NTL/Telewest at it again! Make the call and save some cash...

Heinz

Sarahsaver wrote:

n t hell are letting me keep my broadband and im putting the phone back to bt and getting my calls through euphony. I already have a bt line installed but they said they will charge me 70 quid odd if it doesnt work. How do I know if they are telling the truth!?

£74.99 is BT's standard charge for a new installation (i.e. one where there has never been a BT line before).

If there has been a BT line there in the past, reconnection should be free of charge. Are you able to tell BT (so they can check their records) what the number was?

Sarahsaver

I know cos it was me and i had a bt number, there are sockets all over the house so it will be hard to deny it!

knuckledragger

2smithy,
Are you an existing NTL customer? The deal I quoted was obtained via the NTL retentions department (and a very inventive story ). You mention that you have NTL coming round on Tuesday- does this mean to do an original installation?

DesG

Sarahsaver wrote:

n t hell are letting me keep my broadband and im putting the phone back to bt and getting my calls through euphony. I already have a bt line installed but they said they will charge me 70 quid odd if it doesnt work. How do I know if they are telling the truth!?

I had a similar situation, the BT line hadn't been used in 3 or 4 years.

They said there would be a charge if they had to do any work, if the wiring had been messed with etc etc.

I was confident that everything was ok, so they sent an engineer round, he checked the wiring, turned the line on at the exchange, checked it was working and left.

They didn't bill me the £70

Cheers, Des.

snowdog

knuckledragger wrote:

Base pack of TV and phone £21.50
Unlimited 24 calls add on £14.50
1mb Broadband £24.99
Total monthly spend £60.99

After the call today:
Base pack of TV and phone £11.00
1mb Broadband £9.99
Total monthly spend £20.99

How the heck did you manage to get a reduction like that!!!!

I can understand a direct price comparison like the Freeview £19.99 that's been quoted hereabouts but 11 quid!!

You're not Derren Brown by any chance, are you?

knuckledragger

snowdog,
I always use the same tone of voice when doing these deals. I knew that the line rental on the phone should have been free as my friend had all three services. So it was just a case of letting the guy on the other end of the phone think that he was doing me a big favour by getting rid of it for me. The harsh truth of course was that they should never have been charging for it in the first place, grrr.
Then it was a case of sorting out the TV package. If NTL think that they are going to lose a customer who has everything with them then it's worth their while to pull out the stops to keep them paying anything. When I mentioned getting a second hand freeview box from a mate who was getting SKY+, this focussed their attention on giving me the very best deal on the NTL base pack.
As NTL were advertising 1mb BB in shopping malls for £9.99/month I knew that this was something that they would always go to to keep a customer. They initially offered it to me for £14.99/month but when I mentioned that a friend was on PAYG BB then it showed I had some knowledge of what was available in the market.
Being polite and sounding slightly vulnerable can sometimes go a long way...
Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate "Nobody sees the little guy coming, until it's too late..."

davidlizard

In the process of migrating from NTL to BT.

Concerning connection charges - despite the BT cable from the pole "becoming disconnected" when we chopped down a tree it was passing through (whoops!), and the phone point being removed when we redecorated, BT have advised me that there should be no charge in my instance as the house used to have BT, and providing the existing (NTL) phone point is within 2 feet of where the BT installation team put the new line into the house, there will be no charge. On the day of install, the BT "engineer" will advise me if indeed there are any installation charges, but say its unlikely.

Concerning leaving NTL - I told them I wanted to get rid of the phone/TV and broadband. At the time of cancellation, I was passed to three people all giving me freebies to stay (eg reduced broadband cost to £20 for a year) which got better and better. I kept on saying no. I have been phoned four further times by them, again I kept saying no. The day before disconnection, I was phoned again by NTL, who offered me free broadband for six months, and cancellation of phone and telly (which is want I wanted) without any obligation. So I have taken this (saving £150) and will see what they can do me in six months time. BT and Sky multiroom are lined up.

Dave

cabstar

Have just been on the phone to NTL & have got the following

Original package

Telephone
Talk 24 with free Digital tv family pack
10 Meg broadband 75gig cap

Seems when I took out the offer of Talk 24 with free tv I agreed to a new 12 month contract sigh!!! Wasn't told at the time DOH!!!

CS was ver apologetic offered me a £7 reduction there & then on the spot, I wanted to go on to the phone with local free evening & weekend calls for £24.99 CS said as I had a new 12 month contract on the talk 24 & the free tv the best he could do me was the following

Telephone
Talk 24 & free digital tv family pack
1 meg broadband unlimited downloads

£31.99 WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! great result & well happy with that one, also as my bill is due tomorrow & my broadband will be changed today I will get a refund of £17 on the £31.99 so total payable next month will be £14.99 :-)

Thanks again MSE'ers

regards

Gary

knuckledragger

More success today. A friend was paying £45/month for NTL's TV package including phone line rental for free. Their 12 months was up this month so I thought I'd make the call for them.
I had to initially go through customer services on 0800 052 2000 but after a few minutes they realised that they couldn't do me any deals and passed me to Disconnections. I used the usual spiel and secured 3 months free followed by a discount of £12.50/month for a year.

Total saving: £285

Now there's a friend who really does owe me a beer...

echo

last yr i was using 1899 4 the calls.had 1meg BB 4 £17.99 and the fone line was £10.50.rang in Dec and got upgraded 2 2meg BB 4 £12.50 and had the fone line @ £10.50 plus they threw in TU24.my 3 mths was up 2day so i rang.still gotta ring in 3mths but am now paying £15.50 4 2 meg BB,TU24 and line rental.and all those existing customers will be getting letters informing of changes 2 CS/tech support numbers in May.CS is gonna b 0845.haven't had my letter but i read it on another site and ntl confirmed it.hopefully we'll be able 2 get thru on the freefone number.