NTL despair

[del855]

I have been an ntl customer for years, not for much longer. I had an error due to ntl not cancelling an offer that i didnt want, and cancelled. On trying to resolve, i may well have spoken to an unborn baby, it may well have achieved a result and stood a better chance to get resolved. The whole ntl error has led me to write in emailing 2 different departments (both ignored) i telephoned to be informed i would get a response within 24 hrs, never did. I have now as informed cancelled my long standing direct debit and am awaiting termination of ntl service in the next few weeks. Obviously not that bothered with their customers and also finding other offers appear to be better than ntl. Will be looking harder in the very near future, likely to go to Talk Talk or maybe even Pipex, both offering high speed 8mg at much better deals than my existing 1mg. Phone will follow termination in the future also. Shame Ntl has no one that is bothered, what a force they could be with staff and a system thats shows a little care. This coupled with other problems including a £7.00 charge to be informed ntl has a problem, has fueled me to look elsewhere.

[MovedGoalPosts]

to Cable Forum

What did you have, TV, broadband, phone?
What package offer did you not want?
You say ntl have ignored your emails and not returned phone calls. What were you wanting them to do?
Lot's of information missing from your post really.

You have cancelled your direct debit, presumably as a prelude to cancellation of all your services. Have you told ntl you are cancelling your account, if so how. Do you think ntl realised that you have told them. If you have any doubts over that write by recorded delivery to the address on your bill and confirm you are giving 30 days notice. Otherwise the account will remain open and continue to clock up fees which they will pursue causing you much much aggration.

[tonecold]

Originally Posted by Rob C

Do you think ntl realised that you have told them. If you have any doubts over that write by recorded delivery to the address on your bill and confirm you are giving 30 days notice.

hmmm no-one said when I phoned disconnections that i needed to write.... seems this NTL company REALLY needs to get it's f**king act together.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Most of the time they will accept cancellation by phone. The problem is you don't know for sure that the CS bod actually set up the cancellation on the date you requested, you only find that out when (if) the service is cut off, and if they don't cancel when you expected it to you then go through a load off hassle.

The ntl ts & cs say cancellation is to be by 30 days written notice. Do it that way and you have proof of what should happen.

[del855]

Originally Posted by Rob C

to Cable Forum

What did you have, TV, broadband, phone?
What package offer did you not want?
You say ntl have ignored your emails and not returned phone calls. What were you wanting them to do?
Lot's of information missing from your post really.

You have cancelled your direct debit, presumably as a prelude to cancellation of all your services. Have you told ntl you are cancelling your account, if so how. Do you think ntl realised that you have told them. If you have any doubts over that write by recorded delivery to the address on your bill and confirm you are giving 30 days notice. Otherwise the account will remain open and continue to clock up fees which they will pursue causing you much much aggration.

I have broadband and telephone with Ntl
the upgrade from 1mg to 2mg was not required as no noticable difference was experienced and therefore i asked them to remove the free offer of one month, this was not done and was charged. I had sent 2 x mails and initially 3 x telephone calls the last one was the worst case of customer service. On explaining the situation i was informed that i would have to pay the bill, the fact that i had already made 2 telephone calls to cancel the extra speed and cost upgrade, during the second call the service was also requested to be cancelled as they could not offer close to that of the competition. This was put into action and pending disconnection 6th August. After being continually ignored and spoken over during this last call, i informed the lady that i would infact not pay the incorrect bill, but would pay the normal agreed price which had also been incorrectly removed. I also informed her that as i was being ignored and told i would have to pay, i then said i would be cancelling the direct debit and would happily pay the final correct bill once recieved, this was also put into writing and emailed to 2 x different ntl contacts, then a further teleohone call was made, only to be informed that a resonse would be pending within 24hrs (none was sent). Tried again today, was informed systems down, tried again later waited on hold 25 minuites (typicial of Ntl) before hanging up.
To summarise, all i wanted was a competive deal on the broadband for which Pipex and Talk talk were offering amongst others. Also for the bill to be corrected and the original agreed deal. To much for Ntl i guess. I did get a respose today in the form of a letter asking me to contact them with new direct debit details.

On behalf of del855

Originally Posted by del855

Originally Posted by del855

I have broadband and telephone with Ntl
the upgrade from 1mg to 2mg was not required as no noticable difference was experienced and therefore i asked them to remove the free offer of one month, this was not done and was charged. I had sent 2 x mails and initially 3 x telephone calls the last one was the worst case of customer service. On explaining the situation i was informed that i would have to pay the bill, the fact that i had already made 2 telephone calls to cancel the extra speed and cost upgrade, during the second call the service was also requested to be cancelled as they could not offer close to that of the competition. This was put into action and pending disconnection 6th August. After being continually ignored and spoken over during this last call, i informed the lady that i would infact not pay the incorrect bill, but would pay the normal agreed price which had also been incorrectly removed. I also informed her that as i was being ignored and told i would have to pay, i then said i would be cancelling the direct debit and would happily pay the final correct bill once recieved, this was also put into writing and emailed to 2 x different ntl contacts, then a further teleohone call was made, only to be informed that a resonse would be pending within 24hrs (none was sent). Tried again today, was informed systems down, tried again later waited on hold 25 minuites (typicial of Ntl) before hanging up.
To summarise, all i wanted was a competive deal on the broadband for which Pipex and Talk talk were offering amongst others. Also for the bill to be corrected and the original agreed deal. To much for Ntl i guess. I did get a respose today in the form of a letter asking me to contact them with new direct debit details.

[MovedGoalPosts]

The "set up a new DD letter" shows part of the ntl systems work then

Your're best bet is definitely to put this cancellation, and claim that you are being charged for services you didn't want, in writing, snail mail recorded delivery.

The big risk is that whatever happens there will remain a shortfall between what you think you should pay, based on the instructions that didn't get followed, and for which there is now probably no proof that you issued them, and what ntl's systems will say you owe based on teh service levels you did receive. Be careful this doesn't end up a bad debt that affects your credit rating.

[del855]

It doesnt work, and the fact they still never contacted me except when they want money prooves that. I have given up with them trying to resolve it and remain with Ntl as it is clear they are not bothered, especially clear as you can see the ammount of threads that have similar experiences. The biggest pain for me is to set up a Bt line again in order to change to new suppliers. Its a shame as Ntl are ok except when there is a problem. It is sometimes easier to try and contact the dead than contact Ntl with success. Why do they make it so hard, perhaps the motto is ignore all it will go away one way or another.

[jrift]

My story:
I had ntl internet, phone and tv for quite a few years (since the days of analogue tv and ntl dial-up). We got upgraded to digital with broadband and all was ok until it was time for a speed upgrade, which required the installation of a new set-top box or cable modem. The engineers failed to show up three times in a row, then when one did finally arrive, he hadn't brought the kit with him. The next call to ntl was to cancel the service. While waiting out the notice period, Sky was installed. I then received a call from their retentions department who made an offer of £12.50 per month for uncapped 2 meg internet. Suprisingly, the switch out from our set-top box to a cable modem went smoothly (or so I thought). Since then, we have been receiving bills for the full 2 meg price of £24.99. No amount of calling has been able to get this sorted yet.

Over the last week, a different issue has hit my account. I was going to move house, and left a moving date. However, the move fell through so we contacted NTL to cancel the move both on the phone and on their customer feedback form. Despite this, my phone and internet were cut off on the scheduled date. A week's worth of calling their various departments, which has often involved being on hold for 45 minutes on a mobile phone, has not been able to get the services switched back on. On at least three occasions NTL have promised to call back, but you all know their record on that...

I very much regret allowing their retentions department to talk me in to staying with them. I will be cancelling their services as soon as I can get a BT line in, and I strongly encourage all NTL customers to do the same even if they haven't had problems yet. It'll only be a matter of time before you do.

Sorry for the long winded post.

[Gareth]

to the forum, jrift... unfortunately your story isn't unheard of. Although I've had very few problems with the infrastructure side of NTL, their administration side have been awful.

My problems primarily involved being billed for an old address and a new address for 12 months before they eventually sorted it (after having umpteen phone calls - luckily still freephone at the time - and having them disconnect the new address instead of the old address on several occaisions )

I ended up ditching them for DTV and phone, but I've kept them for broadband, as I can count the number of times it has failed on the fingers of one hand.

It is such a shame that they are letting themselves down like this time and time again. For broadband, there's no contest between cable and DSL imo, so NTL should be wiping the floor with BT and DSL ISPs... but their admin teams really let the side down.

[jrift]

I agree with your observations about the quality of NTL's internet. The only reason that I've stayed with them for so long is that the connection has been very fast (over 2 meg at times) and reliable. The rest of my family use DSL, and they often complain about dropped connections.

I notice on their hold message that they keep banging on about improving customer service over the next few months, which is a bit rich as their essentially saying "We know we're crap but not for long". Hopefully, the forthcoming merger with telewest will actually make a noticable difference.

I think the main problem with their current admin setup is that there doesn't seem to be any individuals there with the ability to administer every detail of an account. This means that every action has to rely on inter-department communication.