Courtesy call from NTL - £10 fine if your late paying your bill !

[bigbruce]

Originally Posted by Toto

Payment due date is the date of the invoice. As far as I am aware ntl will allow 21 days, that is to say the money has to clear against your account within that time.

So why bother having a payment due date if that isn't when the payment is due at all. Why not just have the invoice date. There wouldn't be any confusion then, would there?

An assumption has been made that because it is 'standard within the industry' that the invoice date is the real date, everyone must know.

I would be more convinced if NTL just came out and said it's a way of generating extra income from all you inconvenient B******S who can't pay by DD.

[bigbruce]

Oh and here is the final irony. After talking on the phone for ½ hour on Friday sorting everything out and letting them no I had made a payment, the Credit Department rang me yesterday to ask when I was going to pay. Having told them that I made a payment by online banking on Friday I asked why I had been cut off as I had been assured that I wouldn't be and the best answer I could get was 'I can't do anything about it until your payment is cleared. Try ringing back on Friday'.

[popper]

Originally Posted by bigbruce

Oh and here is the final irony. After talking on the phone for ½ hour on Friday sorting everything out and letting them no I had made a payment, the Credit Department rang me yesterday to ask when I was going to pay. Having told them that I made a payment by online banking on Friday I asked why I had been cut off as I had been assured that I wouldn't be and the best answer I could get was 'I can't do anything about it until your payment is cleared. Try ringing back on Friday'.

thats great, and how are you expected to ring back on the phone that ntl:tw have set for incoming only, if you ask them the next time they ring you, they will say , ohh you can still use freephone and emergency No.s and you can contact this Department on the blocked phone.

however its not true, as the second you press any single diget, their computer voice kicks in and says " the number you have dialed has not been recognised, please try again".

the system is all geared up to the benefit of ntl only, id hate to be in a position to have the need to phone emergency services on the ntl phone once they place this incomeing calls only blocking on your phone.

the fact is staff are giving out false information and you could be placed in danger if you were to take their 'you can still call emergency services' as the truth and need to put that to the test.

[lostandconfused]

you could always pay the bill on time?

"the system is geared up to ntl's benefit" ofcourse it is, its a business. The bottom line is it is there to make money.

if you feel so strongly about it, vote with your feet

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

you could always pay the bill on time?


if you feel so strongly about it, vote with your feet

That's what i find is best. I pay on time then i don't get a late payment charge . Its simple really.

[colin1234]

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

if you feel so strongly about it, vote with your feet

Thats what i did when they introduced the £4.00 non DD payment,which imo is just a way to make more money,nothing to do with any costs to NTL if you don`t pay by DD.
Anyway the thing is 3 months down the road they still won`t let me go
All the normal excuses,sorry sir,nothing on the computer,can`t do that in this dept,i`ll transfer you,then they cut you off.
All in all i`ll be really glad to get away from them,even if it has cost me 2 months more payments than it should have.

[lostandconfused]

unless your in your 12 month contract. you need to call retentions 0800 052 9403 monday- friday 9-5 and theyl do it for you

[lauzjp]

Originally Posted by bigbruce

I would be more convinced if NTL just came out and said it's a way of generating extra income from all you inconvenient B******S who can't pay by DD.

i had my automated phone call today- so I phoned customer services to say I'm not paying £110 for a bill that should have been discounted through my call more than a week ago to retentions, only to be told that my bill is not £110 - it is £77. well that's a bit better, but they'll still have to wait til I get funds! oh well... i guess I should think about DD to save a few more pennies eh!?

[popper]

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

you could always pay the bill on time?

"the system is geared up to ntl's benefit" ofcourse it is, its a business. The bottom line is it is there to make money.

if you feel so strongly about it, vote with your feet

LOL, yes, in an ideal world that would be the best option,and if for instance, the people working,running and setting ntl corporate rules also lived in this ideal world then perhaps the UK cable giant ntl wouldnt have lost the 18,900 customers in its second quarter to June 30, ntl's first full quarter since merging with Telewest.

no one begrudges ntl:tw making a reasonable profit, after all thats what payes the wages, people make the company and its people that cause the problems (or try and fix them as you do from time to time) however simple it might be to fix, they know its wrong but do nothing as its to much trouble.

as for your vote with your feet, as you well know, ntl:tw are the only cable company that cover 50% + of the UK and there is no other cable company any more to goto for the average UK end user, if they go then ntl get let off the hook,wereas if they stay they might have a case to force NTL:tw to clean up their act for everyones benefit.

after reading several threads on cable forum over the last few days im begining to wonder if its worth taking the time to discuss any of these valid points as the people responding seem set in their views and come across as unmovable even in the light of new points of view never mind facts, i always thought this place was good for helping people, but it appears not any more, other than trivial stuff, arr well..................

[theNomad]

Well since writing this letter, Ive had more trouble the 2 weeks I was cut off for I ended up having to pay £20 reconnection fee, as well as £10 for paying my bill late.

So for a month I only had 2 weeks service I ended up paying £30 as well as my £85 per month bill. Shocking considering as soon as I noticed I was late I paid but due to it being paid via paypoint stopped them switching me on over the phone.

Well hope theyre happy with the extra £30 cause we are switching to sky. If this is how they treated a customer of over 10 years who paid their bill one day late then dread to think how they treat those poor 12 months bound contract ones. They may get away with these cheap tactics once but they'll pay for it later down the line when theyve no one left to rip off.

I'll go with sky and take up their 16mb broadband service for £10per month much cheaper tv and net service and a £5 cost of umlimited landline calls per month, fingers crossed sky have respect for their customers more than ntl ended up having. Its sad cause 6 months back we never had an ounce of trouble with payments to ntl if we was late you'd get a courtesy call saying your payment was overdue, now its cut and your fined & treated like a criminal instead of a customer.

P.S. I don't want to end totally bitter for most my 10 years the service was always on and ran flawless. But its not just me with these billing cost issues, everyone I knew (around 10 or so) who used NTL have complaints and either left or planning on leaving, things like phoning up and asking to be put on the £30 per month package and still being billed for full, or because the cost of everything with ntl as gone up so much when other companys are bringing out cheaper packages.

[big_rayster]

Hi! first post on this forum, been an NTL sufferer for a few years now and like many other people have landed up with a £10 late payment charge, challenged NTL who refused to remove it (surprise, surprise!)
From reading this thread it seems like a few people do not have an understanding of the law regarding contracts (like the one you all have with NTL)

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

the late payment fee is added onto an account if there is a balance outstanding when the next bill is produced.

the money has to have reached ntl ny this time, not pay by paypoint the day before as it can take 3-5 days to clear.

If it is the first time that you have recieved a late payment fee, generally it will be credited back to you.

However if you have recieved one in the past you are cleary aware of how and why you get them and how to avoid them, so you get no sympathey from me.

Just because you paid late doesn't give NTL the right to make money out of you, they are breaking the law.
So before we go any further I'd like to tell you that excess charges are not legally enforceable if they are penalties. Penalty clauses in contracts in English (and Scottish) law for breach of contract are not legal if the penalty exceeds the actual cost of the breach of either party.

What this means is this, does anybody on this forum believe it costs NTL £10 cos you paid your bill late?
Let me answer that for you!........NO!

Try this, next time you speak to C/S ask them for a break down of the late payment charge they will refuse and refer you to the NTL web site for the full T & Cs or offer to post it to you, where you'll find that you still have no breakdown of the charge, other than this
"6.2 If you do not make your payments on time, we may charge you a reasonable fee for late and/or non payment."

£10 reasonable?..........not in my life time!

I've requested NTL provide me with a breakdown of the late payment charge several times and they have failed, therefore I'm about to get all legal on their butt (can't say ass!)
I will keep you posted about my dealings with NTL.
Also while I'm at it the £4 admin charge for non DD, costs them £4 to process my payment on their automated service?......admin charge or penalty?........hmm let me think!

Sorry my first post is so long but it angers me when large companies bully the little guy in the street, and then you get other people that have been brainwashed by said big companies and agree with their policies even if it does break the law!
Here is the link to the web T & Cs
http://www.home.ntl.com/content/ebiz...es/changes.doc

[popper]

not everyone has MS word to view that, so am i to take it this html version is the same?
http://www.home.ntl.com/page/termsresidential anyone know, OB?

OB , did you write the current or even any part of the old NTL:tw T&C ?, and is there a plain text version of it we can download please.

[dragon]

Originally Posted by popper

not everyone has MS word to view that, so am i to take it this html version is the same?
http://www.home.ntl.com/page/termsresidential anyone know, OB?

OB , did you write the current or even any part of the old NTL:tw T&C ?, and is there a plain text version of it we can download please.

www.openoffice.org there problem solved

[bigbruce]

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

you could always pay the bill on time?

"the system is geared up to ntl's benefit" ofcourse it is, its a business. The bottom line is it is there to make money.

if you feel so strongly about it, vote with your feet

Firstly, it is very difficult to live on £57 per week JSA, keeping creditors at bay and just existing. I do the best I can to pay within the time.

Secondly, While I can set up a DD on my account, the Halifax will charge me £35 if there are insufficient funds.

Thirdly, I AM voting with my feet and going across to Sky just as soon as I can organise it. Fortunately my mother is willing to take on the DD and I will pay her when I have the funds.

[lostandconfused]

i still dont really get what the problem is. pretty much everyone on this forum at least knows what the late payment fee is. therefore know how to avoid it.

if due to circumstances you have to pay late, then you should accept there will be a penalty, if you dont pay the minimum charge on your credit card do you get a charge? why should anything else be any different.

with regards to the breakdown of the non DD and late payment fee, i personally couldnt give you that info, but i would bet that the legal department could. it has been in force for months, have you heard of anyone successfully challenging this?

as i have said before on certain occasions they are removed, as good will gestures, but if you pay late regularly that would stop and i can almost guarantee that it wouldnt be refunded through legal proceedings