Leaving NTL

benz

I left ntl as I was fed up with incorrect phone bills and e-mail spam. I use mailwasher but even so spam was a pain. Apart from that, I wanted to take full advantage of 18866, and change to adsl for Internet access.

MY EXPERIENCE & SOME TIPS

Be prepared to spend a long, long time waiting on the phone for them to answer

You have to give 30 days written notice to cancel broadband only. They will try and tell you that there is a 30 day written notice period to cancel a phone line as well.

Check your bill thoroughly after you leave as I was charged for Talk Unlimited even though I had changed to BT. I was also told that line rental was paid in arrears but when I read out what was stated on my bill they then agreed and said that it was paid in advance and that I shouldn't have been billed.

When you write to their Coventry address to cancel broadband make sure it is sent Recorded Delivery. They denied all knowledge of the letter until I said I had proof of delivery.

The monthly direct debit notice for the full amount came as usual even though there was only 10 day's worth to pay. I phoned up Disconnections and was told to cancel the direct debit. There then came immediately 2 letters from ntl warning me of the consequences of cancelling the direct debit. I then sent a cheque recorded delivery for the pro rata amount, received proof of delivery, waited a few days and phoned up again. They weren't sure whether they had received the letter or not but the staff member agreed with the amount I sent in full and final settlement, gave me his extension number and said if there was any more problems to contact him.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE -

I've heard nothing since

The cheque has still not been cashed

Despite being told broadband was cut off 6 weeks ago it is still working, and was very handy for those e-mail contacts I thought I'd told of the change of address but hadn't, and when my new adsl system went down temporarily shortly after I'd got it.

LASTLY
It is a pity that ntl aren't quoted on the London stock exchange as I would happily buy a "put" option as this company share price will only go one way.

Lopo

Lol...! ....a woeful story! shocking too.

I must admit NTL have some serious communications problems internally to get things resolved but I've really had some cracking deals from them.

Currently I have the 1.5mb cable broadband service at £18.99 monthly for a year which is brilliant seeing as it will be upgraded to 3mb sometime soonish.

Additionally, they slashed my phone bills and line rental down from what was around £30 to around the £12-16 mark monthly. I dont have any of the cable TV services.

I was also given a few ££ credits to cover for the hassle of making a few calls resolving it all which covered a nice chunk of the following months bill too!

With that in mind, I can say you just need to know how to handle them given that you know the person on the other end of the phone really wont give a monkeys whether you stay or not or lose sleep over you, but will at least try a little to retain your custom by offering things. Just coax them a little further and it works wonders...

Who knows, you may well get a call from the retentions team who I know from previous conversations with NTL only work mon-fri unless of course that has changed,....you could be missing their calls during the weekdays.

houndour

I have to add my 2 cents here too...

Firstly I cannot complain with the broadband service I received from NTL. As far as I'm aware for the 2 years I had it I had 100% connection.

However customer service went considerably downhill from there when I wanted to transfer the account into my housemates name.

I am leaving the rented house I'm in and I cannot take NTL to my new house. My housemate wanted to take over the account for 4 more months (but not have the min 12 contract). We spoke to 6 different people at NTL, half saying we could transfer, the other half saying we couldn't! Everytime someone told me we could do it they'd pass me onto another person to take my details and they'd say I couldn't do it.

So after nearly completely losing it I told them I wanted to cancel...then after being passed on to a further 2 people I was then told I had to cancel in writing!!

I have cancelled in writing (on 26th Jan), but have heard nothing back since.

About 2 weeks ago we found out that other people renting had done the same thing we wanted to do and all they did was write a letter to NTL.

So we wrote a letter saying do not cancel but transfer the account. A few days later I got the transfer form back. We've sent it back, but have heard nothing since.

So my tip:
If you want to transfer an account into another housemates name, request it in writing first.

By the way, how did you get a 1.5mb line at £18.99 a month? I'm on the 750k @ £24.99 a month.

ksh123

I called NTL today to tell them I am leaving after being with them 2-3 years. The incentives I was offered to stay werent as good as others have reported and the chappie said they are having a crack down on them - trust me to miss the boat!
anyway I want to stay on their broadband cos i think its good value so am keeping it and my NTL phone line. But what a hassle - waited 15 mins + for them to answer and then had to go through a great long rigmarole re the broadband etc. also have to have a new modem etc ( which they fit for free).
I am leaving them to take up the SKy offer which will save me money in the long term and may even be a better service, but just now I am wondering if its worth the hassle changing in the first place!

zzzLazyDaisy

If you leave NTL cancel your DD immediately. NTL took two incorrect DD's from my account, despite having confirmed the disconnection date in writing.

Interestingly, they then sent me a cheque for an overpayment that I wasn't even aware of!

judderman

LOL....NTL are/is/were on Watch dog this evening!!

AT LAST!!!!!!!!!

monkeyboy72

i think ntl are the worst company in britain, i have been with them for 4 very long years and finally on saturday am having a lovely sky dish installed, cancelling was a nightmare it was easier to break up with my last girlfriend..

..farewell ntl

emc

monkeyboy72 wrote:

i think ntl are the worst company in britain ... cancelling was a nightmare

I agree totally as far as their customer service is concerned.

The ntl telephone, internet and broadband services used to be terrible, but have become tolerable, so it's not too bad using ntl provided nothing changes and there is no need to get involved with any ntl people.

However once there's a need for any ntl human intervention, using ntl becomes a nightmare.

Their customer service is the worst I've come across. It takes ages, often over an hour, to get through the telephone system. Then their customer services staff tell you they are unable to do whatever is requested, disconnect the broadband, or reduce the monthly charge, etc. They say it's necessary to talk to customer relations. Customer relations (alias customer retentions aka customer disconnections) are a separate department, who are available on restricted hours, and are even more difficult to get through to.

These people are a law unto themselves, and have powers to agree price reductions, but will never put any agreement into writing. Any agreed price reduction may not be put into the ntl computer accounting system, so each month, the agreed reduction does not appear on the the bill, and customer services have to be called again to request the reduction again.

ntl also have a complaints department, who are also extremely difficult to get through to on the telephone and also never confirm any agreement in writing.

Funny that, ntl is supposed to be a telecom company, and yet it's impossible to get through to speak to any of their staff on the telephone, or to contact them by e-mail, or to get a reply to a query put on their website.

The attitude of the ntl staff to customers is shown in the message that told callers to the ntl customer services in September 2004 to "f*ck off and get a life."

The message said: "Hello. You are through to NTL customer services. We don't give a f*ck about you. We are never here. We will f*ck you about, basically, and we are not going to handle any of your complaints. Just f*ck off and leave us alone. Get a life."

NTL has regularly been accused of poor customer service and was named as the second-worst company for dealing with customer queries and complaints by management consultants TMI, which compiled the 'National Complaints Culture Survey'.

In October 2001 one disgruntled NTL customer was so incensed with the level of service he received from the cable firm that he penned a now notorious letter of complaint - published in full on silicon.com at the time.

In the letter the customer complained about an "inadequacy of service which had not previously been considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions".