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?
Steve wrote on Wed, 21 Sep 2005 21:19

Moved into a new appt in Dublin last Dec & a NTL TV service was connected so thought it would be convenient to sign up to their Digital package. No probs until about 3 weeks ago when I got a letter saying they would be disconnecting all NTL services in the appt block for those that weren't subscribing which pissed me off to start with as I had naively been paying for the service for the last 8 months when I could have had it for free. Then approx 2 weeks ago I received a letter saying maintenance work would be carried out and it was essential that if there was any interuption to the service to ring the mobile number provided between 5pm & 8pm on Tues-Thurs. On Thurs when I arrived home at 7pm there was no TV service so I proceeded to ring the mobile no. which rang but went to message machine looking for name, appt no. and ph no. Over next hour no one replied to my message or answered the phone on numerous other attempts to contact them. Still no returned phone call on Fri & due to a training course on Fri I could only ring them in the afternoon at which stage they said it was too late to send a crew out. I was told they would attempt to send a crew out on Sat but it was not necessary for me to be there for them to reconnect. I spent most of Sat flicking on the TV to see if service resumed but to no avail. I subsequently discovered that I did need to be present as they had disconnected me accidently due to the fact that there was no tagging system in the appt block and they have no idea which connection relates to which appt and therfore have no idea who is paying or not! Appears it is guesswork as to whether they were disconnecting genuine customers who are paying them (in advance) or spongers who had got a free service for nearly a year. Of course there was no one contactable on the Sun. When I rang on the Mon they asked would I be there at 5 which would mean leaving work at 4pm which was unfeasible. I was then told that if there was no-one there between 8.30 & 5pm the earliest they could do it would be sat. I politely pointed out that considering the circumstances I would have expected NTL to accommadate the cusomer rather than the other way around. The care agent (who was in fairness pleasant & understanding and did offer to apply some credit to the account although not much good when u can't use the service)then rang the repairs crew and eventually got them to agree to come at 7pm on Wed evening. It is now 9pm on Wed evening and still no sign although without TV I have had time to check out this internet site & Sky Digital site while waiting. I did ring at 7.45pm to check where the crew was but received a recorded message saying the line was closed as the opening hours were between 8.30am & 8pm! When I tried again at 8pm I got through but of course at that stage it was too late to contact any of the crew in case they were in bed. Although in fairness to NTL my life has been more rewarding the past week without TV so I may not even switch to Sky.

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