're still stuck on 512k, and when it's wireless, it's hardly what you'd call fast....We can't afford any more than £18 a month though, and we didn't wanna go with the 2mb upgrade because of the bandwidth cap. Between 6 of us, it equated to hardly any downloadage, and 2 of us like to whore the bit torrent, lol And if you're wondering why I went with NTL, when I wouldn't if I had a choice, well our phone line is set to incoming only to prevent phone bill hassle between the 6 of us....so we had to go with cable internet, and NTL seemed like the best option. But yeah, after I move out of here, I'm goin back to living with my parents, and they have Tiscali 1mb, so I'm happy with that.

FYI, there's no cap anymore...

[James Henry]

You're due for extreme pain from Tiscali, their definition of unlimited is scandalous and their adverts complete BS in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Tiscali 'Unlimited' Fair Use Policy

A very small number of customers use Peer to Peer or file sharing software, which constantly sends and receives video and other very large files, throughout the day. This type of activity uses a lot of bandwidth and can significantly reduce the speed at which other customers can access the internet during peak hours. Approximately 1% of customers use more than 30% of the available bandwidth during peak hours. We don't believe this is fair to the vast majority of our customers. This fair usage policy automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and manages their bandwidth only during peak hours (6pm to 11pm Monday to Sunday), to protect the service for all our other customers.

If you are affected, we will contact you by email to let you know that your usage at peak hours is excessive and is affecting other customers. The email will be sent to both your Tiscali email address and your contact email address (if different) and will contain simple advice on how to reduce your usage. If your usage is still excessive, we will contact you again by email to ask you to reduce your sending and receiving of large files during peak hours. If your usage still remains excessive during peak hours, we will contact you a third time to advise you that we will be restricting your bandwidth during peak hours for the good of all other customers. This restriction will only apply during peak hours and there will be no restriction at other times of the day.

Their idea of heavy usage at peak times is pretty small to say the least, 500MB in a day has been known to get people flagged and just a few GB a month at the wrong times and you're getting the nasty-o-gram.

[opelfruitcase]

Originally Posted by emjayhaych

Thanks but no thanks, lol, I'll be glad to be rid of ****ty NTL, over the two years we've had it it's been mostly rubbish. We were meant to get a line upgrade to 1mb from 512k by the end of april, but we're still stuck on 512k, and when it's wireless, it's hardly what you'd call fast....We can't afford any more than £18 a month though, and we didn't wanna go with the 2mb upgrade because of the bandwidth cap. Between 6 of us, it equated to hardly any downloadage, and 2 of us like to whore the bit torrent, lol And if you're wondering why I went with NTL, when I wouldn't if I had a choice, well our phone line is set to incoming only to prevent phone bill hassle between the 6 of us....so we had to go with cable internet, and NTL seemed like the best option. But yeah, after I move out of here, I'm goin back to living with my parents, and they have Tiscali 1mb, so I'm happy with that.

The 512K service may not have automagically been upgraded, something I could have done in a matter of seconds if Im in work at the time. The mid tier service (currently 2Mb) has always been unlimited (they did have fair usage guidelines of 30Gb but I have never downloaded less than that in a month, possibly even a week between the 4 computers here). 512K between 6 people is just daft - there's contention issues between me and other other user in this house on our 10Mb connection, how on earth did you manage on a light user speed for so long?

Anyway, what I suggested yesterday was a way of cancelling for you, but an option given is that a suspension during the summer months can be arranged if you want. If you want me to put the disconnection request in for you though my offer is still there.