ntl: to penalise non DD customers & late payers

Slightly off topic, but still on ntl ... I signed up with them 6 months ago for broadband and basic cable and was informed the first 3 months were free and the charge was 25 Euro per month thereafter. I just received my first bill dated 14th January for 200 Euros! The complicated billing system is beyond my mere mortal brain, but when I call the 1800 number, it does not work when calling from a mobile phone so they give you a Dublin number to call. I've been trying to get through to for DAYS. Who are these people, the flippin' mafia?!
 
Ursprunglich - is this the first invoice you received since taking out the pkg? Are you on the Broadband Max pkg? I know the old bill used to show the billable amt & then a credit was also shown on another line (e.g. Basic TV = 19.99, Basic TV = (19.99) ).

I have a similar issue, where I got the Broadband max for the 'free period' but I never notified them to downgrade the broadband until after the 3mths was up. Partly my fault, but partly due to how the invoice is presented (Aug invoice showed it was still free, then in Oct they backbilled me for the non-free period). I've been trying to downgrade the pkg since Nov. I will have to follow up with them again to see if they have corrected it as I don't have much faith in NTL/UPC now.

You can email them at Customer.Support@ntl.ie & you should get an auto reply email with a log reference. Keep the log references & copies of all emails in case of dispute. I don't hold much value in their response to emails either but at least it is logged on their system!
 
Thanks Cinders. I just sent them an email. That's probably what it is, the free period broadband max. charged after the free period expires. It's written as 'Broadband Offer Debit Adjustment'.
 
That seems to be exactly the same issue that I have. Only that my first invoice now is only 125 Euros. Of which €25 is Broadband Offer Debit Adjustment.

Can't call either that 1800 number and the other number they give won't work. Sent them email and they answered that it will take months for them to look in to my problem, please call. Oh yes I would, if they just would answe.

But the funniest thing is, that I never took any Broadband Max. And I also was supposed to get the offer of BB free for 3 months and Basic TV for 6 months. Quess did they charge me for TV also after 3 months.
 
There seems to be zero consistency with this company. I called and held for an about a 1/2 hour and finally got through to someone who sounded about 12 and seemed to be based in Belfast. He couldn't explain the debit adjustment charge and couldn't put me through to anyone who could, he could only log my call for 'someone' to get back to me 'sometime'.
Later, I called technical support and got talking to a grown up who still couldn't explain the charge because she didn't work in accounts, but she again logged my call.
I also sent an email to customer service, but got no response.
So, finally I paid my bill excluding this charge and now I'll wait to see if they will charge me a late fee ... And on and on it goes ...
It's farcical.
 
It's a pity that they can/will still penalise non OAPs/special needs customers for not going on DD even if they have a perfect record of timely bill payment...
 
Are non OAP NTL customers being discriminated against because they / we are too young?
 
I received a letter from NTL and they apologized that customers have been charged wrongly and they will correct that with future bills. I can't now remeber what it exactly said, but whitin one months time I should be able to find out if anything positive will happen.

Still they never replied to my email and still I can't call them.
 
http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/About/
After reading their recent press release, I am not convinced that NCA will ever be a "powerful advocate on behalf of consumers" & with them "given extensive new powers to protect consumers from unscrupulous traders and from a wide range of unfair or misleading trade practices."
If I was to guess, I would say that these "extensive new powers" & the "draft legislation establishing the NCA and giving it extensive enforcement powers in August 2006. We expect that the legislation will be enacted in early 2007." this will still not stop NTL from carrying out this disgraceful DD charge. Because this government has a history of bringing in 'enforcement bodies' but when it comes to the crunch, they are toothless.
This typical banana republic stuff, just like Mr Cullen recently issuing the contract for barrier free tolling on the M50.
So everyone get ready for paying for driving on ANY section of the M50 for the next 20/25 years & this is for the public good ??.Sorry about the mini rant ..
 
I received a letter too, probably the same one as Deskjet. NTL have 'audited' their accounts & found that the credits for the TV/BB package I am on was not applied.
Will have to wait & see if the credit is applied now. At least I've now got a contact name if I have to escalate my previous complaint any further.
 
But in this case NTL are perfectly within their rights to levy whatever charges they like for non DD or late payments as far as I know so there really isn't anything that the NCA or anybody else can force them to do so wringing the concessions that they did managed to get was arguably good going.
 
Just out of curiousity...
Why would some ppl not be able to pay by DD? Most ppl have current accounts because that's where you get payed into, from work, i would have thought? If it saves all the trouble, it might be worth opening a current account.
 
Sn@kebite said:
Why would some ppl not be able to pay by DD?
Click to expand...
In my case it's not being unable but being unwilling. I prefer not to pay by DD and instead to pay by online banking as far as possible. I'm sure others are similar. But there are also lots of people with no bank accounts too.
 
Very true, it is legal. So everyone should stop complaining as what ..
they did managed to get was arguably good going.
Click to expand...
But the non-DD is €2 now, once they give fair notice it can be increased to €2.50..€6...€10...then maybe some ridiculous figure....
But think about it..really..even though the pensioners & people with special needs should come first...they will only make up a small percentage of NTL's customers, so really IMHO it is just a facile gesture by NTL to shut us up and judging by NCA's press release it has..

To make matters worse my NTL digibox decided not to work again last night.. same as last month, they put in a service call for me then but nobody appeared.So I called last night I got the same error,after being left waiting for someone to answer, after at least 20 mins they picked up, they logged the call and said they would send an email to the relevant people, I started to worry then as it was an email, which meant it would be someone's inbox today, so no digibox for all of last night( The digibox came back to life last month, out of the blue) They also noted that my call from the previous month was still open. Came in from work today ,still no digibox working (they previously said that they maybe able to fix it remotely) After a near record 5 mins my call was picked up & they had the cheek to tell me that my service call was booked for Feb 22nd, a full week after my original call, I started to laugh, this was the earliest date that they could give me..
The trouble is when NTL's services work they are good, but when they are bad....
As you often say we can shop around for what we have, but chorus is owned by they same company & possibly have the same charge. Sky may have it too, so I guess they have us all in a corner...so who should be there to help us out..a National Consumer Agency would be a good idea, but first they would need the law to be changed & then they would have to be given adequate powers to enforce them, which brings me back to my previous post, hoping that they will be given the powers and the law to be changed.
 
Maybe it doesn't bother me as much as some people. I can generally take or leave the telly and, given the final say (which I don't in our house ) would probably not bother with cable/satellite etc. For now though it all means resigning myself to DD (signed up for it in the last week or so) and sticking with NTL for the forseeable future.
 
There was a piece on BBC's Watchdog last night (Why don't RTE have
anything similar?) about this. Only caught the end of the program but they have some draft letters which people can send to complain about this.

[broken link removed]
 
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