ntl:Freedom - Billing Error

WeirdoMagnet

Yesterday I received this letter…

July 2005

Please read carefully – Important Information about your ntl:Freedom bill

Dear Miss x

I am writing to advise you that due to a minor defect in our billing system, you have not been correctly charged for a small number of phone calls on your ntl:Freedom Broadband Talk Unlimited service.

What was the error?
We recognised that a minor system error had caused some chargeable phone calls to appear as a credit rather than a debit on your account. For example some calls that you may have made to mobiles, premium rate and international nubers have been credited to your account rather than added to your bill as normal. I am pleased to confirm that this has since been recognised and corrected.

The total that has been credited to your account, instead of debited over this period is : £15.00

What does this mean and what happens next?
As a gesture of goodwill in recognition of this error, we have decided to only collect and call charges that have been incorrectly credited since 15th March. The amount therefore that will be added to your next months bill along with your regular charges, will be £15.00. This will show as follows:

* A charge of £15.00 will be displayed in the “Credits & Adjustments” section of your bill and will be shown as an ‘Error Correction’.
* If you pay by Direct Debit or Credit Card you do not need to take any action. The amended charge will be collected directly from your bank account on the next payment collection date after you have received your bill as usual.

Please accept our apologies for this error, and we appreciate your understanding in this matter and hope we have minimised any inconvenience caused.

Who do I contact?
If you have any further queries or concerns, then the help number you must call is our Customer Services helpline on 0870 445 0445 who will be happy to help you. This is a dedicated customer service line for this billing issue, as well as any other queries you may have.

Yours sincerely,




Trevor Phipps
Customer Communications

I have online billing, which due to an upgrade on the ntl billing system, has been unavailable since last Thursday, but should be working by this afternoon (Wednesday 20th), so I can't even check my bills to see if really have been credited instead of debited for the calls, or to see whether they have included the £15 charge on this bill. Furthermore on the 18th July I was (direct) debited by £67.85 :eek: although (and I have no idea why this is) I no longer receive the e-mail notification saying when and how much I will be debited. I think (looking through paperwork to check) I'm on their Broadband with Off-peak calls package which is £19.99, so not sure where the additional £47.86 has come from, unless of course I have made lots of peak time calls without realising, but I don't think so. If I'm not on that tariff, then I'm on the £24.99 package Broadband with Anytime Calls, so either way £67.85 seems alot.

So, has anyone else had this letter? Can they charge you this late when it's thier error? I suspect the answer is yes!

Apologies for the long post,

Georgina