ntl complaints procedures.

[henza]

Cheers

The contractors rang me in the end and it seemed to go more smoothly. They were a bit late but the job got done at 6.00pm yesterday.

I'll have to wait and see if they refund the second fee that they took by mistake.

I have to say that the call centre has improved. Judging by the accents the people I spoke to were in Scotland and they seemed genuinely concerned by my problem, even when I was ranting.

[Brownie]

Please help!
I've been an NTL customer for 3 years almost, not really had any problems until now, i changed my package in dec 2005 and got rid of my tv package, they picked the digi box up in january this year and replace it with a modem for my broadband, anyway just recently i noticed i was being charged quite a bit each month, one bill being more than what i used to pay for the 3 services yet i only had phone and broadband, i rang customer service and they confirmed i had indeed been over charged for almost 4 months, which meant i was £103.54 in credit, the two bills i owe now are less than what they owe me, yet they insisted i pay £50 until my account was credited which will be 17th april, i have told them i can't afford the £50 because its simply not what i owe and more than i should be paying for just 2 services, they've now cut me off and stated that when i pay it, i will be charged a £20 reinstated charge....

---------- Post added at 14:32 ---------- Previous post was at 13:41 ----------

And, i've just had to ring NTL on my mobile, strangely and pleasantly enough i got through first time (for a change) the woman just told me i've been charged again this mth for the tv package i haven't had since dec, when the woman i spoke to over a month ago at the time said she would cancel that package and it would be effective straight away, i guess not eh, im waiting for another call back....

[henza]

Do you know, exactly the same thing happened to me last year. I aggreed to have cable tv on the basis of a one year free trial, but they charged me for it each mont for 4 months. After dozens of calls they finally aggreed to a refund, then charged it instead of crediting it. And they said the same, we have to pay it and then they'd refund it. I refused to pay them over £100 that I didn't owe and they cut me off.

So I spoke to a supervisor and told her to cancel everything and to summonse me for non-payment and everything came back on.

If you persist you'll get your money and your service back. But keep going 'cos they owe you for the phone calls - they're free from an ntl phone and expensive on a mobile. - and because its an insult to treat you as if I've welched on your payments. The won't give you much but its the principle of getting them to admit the error and its consequences.

Every time you ring, ask for a supervisor 'cos that goes on the call record, and besides the call-centre staff aren't paid enough to have to deal with unhappy customers.

And put it all in writting to them, using names and making it clear that this is a complaint and that you require a satisfactory answer or you will take it to the omburdsman. And keep a copy of the letter so you can send it to the omburdsman.

If nothing else a written complaint makes you feel better 'cos you can think about what to say and make your points without being interupted.

Good luck. If only they didn't have such good products we could all go to BT

[Rob]

Brownie to Cable Forum

This does seem to be a recurring theme within ntl that people have overpaid, yet there computers want you to pay even more money to retain the service.

The Easter break is a bit of a pain, and may mean this can't be looked at until after the holiday, but if you want to PM me some details (account number, address, daytime contact number and email) we can ask our contacts at ntl to look into this for you. They've got a good track record of cutting through the ntl red tape.

[Brownie]

Hi thanks for welcome, Rob i've pm'd you the details, i just hope this can get sorted, i can't even dial 190 from my phone either!!!

[blackswan]

Originally Posted by tonecold

I can't say my experience with NTL Customer Support has ever been positive. I am still getting bills and statements saying that I owe them over £100 for a service that I phoned to disconnect 6 months ago (at my old address). When I was direct debited for that account at christmas, I was told they "forgot" to disconnect me (seriously how does that happen? Is this a ploy to get more money?). I am currently paying under a new account set up for my new address when that became long term.

Who can I complain to outside of NTL about this?
I ask because I feel that having wasted my time phoning them at least three times now, each time being told that I "will actually be disconnected this time" and then having nothing happen, and due to all this I have given them a more than fair chance to get it right.

I met the same problem now. I called ntl to disconnect my broadband on January. but they didn't disconnect on February and continued sending me the bills. I have called them at least four times so far to complaint about this, but nothing happened and I am still recieving their bills....What should I do to sort this out?

[Chris W]

blackswan

If you PM me your name, account number and a contact phone number i'll get our contact at ntl to sort things out for you

[littlealfrew]

Hi guys,
I have just been reading over some threads, and am 'pleased' to see that other people are having a nightmare of a time with NTL.
In Sept 2004 i got a student-style broadband-only package from NTL which i had under my name. This worked perfectly for us. However, in beginning of July 2005 we returned after the summer break, and the internet was not working (disconnected i assume). Shortly after, an NTL rep came knocking saying they saw the contract had finished, would we like to renew for a better deal. My housemate who was in at the time, gave his details, and had the connection billed to him and working under his name. Again, everything came back to life, and we had the internet working again. However, i noticed that i was still being debited by NTL every month for the contract i had last year. I cancelled the DD, and thought that'd be the end of it (thought they still robbed £20 off me for charging for a service i never had...). Now, however, i get phone calls from them saying i owe them £120 etc and threatening to send debt collectors. I have spoken to them on the phone at least 6 times, but to no avail. I have a letter drafted, but have no address to send to yet...
Please could some one advise to an address/ whether i am going the correct way about this?
Kind regards ( and sorry about the essay!), Al

[GuyB]

Originally Posted by darwin101

Have been reading this forum with interest after having moved house in late December with the move of NTL services being handled very smoothly and efficiently.

Would not have had a bad word to say against them until a few days ago when the phone went dead with the digital TV and broadband still operational.

After 4 phone calls on my mobile, have eventually traced the problem down to my billing information got updated correctly, but the other NTL databases didn't and somebody/something has thrown the switch. Told me that it wil take 3 days to get everything sorted out and when that happens, the phone system will be resoted automatically (oh yeah!)

I have been working in IT customer services for the last 20 years and NTL have no customer e-mail systems, no online chat, and no other numbers other than 0800 052 2000 to call. These are current day standards for any organization that has a large customer service orientated base. Give me a break!

When browsing their website, the whole thrust is on selling products with nothing of any substance linked to existing customer servivce and support. Do these people want us to believe their systems never go wrong ??

NTL should learn lessons from ISPs, mine has on online chat service for handling problems, yeh, it may be slow as you know the support guy is handling several sessions at the same time, but at least I am not paying for it.

Seems to me, they have a lot to learn

I've just joined this forum as I'm having a very similar experience at the moment. I had filled in the "moving house with ntl couldn't be easier" online form to notify ntl that I would be moving out on 5th May. I didn't receive a reply giving me an installation but three days ago I discovered that my phone wasn't working. I initially used my mobile to report a fault, and after waiting for some while was told that it was clear that the phone at the property I was leaving had been disconnected 'prematurely', and I would therefore need to be transferred to customer services. When I eventually got through to them I was, again eventually, told that I would be reconnected within three days. It also appeared that ntl had a date down for my reconnection (not the one I had requested) - I'm not sure why they hadn't told me about this.

Since Wednesday I have (using my mobile and through managing to get access to another computer) been trying to find out when I am going to be reconnected, and being shunted between the 'moving house', faults and 'customer services' departments, with various different people saying someone else is responsible. Then today I was told that it takes 10 days to reconnect the phone - in other words that it wouldn't be reconnected until after I move. Oh, and if I had any more questions about this I would need to contact the house moving number, but they won't be available again till after the bank holiday (though on previously ringing the house moves number I was told that I needed to be transferred to customer services).

The situation has been made slightly more complicated by the fact that having been on dial-up till now I was also intending to go on broadband through ntl after I moved. Given the level of service I am currently getting (none as far as the phone line goes) is this mad? Another option would simply be to cancel all ntl subscriptions and find other suppliers, though I'm wondering whether this would just involve more hastle. I did at least want to register a complaint about the level of service I had received, but this itself seemed to be a frustrating process. Thus the web page which announces "if you are an existing ntl customer and require further assistance please call customer support on 0800 052 2000, or send an email via our contact us form". Clicking "I have a complaint" eventually takes you to a page which says "Please call us on 0800 052 2000 (Monday - Friday 8am to 8pm and on Saturday 9am to 5pm) and choose option 5 to speak to an advisor". I was given an address to write to but even the person at ntl said that they take "some time" to reply.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Chris W]

GuyB

If you PM me your name, account number and a contact phone number i will pass this to our high level contact at ntl to get this resolved for you.

[nopcode]

just reading this makes me appreciate the work that Rob C and Chris W do for this forum, regards guys. Heres hoping I get someone as helpful as you next time I need some tech help

[NiceShoes]

I have found my way to this site after my latest problem with NTL to see if people were having the same kind of problems (and it's not just me having unrealistic expectations, i.e. that my services work and I am billed correctly for them!)

I moved house in February and despite receiving 2 correct bills to my new address, I have mail from my old address with 6 films on that I did not purchase. Having spoken to 5 people at NTL, each as useless and unhelpful as the other, we finally deduced that my address had not been changed (though I had received my 2 previous bills to the new address?!) and NTL would credit me back for them. Yes, I'll believe that when I see it. I have no doubt whatsoever that this problem will take at least another 5 or 6 phonecalls, a couple of letters and maybe a light aircraft flying over their offices with a banner on its back end, to sort out.

One of my previous issues was that when they did my house move, the installer, rather than doing his job properly, spent 50 minutes sitting on my sofa watching an FA Cup match (uninvited) and when he'd eventually left, none of my non-terrestrial channels worked. I waited a few days to see another installer and this resulted in a very angry letter to NTL's complaints department which went unanswered. No less than 3 supervisors didn't bother to return my calls.

This time I decided to turn to the internet and see if they had an email procedure. I followed the link given by another user on this forum and this is what you see:

"We are very sorry that you have cause to complain and would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you to resolve your issues directly.
Please call us on 0800 052 2000 (Monday - Friday 8am to 8pm and on Saturday 9am to 5pm) and choose option 5 to speak to an advisor.
In the unlikely event that our representative is unable to resolve your complaint, there will be a supervisor available to assist.
Once again, please accept our apologies, and trust we can resolve your issue quickly."


Absolute tosh! If I had any other option I would leave NTL and be extremely relieved to do so.

[ithepider]

There is definitely something very wrong within NTL and their complaints procedures as this thread seems to illustrate. My recent experiences are not unlike many others who have posted on this forum. We moved house in January and since we've been in the new place I've had a number of problems. For one of which I was offered a half price base pack for 6 months which I accepted and sat back assuming that I would be billed appropriately. Last month, the saga took on momentous proportions. We were on holiday and on our return, found that the cable tv wasn't working. A garbled message on the ansaphone said something about ringing a company called QNET and I assumed there was something wrong with our box and they wanted to come round to repair/replace the old box. I waited 2 hours for the guy to come round, but when he arrived, it was only to repossess the box! He left empty handed, and I rang 0800 052 2000 to find out what was going on. At least 2 hours later ( thats just 4 hours wasted) I had spoken to 9 different people and had managed to establish that I'd been disconnected in error, the tv would be up and running again within the next 24 hours and, pretty much, that was that. I was offered a half price base pack for six months and seeing as I thought I already had that, I assumed that meant a free base pack......but they can't do that. I was offered a free month of the family package, but I declined as I don't need more rubbish channels in addition to the rubbish I already have to trawl through! Not satisfied that I had had to waste 4 hours just to get reconnected I wanted to speak to somebody in authority and was promised a call back within 24 hours. Still waiting. A couple of days later, it occurred to me that I hadn't had it confirmed that I would not be billed for the period I was disconnected, so I dared ring again! Bad move! I was told I wouldn't be charged, but I still wanted to know why I was expected to waste hours of my life trying to get answers from NTL. Promised a call from a supervisor within 30 minutes. Still waiting! Then, I received a re-directed letter from NTL via my old address. Having seen various posts here about NTL charging for services supplied to old addresses, I find this quite worrying!
Checked my bill today and thought the price I was paying for my base pack was quite high. Rang, and the guy tells me that I'm paying full price, but he'll put me on the half price rate from today! He offered some sort of free telephone calls package, which I declined, as it wasn't worth the time and effort I've wasted on this.....and probably wouldn't have materialised anyway!!!!!Am I supposed to be grateful for this level of service!
To date, I've been disconnected, wasted 4 hours on the first day of my quest and many more subsequently, been lied to, been made false promises. I feel like I've been thoroughly chewed up and spat out by NTL's complaints procedure which is completely incapable of resolving issues other than offering (and not, in my experience, delivering) inappropriate and inadequate compensation. It feels like I am being consumed by this situation and the obvious aim of NTL is to thoroughly and totally destroy people who try to complain, to the point where they give up and crawl off to die somewhere. A CURSE ON YOU, NTL, I HATE YOU!!!!
It really grates that we live in an area where we are at the mercy of NTL if we wish to receive TV channels other than regular terrestrial.
My advice to other unfortunate customers is, get out while you can, because NTL cannot deal with complaints.....FULL STOP!!!

[masterfu]

Let me tell You my story then.

I bought Triple plan on 17 of April from guy named Paul in Nottingham ( Broadmarsh Shopping Centre) got his mobile nr. He assured me that I can have triple plan, no problem.
I had some doubts as I couldn’t find my flat nr when I wanted buy it online to save 10 pounds.
On 20th April, technician came and fitted digi box and gave me broadband modem. And then all went wrong. He inserted chip card in wrong slot so there was no active channels at all. He said it takes 30 min to update hehe yea right. I checked manual it said lower slot not upper so I changed it and tv worked. He didn’t give me pin number to broadband, neither. Had to call ntl myself, using my friend's ntl phone. As they ask you for your telephone nr when you try to contact them, right ? Got it sorted myself as well. Pin came in post a week after (LOL).
The big nightmare is that technician left without installing telephone socket. I bought Triple plan … I thought, he forgot or something. So I called Paul to check what is wrong this time and why I haven’t got any contract in written form. He said that he will sort it for me, but I don’t need contract in written form. I asked twice to have it sent by post but without result. 2 days later no response. Another call to Paul. This time it went ballistic. He said someone will contact me and hung up. Now that ****ed me off big time. I worked 2 years in hospitality business and I know that customer is always right and you need to talk to him different way. That was unacceptable behavior. So I wanted to make complain and sort out my telephone finally. 3 more calls to NTL still no solution. Twice I was redirected. I was informed that they are at max capacity with telephone lines in my area so I cant have one. GREAT news, shame to hear that after not before I decided to buy triple plan.
I was told that If I call retention department they will help me with some discount for not having a phone. So I called 3rd time (today) and was told different story. That it is actually possible to sort out telephone for me if I want, as I said I am ok without phone just want to pay less than 32.99.I was told, they can’t give me any discount I actually have to pay more for broadband and TV 17.99 and 21.99. This is insane I thought, I said ok so I want telephone to pay 32.99. She said some sales manager will call me and so I wait. But for now response again. Meanwhile I posted 3 emails via their help web section. No response as well.
Luckily I still got time to use money back option, however I don’t think it will be easy process …
I want someone to check on Paul as well, that kind of sale person is not suitable for that business.

Another very angry customer of monopolist NTL. The problem is when there is monopoly and no real competition, there is no quality services. Because You don't have to care that much.
Sure I can have all 3 things from different providers but it will cost me more.
Internet ... plenty of options. But it requires BT line, that costs.
Good selection of channels in TV ... that is the biggets pain. Freeview ... crap. Sky expencive. So we are kind of forced to use ntl here in Nottingham.

Cheers for all cusomers on the other side of the barricade.

[Neil]

ithepider, masterfu & NiceShoes....

I'm afraid that is fairly standard ntl procedure.

I think the only 'training' they give is to tell staff to "tell the customer what he/she wants to hear to close the deal, after that let someone else worry about it".

to the site though.