[gurans]

Dear All,

I have been a customer with NTL since 2003 and on April 2005, I moved flats. The transfer went smoothly, but sadly, the billing problems started to arise. NTL began undercharging me for my services. Instead of charging for the services ( telephone, TV, BB) at my new flat, they started to charge me for the box which I had at my old flat. I had returned the box to NTL through the engineer when he came to transfer my services to my new flat.

I called up NTL customer service and asked that I received my bill as additional services (I believe is the box) and I was told that the additional service is the extra box that I have. After explaining to them that I returned the box through the engineer when he came to set up my services, he politely said thank you for it. I assumed that he had taken into notice and would bill for the correct services. This apparently, was not done and once again I received the bills for the additional box. In spite of calling up NTL once again and explaining it to them it was not sorted.

I went for my holidays in the beginning of October and when I returned home in November, I find a bill of £345 charging me for my services from April 2005 sent sometime in October. Since I was on holiday and had no knowledge of it, they even had cut off all my services. I called up NTL and explained to them that the error was made on their and I had paid my entire bills through direct debit. They acknoweldged the error on their part but just deducted the amount that I had been paying till for the additional services. Even after deducting, I still had around £ 250 to pay. After endless calls and talking to endless people over many days ( some of them just did not know what they were talking ), a sweet australian lady after hearing my problem pointed that there were still some amount that needed to be deducted where I had been wrongly charged. Despite the deductions, the bill still stood at £ 144. I am a student and just to get the matter solved and also as I did not want to go through the hassle of changing companies, I agreed to pay half of £144 ie £70 and to pay £74 later and got my services switched back on. But strangely, I once again received a bill of £ 224 and NTL again tried to withdraw £ 224 from my account on 21st November. Talking to the billing department, yesterday, I was told that the direct debit did not go through as my bank had cancelled it. I even paid £14 for the £74 and now I need to pay £60 as soon as possible which I was told. I don’t know how long my services were cut off and whenever I call the customer service there is a long queue. ( Also, it is annoying to call them and explain the problem over and over ).

What frustrates me that a) when I take a service, I expect to be billed properly, which NTL failed terribly. b) they cut off my services without any notice or letter, c) Even after acknowledging repeated mistakes on their part, they did not offer me any deal or discounts at all as part of compensation or good faith.

Can anybody help me as to what my options lay ? Where to complain so that the target hits a bullseye. How can a company act so irresponsibly and threaten me with debt collection agency if I refuse to pay the bill.


Cheers


P.S : I can send my account number via PM if required.