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?
Sarah wrote on Thu, 02 Feb 2006 17:02

Like many before, I was searching for 'ntl complaints' when I came across this site. I'm so irate I could scream. I knew ntl had a bad reputation, but when I left my job to work for myself from home I needed a phone line and couldn't afford the BT connection charges - how I wish I'd spent that money now. It seemed straightforward at first, I called to be connected, they could come the following week, so I waited in the house on the installation day, 8 days after the original call. The guy came to install it, spent an hour or so sat outside in his car for some reason, then proceeded to ask me all sorts of personal questions before asking me out on a date and demanding an explanation when I refused. There was a problem with the phone installation so he went off to meet his area manager. I asked 'will this be completed today', I was told 'of course'. It got to 6.30pm and i had no word so I called to find out what was going on, explaining that I was going away for the weekend. I was told the problem was external and would be sorted out from outside of the house the next day. When I returned 2 days later there was no phone line. I have been on the phone to ntl every day for the past 2 weeks (from my mobile), whilst having to stay at a friend's house for internet access I need for my work. I waited in all day last friday (losing a day's work) and I still have the voicemail message from ntl saying "the engineers will be with you in an hour", they never came. Well, they did actually, the next day when I wasn't home. Again I was told that it had been connected, but when I plugged in my phone or computer nothing happened. I finally thought I'd give up and cancel it and pay for BT, but ntl claim the line has been active for two weeks so I've passed the 7 day cancellation period, so in order to cancel I would have to pay the full 12 month charges. I now have to waste another day sitting at home for a 'faults' engineer to come and sort it out...that's supposed to be tomorrow, who knows if they'll turn up! Ntl are a disgrace of a company.

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