Steve's blog

I used to have an account with NTL, a cable TV / telco in the UK. I gave up on using their phone service and broadband over a year ago as I wanted simple things like a reliable net connection with reverse DNS. I switched to ADSL ages back, and things were good. I continued using the cable TV from NTL for a while, as I was too apathetic to switch.

Last month, I finally got around to doing something about that - Sky in the UK offer a better digital TV service with more features like the Sky+ DVR for less money than I was paying to NTL. Once the Sky satellite disk was installed, I started to cancel the NTL subscription. That was an adventure in itself:

Spend ages on the phone in a queue on the "customer helpline".
Eventually speak to someone, be given a fresh number to ring for the cancellations department.
Ring that number. It's busy and drops the line after a few seconds.
Try again at #1 above, and get a different number to ring. "Oh no, the first number you were given for cancellations is wrong".

After multiple iterations through the above script, I eventually got through to the right people. "I'd like to cancel my account", I told them. "Sorry sir, you'll have to do that in writing", they told me, "and you have to give 30 days' notice, which will start from the postmark on the cancellation letter." They then gave me an address to write to. An address that's not on the website, and none of the previous people could possibly have told me it, of course, oh no.

So, on the 13th December I sent them a letter to cancel. I expected things to end there, but no such luck. After Christmas a letter landed in the mail. It wasn't an acknowledgement of the cancellation. It was another bill for the period from 13th January to 13th February. The cancellation letter had had no visible effect. As the new bill neatly coincided with 1 month from the date of my cancellation, I took an easy route and cancelled the Direct Debit that NTL used to collect payment.

Now that got a response - a letter landed this morning threatening extra charges to my account if I did not reinstate the Direct Debit. An urgent letter that took 7 days to come through their system, judging by the postmark. So I've just been on the phone to them. After nearly 20 minutes of listening to hold music, I eventually got through to the complaints department. "Sorry, sir - the cancellation only took effect on the 19th December, so you still owe us...". After some arguing on the phone I've got satisfaction (I believe) - I've had a promise that the account is closed with nothing outstanding and no more nasty letters to come. If I hear anything more then I'll be going to the regulator about this...

</rant>

It seems the only way that NTL can keep customers these days is to make it nigh-on impossible to cancel an account.

17:23 :: # :: /misc :: 126 comments

Comments

Re: Why are NTL so crap?
mike wrote on Wed, 30 Mar 2005 09:54

NTL, the very sound of it makes me furious. I've put up with their crap service for so long now I thought I had got used to their incometence. As an NTL customer I've encountered most of the previous complaints shown on these pages. I have been reluctant to ditch NTL as my business is internet based and I'm not sure what the hastle of changing all my settings to a new service provider will entail. However the final straw has been changing my direct debit from one bank to another. I (sadly) have three accounts with NTL, which they obviously can't cope with, as when I changed the direct debit details (an easy task I would have thought) I received confirmation in duplicate on all accounts. Well you might think, at least you know its sorted. THINK AGAIN!! Two months and several long boring phone calls later I am still receiving Overdue Balance threatening letters. I can't believe their incompetent arrogance. When I call them and they look me up on their database and say 'Oh yes it should have gone through' and 'for some reason this or that hasn't happened' Give me strength!! No apology, no assurance it won't happen again. OK NTL you win, I give up, I'm going elswhere, which is obviously what you've wanted me to do for the past 9 years. I'm obviously so thick I didn't get the point!! Wish me luck.

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