NTL Complaint

[istiaque]

CAPS: > "its like telling customers subscribing to cable TV that they are aloowed to only watch x number of hours a day". Cable TV uses the same infrastructure and the same cabling yet people dont get a "usage allowance" on that.

quoted from MagicMan

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by istiaque

<snip>3> Submit the complaints to NTL but after receiving their response, a further complaint will be submitted to various organisations that deal with the matter.

<snip>

So, you want to compile complaints about being capped on a service you choose to take which is supplied by a ltd company, and if they don't roll over, you'll pass it onto who? And what do you expect these 'various' organisations to do?

[istiaque]

Re: Orangebird

These various organisations help to deal with disputes between customers and ISPs.

And its not only regarding their caps, they have a lot of breakdowns, the uninformed upgrading of people's services which have caps, there must be more I may be just lucky not to have had all the problems.

Originally Posted by istiaque

CAPS: > "its like telling customers subscribing to cable TV that they are aloowed to only watch x number of hours a day". Cable TV uses the same infrastructure and the same cabling yet people dont get a "usage allowance" on that.

quoted from MagicMan

In which case Magicman is talking out of his abracadabra. The TV channels are fed down your cable whether you're watching them or not, and bandwidth is allocated to ensure there is room for them. Webpages, Real streams and Torrent warez are not fed down the cable unless you request them. NTL internet is a contended service - i.e., it relies on not everyone using it constantly, all the time, as there isn't enough bandwidth if everyone does - so it is sensible to impose reasonable limits on usage. And NTL's limits are very reasonable compared to some. As long as there are warez monkeys, there are going to be caps. Sort out the illegal p2p traffic and the caps might just go away. Do you have warez on your PC perchance? You might try writing a letter of complaint to yourself. Or better still, post your address on here and some of us can write to you.
__________________

Originally Posted by istiaque

In response to all of the previous posts, i plan to do the following:

1> Build up a list of complaints of ntl customers regarding the broadband services, not just about the caps.

2> Will post my final complaints letter and will be open for people to add/remove bits.

3> Submit the complaints to NTL but after receiving their response, a further complaint will be submitted to various organisations that deal with the matter.

4> Finally will get another complaints letter set up outlining all the procedures already taken and the responses received, which will be used for a "group task"

Look, you're obviously not aware of this, but the Admins of this site have a good, professional relationship with some of NTL's senior management. We have an effective way in to the organisation and have successfully helped a number of customers get their gripes addressed when NTL's usual channels have failed.

Nobody is saying you can't write letters to complain to NTL if you don't like the service you're getting, but I think a few people on the forum are just slightly peeved at you coming on here with a 'Big Idea' when you clearly haven't even stopped to check what consumer campaigning is already going on.

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by istiaque

Re: Orangebird

These various organisations help to deal with disputes between customers and ISPs.

And its not only regarding their caps, they have a lot of breakdowns, the uninformed upgrading of people's services which have caps, there must be more I may be just lucky not to have had all the problems.

If you have a complaint about the standard of service, that's one matter. But you're wasting yours and everyone elses time if you think that complaining to various organisations will get ntl to lift the cap. No organisation has the power to enforce this upon ntl.

Originally Posted by orangebird

If you have a complaint about the standard of service, that's one matter. But you're wasting yours and everyone elses time if you think that complaining to various organisations will get ntl to lift the cap. No organisation has the power to enforce this upon ntl.

Personaly i would just let him get on with it and let him find out just how far he will get.


Bill C <----------------Still in his deckchair and starting to get bored having seen this all before

[istiaque]

CAP> I'm a hardworking student who pays for two lines of 2Meg internet, one at home and the other at university. At home a family of four uses the internet and at my rented home, a group of 3 students.

Problem with Home:

MSn Messenger is used by everyone, people send each other messages as well as images and lengthy voice convos. This can consitute as a large amount of data per month for all 4 persons.

The two young teenagers often view websites with a lot of flash and embedded movies and images that again use a great deal of bandwidth.

There is also the issue of software. We have fully verified and licensed versions of Windows XP and Anti Virus software which all need updating and they are no small affair.

Finally, there is good old online gaming. Now whether the PC and PS2 are both using the Internet or just the one of them, a considerable amount of bandwidth is consumed.

Now, all of the above activities are in accordance to NTL user guidlines for normal and recreational purposes i.e. not business.

The problem is I have to ensure the family do not go over the limit, tell them not to download or use this or that so and so amount. This can clearly be frustrating for a 50year old and 2 teenagers to understand and be disciplined enough to adhere to the caps.

Suggestion>>> To have a cap for peak periods, and a cap for offpeak periods. Caps should be sent on a monthly basis rather than daily too.

Have you ever had a letter from NTL warning you that you're breaching the cap? Based on the usage you have outlined, I would be very surprised. But it's a free market, if NTL's offering doesn't give you what you need, why not change supplier? Zen ADSL is uncapped, for example.

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by istiaque

CAP>
Snipped

Erm did you actually read any of the posts in the 3 cap disccusion threads on this forum? If not then you may want to as nobody is about to go through it all for you to pull out all the best posts. If you want to try and force NTL to re-think their capping system which is not yet in effect fully then go for it. Personally I think you are wasting your time as there are very few ISPs out their that do not have a CAP/ fair usage policy and there are a number of ISPs with lower cap limits per month than NTL are looking to enforce.
If so many people are using your home connection and impacting on your bandwidth usage then why not get them to chip some money into the pot to up your service level?? Would make more sense than trying to urinate into a stiff breeze

[istiaque]

I have not received a letter yet, ive been with NTL for 6to7 years now and until the last 2 years have been very happy with it, except for the days when you had to have another ntl service (phone or tv) to have their internet service.

The problem with ADSL is our local exchange at university and at home is only capable of 512K, which really is not enough ideally 2Mb or at the minimum 1Mb. This is because im currently an engineering graduate and CAD files of all sorts can take forever to transfer.

Therefore, my only choice was to go with NTL because no other CABLE ISP operates in Northamptonshire (to my knowledge). So what am I to do?

Originally Posted by Paul

Erm did you actually read any of the posts in the 3 cap disccusion threads on this forum? If not then you may want to as nobody is about to go through it all for you to pull out all the best posts. If you want to try and force NTL to re-think their capping system which is not yet in effect fully then go for it. Personally I think you are wasting your time as there are very few ISPs out their that do not have a CAP/ fair usage policy and there are a number of ISPs with lower cap limits per month than NTL are looking to enforce.
If so many people are using your home connection and impacting on your bandwidth usage then why not get them to chip some money into the pot to up your service level?? Would make more sense than trying to urinate into a stiff breeze

Well said

[istiaque]

In response to Paul:

Even then I would require a second line as upgrading the service wont give me an increase in cap allowance (except from 300K to 2/3Mb).And getting a second line is not an option in terms of price.

I really dont mind if they had a sensible cap in the following ways:

1. allocate a cap for peak, and another higher cap for offpeak

or

2. allocate a certain max speed during peak (which wouldnt cause disruptions to everyone) and allow full speed during offpeak

or

3. allocate a pay-per-10 Gig system

- any of these ways would ensure that ALL their customer base is happy, not just some of them.

[wishy0]

dont get me started about NTL capping, i DONT agree with it, you pay for the net so why capp it, 1 meg will be capped to 3gb per month, thats like 12 hours of surfing a day, no downloads, just surfing, ok for some but mes a leechiing sod, and can get 3gb in a matter of hours!

i have cancelled my NTL contracts and moved to ukonline thats cheaper then NTL, same speeds(ie 1 meg £9.99), with NO CAP waaa hoo, sky tv better too lot more channels

[handyman]

Originally Posted by istiaque

I have not received a letter yet, ive been with NTL for 6to7 years now and until the last 2 years have been very happy with it, except for the days when you had to have another ntl service (phone or tv) to have their internet service.

The problem with ADSL is our local exchange at university and at home is only capable of 512K, which really is not enough ideally 2Mb or at the minimum 1Mb. This is because im currently an engineering graduate and CAD files of all sorts can take forever to transfer.

Therefore, my only choice was to go with NTL because no other CABLE ISP operates in Northamptonshire (to my knowledge). So what am I to do?

But what exactly is your problem? You seem to complain about the 3gb cap, why not upgrade to get a bigger cap, 10mb will be out soon with a 75gb cap

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by istiaque

Therefore, my only choice was to go with NTL because no other CABLE ISP operates in Northamptonshire (to my knowledge). So what am I to do?

Well you could do what I suggested and get everyone to chip in a certain amount each month and then upgrade to the top tier where you will get a higher usage allowance. Other than that you could suggest they get their own connection if they use it that much.