NTL: no option so which to go for?

pigeonpie

Probably moving into a rental flat where Sky dishes are banned as part of some conservation area rule. The road is cabled but would be stuck with NTL.
We are Sky subscribers & can try to hide the dish but some busybody will complain. Dismayed to see that NTL require 12 months as may not be there that long.

Need a TV package that has Sky sports and paramount comedy plus if possible the package that has Film Four and foreign news. However we've heard bad things about NTL and would not want to use them,if possible, for our ISP (currently Zen and very impressed) so presume if we keep Zen, we go with BT, an ordinary phone line?
Can anyone advise on what would be best please?

Many thanks.

Wombat

Can't understand you not being keen on NTL. I was with them for my phone, TV and Broadband and then moved house 5 streets away. However, I had apparently moved to a different area according to NTL.

The engineers failed to turn up for their first appointment to fit all the access points, but came 4 days later and did a good job.

NTL continued to send bills to my old address over the next 3 months, saying every time that I phoned them that a transfer of address would take 48 hours, they needed to send a form to the relevant department and that they were doing it straight away. They continued to do it straight away for the next 3 months, cut off my services twice for non payment of the bills which I had never received, overcharged me for my services so the bill was triple what it should have been, and refused to reconnect me unless I paid at least the major part of my outstanding bill. Under protest I paid, was reconnected and am still waiting for my first bill.

I'm now considering suing them under the Data Protection Act for disclosing my personal information to the people resident at my old address.

So if you're happy with Zen, stay there. Don't know what you'd do about the TV package, though.

ericthekidstoner

first of all FilmFour is on freeview now, so that shouldn't be a problem

in my experience, NTL/Telewest is always very competitive for bundles. my bro has just moved and gone for NTL bc its cheaper than paying BT for line rental and broadband ISP on top - and that's without cable tele!

you will have to put up with their rubbish customer service tho.

Omertron

pigeonpie wrote:

Dismayed to see that NTL require 12 months as may not be there that long.

Sky would also require 12 months as well?
You could ask when calling to see if you can get on a student (9 months I think) contract.

wiraone

pigeonpie wrote:

Probably moving into a rental flat where Sky dishes are banned as part of some conservation area rule. The road is cabled but would be stuck with NTL.
We are Sky subscribers & can try to hide the dish but some busybody will complain. Dismayed to see that NTL require 12 months as may not be there that long.

Is there a window in the line of sight to the Astra2 satellite? Peek around and see if there is any dish out there and see if you could install the disc behind the window. My friend had once did this and the reception was crystal clear..

magic_pants

As already posted NTL are VERY good at giving deals so don't tell them you can't have Sky and try and eek out a decent deal. I managed to get 6 months free and Prem Plus for a year when I told them I was leaving to go to Sky. However....NTL are also the world leader and foremost case study in how to provide appalling customer service. They are, truly, a lesson to us all in how NOT to deal with their customers. But if you are happy to put up with this then NTL might be for you! Personally I'd never touch them again.

pigeonpie

thanks guys. If I stick a dish anywhere near where any busybody conservation society fascist with nothing better to do can see it, they will phone the council. Wonder if I can get a portable installation?!
Everyone is stuck with NTL. Do you know if I can only get TV through them? If their customer service is anything like their website, utter confusion. Up til now thought Sky's was bad.

Wombat

Update - received a disconnection notice from NTL today unless I paid them £45. Still haven't had a bill from them, though.

Another hour on the phone being passed from department to department (12th. phone call so far), which resulted in the discovery that all those other calls had achieved diddly squat as I was still being overcharged. Customer Services rep. apparently sorted it again. I didn't owe the money. I'm not being disconnected........until the next time. Be warned!

ariba10

I found that a letter to them worked a lot better than quite a few phone calls.

It sorted out a problem that I had tried to resolve for months. I even had a follow up letter to make sure everything was OK.

pigeonpie

still can't work out if I could just get TV through ntl and keep a BT line for phone and my ISP?

Plus in this flat we have freeview built in. In that flat there is nothing so got to start from scratch. (not even a BT line- there's an old disused point; flat has just been refurbished and landlord doesn't know the previous owner's no either). The road is cabled for ntl and obviously BT is possible.
No idea how long it would take and in what order to avoid minimum disruption to our bband connection at least.

Wombat

pigeonpie wrote:

still can't work out if I could just get TV through ntl and keep a BT line for phone and my ISP?

Plus in this flat we have freeview built in. In that flat there is nothing so got to start from scratch. (not even a BT line- there's an old disused point; flat has just been refurbished and landlord doesn't know the previous owner's no either). The road is cabled for ntl and obviously BT is possible.
No idea how long it would take and in what order to avoid minimum disruption to our bband connection at least.

OK, I'm on a downer at the moment with NTL, but I've been with them and Diamond Cable for over 10 years, and it was only when I did something silly like move house that I had major problems. Otherwise, probably because Customer Services didn't enter the equation, they've been OK.

So, the NTL cable carries TV and Broadband which are separated by the set top TV box and PC modem respectively. The NTL phone line is a separate line into your house. So I can't see why you can't have the NTL TV and/or Broadband together with a BT phone line. But what you might find is that you will get the NTL TV/Broadband/Phone package as cheap as or cheaper than just the TV on its own. Typically, they are offering all 3 for £30 per month at the moment. I'm not sure whether this includes any free phone call times or not as NTL Sales and NTL Customer Services are still "negotiating" in my case.

I would say your first move would be to phone NTL and BT and get some quotes for all the possible variations. Whatever you're told, get it confirmed in writing before you take the plunge!!

HTH.

P.S. Have you checked that only external installations of a Sky dish are against the rules? I can't see why an internal installation would contravene conservation regulations.