Billing Nightmare

[Mauldor]

Around beginning of june 2006, as I was not on the PC as much, I rang up and reduced my connection down to 4mbit from 10mbit. After one day I noticed the Speed had not gone down, so rang back. They explained that they had by accident reduced the Billing part but forgot to reduce the speed of the connection - thanked me anyhow and reduced the connection forth with.

In july 2006, the Bill Still stated £34.99 - So I called up and they explained they had not done the billing properly and would adjust the bill but I was to pay the £34.99 and it would be reduced (the £10 extra) on the next bill.
July & also Aug 2006 the very same, Billed £34.99 but only receiving the 4mbit service - each time the operator assured me that on my next bill it would be sorted and i was to pay the £34. 99. in Aug the guy said he would adjust the bill to £19.99 for 6 months to compsate / rectify the extra Billing.

Now we enter today - the 12th Sep and i receive my new bill:

Previous bill - £34.99 not paid (I had)
09-Aug - 09 Aug - unlimited 4MB - £0.81
10 Aug - 09 Sep - unlimited 4MB - £24.99
10 Aug - 09 Sep - Cable Modem - £0.00
10 Sep - 09 oct - unlimited 4MB - £24.99

Late payment Charge - £10

Total owing - £95.78

Points to bear in mind:

From Jun - now I have been on 4mbit.
From Jun - now I have been paying an extra £10 a month for said Serivce.

I called tonight and basically they have received the £34.99 but somehow it was late which i found odd as I sent a Cheque soon after I got the bill. If you look at the bill they have charged me both £34.99 and £24.99 + 81p for the same monthly service.
The reduced limit of £19.99 to bring the bill back into line (overpayment) is no-where to be seen or recorded on any computer, bascially the guy had lied to me then.

After some asking around I guess and checking records, the girl on the phone came back and said that I still owe £24.99 + £10 late payment (so yet again £34.99 for 4mbit service) and the Overpayment would be recorded on my NEXT Bill - really !!!

I cannot beleive how badly NTL can cock up a simple monthly bill - seems pointless calling to try and sort it out as they ops say one thing and then do something else. She even asked me why I had not called tech Support to find out Why I was not getting 10Mbit to which i told her - BUT I AM NOT ON 10MBIT for a few months now.

So bascially - I better get on the phone from work tommorrow to Cancellations as this is beyond a joke really..

[JASONUKUK]

bet it u have to pay money up front aiso £25 think is a late payment
1 month in advance?
if not happy give them s**t on there 0845 number.

tip for u direct debit is best / make sure money is in bank.

[MovedGoalPosts]

I fail to understand why if a bill is for the wrong amount ntl still insist that you overpay for something that isn't owed and then expect to get it credited back next month.

It sounds like that the billing people have now got this into such a mess that nobody knows what is really owed.

We can get our ntl contact to look at this for you if you'd like. They have a good track record of troubleshooting.

I can't guarantee what they will say with regard to the £10.00 late payment charge, on the other hand there are other threads on here wondering how valid such charges are.

If you want our contact to take a look, please PM me, your account number and service address, a daytime contact number and ideally an email address. This will be confidential to CF and our ntl contact, and we'll hold it only for so long as is needed to see that ntl get a resolution.

[Mauldor]

Thanks for the offers but i was still annoyed at What was only termed as a NTL messing up but somehow I had to pay and sort it out etc. Anyhow, rang again and this time your right, on the 0845 Number. I was shocked first of all that the Girl explained that they are getting made redundent in Dec (she sounded annoyed) and said bascially this is what she can do for me:

Wipe out all existsting debt as the Billing System had obiuosly gone Haywire, Oct - Nov will be Free (credited with £24.99) and for the next 3 Months after that, £12.50 as a means to compensate for the mad system they call the Billing system.

As for that £10 Late charge, I refuse to pay by DD, had too many problems in the past and hell what if they took out £95 ?? I recieved a Bill and Sent off a Cheque maybe at most a few days later, no way on the planet i would have been over 1 Month late - again was explained it was probably the Billing system playing up and i can well believe. My Accoutn showed no History of a Single late payment and this is for quite some years now - why would I Suddely start now?

I would pay by online banking (easier for me) but they said this is not possible - amazing !!

Oh and ROBC - what i was told each month was that Although I had overpaid by £10, I was to pay the £34.99 to Stop the computer charging me extra as a Late/not enough payment and then on the next Bill it would be less plus right - which of course it was not. I was more annoyed that what they say on the phone is NOT typed intot he computer and bascially they lied a few times in a row..

[MovedGoalPosts]

Originally Posted by Mauldor

Oh and ROBC - what i was told each month was that Although I had overpaid by £10, I was to pay the £34.99 to Stop the computer charging me extra as a Late/not enough payment and then on the next Bill it would be less plus right - which of course it was not. I was more annoyed that what they say on the phone is NOT typed intot he computer and bascially they lied a few times in a row..

The problem here is you have been given a number of promises in the past that things were being changed. But on the next bill you find it wasn't set up. How confident are you that it will be setup this time?

I'm not doubting the CS girl you have just spoken to, more the ntl systems. What if the past offers, corrections were applied, but the database seems to have then thrown a wobbly. We've heard plenty of stories where there are notes on the account showing something was to be applied but the system then didn't accept it.

I still fail to see how ntl can demand you pay over the odds, to be credited back next time. CS really should be able to override a current bill that is wrong, so that a human drives the computer, not the other way round. Simple if you do not owe the money, there is no legal requirement for you to pay it.

Let's hope in this instance the next bill is what you expect.