N.T.L Nightmare

emilyt

N.T.L are driving me crazy. After much discussion with OH we decided we wanted to go on broadband. We had had a lot of letters from N.T.L and as they were very reasonable on their prices decided to give them a ring. They said we were able to recieve broadband through them and they could come and connect us on monday 23 january. My OH had to take a day off work as they didn't know the exact time they would arrive. They did arrive early about 8:30 in the morning. OH was really pleased they were on time. Unfortunately when they knocked on the door they shook their heads and said sorry it can't be done. Apparently only the other half of the road could actually be connected. OH wasn't happy and rang head office to cancell agreement and direct debits and to complain that he had a day off for no reason. They did ring us back to say sorry but their was nothing they could do . Well we understood and in the end got our broadband through wanadoo. After that we had a few letters asking for our bank details which we ignored at first but then told them we didn't have any services with them.Anyway today we recived a letter from N.T.L telling us we we owed them money and if we didn't give them our bank details they would restrict our services and take further action. So OH rang them 3 times today each time we have been left on hold. I am really mad now as we don't have any services from N.T.L and we don't owe them money. Have they got any reason to make us pay for a service we have never had.I would love them to come round to our house and try and disconnect us. Anyway sorry for the moan but just wondered if anyone has had the same problem or is it just us.Thanks for reading my moans.

Wig

Don't bother phoning, write a letter (it's cheaper). You're right you don't owe them any money it's just a mix up, good job you cancelled those DD otherwise it would be even more annoying for you.

Don't worry, it's just a mistake, it will get sorted if you write a letter.

black-saturn

My boyfriend had no end of problems with his NTL. He lives in a high rise block and decided to upgrade to Broadband. He knew the neighbour next door had BB so he thought he could get it too. When they arrived they said that BB wasn't available in his block. My bf told them that he neighbour in the next flat had BB and they just shrugged their shoulders and said there was nothing they could do.

All this was after loads of other trouble with them like not getting a dialling tone, being billed for things he hadn't had and being put on hold for hours when he rang them up so he decided to cancel with NTL altogether and go onto BT. Then about 4 months later he got a bill for £70 odd from NTL for the BB installation he never had.

He sorted it out by writing to them (recorded delivery) and with a short sharp phonecall with a few carefully chosen words in it :eek:

ariba10

We had problems with NTL when we wanted to change our package to a cheaper more suitable one (as advertised on their web site).

No problem said the operator but when the next months bill came it was about £10 a month dearer.

This saga continued from Jan to April, all promises on the phone and somthing different when the bills came.

A letter to the head office with a threat to go to BT altered all that. A phone call and a letter of apologie from them and all sorted out to our satisfaction.

emilyt

N.T.L have sent us another 2 letters. Threatening to disconnet us . If only we could have been connected in the first place. Also they are going to send the baliffs round. I have rang them and they said they have got to investigate. There is nothing to investigate we haven't got any of their services. They are making me so mad now. Should we just ignore them and hope they will go away.

clayts

I suggest it is worth asking NTL for a breakdown of what they think you owe them - send a recorded delivery letter to their head office, detailing all the contact they have made with you, and you with them, and then give them 7 days in the letter to investigate and respond, or you will consider referring this matter to Trading Standards. Hopefully they will see the error - chances are is is an automated one, and their paperwork just hasn't caught up with the system yet.

It's also worth contacting consumer pages in mags/newspapers - for example, Computer Active (a fortnightly PC magazine) are very good at sinking their teeth into companies : contact them at consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk They often have direct phone numbers for the right people to contact, and certainly NTL have featured in their pages before now.

Finally, a more direct approach is to post your original message here, plus your follow-ups, at the forum over at https://www.cableforum.co.uk - this is a site regularly frequented by NTL employees, and there are some very very helpful folks on there who can bypass all the red tape for you.

A little known fact is that there is protection for creditors in current law - you have rights under both Section 40 of the Adminmistration of Justice Act 1970 and The Protection of Harrassment Act 1997, whereby you can take criminal action against a debtor who is harrassing you unnecessarily. For example, see this helpful advice from Payplan, who are a recognised and efficient debt management charity (not one of these dodgy Carol Vorderman jobs).

Good luck

EagerLearner

Be careful as if they're threatening with bailiffs you could get problems on your credit report - e-mail and write to them (Special/Recorded delivery) with a simple letter that's to the point - maybe something like:

"Dear Sirs,

We recently tried signing up with NTL but when the engineers attended on xxxxxx, we were told we could not be connected and therefore we canceled our order.

Having not been able to become an NTL customer, we were shocked to then receive letters from NTL threatening 'disconnection' and bailiffs.

Please correct this immediately as though no fault of our own, we are not and never have been connected by NTL.

We await your prompt response to resolve this matter."

Hope this helps and keep us posted!

EagerLearner