How to cancel ntl services?

[Behemoth]

After some 8 years with ntl/diamond cable I have finally been pushed over the edge and decided to cancel my ntl tv/phone package. However doing so seems almost impossible. Getting through to customer services is nigh on impossible and when I do get through the mention of the word 'cancel' inevitably results in the phone line going dead. Anyone got any advice, please.

[GazzaB]

Hi Behemoth

Customer services should pass you to retention (customer cancellation team) if you want to cancel! They should not cut you off!! If you really have no joy getting through then send a letter but make sure it's sent to the office detailed on the back of your bill and make sure it's sent RECORDED, otherwise Ntl may claim to have never recieved it, also remember it's 30 days notice as well from when they receive it before you will be switched off.

Welcome to the forum by the way

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by GazzaB

Hi Behemoth

Customer services should pass you to retention (customer cancellation team) if you want to cancel! They should not cut you off!! If you really have no joy getting through then send a letter but make sure it's sent to the office detailed on the back of your bill and make sure it's sent RECORDED, otherwise Ntl may claim to have never recieved it, also remember it's 30 days notice as well from when they receive it before you will be switched off.

Welcome to the forum by the way

Thanks for the welcome. I have to agree they should not cut me off; perhaps it's a new customer retention policy! I have spoken to OTELO and they have given me a special address at ntl for complaints and like you they suggest Recorded Delivery, so I am writing there.

[GazzaB]

Good that should hopefully get you sorted but I'm sure if not you will come back to us! There are a good few Ntl bods out there who should be able to help as a last resort.

Gary

[andynation]

I am also a long suffering NTL customer and have been trying to cancel my services for a week now but only get through to people who say they can't help . What is the address to write to as I'm getting desperate now - I leave the country in 2 weeks...

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by andynation

I am also a long suffering NTL customer and have been trying to cancel my services for a week now but only get through to people who say they can't help . What is the address to write to as I'm getting desperate now - I leave the country in 2 weeks...

What OTELO told me is to write to this address saying you have been directed to do so by OTELO, send your letter Recorded so NTL can't deny receiving it, and keep a copy to send to OTELO if NTL continue to ignore you.

NTL Customer Concern
PO Box 232
Manchester
M22 0WL

[andynation]

Thanks for that. Hopefully this will be the last time i ever have to deal with them.

[repose]

Originally Posted by andynation

Thanks for that. Hopefully this will be the last time i ever have to deal with them.

If you really are turning your back on their level of 'service' then tragic as it is to admit it but I envy you for that.


The situations outlined by other posters here are just as tragic though.

I would terminate all direct debits informing my bank & the DD scheme that this buffoons are holding me hostage to pay for a service I no longer wish to pay for.
Then I would mail NTL one last time, & hand a copy to my solicitor. When NTL sent the next invoice I would call & let them know that I did cancel a month ago & that we have ceased to use their services, it is up to them when they cease to provide them, but I have no responsibility for paying for their provision.

Something like that seems perfectly reasonable to me.

My problem is less straigh-forward. Though not by much. Any other company that was serious about their service provision would easily take this one in their stride.

I & my girlfriend who has moved in with me (not true any more the property is in her name), were paying for separate parts of NTL provision. She basically wanted the phone & I was using my mobile together with NTLs TV & broadband.

We attempted to get them to put the bill in her name but with the payments taken from my account.
Should be possible right?
What happened after numerous calls & 2 letters:
The bill is now in my name & I was charged thus according to last month's statement:
17.99 for 1MB broadband
21.50 for basic TV pack & telephone line
6.00 for their inclusive call service whose name escapes me as I type this.

Now this is considerably more than the current £30 for TV, phone-line & BBand offer running (if I am not mistaken to the 31st of August inclusive).

Can anyone please tell me how to get them to move me over to this price structure?
Refund for the months they have dithered not placing us on this structure?

(Optional - can't believe it has to be classified as this though, bloody NTL) Finally put the account in my GF's name for simplicity sake but take the payments from my account?

Please do your worst people! I am at my wits end.

Thank you kindly.

[Behemoth]

Hi Repose

Sorry to hear about the quagmire you find yourself in. I think you probably need legal advice if you want to accomplish the things you describe. If I was in your position I would just cancel everything and go to a another supplier for your services, writing off the losses you have had to date. Just make sure you read up on independent reviews of the level of service provided by ntl compared to other suppliers. Which? magazine is a good place to start. You can usually find it in your local library or on their web site.

---------- Post added at 11:40 ---------- Previous post was at 11:17 ----------

Rather spookily, a few minutes after my last posting I received a copy of the Which? report on broadband ISPs in pdf format. It is interesting for anyone considering a switch.

[andynation]

So I finally got through today.

Rang up at 8:57 and asked to be put through. While arguing with the woman who refused to connect me it turned 9:00 and she informed me mid sentence that she could now put him through. How absurd is that....

So got into the queue dead on 9:00, and got through to someone by 10:00 - an hour wait just 1 minute after the line opened!!!!

So after 30mins talking to some guy I think my services have been cancelled. He was a bit vague about that.

But thats not the end.......

The cancellations department cannot arrange for the equipment to be collected (this is NTL after all why would those two departments talk to each other???) so was given another number to call.

It took another 5 calls to different numbers to find out that the equipment I have is so old they don't want it back! (Maybe explains my shockingly bad services)

The whole thing took a further 4 hours to sort out. Wasted a day of my life doing this. But at least after a week of trying it is finally over.

With this house move I have also had to change services with my banks, gas, electric, mobile phone, TV license and all have taken 2 mins no problems, no effort with friendly service.

Contrasted to the NTL hell experience I think I will get Sky & BT in my new house.

Good luck to anyone still with NTL and to anyone thinking about it just don't.

---------- Post added at 19:16 ---------- Previous post was at 18:58 ----------

PS got some new addresses out of NTL today too:

NTL
Moves and Transfers,
Hertford House,
36 Hertford Street,
Coventry,
CV1 1LF.

NTL
Complaints Department,
Concorde Business Park,
Threapwood Road
Wythenshawe
Manchester.
M22 0EA

Am sending my full complaints to them both and also their Chief Operating Officer ( you can find him on their press website ). Recorded delivery of course.

[Behemoth]

Glad to hear you might have made some progress, but at what a cost. Your experience tallies pretty much with mine over the last eight years. In fact, I can say quite honestly that NTL is the only company I've dealt with where I've been told to f*** off by a customer service operator.
I fear your intended letters of complaint will prove to be a waste of time. The only thing you can do is vote with your feet.

A customer service rep can talk to you anyway they want, why because they don't have to give their name or an employee ref number where they can be traced in the event of any complaint!

Any company that allows their staff to with hold any details in order to prevent any complaint being made is asking for trouble in the way of poor cs which will cost them customers in the long run.

To be honest if I worked for any company that said it's ok you don't have to say anything other than your first name and I had an angry customer get on my nerves I would tell them to F off too! Why because I know I can't be traced!!!

After all how many paul's work for ntl!

[andynation]

I like to live in hope that not everyone who works for ntl is evil to the core. One day someone may even suggest to their manager that they should perhaps improve their service. They might find their jobs more pleasant if everyone ringing them had not been waiting for 30 minutes listening to a woman twitter on about how much ntl is a customer focussed company providing some of the best customer care in the world.

Somehow I doubt it. In 8 years of being constantly told that they had sorted out their problems they are still as bad as ever.

The only way to resolve their problems would be an entire change of management. Or maybe a good kicking from Richard Branson when they have dragged his Virgin brand through the muck.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by acoolwelshbloke

A customer service rep can talk to you anyway they want, why because they don't have to give their name or an employee ref number where they can be traced in the event of any complaint!

Strangely enough that's exactly what NTL said when I complained.

---------- Post added at 21:10 ---------- Previous post was at 21:07 ----------

Originally Posted by andynation

I like to live in hope that not everyone who works for ntl is evil to the core... Or maybe a good kicking from Richard Branson when they have dragged his Virgin brand through the muck.

I think it's a management policy to provide bad service and most of the staff are as much victims as the customers. I never could understand why Branson allowed his brand to fall in to the hands of NTL. Surely he'll regret it.

[andynation]

After my ordeal I like to think that there is a special place reserved in hell for the ntl management team.