Extremely rude customer service

[BigYin]

Since February this year I have been hugely overcharged on every monthly bill from NTL.
This is always cleared up with a phone call to customer services, though why they must do it EVERY MONTH I donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t know. I have been an NTL customer for over 7 years now and only noticed this nonsense going on since February this year.

Today my bill arrived, I have been overcharged as usual, so I phoned customer services.

A pleasant sounding chap by the name of 'Stuart' answered. I explained the situation and he put me on hold for a few minutes while he was "reading the bill".
On his return he informed me the bill was correct, there were no mistakes. I began to explain where the problem was and almost immediately this once mild mannered customer support person became aggressive and kept repeating "the bill is correct", over the top of me trying to explain where the problem was. Then suddenly he shouted very loudly "YOUR NOT LISTENING TO ME!"
Honestly, I nearly went into shock. I asked to speak to his supervisor. He told me there was not one around. I asked him to have a supervisor call me when one is available, he replied "you will get a call back in 24 hours!" and hung up the phone on me!

Stuart maybe got out of bed the wrong side this morning, we all do sometimes, but heâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s in the wrong job for that. Taking his anger out on me, a customer, and a customer with a legitimate complaint. I have been overcharged.

Having to wait 24 hours for a supervisor to call me back, if one even does bother, is a whole other hassle and complete nonsense.
One things for sure when they do and I have had them refund the amount they overcharged I will be asking them to connect me straight to the cancellations department!

[Flobajob]

Don't worry, you won't have to wait 24 hours for a phone call back, because you'll NEVER get it. I'm sure someone here will be able to sort you out though

[MovedGoalPosts]

What is the overcharge for. Is it the same amount every month, and has anyone explained why it recurrs and hasn't been removed? What do they do each month, apply a credit, and does that appear on the next bill?

[SMG]

The same thing happened to me. I have been overcharged & no way will they admit it. So, I have stopped my DD`s with the bank. When they send me a bill, I`ll write to them outlining my case. Till then, bal*s to em. I`m currently setting up a SPA 3000 ATA so they can stick their phone service too.

Flobajob is right, you will never hear from them again.

NTL is a good service, administered by wan**rs.

[Neil]

*Sigh*

Good old ntl & their 'ever improving' customer "service".

As this is a billing problem, I'm going to move this to the billing forum.

[Chicken]

I've got in the habit of recording all calls I now have to make to NTL. And before anyone says "you can't do that" - it quite clearly states when I phone NTL that "Phone calls may be recorded."

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Chicken

I've got in the habit of recording all calls I now have to make to NTL. And before anyone says "you can't do that" - it quite clearly states when I phone NTL that "Phone calls may be recorded."

I remember someone did that to Paypal a couple of years ago!

The thing is-you can record your conversations with ntl (or any company) without telling them [u]as long as youonly intend to use it in the 1st party (I.E. play it to an ntl manager, but not give it to Watchdog for example)

I've done it several times in the past to different companies, & it's amazing the turnaround when you explain to them that you have a recording of that conversation where you were promised X/Y/Z, & you are perefctly within your rights to play it back to anyone & everyone on the board of directors at said company.

ntl's CS has always been apalling & it would appear to be continuing to be, it makes a real mockery of their so called 'Customer Charter': http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/...er-information

Also-you know the Responstek tool that they've been using here & on ntlworld.com to collate complaints & feedback from customers?

Well you'll be "surprised" to hear that they are scrapping it.

It appears that ntl don't really care what their wage paying customers have to say, but then some of us knew that already.

[sollp]

Customer charter died as soon as it was released, after the past couple of months,(with redundancies) that has all but disappeared.

Just another sound bite

[BigYin]

The overcharge is not the same every month. Itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s random, some months as little as £5 one month it was as high as £43. It has always been removed once I call customer services and inform them, they never deny it. The person I speak to makes a promise it wonââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t happen again but it always has.

I donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t pay by Direct Debit, when the bill arrives I check it and then pay by debit card. I gladly pay the extra £4 a month for non Direct Debit payment. If I did not with this carry on I would probably be in heavy debt with my bank, due to NTL constantly taking more than they are due.

I can hardly believe there are no supervisors available. Why should it take them 24 hours to get back to me?
The 24 hours I was told will be up soon, as yet nobody from NTL has called me. Are you folk serious about then not returning calls when they say they will?

[Argyll]

I've been promised 6 callbacks from managers/supervisors in the last 8 days....I haven't had one!.......they won't call you back.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Originally Posted by BigYin

The overcharge is not the same every month. Itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s random, some months as little as £5 one month it was as high as £43. It has always been removed once I call customer services and inform them, they never deny it. The person I speak to makes a promise it wonââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t happen again but it always has.

I donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t pay by Direct Debit, when the bill arrives I check it and then pay by debit card. I gladly pay the extra £4 a month for non Direct Debit payment. If I did not with this carry on I would probably be in heavy debt with my bank, due to NTL constantly taking more than they are due.

I can hardly believe there are no supervisors available. Why should it take them 24 hours to get back to me?
The 24 hours I was told will be up soon, as yet nobody from NTL has called me. Are you folk serious about then not returning calls when they say they will?

So what is the overcharge for. Has anyone given you any explaination why it recurrs?

[LostintheNW]

I had the same problem, every month over £30 was taken out extra at a different time and I never got a bill for this, so after many months of calling it got to the point where I demanded to know otherwise I would report them for theft and cancel the services...seemed to work as the CS was a little shocked and came back and told me that they had set someone elses DD up on my account! and that I had been paying for someone elses TV service....how good is that!

[georgepomone]

Hi All,
I'm sorry to hear they are going to scrap "Respontek".I would have thought it worth creating a new department around it. It was/is an excellant way of communicating with customers.Once customers got used to it you couldn't have a better way. It would have taken pressure off the phone lines to "Customer Service". This looking forward to good customer relations for rebranding to "Virgin" makes me laugh.If we wait for that? We should live long enough.
As for shouting at customers! Like many I've had some of that,I was shouting as well. It does no good at all and shouting at paying customers is unforgiveable. As much as it's denied it does happen and should be stopped.In my case it was a Supervisor. Things like that don't bother me but it really upsets some people.
Things wrong at the moment are the bad service that some, not all people get.The most important thing is somewhere to report to when things go badly wrong.Without taking things away from the company.This case we are speaking of now where the customer has a wrong bill and is shouted down.This can't be right.There should be a place to sort things like this out.Respontek would be that ideal place.
Just my thought's,
George.

[Okonski]

I've never taken to Responsetek and felt it was too little too late. As for BigYin even agreeing to pay NTL for nothing - the £4pm 'fine' for not letting them empty your bank account can be challenged. I trusted NTL twice and the got it wrong with devastating results. I agreed to £24pa as the price of doing business with them, but NOT the revised £48pa. If you speak with retentions, they credit this.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Okonski

I've never taken to Responsetek and felt it was too little too late. As for BigYin even agreeing to pay NTL for nothing - the £4pm 'fine' for not letting them empty your bank account can be challenged. I trusted NTL twice and the got it wrong with devastating results. I agreed to £24pa as the price of doing business with them, but NOT the revised £48pa. If you speak with retentions, they credit this.

Sort of related to this, BACS (who administer direct debit) have a very good page explaining your rights.. http://www.bacs.co.uk/BPSL/directdeb...ic/yourrights/

Basically, anyone who is overcharged, or is not notified of a change in the date or amount of a charge is entitled to a full refund.