disposable income

[th'engineer]

anyone think that the prices for NTL are getting to expensive

What with fuel increases gas electric and diesel

dont you think people will change

Just thinking about myself just down graded the BB and the TV to the base packs

I Have been a long time customer just think the last rise broke the camels back

[gadge]

you should try sky mate they will defo break your back.

How you work that out I never know?

I pay £18 a month and I get more channels than I used to when I had NTL's family pack! I was paying £19.50 to NTL plus a further £10.50 for a phone line I never used or wanted!

And before you start screaming you need a bt line with sky, I can tell you now you don't so it depends which way you look at it!

[th'engineer]

just paying the basics think with the cost of everything something has to go

[Scope]

I am in the final stages of getting rid of TV and Phone myself. I have been testing VoIP for about a year now and have found it good enough to replace my landline - you get a VoIP with incoming geo landline number for free... As for TV, well, I've bought a freeview PVR which will pay itself off within a year. I get just about all the channels I recieved on NTL free on freeview (Im on the Select Pack), with the exception of VOD and Sky One, but with a PVR you dont really need VOD. And my PVR has twin tuner, so I can record 2 channels and watch a third, NTL isnt releasing anything like that until next year, and even then you have to pay for the priviledge.

There is money to be saved if you try.

[th'engineer]

I have to agree with you have been with NTL a long time, think they are not looking after existing customers.

Was one of the first on this forum and on the old ones before that but looks like the competition is better.

I am reviewing others ISPs but am quite happy with the NTL BB now it works better

[hatedbythemail]

my bill last month was £180!! thats about £50-70 more than usual. some due to call diverts to my mobile but i see costs creeping. cost of second phone line went up without warning by 50% for example. used responstek to ask why. got no response.

broadband is starting to look less and less like good value given trends - esp with intermittent outages, lost/delayed emails - and on tv, freeview looking more attractive by the second.

[Paul K]

The costs issue is no doubt going to impel more and more people to look at cheaper alternatives such as Talk Talk etc for BB/ phone. Sky for TV. Whether the service is better or not won't bother too many people as long as they save money and the connection works. It has always been the case that long standing customers have been left out of promotions or cost cuts instead of being rewarded for loyalty.

[orangebird]

Why should ntl have to cut their prices, or indeed freeze any price rises just because utilities and fuel are getting more expensive?

[harmonyinfo]

Originally Posted by orangebird

Why should ntl have to cut their prices, or indeed freeze any price rises just because utilities and fuel are getting more expensive?

No direct reason.

But paid TV packages and broadband are perhaps luxury items where as utilities and fuel are essentials. So with a fixed disposable income and rising "essentials" costs, people are going to economise on the luxuries. That means people will look at NTL TV/broadband costs, see if they can get similar services cheaper (eg Sky with VOIP) or do without (eg Freeview). NTL don't need to lower their prices. But they will probably lose customers (as will Sky etc) as utility and fuel costs continue to rise.

[brundles]

I seem to remember a comment from the NTL: Telewest execs after the recent results indicating the churn they had was good and they were focusing on value customers or something along those lines. Basically customers they actually make money out of!

But alienating long standing customers who have peacefully paid their bills and not caused any trouble for years doesn't seem to fit with that.

[th'engineer]

well said harmonyinfo thanks for re enforcing the reason for the thread.

With peoples wages not going up, in line with the rises in petrol diesel gas and electricity

luxury items such as NTL cable become none elastic and people look for cheaper alternatives.


You know how long I have been with NTL from NYNEX days now if customers like me are cutting our cloth to suit

I am sure others are doing the same, my own view is that we are on the verge of a recession within the UK.

[bonzoe]

Must agree with you, BB & DTV from NTL are in the non-essentials items.

I would rather see BB prices going down instead of speed increases (OK for some, but OTT for browsing).

As for TV, most channels seem to be full of repeats of repeats, no interest in music or shopping channels........seriously thinking of going over to Freeview.

As for phone........the number of calls I make, I think PAYG mobile offers better value. The only problem is that some organisations (Paypal) don't like them.................

Will wait for rumoured new prices in Oct/Nov to see if there's any improvement, but I doubt there will be.