NTL's nice little earner not downgrading upon request

Has anyone else had problems downgrading their services with NTL?

In advance of my last bill I rang NTL and asked them to downgrade a number of my packages. I was told the change would be applied for the next bill.

Went off on holidays and found that they had failed to downgrade any of my packages. So a month after they should have done it they're only doing it now. They have a record of my call but claim not to have a record of my request to downgrade.

So now I'm being charged the downgrade fee AND the month of more expensive services that I had cancelled. Ignoring customers requests to downgrade is a great way of making money.

I feel they should either waive their downgrade fee or not charge me for the higher packages that they failed to cancel.

If anyone is thinking of switching to NTL my advice is don't do it! Worst customer service of any supplier I've ever encountered.

Has anyone else not being downgraded when they requested it?

I'm a bit confused about this part:

pebbledash said:

They have a record of my call but claim not to have a record of my request to downgrade.

Click to expand...

If they have a record of your call, then isn't that a record of your request to downgrade? Or do just have a record (i.e. a note) of your call, but not a recording of the call or a note of the content?

I'd contest the charges for the extra services, given that the downgrade fee would apply no matter when the downgrade took place, unless some special no downgrade fee was in place at the time. I imagine you have to give a months' notice, but given you were told that the change would apply on the next bill, I would argue that this needs to apply.

If I were you, my first step would be to make a Data Protection request for information that they hold in this regard, be it notes held on their files or recordings of calls. See [broken link removed]for more information. That way you can see exactly what information was captured at the time of your call. I'd also suggest sending the request by registered post so that you can be certain it is received.

After that, it depends on what information you get back from them. If they have a note/record somewhere of you requesting the downgrade, then their case is a weak one. However, I'm not sure what body, if any, would be able to help you get your money back. I'm tempted to say Small Claims court, but my knowledge in this area isn't great.

Always send it in writing registered letter to backup a phone call/email. Its most likely just very sloppy service rather than a deliberate policy. Its a very dumb company.

I eventually got them to credit our account with the extra I was charged.
I had been told repeatadly that there was nothing they could do about it. They had a record of the call but it hadn't been recorded and there was no note of the downgrade. They implied that we were lying and made us spend about 2 hours on the phone to them over the course of a week.

It seems that the only way to get any joy out of NTL is to be really pig headed, ring them every day and not take no for an answer. I was still charged the admin fee for the pleasure of being called a liar and having to ring them about 10 times.

pebbledash said:

It seems that the only way to get any joy out of NTL is to be really pig headed, ring them every day and not take no for an answer. I was still charged the admin fee for the pleasure of being called a liar and having to ring them about 10 times.

Click to expand...

Actually no - the best way to get joy out of them is to forget ringing them and write to them/email them instead. There is a thread around here somewhere about a complete shambles they made of customer support for me that carried on over months, I had phoned numerous times, never got any joy. Eventually I sent a strongly worded email and printed said email and posted it. 2 hours after I sent the email a supervisor was on the phone to me and my issue was resolved with a 5 minute phone call.

I phoned them on 06 July to get SKY Sports removed from my ntl digital package. I checked the online bill, dated 07 July, and there was a one month charge for SKY Sports (07 July to 06 August) included.

I phoned Customer Service. They had a record of my call and the detail of the request. They explained that the bills are prepared and issued ahead of the stated date, so the charge for July/August would be reversed and included in my next bill.

We'll see ..

pebbledash said:

Has anyone else had problems downgrading their services with NTL?

In advance of my last bill I rang NTL and asked them to downgrade a number of my packages. I was told the change would be applied for the next bill.

Went off on holidays and found that they had failed to downgrade any of my packages. So a month after they should have done it they're only doing it now. They have a record of my call but claim not to have a record of my request to downgrade.

So now I'm being charged the downgrade fee AND the month of more expensive services that I had cancelled. Ignoring customers requests to downgrade is a great way of making money.

I feel they should either waive their downgrade fee or not charge me for the higher packages that they failed to cancel.

If anyone is thinking of switching to NTL my advice is don't do it! Worst customer service of any supplier I've ever encountered.

Has anyone else not being downgraded when they requested it?

Click to expand...

Ironicaly I had the opposite problem. I wanted to add Broadband as part of my package - arranged an installation date and they never turned up (all day appt and took a days holidays).. received subsequent telemarketing calls asking if i would like to avail of their broadband service... 3 different calls and i explained what happened when i did try to change over and never received a call back...

Its just extremely bad service on the call centre's part... Stuck with Irish Broadband in the end.