NTL

This is a summary of my experiences with NTl over a 12 month period. Ok where to start?

Call centres:

In a word dire. Consistently failed to meet my customer needs at pretty much every interaction. I often spoke to people who I feel sounded like they did not care. Queue waiting times were regularly over 20 minutes which is poor. I was misinformed about the services I was paying for, how much I would be paying and what my phone number was.

Technical:

I initially signed up for phone lines and cable TV and took the option of a second phone number. After a fortnight I had not received any phone calls despite friends and family telling me they had called, and left messages. After a phone call to NTL and after a long wait I found out that my two phone numbers had been given to somebody else, despite the 'welcome to NTL' letter having the tel numbers on it that I had been quoted! This was remedied by telling me what my actual numbers were! I was given a month's free rental to compensate.

Then my 2nd phone line stopped working after just two months, I called and after a long wait to talk to the service centre I was told the fault was logged and an engineer would investigate. I lived in the property for a further 6 months. The 2nd phone line was never fixed.

After 4 months my cable TV box packed up. Two weeks later I received a replacement unit, and the faulty original was left boxed and labelled on my doorstep as instructed by NTL to be collected. The box was never collected and three weeks later I receive a bill from NTL for the new box claiming I had 'failed' to send them the faulty one. I explained that I had left the box out as they requested, the call centre agent claimed they had not said this and I had to pay the bill for the new one or 'post' the faulty item at my cost back to them, so a technician could tell if it was faulty or had been abused. I refused to do this as this was their problem as I had followed their instructions for collection. I was told that I was not being honest and they had not told me this. I asked to speak to a manager and I was put on hold and never actually spoke to one.

Two months later I moved to a new address within the same town, less than half a mile away. I rang up to inform them of this and I was told I could keep the same number, which turned out to be wrong as I was on a different exchange. Two and a half months later my phone line went dead and I was unable to make outgoing calls. I called their call centre and after a long wait I was told by quite possibly the worst customer service agent I have ever dealt with, that my direct debit had been cancelled and I had to set up a new one. I explained that I hadn't cancelled my direct debit so why was it cancelled? I was told that because I had changed addresses that 'in effect' I had done this! I explained to the customer service agent NTL had done this without explanation or writing to me which is breach of the 1974 consumer credit act and allowed my account to get into debt. At this point I told NTL where to put their service as I was moving out in less than a month anyway. The lady I was speaking to then said she would send me a new direct debit form. I asked her why as I had no interest in using them ever again, her answer was very poor.

The service I got from NTL was so disastrous that I still refuse to go anywhere near Virgin media, who have taken them over.

There prices are very competitive. NTL (now Virgin) offer a good competitive service, but there call centres service is very poor.

I am now with virgin medea ( was NTL ) in the 6 years that I was with NTL I have never had a problem with then, now it's been taken over by virgin, and the service is still good, when my broadband modem playing up, I call thier technical support centre ( ok it was in India, so is every body elses ) the guy on the end was very helpfull, because the fault was with their equipment, the cost of the phone call was credited back to my account, see if you get that with any of the broadband providers.

Have used NTL for both my Business and Personal land line and they have always provided an excellent service and value for money,

If you are in a cable area, thanks to God. The only thing which stops you from getting NTL phone is the activation time and the need of your presence at home as their engineer comes to make your line active. If you can cope with that, you can enjoy free weekend and evening calls for the same line rental as of BT.

When NTL installed my broadband connection, they drilled through my central heating hot water pipe, which meant that my combi boiler dropped in pressure and couldn't supply me with hot water or central heating for the next week. They had no back up support system to allow emergency plumbers/central heating engineers to be called out, and in the end I had to make my own arrangements to get my boiler working again. After fixing the fault, re-plastering the section of wall and cleaning the carpet, I had a bill for £300.00, which NTL have never ever paid. Despite numerous phone calls, letters and solicitors letters, they have never responded.

Promised to come and install every day for a week before finally showing up. When we moved and they still had not supplied the service we were told that the contract could be cancelled without being charged, only later to get a letter saying we had to pay 200 quid. Eventually collected the box on the 4th attempt and are still calling asking where the box is (11 calls to date since the box was picked up). Customer service has been unhelpful I feel; expect to be passed from department to department for what seems like hours on end for me. I'd honestly rather do without TV, broadband or phone than go with these again. I do not recommend NTL - pay the extra and get sky, or just do without!

Six years ago I would have recommended NTL without question to friends. Now I'm about to leave. They simply do not care about the quality of their service provision, ie. if you wait on the line for less than 20 minutes, well that will not happen, and of course you're paying to tell them they are not providing services that you are already paying for. When you get through you are met by staff who clearly have no training in how to solve the problem. Their only response is "remove the smart card and wipe it" for every problem you have.

NTL is my pet hate. They have terrible customer service, that is if you can get through and then don't get cut off. High bills. I can't get Freeview, and there is no aerial reception for analogue TV. So, they have me cornered. I can't wait to get rid of NTL, as it has been like a chain round my neck! Bring on Skype and Freeview - hopefully soon!

NTL customer service was appalling. When I took out the contract, I was assured that I would be able to cancel the policy if I moved to an area that did not have NTL coverage, without penalty. When I moved out of the area I was told my contract would be cancelled, then that I was unable to cancel it. That it would be suspended for three months, and then I could cancel it. That I needed to pay the remainder of the contract. Then, the money was all taken from my bank account after I was told specifically that no payments would be made. When calling to complain I was passed from department to department, many of whom were only open 10-4 and closed on weekends. I was told I would be called back and hung up on on many occasions.

Most recently they have been unable to tell me the prices of their calls to mobiles and have given me incorrect figures. They even tried to tell me at first when asked I had a year left of their £9.99 Internet package, when my bill clearly stated it was £9.99 for 6 months.

A truly appalling service!