question about monthly bill for BB if upgrade during month

[Chrysalis]

Hi

I am currently awaiting a team leader to ring m back here is my dispute.

I was on 750kbit BB and my january bill shows 24.99 for 1 jan 31 jan the bill date was 24 jan.

During feb I upgraded to 1.5mbit my feb bill shows 17.85 for 20 days of 750kbit and 10.85 for 1.5mbit, but it also shows another 37.99 for 1 mar 31 mar 1.5mbit bill date is 24 feb.

Now I tried to ask when I get this 37.99 back since I am effectively paying for 2 months this month, I explained in jan I paid for jan in feb I am paying for feb/march and in march I pay for april??, he said its ntl policy they bill in advance when upgrading but I would get no credit the month after, I explained I have changed packages before and so if this was the case I would already be paying in advance from last time.

Whats going on here, is this an error, am I due credit or have I always been 1 month behind?

[ian@huth]

In the Nottingham area cable modem subscriptions were always in arrears, mine still is. Someone else posted a while back about having the same problem as you where they changed tiers and were also changed to billing in advance at the same time.

[Chrysalis]

hmm Ian you know what the result was of that double billing did the customer get refunded the 2nd payment?

[ian@huth]

It cropped up in http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=21251 where the customer got lucky and was mentioned again in http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=24011

[Chrysalis]

thanks reading now, still waiting for the call.

I normally pay automatically by direct debit, I am considering cancelling the dd and paying manually the bill minus the £37.99 as I think it should be but am worried NTL wont take this lightly and suspend me.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Hi

I am currently awaiting a team leader to ring m back here is my dispute.

I was on 750kbit BB and my january bill shows 24.99 for 1 jan 31 jan the bill date was 24 jan.

During feb I upgraded to 1.5mbit my feb bill shows 17.85 for 20 days of 750kbit and 10.85 for 1.5mbit, but it also shows another 37.99 for 1 mar 31 mar 1.5mbit bill date is 24 feb.

Thats the only BB charges on the bill? No refund amount?
on 24 Jan bill you paid 24.99 for 1 - 28 Feb.
On the 20th (I think) you upgraded), so rather than on the 28th make that effective and bill you 37.99 at that point they pro rate.
I have not done this for a while, but I think you see a refund of the month prepaid on the statement, then the actual prorate charges then the next month prepay, so you should see

Refund - prepaid Feb billing (24.99)
Actual Feb Billing 1-20 17.85
21-28 £10.85
The difference of this lot being the partial month increase in BB charges
BB Charged of 37.99 representing March prepay.

Have a look for a refund. This bill should have gone up by
(37.99-24.99) £13 (the usual monthly increase in BB charge as a result of your speed increase)
and (17.85+10.85-24.99) £3.71 part of the month you benefitted from higher speed BB but did not prepay.

So your DD total should be £16.71 higher than last month, if you only have BB it should be £41.70

Is it?

[ian@huth]

I doubt if there will be any refund coming unless the person Chrysalis talks to is feeling benelovent. The upgrade in speed has been used as a switching point from payment in arears to payment in advance.

[Chrysalis]

ian@huth is correct my normal bill depending on phone calls is usually £40-50 this month's was £90.21 a £40 increase.

I have just spoke to the team leader on the phone and he wouldnt credit me and put me back to arrear payment but agreed to a compromise which will reimburse me partly.

Not pleased but at least I am not out of pocket for the full amount.

[Chrysalis]

Update.

Someone suggested on the following bill I would see a credit which would even things out, this hasnt happened infact something much worse has happened.

On the new bill I see the credit which was applied after I rang ntl, they credited me 50% of the duplicated bill so 37.99 in February was billed twice and I was credited £18.

This month's bill has £37.99 as normal and an extra £18 for no real reason, it simply lists broadband twice, so I have 37.99 then a 18 credit then 18 readded, I am pulling my hair out right now, will ring them again tommorow but I see myself having another nightmare session with customer services trying to explain the double billing