Chorus/NTL: What is to be done?

Back in the 19th century, when people were fretting over the future of Russia, it became fashionable to write books or pamphlets entitled "What is to be done?".

Tolstoy wrote one, as did Chernychevsky. Finally, a chap called Vladimir Lenin wrote one, and we all know how that ended up.

I feel the same way about Chorus/NTL.

Some 9 months ago, I moved house. As one does, I moved around the corner. NTL have this nifty facility on their website all ready and waiting for such cases.

What a fool I was, what a blithering fool! But so as not to beat about the bush too much on this one, here are some of the lowlights of my ordeal:

1. Numerous missed appointments for installation. Well, I'm not shocked at that, I hear you say.
2. Ongoing billing for no service. Also par for the course.
3. Call with NTL representative, in which I am informed that it could take between 2 and 6 months to get me up and running.
4. Call to Sky, they can be with me in a week. Bliss!
5. Call from NTL, they say they can beat Sky to it. What?
6. Sorry NTL, no dice. It's Sky from now on. I'm canceling, much as I loved you. And send me a final bill please, on your way out.
7. Begging letters from NTL demanding immediate payment of aforesaid outstanding amounts due for non-service, or they will disconnect me. Oh, the horror! Are they threatening to connect me so that they can disconnect me? Either way, I'm unperturbed.
8. Lots of texts and calls to mobile phone threatening disconnection. Oh, idle threats!
9. Visit from nice NTL man to pick up boxes on cancellation.
10. Visit from not-so-nice NTL man to disconnect me. Explained that I wasn't connected, so disconnection might be tricky. Man worried about what to tell his supervisor on the job ticket.
11. Visit from nice NTL man to lay cables in my garden, so that they could threaten my neighbours with their "service".
12. More final bills from NTL, this time getting closer to correct amount, but all for different amounts and no explanation.
13. Letter from debt collection agency demanding payment, or threatening court action. I outline some of the above, nice lady from agency is sympathetic, promises to intercede with NTL on my behalf. I am excited by the prospect of court action.
14. Another visit from nice NTL man with expanded cable laying plans in my garden, and which involve digging.

All of which brings me back to where I started: what is to be done?

Hi Orson,

Move house again

Wow!
Between NTL charging you for no service, and Bord Gais servicing you at no charge (for 9 months), it's a wonder you can tell if you're coming or going!

Locum, there is also the tale of the BT/Eircom imbroglio, but that post is for another day.

Parents had problems also with NTL.they used the company for years and moved to sky just the other day.

Hi Orson, I had a very similar NTL experience! Moved house last Sept, literally just round the corner too - took them months and months to sort out. And I live on a managed estate where we can't have Sky - I was literally at NTL's mercy. They are just so so bad, it's actually incredible. I can only explain it by thinking that they must have an internal competition to see who can give the worst customer service - it surely has to be deliberate. Got it resolved in the end with profuse and constant apologises from them. And strangely, in the last couple of weeks, for inexplicable reasons they have reverted to sending correspondence and bills to me at my old address... god only knows what goes on inside their company.

I wouldn't let NTL near my garden if I were you.

Dutchy said:

I wouldn't let NTL near my garden if I were you.

Click to expand...

Bad at TV, worse at gardening.

The mere sight of the letters NTL are enough to set my blood pressure soaring!!! I have never, ever received worse service from a company. It took seven separate visits, four from 'outdoor' technicians and three from 'indoor' technicians to confirm what the first 'outdoor' technician said was the problem i.e. "all your wiring outside needs to be replaced - over 20 years old and completely kaput" having finally agreed that that was the problem it took another 3 months for them to fix it. My screen freezes at precisely 1am every day - often at the crucial bit of a late night movie, they won't believe me! I got off the phone from them an hour ago - my screen has been showing "gathering data" which means you can't use the menu in the normal way for the past 5 days - to be greeted with a long-winded speil about Setanta Sport and then finally a customer service operator who sounded like I was disturbing her sleep and who insisted I work my way through the check list on the card she obviously works from. Unplug, leave for 15 seconds, remove card, re-insert, switch on - I told her I had been doing that for 5 days without result and asked why I should do it again, she said she would boost the signal down the line! I said I did not need the signal boosted, all the channels were there but my menu function was not working and my screen was freezing at times, obviously the operators have no knowledge of any problem other than those which can be fixed by the steps above - I have an operator coming out on July 3rd, so I'm on the roller-coaster of cancelled visits, repeat visits, duplicate visits which has been my experience every time before. I'm having work done on my house and as soon as it's finished I'm getting rid of NTL and moving to Sky.

I must be the only person who has never ever had a problem with NTL, despite moving several times. In fact, I have found them to be quite good. Now Eircom in another story entirely.....GGrrrrr.

Menu function never works properly on NTL

My experience has been that the menu was the one thing that did work! Screen regularly pixelates, clicks, freezes and then just goes, totally unreliable service. They now refund for the period without service but their attitude is that that absolves them of all responsibility for providing that service. What really bugs me is their service Department; every phone call is treated as a new complaint, they don't take on board anything you say to them, for instance despite making five phone calls instructing them to use only my mobile number to contact me, they persist in ringing my home phone instead, pretty pointless since we're all out at work. Nothing seems to get through to them, Gerry Ryan used to lambast them regularly until he moved to Sky and one of the columnists (can't remember her name) in the Mail on Sunday had a go last Sunday. I kept getting communications from them offering me their package on broadband, home phone and tv, I replied by telling them that I'd be happier if they just provided the service I was currently paying for instead of offering me more services - needless to say no reply! A work colleague who did opt for this package hasn't had broadband for the past 6 months.

I can't tell you the number of people in work who regularly complain about NTL's service. I was tempted to move to them for my combined Broadband / TV / Phone needs but after hearing work mates hassles and reading forums such as this Im so glad I didn't. At present I only have the basic cable TV package with them - and that costs 24.49 per month. Sky are coming today to hook me up with a Sky+ Box , All Channels except Movies and Sport (so still approx 100 more than I have today) and all this for 30.50 per month (+ €50 Installation). As soon as Sky have me up and running it's bye bye NTHell

Pray to god you still have "a nice garden" when they are finished

Why are you letting them into your garden? I wouldn't let them into the estate untill they sort out their crap first. I would imagine if you caused a bit of infighting, by telling one section they cant have garden access due to another section, they will have your problem understood and sorted in a jiffy.