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: Crap is a fucking understament!!!!
kelly wrote on Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:50

Bloody hell...and i thought it was just me!!! Having only been a ntl customer/victim since 3rd March 2006 im at the point of pulling my hair out!We had our "services" installed on 3/3/06 with no problem but have had nothing but grief since!We had no correspondance about bills etc and 3 weeks down the line the cheeky bastards took £154 out of my bank account without my knowledge AND cut my phone off!? When i complained they eventually put the phone back on..but only to call certain numbers but yet no one could explain why.We also had another customers voicemail on our phone but of course they couldn't explain that either.A week after taking the money from my account we got a bill through for the following month..making the total for 5 weeks service £300!!! i was raging.When we phoned AGAIN we were told that they also had a bill for BEFORE we even had the services and when we asked how that was possible.."im sorry i cant explain that either" was our reply!well fucking niether can i! was mine So as i write this,after no less than 30 calls asking for my 1st bill that was already "taken" from my account,im STILL waiting on it..had every excuse under the sun "oh we had the wrong address,its been sent out etc" ive waited 11 weeks for it and still dont have it..BUT the nice wee letter telling me that i'd be charged £10 for late payment reaches me with no problem AND within the week!!!So we called and told them that until we recieve bills SHOWING what we owe they weren't getting a penny,and i cancelled my direct debit.While standing in my bank two people overheard me talking and told me of their problems..this guy had £2000 taken out of his account and although ntl admitted it was a mistake on their side..they said they would credit his account (instead of paying the money back to him)and he wouldn't have to pay bills for a while!! of course the guy went nuts and eventually got it back..but what kind of arseholes are we dealing with in ntl?? I just got in a few moments ago and the silly fuckers have cut my phone off again..lol..what do i have to do to get a resolution???? It goes without saying that i no longer wish to be a customer of ntl.

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