NTL Illegal Direct Debit

[Marge]

It sounds to me that you are currently being billed on 2 seperate systems.

Your TV and Phone are billed from one account and the DD relating to this is being taken on or after the 25th so this one seems ok ??

The BB sounds like the one that is being "taken early" ?? The billing system that this is on starts billing from when you register for the service eg if you register early in the month the DD will be taken later that same month. As things stand at the moment there isn't any way for the DD date to be changed so the only thing I can suggest is maybe budgeting so that the money is there earlier.

[Ayres Rock]

Thanks Marge. It does seem like early payment is my BB amount but why would i be also getting charged for it on my Bill that i am receiving and also playing (This happened last month and i will have to wait and see how much goes out of my account when the next payment goes out). In Theory, it's like i am paying for my BB twice a month at £50. Surely this cant be right.

[Simply Gray]

For Information - there is a very simple way to get direct debit payments refunded. Instruct your bank to make the refund - they have no option but to comply. The link is to the BACS Payment Schemes Website - they own the direct debit scheme.

Originally Posted by bod62uk

Hi,
This is my second attempt at trying update this post.
Could somebody please contact <deleted>?
He promised to make an effort at trying to sort this mess out with my Partner Emma Alloway.
He asked that we talk to nobody else accept him.
Emma has emailed him all to no avail.
This is a shame because he did come accross to Emma as a ray of hope in an otherwise abismal company.
NTL credit solutions are constantly calling us up, but to be honest NTL are going to get nothing until they explain exactly what they are playing at with these illegal direct debits, NON production of bills etc!
I simply cannot wait until it's all cut off and I can have my day in court.
As other users of this site will be able to tell by the dates of these postings, Little or no help has been offered by NTL, But are quick to threaten legal action and swipe monies without customers knowledge from their bank accounts!!!!!!!!!!!

I am getting monthly statements from ntl, I only have broadband with them, but on the statements there is no charge for the broadband, infact it is showing as a credit of £14 something, this has been going on for the past 6 months or so, why dont i contact NTL? Reason one I am not going to pay for a phone call to report a fault that is their fault, and point two I keep my bank statements that show that NTL have been taking the money from the account every month.
Good luck with your issue, hope it gets sorted for you.

[Ayres Rock]

well people, as suspected. I was charged the full bill which i received meaning i have paid 2x £24.99 for BB in a month.

Can anyone give me the number for the best people to speak to over this at NTL. I dont want to go around and around as peole seem to do (With what they say on these posts).

[MovedGoalPosts]

Ayres Rock, have you tried phoning ntl at all to challenge them on the dual billing? If you have, what have they said about it?

[Ayres Rock]

I have contacted NTL just now and spoke to a nice guy. he quickly found that i had been double billed and informed me that this would be credited on my next bill. This hopefully will be the end of this issue for me

Thanks for the help.

[Ignatius]

Originally Posted by Ayres Rock

I have contacted NTL just now and spoke to a nice guy. he quickly found that i had been double billed and informed me that this would be credited on my next bill. This hopefully will be the end of this issue for me

Thanks for the help.

I hope you're getting compensation for the bank charges too!

Be warned - a similar thing happened to me (following a deal with retentions) where I was being charged for the continuation of my 1MB service at 17.99 and my "deal" 12.50 for 2MB (as was).

When I complained, NTL cancelled the 1MB charge, and this caused the broadband service to be decomissioned (although CS assured me that 2MB was enabled on my account). After being bounced between support and CS for a couple of hours it was ascertained that what I needed was for CS to send a refresh to my box. Once that was done, I had to reprovision and all was fine.

[hotscotchbonnet]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

With all due respect I think it's a better idea to go the county court route.

Whilst this forum has some good contacts (and results) from NTL it is quite evident that until such time as this type of ineptitude is a matter of public record that the same shambolic behaviour on their part will simply repeat itself.

NTL need to realize that they have a legal obligation to their customers and that the ocassional addressing of same via this forum does not consitute them meeting that obligation.

I respect the hard work that the admin / mods do on this forum in conjunction with their contacts at NTL but there comes a time when one has to realize that repetitious posts of this nature are clear evidence that lessons are not being learned.

Confining this type of issue to a resolution at a "contact" level, whilst satisfactory for one user of this forum, is simply allowing the issue to perpetuate itself across the gamut of NTL's customer base.

Is it not better that a precedent under consumer law is established whereby NTL, at the highest echelons, have to sit up and take note?

Thoughts?

That is music to my ears!

I couldn't agree more - sadly as it stands, without a system of punitive damages the peanuts NTL will have to pay out for the few cases that do go to court is not going to dent the profits they reap from what appears to be systematic overcharging.

On the plus side however (presuming settlement isn't out of court) on top of the couple of thousand NTL will have to pay in damages, they will also be stuck with legal fees that far outweigh that. As consumers we can represent ourselves - NTL will be employing legal representatives at several hundred quid an hour.

By my estimation the advice NTL will be given re luvclubs case is that they are best off settling out of court. But, I agree with MR Angry - what is needed is judgments on the public record.
Even without punitive damages, the small claims court it is possibly still the best way of getting managment to take responsibilty. All those new shareholders at Virgin might have something to say about it too!

luvclub are you still about? I am dying for an update. I sincerely hope you went to court and recovered losses for the monies, time and embarrassment caused.

[lostandconfused]

i understand that in these cases people have been double billed, normally this happens when there is a problem when the user is registering the account, and two accounts are set up, the only way to stop this is either to have a trained technician to install the software on every customers pc or to have someone to look at every nwe account opened and compare it to every other one to make sure there arnt two at the same adress, both not really feasable.

if you think you are being overbilled all you have to do is call CS! if you are, they will be able to resolve it, if not they will explain how it goes.

as far as people that have been double billed to the amount of £1000's , in my own opinion this is your own fault. if you dont check your bank statements more than once every two years then you should expect to have this sort of thing happening. if when you got your first statement through and called up, your would have been overcharged less than £30 and got it resolved, instead it goes on for months and months then you want to claim back interest on it.

whilst ntl has a responsibilty to as accuratly as possible bill customers. The customers also have the responsibility to check this.. come on your not 5 yrs old any more

[hotscotchbonnet]

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

.

if you think you are being overbilled all you have to do is call CS! if you are, they will be able to resolve it, if not they will explain how it goes.

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

.
whilst ntl has a responsibilty to as accuratly as possible bill customers. The customers also have the responsibility to check this.. come on your not 5 yrs old any more

Yes, it may seem odd that the erronous transactions weren't noticed, but this does not change NTL's obligations in the matter. NTL has a legal obligation to provide the services provided for on the contract and the customer has a right to reasonably expect this to be carried out without error. The onus is on NTL to ensure there are no errors due to faults in their system, and that if errors are evident athat they be corrected in a timely manner. That is the bottom line.

A few quid here and there from thousands of customers amounts to a very large profit. This is precisely why there was a cracking down on erronous bank charges recently - it is not just about singular error, it is about systematic mismanagement that large companies have little incentive to resolve because of the profits they set to lose if they do!

[MovedGoalPosts]

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

if you think you are being overbilled all you have to do is call CS! if you are, they will be able to resolve it, if not they will explain how it goes.

A tall promise that regrettably, based on numerous posts we see on this forum is often not achieved. Perhaps is could be solved by a sea change in the way CS operates at ntl, by haveing CS staff actually taking ownership of issues, rather than having to get onto the next call quick. I know there are the exceptions to the rule here in terms of those who do go the extra mile, it's what happens to the majority of customers that is critical.

---------- Post added at 13:43 ---------- Previous post was at 13:39 ----------

Originally Posted by hotscotchbonnet

Yes, it may seem odd that the erronous transactions weren't noticed, but this does not change NTL's obligations in the matter. NTL has a legal obligation to provide the services provided for on the contract and the customer has a right to reasonably expect this to be carried out without error. The onus is on NTL to ensure there are no errors due to faults in their system, and that if errors are evident athat they be corrected in a timely manner. That is the bottom line.

Actually I'd say there is a joint responsibility. Ntl should do their utmost to get it right, but mistakes happen in every walk of life.

The customer who doesn't check their statements periodically is also foolish. Forget a company taking the wrong amounts, what about simple theft type stuff too.

What should be important is not just that mistakes are minimised, but when they do happen they are corrected promptly. That does mean refunds if requested, rather than vague promises of credits, which again due to errors do not always seem to get applied.