NTL Freedom

kahunahen

I would like to relate my experience with NTL which has caused be alot of strife and anquish over the past month.

The story begins about a year ago, when an NTL rep cold called me and asked if I was interested in joining up with NTL Freedom for a trial period. I agreed but quickly changed my mind after some research. When I received the Welcome to NTL email, I replied to them within 2 days asking them to cancel my subscription and that was the end of the matter so I thought.

Last month I was surprised and alarmed to receive a letter from Wescot Debt Collection Centre stating that they had been instructed by their client NTL to recover a balance of £150.00 owing on an NTL account that was apparently in my name. Wescot sent another letter a week later asking me to ring them to arrange a repayment schedule. Finally, I received a solicitors letter that threatened legal proceedings for recovery of the debt.

Let me say that for the past year since I cancelled my trial offer, I have had absolutely no communication to and from NTL. No phone calls, letters or emails with regards to this account. I had not downloaded any dialler software or used any NTL equipment during this time period. I have used Freeserve and latterly Plusnet as ISPs during the past year..never NTL. The first time I had ever heard of this account was when the debt recovery letter arrived.

My vent is with NT Hell who allowed this situation to develop in the first place. Surely anyone who has an ISP account must pay using some form of advanced billing method. Why did NTL customer services not inform me of this account when they were not receiving any payments? Why do they go to the Debt Agency before contacting customers. Pretty appaling I think. I was adamant I was not going to pay for a service I never knew existed or received.

Suffice to say I sent recorded delivery letters to NTL to inform them of my innocence on this matter and to Wescot to delay taking out a CCJ. I was particularly worried that the involvement of this debt recovery agency would impact detrimentally on my credit rating in the future.

Thankfully, NTL rang me soon after to say that my bogus account has now been officially closed and that the balance is paid in full. Whilst the story has a satisfactory ending, the whole affair did cause me a few restless nights. I am still slightly worried about any repercussions this affair will have on my credit rating.

I guess that the lesson to be taken from this story is to get confirmation in writing if possible, any contracts or subscriptions you are cancelling. Hope this story helps anyone finding themselves in a similar situation with NT Hell or any other company

JIMJAM_4

i would of been worried as well if i was you

but my experience with NTL is fine good sevice

Ivor_Headache

Must say don't have too many problems with NTL except that e-mail server crashes too often, and if you do ever e-mail them with a problem it takes an eternity for them to get back to you. Last time it was 6 months or so and I had forgotten what the problem was by that time.

jockettuk

I'm with NTL in peterborough and if i have a problem its normally sorted quite quickly so when my boyfriend moved to aylesbury i had no hesitation on recommending him for NTl tv phone and internet package but wait for it lol

Firstly when they came out to connect it all they left before finishing the download that they have to do to make sure it all works and guess what it didnt. he couldnt get on the internet and his tv service was freezing and flickering, after numerous phone calls an engineer was to call round on a tues (took day off work) he turned up on the sat before great we thought early .. checked the cable box said the signals were wrong went to his van to get his equipment and promptly locked his keys in his van so nothing was done that day. On the tues we phoned to make sure the engineer was still coming out yes they said within the hour 4 hours later he turned up and well to cut a long story short we had 3 new boxes 3 more engineers turn up and eventually a working box still no internet that got sorted a few days after .. 3 weeks after the first installation we notice that the box on the outside of the wall is hanging off and put in for it to be repaired they only wanted to charge us £50 for it to be repaired as they said it must have been hit by something couldnt have been ntls workmanship .. They have now waived this fee after i threatened to throw the box out the window.. and in all this they only wanted to compensate him by half price internet lol £8.99 im still expecting us to be on telly on candid camera or something similar lol

alison6692

I have had a nightmare with NTL - but it would take way too long to bore you with the details - all I will say - is if you have a complaint say that you want to leave as you feel they are not offering the service which you were promised when you entered into contract with them and with that they will offer you cheap line rental and a direct number for someone you can ring if you have anyfurther problemd. This was too little too late for me and I am enjoying a lovely quiet life with BT.

.... when NTL were trying to tell me I was under contract with them and could not terminate my contract early. I said what about the contract/agreement you made with me your customer when I signed up. Surely they shoud stick to their side of the bargain too.
>:(

fragster

ntl drilled through a doorframe in a student house i was renting without asking for any kind of permission, was their standard "installation", they also managed to take a large chunk out of the plaster of the wall and didnt clean it up or repair it at all. I phoned up more than 5 times before anything was done about it and it took 2 months or so, then the area manager came to fix it all but ended up saying she couldnt do anything about the hole in the doorframe...
luckily the landlord on the house changed whilst we were living there and we got away with saying it was already there when we moved in, still they annoyed me a lot!