Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
When I originally set up my ntl Broadband account in April 2005 ntl set up two accounts in error, which both debited money automatically from my bank account every month. Despite informing them of their error they continued to debit money from my account - to the tune of £257.66. Despite promising me that "a refund cheque is in the post" for the previous five months I have still yet to receive anything - not even an acknowledgement that my complaint letters have been received, an investigation is being made or indeed that anyone is doing anything about the situation.
Due to the duration over which these payments have been taken from my account I am unable to claim the Direct Debit indemnity that is the usual course of action.
My only option is to pursue court action against the company (now jointly Virgin Media Ltd/Virgin Media Payments Ltd) to recover the funds and Ishall let you all know the outcome here.
If you're planning to move house with your Internet connection from NTL, just be warned that it is an extremely difficult process. Well, this company make it a difficult one anyway.
We were without the Internet for almost a month, whilst they kept telling us lies every time we phoned up to ask why they weren't reconnecting us.
From experience:
Give them as much notice as you possibly can about your move, they will blame you for the problem with the reconnection at your new home if you don't give them enough notice. 28 days they say the process is expected to take, my I add that's longer than other Internet Service Providers.
Infact they will blame you for anything as long as they save their skins.
Some of their call centre staff don't even record your calls, so the next time you ring, the next staff member accuses you of lying about making certain calls.
In our case, the call we made to say we were moving, was never recorded and the changes to the address were never made, so as far as they were concerned we had never raised the subject with them.
Be prepared to wait on the phone a lot, whilst they keep putting you on hold, to supposedly 'confer' with their colleagues.
In our case it was just to think up more lies to tell us.
Ofcourse one staff member dropped every single one of the previous lying staff members in it, by confirming right at the end of the fiasco, that we HAD made the call to confirm we were moving.
DON'T do what we did and cancel the direct debit payments, if they play up. It makes no difference, you are locked into the contract with them and theres no getting out. Not for at least 3 months anyway, so we were told.
For not paying it, some stressy woman in the call centre threatened us with Baliffs, if we refused to keep paying the bill for the service we weren't receiving.
Oh and don't even try to explain that to them, it seems to go beyond their comprehension that they are doing anything wrong to you.
If you're waiting for them to do something, don't expect them to call you to confirm that it's been done, or in most cases NOT done. They expect you to call them yourselves, this happened to us on a number of occasions, every time they had failed to do it, or weren't able to do it, but ofcourse, they're probably much to busy to be able to do that!
By now ofocurse, my mum was in tears, as they were blurping out a loud of jiberish to her. They don't seem to understand how hard they are making it, all they want is whatever money they can get.
Anyway after some 11 calls to their call centre, and a round total of some 3 hours altogether on the phone, most of that time on hold, we finally got the Internet back around 45 days after we first informed them that we were moving.
Personally, for the Internet and the value I would say they do good deals, but for customer service and the effort they make it into moving your Internet connection from one house to another, they should be shut down.
Good luck to anyone who moves with them, and just to add a sting to the tale, we moved some 200 yards down the road, and we took our phone number with us.
several years ago(at least six) I joined ntl and was told at the time our area was due to go interactive within a the same year. It finally went interactive this year. I've now being asking when I'll be able to have broadband for a couple of years now, and they keep saying they are not sure when it will be available(at least they are honest this time). Now, I could understand this if I lived in some obscure village in the middle of nowhere, but i live in nw London!! Get your act together ntl.
I have been with NTL for over 3 years.
After being paid off a few months ago from my job, also a single parent father. I had got behind on paying my last bill from NTL. I agreed with them i would pay off the extra amount owed weekly, as I have always known not to give NTL any direct debit information. Of course they added on there now £10 late charge (illegal?) plus £4 admin charge on my normal £25 a month Broadband 4MB package. Imagine my suprise when the next bill i received had yet another £10 charge becasue the bill was still behind. I here its illegal for banks to make out these charges so why are NTL getting away with it?
Thanks NTL for kicking a man while he's down, was a great christmas. I told them I wanted to stop my broadband and have it discontinued while I pay off the bill and get things sorted, but no they said I have to keep there service untill the bill is paid off. Basically i have to pay for a service i dont want any more because im behind on a bill i cant afford to pay in a hurry.
I've got to say, whilst NTL are on the whole a shoddy company, there customer service people have always been exceptionally helpful and apologetic to me. I guess when your company is that awful and disorganized you have to be good at grovelling!
My NTL woes started a year after I'd signed up for broadband with them. I'd had direct debits going out fine for 11 months when I moved house. I called up about a month before the move to get my service moved with me, and they asked if it was just the digital tv I was moving. I stated I didn't have digital tv, I had broadband, and after much "No I don't, yes you do!" it transpired that despite providing me with a faultless internet connection for a YEAR, they had no record of this, and had instead been charging me for a base tv pack, £8 less a month at the time. She then had the cheek to say I'd have to pay the £88 I obviously owed to them, but I think my utter disgust changed her mind because they never pursued it.
I moved into my new place and had it moved with no trouble. When I tried to have phone service installed, the engineer failed to turn up three times. I gave up and got a BT line. Then I went abroad for six months and transferred the account to my housemate, yet they charged me for the entire six months instead.
Lately the new one is that they take the direct debit out at completely random dates each month. The last 4 months have been: 21/07, 06/08, 17/09, 25/10, and today 27/11. It is meant to be the 25th of each month. This is actually illegal, as companies have to provide you with warning before they change a DD date, as I've pointed out, but the poor call-centre girl seems as bemused as me!
you may recall my comments regarding a technical issue with the internet connection
as someone training in IT, i can confirm that the information given by NTL was inaccurate. they told me my router was faulty.
not so. the problem was a conflict between the modem, connected to the router and the Network Interface Card fitted to the computer. I simply disabled the NIC and now my internet connection is perfect.
thanks NTL for leading me on a merry dance where your so-called technical support was totally wrong. it really does pay to know something about computers, so i suggest to NTL to employ IT professionals for their technical support roles!!!
i have joined ntl and i find the company very helpful and very polite since i joined.
now all the calles are free of charge ( 150 ) i have run up phone bills of £160-00 in a month and they have called me asking if i know about my phone bill is high.
now that is what i call customer service putting there customer first i know ntl customer services can be a bit slow in answering calls when busy but at least they are polite and helpful and say sorry about having to wait to get though to speak to them.
anyway calling n.t.l. from a n.t.l phone is now FREEPHONE 150 so you can wait without paying a penny on calling customer services as when they are busy i hold on now until i get though to someone on the other end
Unbelievably appaling service - when we were due to move house, we only stuck with them so we could keep our email addresses and because they're cheaper - big mistake! Below is what's happened so far . . .
When we decided to move house we rang to find out about transferring our existing package of broadband, TV and telephone - something we assumed would be simple - wrong! First we wer told that 10 days notice was required - even to set a date (?)then the first appointment they could make was actually about 2 and a half weeks later.
Having then booked the day off work, Rich then rang NTL the day before to check what time to expect the engineer. He was then told that the booking was only provisional (news to us) and, as we had not received confirmation from the engineer, we should not expect the appointment.
Every time we ring NTL, we have to wait a ridiculous amount of time before the call is answered. This is costing us and more often than not, we don't even get an answer to the query once we're through. The technical services team in India is unable to answer anything on moves and transfers or billing and insists on transferring the customer to ‘Customer services’; this again involves being put on hold and waiting for up to 50 minutes at a time. Completely inappropriate for a company whose recorded message repeatedly tells people waiting how they are ‘improving services all the time’!!
After a lot of phone calls backwards and forwards, we were finally told that the installation had been re-booked(another week waiting). Rich again booked time off and waited at home for the engineer to arrive. When the engineer had still not arrived by the afternoon, he again rang NTL to find out what was happening. The customer services department apologised (a first) saying that the engineer should have rung having already visited the property and realised that additional work was needed prior to the cable being fitted. He hadn’t. Once again, the communication was unbelievable – Rich has lost a day’s holiday and we were still without any services. At this point we both made phone-calls of complaint. It is impossible to ever speak to somebody senior or anyone in a position of authority who can offer to rectify these situations. We were eventually assured that we would be compensated - by not having to pay for a month’s worth of services. Since the entire package is only worth £30, this seems laughable – the time we have spent off work either waiting for engineers or on the phone attempting to sort this out, has cost us far more than this.
The work needed was carried out on 13 July and a further appointment was set for 18 July when Rich would already be on holiday. The engineer did turn up this time – only to announce that he was only booked to install the TV – he was not prepared or able to set up the telephone or broadband. This was a joke – after all the mistakes, complaints, re-booking of dates and failures so far, how can the Moves and Transfers department have managed to get this wrong again? By now furious, Richard rang NTL again and, again, received an apology but was told we would have to wait until Friday 21 for the rest of the work to be completed. This meant us altering the dates of our holiday, which in desperation for the services, we did. Finally, on the Friday we had the remaining services installed. The manhole in the street has been left without cover. The cable, which had been laid on the 18 July, is wrapped in an unsightly green plastic tube which has been left on full display in front of the house. The second engineer agreed that this should have been buried on the first visit and promised to speak to his supervisor and make sure this was done. We are still waiting. I have sent photos of the ‘professional’ finish we have been left with to NTL with no response as yet.
Even after the services have eventually been installed, we have then had numerous phone calls back and forth as the Moves and Transfers team had forgotten to send us a ‘welcome letter’ with the PIN number and password required to start usage of the account. Yet again, we spent most of the day on the phone trying to ascertain how to set this up, being transferred back and forth with no warning/ apology or explanation.
We were finally given a PIN number only to find that this was for a set top box and did not work. After further phone calls it transpired that the account for our cable modem had not even been set up!! Having eventually figured it out and managed to get the broadband working, we had these services . . . for a full 24 hours, before once again they are unavailable. This time we were told the fault was with the NTL connections and assured that full service would be resumed by 1pm the next day. When this did not happen, we were back on the phone. We have now been informed that we need a technician to visit the property again. Unwilling or able to take another day off work, we have been advised to wait till Tuesday evening when someone will come. By then it will be August. All the way through we are being told how NTL do not offer financial compensation and the best we can expect is a free month. When I queried a ‘late payment charge’ on this bill yesterday, I was again told that there was nothing that could be done ‘as the system cannot be overwritten’. I find this incredible and would love to see NTL try and defend itself against a non-payment charge after the experience we have had lately. How can we find ourselves having to dispute a ‘late payment charge’ for services not received??!
Today we received a message from some rude woman telling us to call her back and she'd send someone to repair the damage - not a word about all the other hassle we've been through. And of course, no apology.
Ive been with ntl,since may 2006. They have been doing my head in, first,i will like to point out i have never signed a contract with ntl, I have the agreement at home with no signiture.
I simply went and enquired about it, gave them my contact details.....two days later i had someone over installing the set box,to cut a long story short, The next day someone tried to install another box again. I was furious.
Then i find out they had the wrong address,two accounts,and a bill for £148.00 for one month not included the package that i wanted was all of a sudden not available, my phone line was on but on there computer i wasnt known???now my phone has been cut off, in the last month i have spoken to 21 people from customer service and none of them has got back to me, even though they tell me they would, they are a load of rubbish!!!!!!!
NTL = CLUELESS & INCOMPETANT - They continued to bill my dead mother for several months after she had passed away dispite being told many times thru their telephone customer service number. Made me that mad I wrote a letter of complaint to EVERY ONE of their senior board members & CC'd it to the chairman. It was an inspired masterpiece. See Below.
Diane Desay
Customer Services Director
NTL
Bartley Wood Business Park
Bartley Way
Hook
Hants
RG27 9UP.
Dear Ms Desay,
I write with reference to the above account number in respect of my late mother Ms S G Wilson who passed away 27/10/05. Copy of the latest bill enclosed for your information.
I have been passed your contact details in that you are responsible for customer services. If the event you are not, please feel free to read, & pass onto the Director at board level who is, & accept my apologies in advance.
I write to lodge my complaint regarding the following points in respect of my late mother’s broadband internet connection service & any other services you were providing up to & beyond the date of her death.
Firstly, when initially contacting NTL I requested all correspondence be submitted to “The Executors of the Estate” c/o my late mother’s address which you have. This has not been done as quite clearly the copy bill enclosed is addressed to her at my address. This is clearly unacceptable & is against my express wishes, as she is in fact dead & does not reside with me & neither do her remains. Post death, her ashes currently reside at the Funeral Home which officiated, should you need to correspond I can furnish you with their address but would recommend a clairvoyant in addition to affecting any direct correspondence with the account holder directly.
Secondly, I contacted you initially on/around the date of death to advise verbally on your “Customer Service Free phone Number.” It seems that the information was not recorded properly at this time. I explained the circumstances of the death & requested to cease services. It appears this may not have happened as it should have. I again contacted “Customer Services” at the beginning of Jan 06 to explain the same things again. This time I was assured the account would be suspended. I advised of the correspondence address & reluctantly gave my own. This was not recorded correctly, bills were still being sent & I now have correspondence sent to my dead mother at my house (latest copy enclosed). I expressly gave no permission to use my address details in any/all correspondence. Quite a simple request I would have thought.
Thirdly, at the earliest practicable time I informed NTL that as my mother was in receipt of DLA (she was registered disabled) & had no income nor assets held in her name & that there was not (& still is not) any funds available to pay for even the funeral, there was no money available to pay any/all of the unsecured debts my late mother had accrued. At no time was I requested to present anything in writing. I am well aware of my obligations under Law & am not obliged to present any details of the estate to you. I therefore draw your attention to the following Acts of Parliament & their contents:
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ The Administration of Justice Act
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ The Wills & Probate Act
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ The Consumer Credit Act
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ The Data Protection Act
& furthermore suggest you provide the necessary training to your billing/accounts staff with respect to a deceased estate. It should not be left to me to tell you how to run your Customer Services functions, but in this instance I feel it pertinent as it seems I could perform your role far more efficiently & professionally, you should be ashamed & unemployed.
Fourthly, I find myself contacting your “Customer Services” again on 30/1/06 at approx 14.30hrs to discuss the bill (copy enclosed) upon which I informed the operator of the same set of very sad circumstances & status of the estate of my late mother. This information was greeted with the following response:
“We shall keep sending bills until the account is settled”
To which I responded that if such bills keep arriving I shall do the following once several have been collected/saved:
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Log all details in an official complaint to OFCOM.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Contact BBC WATCHDOG, furnishing full details.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Contact the tabloid press- THE SUN / MIRROR furnishing full details.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Place copies of this letter on as many blog websites as I assess as suitable.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Recommend to all my friends who are indeed your customers, to change their comms service provider as soon as reasonably possible.
Quite clearly from the previous information provided (all be-it verbally) the debt will not be settled as there are no assets/funds to do so.
Either the operator was completely insensitive to the circumstances or was not equipped with the intelligence or training needed to affect a professional, sympathetic, respectful nor balanced view/comment or subsequent action. It seems that there was little comprehension of the circumstances or how to deal with it. This person should not be held responsible as the problem as I perceive it lays higher up your line management. It begs the question as to why you do not it seems, have a specialist dept for dealing with such cases? Again you should be ashamed of yourself. I do not hold any one person except the Director at your Board’s level, responsible for this pitiful, inept & professionally embarrassing way in which this matter is being dealt with.
It seems your systems of work, procedures, training & quality management of systems/procedures leave something to be desired. Quite simply improvement is required. Other “blue chip” organisations I have dealt with during this very difficult & sad time all have their own departments set up to deal with such changes in personal circumstances. It surely doesn’t need a member of the public to point out these blindingly obvious requirements. Or is it an exercise in “saving money” at the expense of loosing customers?
Fortunately I am not a customer of NTL & now never will be in light of the treatment I have received. I hope this correspondence has suitabley embarrassed you into action. Rest assured I have also circulated a copy of this letter to the following people:
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Mr James F Mooney Chairman NTL Board
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Mr Stephen Birch President & CEO
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Mr Peter Wilcox MD Business Improvement.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Mr Aizad Hussain MD NTL Home
Should you need to appoint a person from the general public with a better angle on customer services I would of course offer myself for a salary of £45K , & indeed I would get results. Rest assured you would be first out of the door.
Finally, I respectfully request that the account be terminated & all outstanding money balances be written off at your earliest convenience as a matter of urgency & simple respect. I have enclosed a copy of the death certificate for your information/retention for a period of not exceeding 12 months or within the scope of The Data Protection Act. Since I am not a customer & now it seems, my deceased mother is not either, I expect all personal & sensitive information however stored be destroyed by you within allotted timescales.
In addition, the above being the bare minimum corrective action required I feel it necessary to inform you that I shall of course take legal advice as a result of the discomfort distress & time I have had to devote in telephoning your customer services dept. I shall of course give you the professional courtesy of written debate/offer before issuing any action.
I deem it fit to invoice you for all correspondence regarding the account status. This initial letter attracts a charge of £100.00. Invoice also enclosed. This charge covers my initial time & effort in dealing with the above account number & to cover all expenses in relation to the transmission of this letter. Further responses which I deem are required to any further invoices shall attract a handling & administration charge of £75 per letter. Payment terms strictly 28 days. All cheques should be made payable to Mr P L Mitchell. A receipt will be issued. Please quote my ref as above in all future correspondence as this will allow quick & speedy response.
The invoice is submitted as a result of your own organisation’s ineptness in administration. I have no problem with pursuing non payment in the small claims courts. Court fees of a mere £65 will be more than worth it to embarrass your organisation. I am sure the press would be interested in light of any proceedings.
I trust this information both meets & exceeds your requirements in the prompt ending to this matter. I hope that such a personal tragedy & loss does not occur to you. & that you would not have to suffer the indignity of dealing with your own organisation’s inept & professionally lacking performance, of which you are directly responsible.
I look forward to your speedy response, confirmed account closure/write off, & prompt settlement of the enclosed invoice.
good internet, no bandwith limit absolute nightmare to deal with. luckily im technically gifted and can sort most of the problems myself. but i've noticed with a lot of people newly hooked up to ntl needing my help because as soon as they install they cant access the internet.the first time i contacted ntl, 10 minute wait to an outsourced call centre the other person could hardly speak a word of english. i was then told to enter ntls ip manually. as i said decent internet but lousy support.
This comment is for their internet service and support team.
Luckily (for me) I've never been an NTL customer, but being a tech monkey it's always me that gets called when friends need their computer networked. To date, I've probably sorted out at least 10 PCs or home networks getting connected via NTL.
While I can't comment on their TV packages (always been a Sky customer) their internet service seems fine.
Their customer support though is a pain mostly because of the waiting times. However, recently I managed to get through within a couple of minutes - on a Friday evening!
I did have a problem explaining to the guy on the other end of the phone I was using a router connected to the NTL modem supplied by their engineer and there was no NTL box. He then wanted me to go fiddling with settings on the PC which was not necesarry as it was a router that was connected not the PC.
Anyway, I told him I had to go, hung up, had a cup of coffee and called back again and spoke to a different support person who gave me the info I needed.
So my only real complaint with NTL would be their slow response times and somewhat sketchy technical knowledge of their support team.
Plus they don't like giving out technical info on their site or documentation as all their services seem to be geared around no/low knowledge users.
All in all, if you want broadband I would consider using an ADSL supplier unless you want the convenience tv and internet or already have an ntl box.
I got so fed up with NTL I called them and cancelled my contract a month early - didn't care I would still be charged for it. It took me 3 goes to get through to the right team, or not be cut-off mid call. I then kept receiving bills from them until February - kept throwing them in the bin. Received a phone call from them in Feb aplogising, and saying there was obviously nothing to pay. Phew! It's now May and guess what? I'm still receiving a bill every month which goes... straight into the bin again.
ntl are a bloody disgrace,we are moving house on 26th april,I organised to have all services transfered to new address on that day,quite an easy task you might think,NO,they have cut off my phone service 10 days early,and when I complain,they reckon its normal procedure to do this,not the first time this has happened,last time we moved house we were without tv broadband and telephone for a month,that time they said I gave then the wrong address,then thet said there were no facilities in my new area,despite the fact they had confirmed by letter that we were to be visited by an engineer before 6 pm on given date,when it was Diamond cable,the service was second to none ,now its absolutely cr*p,the only benefit isthey are cheaper than BT,who charge ridiculous prices,where do we complain about NTL,when you get through all you get is verbal cr*p,are these faceless people answerable to anyone
what an absolute disgrace.
i have a broadband account with them. i've been having a few problems with the connection to the internet.
problem is
1) couldn't download the 'free' netguard virus package
2) explained that when i connect to the internet, i get the 'the page cannot be displayed' message on screen.
so i called them (for once, not held in the queue) and told them the problem. the technician took me through a number of tests and said the network card wasn't functioning properly, so we changed the settings. he said that this will solve the problem.
no. it hasn't solved the problem. it's still happening and they say my wireless network router is to blame. so, if it is the router, why does only one pc in my house suffer from this 'intermittence'??? surely if the router was faulty, then this problem would be present on all the computers at home.
Im free from NTl,(amost). What a relief to get out from under the worst company it has ever been my misfortune to deal with. incompetent, dishonest, deliberatly unhelpful. Sky is wonderful by comparison -- and so cheap. NTL intalled a broadband cable down an outside wall by the pavementI told the installer that the kids would rip it off the wall in days,and was told that they would repair it if it happened. well it took 3 months. but they loosened it so I rang NTL after 20 minutes waiting in the famous queue I was told that they did not do preventative maintenance so call back when it failed.
After a short discussion I got cut off!!
When I rang again I was told that there would be a £50.00 charge for the work.
TIP threaten the regulator or cancel your contract they do back down Ive got broadband now for 12 months at £9.95 a month.
Ive cancelled everything else.
NTL what a company? they aint as helpful as they make out, maybe they should all go to charm school. it sounds like no one has had any training!!! and when you have a problem you are past to pillow to post. no one knows what the hell is going on. they give you advice, help and guareent but to be honest they havent a clue what they are chatting about. i definantly think this site is for them cuz they are all blaggers.
NTL has been disgraceful. We have been customers for 10 years (previously CableTel)
When we joined we were offered to buy our cable box at an expensive one of price, rather than paying line rental. We took them up on this offer.
Now, 9 years later, NTL are charging us line rental for the box which we have already paid for. Its ridiculous.
Each month we have been assured it will come off our next bill, 4 months later we are still waiting..
ntl are a pile horse manure, customer service my ar$e more like customer dis-service. the automated phone service....aaaaghghggghh i wanna kill somebody. finally a human..or is it..cause they tell you one thing and do another, complaint procedure...ha you havin a larf. just pick somebody else thats my advice.
After one episode of grief with ntl years back, I went back on my word and tried them again as their deal looked enticing. That'll teach me!
After months of poor service I cancelled with them. Because they had incorrectly set me up with two accounts rather than one, I had one account where they owed me money and one account where I owed them money. Overall they owed me £8.
After trying many times to sort out a refund on the phone - you know the drill - waiting in a queue for 20 minutes - then being told you need to talk to a different department - back in a queue again, until you're automatically cut off after 45 minutes!
After wasting about 20 hours of my life in their hellish system, I gave up and wrote off the money they owed me.
Fast forward 8 months later and I receive a letter from a debt collection company demanding I pay up or they'd take me to court and send the boys 'round. So I phone the debt collection company (who were the rudest people I've ever had to deal with), but they refused to listen to me at all saying they could only cancel the debt if ntl told them to.
So, back into the ntl phone system trying to get through to someone who was willing to try and help. But again I was transfered from department to department until I was automatically cut off. Occasionally someone would promise to sort it out and call me back but of course that never happened. I wrote letters with proof of them owing me money, but never received a reply.
So now I am looking forward to a court summons by a company that owes me money!
I called NTL for a quote and gave my bank details as they said they had to perform a credit check. I told them I wanted to think about the deal and next thing I know I've got a letter thanking me for joining them and to confirm my bank details are correct. I tried calling them to cancel this as I never agreed to it in the first place and guess what??? "we are too busy to accept your call right now, please try later" and cut me off. I had to cancel the DD with the bank in the ned - absolutley terrible.
Has anyone worked out how to create the promised free webpage with their NTL account? I have ntl broadband and i can't count the number of outages we have had in the past year. It takes on average 15 minutes to get through to customer services. When you write a letter of complaint they don't even answer. No e mail addy on their home page so the only way to complain via e mail is to fill in a long timeconsuming form. telephone helpline closes in the early evening, but guess what...outages and breakdowns in transmissions usually occur late evening. Very suspicious.
does anyone know how to find out the front row pin number if it hasnt been used before because they are closed all the time and we need the pin please .
The worlds worst strike again. They have just cut me off ecause they say I owe them £11!!! yes £11.00
After several rows with various grades of moron (includng one who had to have directions on what to say whispered to him by some one else) i found the MAGIC WORD. and the word is OTELO the ombudsman who regulates NTL. just ask for a deadlock letter so you can take your complaint to OTELO if enough complaints are made they could lose their license
Oh and the £11.00 -- written off as is the reconnection feee
emember OTEL it really works
Add a comment about this blagger
Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
Due to the duration over which these payments have been taken from my account I am unable to claim the Direct Debit indemnity that is the usual course of action.
My only option is to pursue court action against the company (now jointly Virgin Media Ltd/Virgin Media Payments Ltd) to recover the funds and Ishall let you all know the outcome here.
We were without the Internet for almost a month, whilst they kept telling us lies every time we phoned up to ask why they weren't reconnecting us.
From experience:
Give them as much notice as you possibly can about your move, they will blame you for the problem with the reconnection at your new home if you don't give them enough notice. 28 days they say the process is expected to take, my I add that's longer than other Internet Service Providers.
Infact they will blame you for anything as long as they save their skins.
Some of their call centre staff don't even record your calls, so the next time you ring, the next staff member accuses you of lying about making certain calls.
In our case, the call we made to say we were moving, was never recorded and the changes to the address were never made, so as far as they were concerned we had never raised the subject with them.
Be prepared to wait on the phone a lot, whilst they keep putting you on hold, to supposedly 'confer' with their colleagues.
In our case it was just to think up more lies to tell us.
Ofcourse one staff member dropped every single one of the previous lying staff members in it, by confirming right at the end of the fiasco, that we HAD made the call to confirm we were moving.
DON'T do what we did and cancel the direct debit payments, if they play up. It makes no difference, you are locked into the contract with them and theres no getting out. Not for at least 3 months anyway, so we were told.
For not paying it, some stressy woman in the call centre threatened us with Baliffs, if we refused to keep paying the bill for the service we weren't receiving.
Oh and don't even try to explain that to them, it seems to go beyond their comprehension that they are doing anything wrong to you.
If you're waiting for them to do something, don't expect them to call you to confirm that it's been done, or in most cases NOT done. They expect you to call them yourselves, this happened to us on a number of occasions, every time they had failed to do it, or weren't able to do it, but ofcourse, they're probably much to busy to be able to do that!
By now ofocurse, my mum was in tears, as they were blurping out a loud of jiberish to her. They don't seem to understand how hard they are making it, all they want is whatever money they can get.
Anyway after some 11 calls to their call centre, and a round total of some 3 hours altogether on the phone, most of that time on hold, we finally got the Internet back around 45 days after we first informed them that we were moving.
Personally, for the Internet and the value I would say they do good deals, but for customer service and the effort they make it into moving your Internet connection from one house to another, they should be shut down.
Good luck to anyone who moves with them, and just to add a sting to the tale, we moved some 200 yards down the road, and we took our phone number with us.
After being paid off a few months ago from my job, also a single parent father. I had got behind on paying my last bill from NTL. I agreed with them i would pay off the extra amount owed weekly, as I have always known not to give NTL any direct debit information. Of course they added on there now £10 late charge (illegal?) plus £4 admin charge on my normal £25 a month Broadband 4MB package. Imagine my suprise when the next bill i received had yet another £10 charge becasue the bill was still behind. I here its illegal for banks to make out these charges so why are NTL getting away with it?
Thanks NTL for kicking a man while he's down, was a great christmas. I told them I wanted to stop my broadband and have it discontinued while I pay off the bill and get things sorted, but no they said I have to keep there service untill the bill is paid off. Basically i have to pay for a service i dont want any more because im behind on a bill i cant afford to pay in a hurry.
My NTL woes started a year after I'd signed up for broadband with them. I'd had direct debits going out fine for 11 months when I moved house. I called up about a month before the move to get my service moved with me, and they asked if it was just the digital tv I was moving. I stated I didn't have digital tv, I had broadband, and after much "No I don't, yes you do!" it transpired that despite providing me with a faultless internet connection for a YEAR, they had no record of this, and had instead been charging me for a base tv pack, £8 less a month at the time. She then had the cheek to say I'd have to pay the £88 I obviously owed to them, but I think my utter disgust changed her mind because they never pursued it.
I moved into my new place and had it moved with no trouble. When I tried to have phone service installed, the engineer failed to turn up three times. I gave up and got a BT line. Then I went abroad for six months and transferred the account to my housemate, yet they charged me for the entire six months instead.
Lately the new one is that they take the direct debit out at completely random dates each month. The last 4 months have been: 21/07, 06/08, 17/09, 25/10, and today 27/11. It is meant to be the 25th of each month. This is actually illegal, as companies have to provide you with warning before they change a DD date, as I've pointed out, but the poor call-centre girl seems as bemused as me!
as someone training in IT, i can confirm that the information given by NTL was inaccurate. they told me my router was faulty.
not so. the problem was a conflict between the modem, connected to the router and the Network Interface Card fitted to the computer. I simply disabled the NIC and now my internet connection is perfect.
thanks NTL for leading me on a merry dance where your so-called technical support was totally wrong. it really does pay to know something about computers, so i suggest to NTL to employ IT professionals for their technical support roles!!!
UK_MARTYR_200603 at 19th Oct 2006, 01:58PM
now all the calles are free of charge ( 150 ) i have run up phone bills of £160-00 in a month and they have called me asking if i know about my phone bill is high.
now that is what i call customer service putting there customer first i know ntl customer services can be a bit slow in answering calls when busy but at least they are polite and helpful and say sorry about having to wait to get though to speak to them.
anyway calling n.t.l. from a n.t.l phone is now FREEPHONE 150 so you can wait without paying a penny on calling customer services as when they are busy i hold on now until i get though to someone on the other end
When we decided to move house we rang to find out about transferring our existing package of broadband, TV and telephone - something we assumed would be simple - wrong! First we wer told that 10 days notice was required - even to set a date (?)then the first appointment they could make was actually about 2 and a half weeks later.
Having then booked the day off work, Rich then rang NTL the day before to check what time to expect the engineer. He was then told that the booking was only provisional (news to us) and, as we had not received confirmation from the engineer, we should not expect the appointment.
Every time we ring NTL, we have to wait a ridiculous amount of time before the call is answered. This is costing us and more often than not, we don't even get an answer to the query once we're through. The technical services team in India is unable to answer anything on moves and transfers or billing and insists on transferring the customer to ‘Customer services’; this again involves being put on hold and waiting for up to 50 minutes at a time. Completely inappropriate for a company whose recorded message repeatedly tells people waiting how they are ‘improving services all the time’!!
After a lot of phone calls backwards and forwards, we were finally told that the installation had been re-booked(another week waiting). Rich again booked time off and waited at home for the engineer to arrive. When the engineer had still not arrived by the afternoon, he again rang NTL to find out what was happening. The customer services department apologised (a first) saying that the engineer should have rung having already visited the property and realised that additional work was needed prior to the cable being fitted. He hadn’t. Once again, the communication was unbelievable – Rich has lost a day’s holiday and we were still without any services. At this point we both made phone-calls of complaint. It is impossible to ever speak to somebody senior or anyone in a position of authority who can offer to rectify these situations. We were eventually assured that we would be compensated - by not having to pay for a month’s worth of services. Since the entire package is only worth £30, this seems laughable – the time we have spent off work either waiting for engineers or on the phone attempting to sort this out, has cost us far more than this.
The work needed was carried out on 13 July and a further appointment was set for 18 July when Rich would already be on holiday. The engineer did turn up this time – only to announce that he was only booked to install the TV – he was not prepared or able to set up the telephone or broadband. This was a joke – after all the mistakes, complaints, re-booking of dates and failures so far, how can the Moves and Transfers department have managed to get this wrong again? By now furious, Richard rang NTL again and, again, received an apology but was told we would have to wait until Friday 21 for the rest of the work to be completed. This meant us altering the dates of our holiday, which in desperation for the services, we did. Finally, on the Friday we had the remaining services installed. The manhole in the street has been left without cover. The cable, which had been laid on the 18 July, is wrapped in an unsightly green plastic tube which has been left on full display in front of the house. The second engineer agreed that this should have been buried on the first visit and promised to speak to his supervisor and make sure this was done. We are still waiting. I have sent photos of the ‘professional’ finish we have been left with to NTL with no response as yet.
Even after the services have eventually been installed, we have then had numerous phone calls back and forth as the Moves and Transfers team had forgotten to send us a ‘welcome letter’ with the PIN number and password required to start usage of the account. Yet again, we spent most of the day on the phone trying to ascertain how to set this up, being transferred back and forth with no warning/ apology or explanation.
We were finally given a PIN number only to find that this was for a set top box and did not work. After further phone calls it transpired that the account for our cable modem had not even been set up!! Having eventually figured it out and managed to get the broadband working, we had these services . . . for a full 24 hours, before once again they are unavailable. This time we were told the fault was with the NTL connections and assured that full service would be resumed by 1pm the next day. When this did not happen, we were back on the phone. We have now been informed that we need a technician to visit the property again. Unwilling or able to take another day off work, we have been advised to wait till Tuesday evening when someone will come. By then it will be August. All the way through we are being told how NTL do not offer financial compensation and the best we can expect is a free month. When I queried a ‘late payment charge’ on this bill yesterday, I was again told that there was nothing that could be done ‘as the system cannot be overwritten’. I find this incredible and would love to see NTL try and defend itself against a non-payment charge after the experience we have had lately. How can we find ourselves having to dispute a ‘late payment charge’ for services not received??!
Today we received a message from some rude woman telling us to call her back and she'd send someone to repair the damage - not a word about all the other hassle we've been through. And of course, no apology.
I simply went and enquired about it, gave them my contact details.....two days later i had someone over installing the set box,to cut a long story short, The next day someone tried to install another box again. I was furious.
Then i find out they had the wrong address,two accounts,and a bill for £148.00 for one month not included the package that i wanted was all of a sudden not available, my phone line was on but on there computer i wasnt known???now my phone has been cut off, in the last month i have spoken to 21 people from customer service and none of them has got back to me, even though they tell me they would, they are a load of rubbish!!!!!!!
Diane Desay
Customer Services Director
NTL
Bartley Wood Business Park
Bartley Way
Hook
Hants
RG27 9UP.
Dear Ms Desay,
I write with reference to the above account number in respect of my late mother Ms S G Wilson who passed away 27/10/05. Copy of the latest bill enclosed for your information.
I have been passed your contact details in that you are responsible for customer services. If the event you are not, please feel free to read, & pass onto the Director at board level who is, & accept my apologies in advance.
I write to lodge my complaint regarding the following points in respect of my late mother’s broadband internet connection service & any other services you were providing up to & beyond the date of her death.
Firstly, when initially contacting NTL I requested all correspondence be submitted to “The Executors of the Estate” c/o my late mother’s address which you have. This has not been done as quite clearly the copy bill enclosed is addressed to her at my address. This is clearly unacceptable & is against my express wishes, as she is in fact dead & does not reside with me & neither do her remains. Post death, her ashes currently reside at the Funeral Home which officiated, should you need to correspond I can furnish you with their address but would recommend a clairvoyant in addition to affecting any direct correspondence with the account holder directly.
Secondly, I contacted you initially on/around the date of death to advise verbally on your “Customer Service Free phone Number.” It seems that the information was not recorded properly at this time. I explained the circumstances of the death & requested to cease services. It appears this may not have happened as it should have. I again contacted “Customer Services” at the beginning of Jan 06 to explain the same things again. This time I was assured the account would be suspended. I advised of the correspondence address & reluctantly gave my own. This was not recorded correctly, bills were still being sent & I now have correspondence sent to my dead mother at my house (latest copy enclosed). I expressly gave no permission to use my address details in any/all correspondence. Quite a simple request I would have thought.
Thirdly, at the earliest practicable time I informed NTL that as my mother was in receipt of DLA (she was registered disabled) & had no income nor assets held in her name & that there was not (& still is not) any funds available to pay for even the funeral, there was no money available to pay any/all of the unsecured debts my late mother had accrued. At no time was I requested to present anything in writing. I am well aware of my obligations under Law & am not obliged to present any details of the estate to you. I therefore draw your attention to the following Acts of Parliament & their contents:
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ The Administration of Justice Act
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ The Wills & Probate Act
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ The Consumer Credit Act
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ The Data Protection Act
& furthermore suggest you provide the necessary training to your billing/accounts staff with respect to a deceased estate. It should not be left to me to tell you how to run your Customer Services functions, but in this instance I feel it pertinent as it seems I could perform your role far more efficiently & professionally, you should be ashamed & unemployed.
Fourthly, I find myself contacting your “Customer Services” again on 30/1/06 at approx 14.30hrs to discuss the bill (copy enclosed) upon which I informed the operator of the same set of very sad circumstances & status of the estate of my late mother. This information was greeted with the following response:
“We shall keep sending bills until the account is settled”
To which I responded that if such bills keep arriving I shall do the following once several have been collected/saved:
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Log all details in an official complaint to OFCOM.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Contact BBC WATCHDOG, furnishing full details.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Contact the tabloid press- THE SUN / MIRROR furnishing full details.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Place copies of this letter on as many blog websites as I assess as suitable.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Recommend to all my friends who are indeed your customers, to change their comms service provider as soon as reasonably possible.
Quite clearly from the previous information provided (all be-it verbally) the debt will not be settled as there are no assets/funds to do so.
Either the operator was completely insensitive to the circumstances or was not equipped with the intelligence or training needed to affect a professional, sympathetic, respectful nor balanced view/comment or subsequent action. It seems that there was little comprehension of the circumstances or how to deal with it. This person should not be held responsible as the problem as I perceive it lays higher up your line management. It begs the question as to why you do not it seems, have a specialist dept for dealing with such cases? Again you should be ashamed of yourself. I do not hold any one person except the Director at your Board’s level, responsible for this pitiful, inept & professionally embarrassing way in which this matter is being dealt with.
It seems your systems of work, procedures, training & quality management of systems/procedures leave something to be desired. Quite simply improvement is required. Other “blue chip” organisations I have dealt with during this very difficult & sad time all have their own departments set up to deal with such changes in personal circumstances. It surely doesn’t need a member of the public to point out these blindingly obvious requirements. Or is it an exercise in “saving money” at the expense of loosing customers?
Fortunately I am not a customer of NTL & now never will be in light of the treatment I have received. I hope this correspondence has suitabley embarrassed you into action. Rest assured I have also circulated a copy of this letter to the following people:
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Mr James F Mooney Chairman NTL Board
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Mr Stephen Birch President & CEO
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Mr Peter Wilcox MD Business Improvement.
ΓΆΒ?ΒΆ Mr Aizad Hussain MD NTL Home
Should you need to appoint a person from the general public with a better angle on customer services I would of course offer myself for a salary of £45K , & indeed I would get results. Rest assured you would be first out of the door.
Finally, I respectfully request that the account be terminated & all outstanding money balances be written off at your earliest convenience as a matter of urgency & simple respect. I have enclosed a copy of the death certificate for your information/retention for a period of not exceeding 12 months or within the scope of The Data Protection Act. Since I am not a customer & now it seems, my deceased mother is not either, I expect all personal & sensitive information however stored be destroyed by you within allotted timescales.
In addition, the above being the bare minimum corrective action required I feel it necessary to inform you that I shall of course take legal advice as a result of the discomfort distress & time I have had to devote in telephoning your customer services dept. I shall of course give you the professional courtesy of written debate/offer before issuing any action.
I deem it fit to invoice you for all correspondence regarding the account status. This initial letter attracts a charge of £100.00. Invoice also enclosed. This charge covers my initial time & effort in dealing with the above account number & to cover all expenses in relation to the transmission of this letter. Further responses which I deem are required to any further invoices shall attract a handling & administration charge of £75 per letter. Payment terms strictly 28 days. All cheques should be made payable to Mr P L Mitchell. A receipt will be issued. Please quote my ref as above in all future correspondence as this will allow quick & speedy response.
The invoice is submitted as a result of your own organisation’s ineptness in administration. I have no problem with pursuing non payment in the small claims courts. Court fees of a mere £65 will be more than worth it to embarrass your organisation. I am sure the press would be interested in light of any proceedings.
I trust this information both meets & exceeds your requirements in the prompt ending to this matter. I hope that such a personal tragedy & loss does not occur to you. & that you would not have to suffer the indignity of dealing with your own organisation’s inept & professionally lacking performance, of which you are directly responsible.
I look forward to your speedy response, confirmed account closure/write off, & prompt settlement of the enclosed invoice.
Yours Sincerely,
Luckily (for me) I've never been an NTL customer, but being a tech monkey it's always me that gets called when friends need their computer networked. To date, I've probably sorted out at least 10 PCs or home networks getting connected via NTL.
While I can't comment on their TV packages (always been a Sky customer) their internet service seems fine.
Their customer support though is a pain mostly because of the waiting times. However, recently I managed to get through within a couple of minutes - on a Friday evening!
I did have a problem explaining to the guy on the other end of the phone I was using a router connected to the NTL modem supplied by their engineer and there was no NTL box. He then wanted me to go fiddling with settings on the PC which was not necesarry as it was a router that was connected not the PC.
Anyway, I told him I had to go, hung up, had a cup of coffee and called back again and spoke to a different support person who gave me the info I needed.
So my only real complaint with NTL would be their slow response times and somewhat sketchy technical knowledge of their support team.
Plus they don't like giving out technical info on their site or documentation as all their services seem to be geared around no/low knowledge users.
All in all, if you want broadband I would consider using an ADSL supplier unless you want the convenience tv and internet or already have an ntl box.
i have a broadband account with them. i've been having a few problems with the connection to the internet.
problem is
1) couldn't download the 'free' netguard virus package
2) explained that when i connect to the internet, i get the 'the page cannot be displayed' message on screen.
so i called them (for once, not held in the queue) and told them the problem. the technician took me through a number of tests and said the network card wasn't functioning properly, so we changed the settings. he said that this will solve the problem.
no. it hasn't solved the problem. it's still happening and they say my wireless network router is to blame. so, if it is the router, why does only one pc in my house suffer from this 'intermittence'??? surely if the router was faulty, then this problem would be present on all the computers at home.
After a short discussion I got cut off!!
When I rang again I was told that there would be a £50.00 charge for the work.
TIP threaten the regulator or cancel your contract they do back down Ive got broadband now for 12 months at £9.95 a month.
Ive cancelled everything else.
When we joined we were offered to buy our cable box at an expensive one of price, rather than paying line rental. We took them up on this offer.
Now, 9 years later, NTL are charging us line rental for the box which we have already paid for. Its ridiculous.
Each month we have been assured it will come off our next bill, 4 months later we are still waiting..
After months of poor service I cancelled with them. Because they had incorrectly set me up with two accounts rather than one, I had one account where they owed me money and one account where I owed them money. Overall they owed me £8.
After trying many times to sort out a refund on the phone - you know the drill - waiting in a queue for 20 minutes - then being told you need to talk to a different department - back in a queue again, until you're automatically cut off after 45 minutes!
After wasting about 20 hours of my life in their hellish system, I gave up and wrote off the money they owed me.
Fast forward 8 months later and I receive a letter from a debt collection company demanding I pay up or they'd take me to court and send the boys 'round. So I phone the debt collection company (who were the rudest people I've ever had to deal with), but they refused to listen to me at all saying they could only cancel the debt if ntl told them to.
So, back into the ntl phone system trying to get through to someone who was willing to try and help. But again I was transfered from department to department until I was automatically cut off. Occasionally someone would promise to sort it out and call me back but of course that never happened. I wrote letters with proof of them owing me money, but never received a reply.
So now I am looking forward to a court summons by a company that owes me money!
ntl - don't ya just love them?
Absolutely useless service.
After several rows with various grades of moron (includng one who had to have directions on what to say whispered to him by some one else) i found the MAGIC WORD. and the word is OTELO the ombudsman who regulates NTL. just ask for a deadlock letter so you can take your complaint to OTELO if enough complaints are made they could lose their license
Oh and the £11.00 -- written off as is the reconnection feee
emember OTEL it really works
Add a comment about this blagger