NTL overcharging pensioners for nearly 2 years

[waveguide17]

I hope that there is a kind soul out there who can assist me to sort out my neighbours, pensioners in their 70's, NTL telephone bill.

On 20th September 2004 they changed over to paying their NTL telephone bill by Direct Debit. Since that date NTL have continued to charge them the £1/month none D/D surcharge and this month they have been billed a £4 surcharge. This is despite the fact that NTL take money from their bank account each month.

Telephone calls and an email to NTL customer services have not recified the problem.

I am sure there must be somebody out there who can help and would be disgusted if their parents or grandparents were treated like this.

Many thanks for any help, I have full details of the account number and authority to discuss the problem on my neighbours behalf.

JeffC

[Paul K]

Are you on the account notes? If not then you will have trouble getting this sorted. Have you tried calling NTL?

[waveguide17]

Thank you for your reply Paul.
I did mention @phone calls and an email have resulted in a complete blank.
What, please, are account notes?
JeffC

[Paul K]

Notes against the account on the NTL computers, if you aren't named in a note as someone who can call NTL and discuss the account then the Data Protection Act will not allow NTL to deal with you as an agent for the people whose account it is.
You could try PM'ing a team member with the details, account details, names etc and ask them to forward the issue on to NTL or you could ask the account holders to call NTL and give your name as their agent so that you can then take on he quest for justice so to speak.

[DaggaDagga]

What about a recorded delivery letter, signed by the account holder?

Or don't NTL bother reading letters?

[Chicken]

Have a word with your bank - get them to recall the Direct Debits. NTL will eventually wake up and notice.

[nffc]

If they're wrongly DDing £4/month and have been for a while they could always contact their bank and get it charged back under the Direct Debit guarantee.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Unfortunately, until ntl recognise you as authorised to deal with their account, you won't be able to help them. Yes they could write to ntl (you could prepare the letter for them to sign, but it will probably get overlooked. Ntl and letters don't seem to go well, despite their Ts & Cs saying otherwise.

They could phone customer services and give authority for you to speak on their behalf, if they are not confident of solving it themselves.

Cancelling the direct debit, will just end up with ntl stopping services for non payment. It won't get past the fundamental problem that the billing is wrong.

Unfortunately, Cable Forum can't do anything unless they directly ask for assistance. Data Protection means our contacts with ntl wouldn't be able to talk to anyone other than the account holder.

[thelem]

Before I say anything about the problem, why does the fact that the customers are pensioners make any difference? Ntl aren't treating them any differently, and this is an administrative error - not ntl trying to con money out of them. Please don't abuse the poor old pensioners routine.

Having said that, cable forum have a contact who is quite good at sorting things like this out. If you send a PM with the following:

Account no, address of property where you had services, current address contact phone, contact email, details of the issue

to one of the Cable Forum team (Russ D, Stuart C, Paul M, Chris T, Rob C) then they will be able to ask her to look into it. You will need to provide the contact details for the account holder though, because you have no legal right to the information about their account.

Edit: Rob C posted that since I started writing this, but go with what he says. Get them to make contact, even if you are there at the same time.

[gavnad]

dont think the bank would be interested in indemnifying...after all the bill would state the dd charge monthly so its up to the customer to sort that if incorrect...they would only be interested if the non-dd charge is levied but not on the bill

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by thelem

Before I say anything about the problem, why does the fact that the customers are pensioners make any difference? Ntl aren't treating them any differently, and this is an administrative error - not ntl trying to con money out of them. Please don't abuse the poor old pensioners routine.

to that

Having said that, cable forum have a contact who is quite good at sorting things like this out. If you send a PM with the following:

Account no, address of property where you had services, current address contact phone, contact email, details of the issue

to one of the Cable Forum team (Russ D, Stuart C, Paul M, Chris T, Rob C) then they will be able to ask her to look into it. You will need to provide the contact details for the account holder though, because you have no legal right to the information about their account.

Edit: Rob C posted that since I started writing this, but go with what he says. Get them to make contact, even if you are there at the same time.

Mick and I aren't on the team anymore

There is a Data Protection Issue here, but If you can provide contact information for the account holder then I am sure that ntl can deal with the Data Protection side of things... no harm in trying to get it resolved through Cable Forum's escalation path, so if you want to send some details across, feel free