1) Its one thing complaining about retrospective experiences with NTLS dubious customer service techniques, its another thing creating a coherent, systematic programme of reaction. (2) It appears that NTLS business model runs on a system of fractured "internal darwinism", where different teams are given employee incentives to "win" new ntl subscribers and conversely are punished if they "lose" existing NTL subscribers. That explains how letters requesting cancellation, even when delivered by registered post are "mysteriously" not read. Management probably tacitly acknowledge and encourage this behavior but overtly displace responsibility for this "inefficiency" onto the heads of ambitious line managers who will do almost anything to achieve retention: cancellation targets. The merry go round of 0800 and 0845 numbers that the average customer is passed through alludes to the organizational chaos that allows these dubious practices to go unchecked. (3) The question shouldn’t be why NTL behave this way (a cocktail of profit orientation and organizational inefficiency), but why they have got away with it. Why do they believe they can act with such blasé impunity? Simple mathematics. They probably face multiple complaints from disgruntled NTL users, but cynically they have done the math that the average amount in dispute is under the £5,000 that exists as the ceiling for the Small Claims court disputes. Statistically speaking they probably know that for every 1 customer that pursues action in the Small Claims Court(at their own expense), 10, 20, maybe 30 will not, meaning NTL know they can afford to "stall" on a dispute of a few hundred pounds knowing that the legal cost of resolving it for the disgruntled customer could amount to more than the cost of the charge/bill/cancellation in dispute. They have probably worked out an insurance-actuarial metric that it says its only economically worthwhile to "deal" with a customer who is disputing a charge of say over £200. Anything below that they assure themselves they can stall, ignore letters, contact debt collection agencies, threaten credit black listings as the potential complainant will (a) not pay more in legal costs to resolve the issue than the amount of the disputed bill itself and (b)will succumb to natural human apathy. (4) If you can set up an account by phone by successfully establishing your credit identity, then technically you should be able to cancel one by phone by establishing that same criteria. We exist in an age of phone-banking, broadband banking and high bandwidth networks. You can cancel mobile subscription by phone. You can cancel other broadband subscriptions by phone. Whats stopping NTL introducing this? Why are new subscribes lines open 8am-8pm and Cancellation numbers open 9am-5pm (when people are away at work). Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security about the "...misplaced letters"...or "...phone call waiting log jams" or even "..the imperative to write a formal letter requesting cancellation". These are not coincidences, accidents or the by product of corporate operations. They are psychologically conscious mechanisms to inculcate in a subscribes subconscious brain that cancellation is so problematic, so arduous, so protracted that it isn’t worth it. They probably have consulted "corporate psychology gurus" to achieve the holy grail of customer retention. They don’t even call the cancellation department "cancellations", they call it "customer RETENTION", a glib piece of neuro-linguistic programming to solidify the imperative to keep customers in the brains of the call center staff that are magically so good at receiving letters offering payment and so bad at receiving letters offering cancellation.

(5) Sites like this provide one function. They allow people to see that others are in a similar position. NTL wouldn’t get away with behavior like this in America because of the plethora of consumer-rights groups, started by people like Ralph Nader who encourage consumers to swap notes and act in collective groups to solve systematic grievances. NTL in the UK is depending on the British stereotype of individualistic apathy. This site should not only educate people about the fact that others share experiences such as the (in)famous....(a) 0800, 0845, premium call rate phone jam merry go rounds (irony of ironies, NTL making money from people complaining about their poor service)...(b)...computer databases that have your records depending on what number your put through to (strangely BILLING always have your records...but RETENTIONS computers are habitually "down"...and (c) registered letters formally requesting cancellation...not turning up...1,2,3,4, 5 times ( somewhere in Swansea there is a big heap of burned letters from customers requesting cancellation). This site should also provide a systematic guide as to what can be done......

(a) Telephone numbers of the relevant executive managers, who no doubt are insulated from the insidious "retention" practices, that their target chasing line managers are perpetuating. (b)Ways for disgruntled customers could group together to approach Trading Standards and Telecom Regulators to express their concerns at systemic practices that can no longer be explained away as "coincidences" or "administrative over sights". (c) A template letter to the Small Claims Court that can easily be distributed. (d) Advice on creating a paper trail of (i) registered letters (ii) logged calls and (ii) dated faxes that disgruntled ntl subscribers can use to show when and how they first requested cancellation and proof of NTLs receipt.

NTL will only continue to behave with impunity if they think that they can get away with it. US service providers are more customer orientated not out of a spirit of philanthropic altruism, but rather out of the bitter empiricism of class action law suits in Americas litigious culture. NTL in the UK feel they are dealing with apathetic Brits who would rather bite their lip, swallow excess charges and move on, instead of pursuing a consistent demand for redress.

NTL have tried to consolidate the cable TV-modem market in the UK to the extent of taking on alot of debt. They constantly restructure their debt liability and when they approach their creditors they present them with plans that are predicated on the assumption of a boosted subscriber base and not the slow haemorraghe of existing customers. Thats why management are complicit in a dishonest corporate culture of under-hand customer retention. A situation where NTL will pounce on a subscriber for missing 1 months payment but will claim "missing letters" as an excuse for over billing a customer for 24 months.

It would be a joke if it wasnt so cynical.