NTL/Moorcroft

joanne0620

I'm not sure if I should have posted this on the Internet Access board so BG's please move if necessary :cool:

I'm just looking for a bit of advice regarding NTL & Moorcroft.
NTL were our broadband provider for just over 12 months, during that time we changed banks from Natwest to A&L, A&L were great and took care of all the switching of DD's etc. Then at the beginning of May this year our broadband was disconnected, we rang NTL and were advised that they had not had a payment since December (We had no bills or communication to let us know) and that we owed the sum of £89.95, after checking we found that the DD had not switched over and no DD was set up (I know that this is our responsibility to check that these things are in place) So we reset the DD up over the phone to collect from June and advised that we would phone to pay the £89.95 on the 20th May (Payday! ) and that our internet would be reconnected on 21st May. All well & good.

A couple of days later we noted that NTL had taken £89.95 from our account and this had taken us over our overdraft limit and that 2 DD's had been returned unpaid because of this! :eek:

To cut the rest of the story short, we have had no internet access through NTL since May, I have written 8 letters to NTL, even to the Operations Director to try and sort this out as NTL are saying that we owe them for Internet access since May but it was never reconnected after they took the £89.95! They have now passed this to Moorcroft (without replying to my last letter!) who I have spoken to this morning and have asked for copies of all my correspondence with NTL which I am happy to send to them.

My argument is that NTL took a sum of money from our account when it was agreed that we would pay on a certain date by debit card over the phone, consequently we incurred bank charges etc, they did not reconnect our Interent Access when the bill was out of arrears as they said they would, and the "customer service" has been worse than useless! :mad:

Do I have a good argument for refusing to pay for a service that I have had not had since May? I certainly don't believe I should pay this.

Any ideas/advice greatly appreciated!

And well done if you got this far!:rotfl:

grown_up_girlie

Hi there,

You are right in saying that you are liable for the direct debits etc and unfortunately I believe that there isn't much that can be done with this.... i'm sure someone else may be able to clarify this. NTL are awful at the best of times!!

I do certainly agree with you though that you shouldn't have to pay for a service which you haven't had..... although, something which may have been overlooked here is that if you were still in that 12 month contract period then you will have to pay. They did a similar thing to me a few years ago and I had to cough up. NTL are a nasty company and I know how angry they can make you.... you have my full support!

The best thing you can do I think is to do what you are doing now, speak with Moorecroft, don't shy away with them and let them know how *Eager* you are to get this sorted out.

Good luck

lynzpower

I would say, having worked for NTL this sort of thing is utterly standard. This is why I would never use NTL. Id find a different provider if Iwere in your shoes tbh.

personally, Id take advice from trading standards about whether you have to pay for the months you had no service.

And of course you can claim your overlimit charges have you spoke to A&L, I got some refunded no problem the other day from a simiilar thing happening ( ie not my fault in any sense)

Alfie_E

The Direct Debit Guarantee requires a company explicitly to tell you how much money is going to be taken and when it will be taken. If they don’t abide to this, you can ask your bank to reverse the transaction. As this is now some time after the event, it doesn’t seem worth trying to get it reversed, only to have to pay ntl in a different way. But, as lynzpower says, you can certainly use it to argue that you shouldn’t have been given penalty charges for going over your overdraft limit. (I know you can argue separately that the charges are unlawful in any circumstances, but if you keep claiming back charges when you yourself messed up, your bank may take away your account.)

Yes, you are completely entitled not to pay for a service which is not being provided. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in your first twelve months or not – ntl have already broken their side of the contract.

joanne0620 wrote:

ISo we reset the DD up over the phone to collect from June and advised that we would phone to pay the £89.95 on the 20th May (Payday! ) and that our internet would be reconnected on 21st May.

As you realise, there’s the fundamental mistake. Never set up a direct debit when you can’t be absolutely sure what the company’s going to do. I suspect ntl didn’t take the money maliciously, but that their computer system has no flexibility other than to take the whole amount outstanding, when it sees that a direct debit is in place.

On the point of ntl’s poor billing performance, in the past, I would go for months, up to a year, without receiving any bill through the post. The amount payable each month was the same, and I would only received a bill if that changed. While this didn’t bother me, it was still wrong. It looks like someone has seen the error of their ways, as, in the last few months, I’ve received a paper bill every month, identical in all aspects except for the date.

snoopy_and_woodstock

Hi
I'm still new to this and can't offer much advice just wanted to say good luck with it all. And remember keep !!!