Closing your NTL account...

[holidaysong]

I rang NTL three weeks ago to move my services to a new address and they told me it would take up to 14 days. After a few follow up calls and e-mails (which weren't replied to) I have lost my patience waiting for them to connect me at my new apartment. (A friend of mine moved into a new place last week and her NTL account was set up and her box installed within 3 days.)

Does anyone know how much notice you have to give them to close your account? My last bill was at the beginning of June for the next two month period. Do I have any chance of getting any of this money back seeing as I am paid up until the end of this month?

Anyone had similar problems?

[brendy_éire]

Contact them asap and tell them you want to cancel. If you move address they give ye a 12 month extension on your contract. You usually have a time during which you can change your mind. Other than that you have to give them a month's notice. If you have a 12 month contract in place you have to pay the line rental for the 12 months ye were supposed to have. (ie a year's line rental)

[John83]

... If you have a 12 month contract in place you have to pay the line rental for the 12 months ye were supposed to have. (ie a year's line rental)
Hey, even people from Dundalk know how many months are in a year.

[Paddyfield]

NTL/Chorus/UPC or whatever they are calling them selves this week are a joke of a company. I know of 2 differend apartments where there hasn't been a bill for cable TV for over 4 years.

NTL Chorus rang me a few weeks ago to arrange an upgrade; not only did they not turn up on the designated day, they didn't turn up on the 2nd date either. Cancel your Direct Debit with them because there's a good chance that they won't even notice.

I read an entire topic on this over on www.boards.ie a few months ago and you are not alone in your stance with NTL.

[Billsthoughts]

I switched to sky plus.is great. had awful problems with ntl rudest people on the planet...eh well at least second rudest they still owe me money.when sky made a simple mistake they knocked 50% of installation fee.

[holidaysong]

I rang them just before 5 to cancel the account and they said the people responsible for dealing with that had all gone home. They took my number and said someone would ring me tomorrow morning.. I won't hold my breath. The thing is I don't think I can get Sky in my apartment building - wouldn't be allowed erect the dish - so I might be stuck with 4 channels.. :( I'd rather it though than giving one more penny to the NTL shower!

[Billsthoughts]

I cant remember my issue witht he, something to do with ordering it on a special offer which they never applied then I would ring up get transferred around and then hung up on a few imes. the only person who did actually seem helpful was the cancellation guy. he offered to refund my money if i didnt cancel. needless to say I just laughed. I dont know how a company survives like that. the customer service level is so low.

[anto1208]

I ve found with companies that own the equipment if you tell them your cancelling & they have to have the stuff out of your house by the said date and after that you will be charging them for storage they haul ass.

[brendy_éire]

In fairness I've never had any problems with them. Moved house this week and had an installation date on Wednesday. They actually phoned on Tuesday and asked could they come round then instead.

As for equipment, they never seem to want it back. I've got a total of 4 of their boxes now. They can still work in a house that had the lines installed previously, but you'll only get the basic channels plus a few extra freeview channels and then RTÉ and TG4.

[Wolfie]

Below is an old E-mail that sums up some peoples NTL experience................

Dear Cretins,

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up For
your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone. During
this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of Service which
I had not previously considered possible, as well as Ignorance and
stupidity of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide
specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional
prerogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties - or more likely
(I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you
while away the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the
bog in your office.

My initial installation was cancelled without warning or notice,
resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat ar*e waiting
for your technician to arrive. When he did not arrive at all, I spent a
further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even
more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful
website....how? I alleviated the boredom to some small degree by playing
with my testi*les for a few minutes - an activity at which you are
no-doubt both familiar and highly adept.

The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later,
although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools - such
as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum. Two weeks later, my cable modem had
still not arrived. After several further telephone calls (actually 15
telephone calls over 4 weeks) my modem arrived... a total of six weeks
after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it.

I estimate that the downtime of your internet servers is roughly
35%...these are usually the hours between about 6pm and midnight, Monday
to Friday, and most of the useful periods over the weekend.

I am still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9
Telephone calls on my mobile to your no-help line this week, and have
been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested
individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled boll*ck jugglers. I
have been informed that a telephone line is available (and Someone
will call me back), that no telephone line is available (and someone
will call me back), that I will be transferred to someone who knows
whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off),
that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a
telephone line is available (and then been redirected to an answer
machine informing me that your office is closed), that I will be
transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is
available (and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot
woman.... and several other variations on this theme.

Doubtless you are no-longer reading this letter, as you have at least
a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another
one of those crucially important testi*le-moments to attend to.
Frankly I don't care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice
my frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold
music. Forgive me, therefore, if I continue. I thought BT were sh*t,
that they had attained the holy ****-pot of god-awful customer
relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested,
less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their
customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't
anyone else is there? How surprised I therefore was, when I
discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what
a useless shower of bast*rds you truly are. You are sputum-filled
pieces of distended rectum - incompetents of the highest order.
British Telecom - w*nkers though they are - shine like brilliant
beacons of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly
limitless inadequacy.

Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy
quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you do
likewise, and cease any potential future attempts to extort payment
from me for the services which you have so pointedly and
catastrophically failed to deliver - any such activity will be greeted
initially with hilarity and disbelief - although these feelings will
quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps a small measure of
bemused rage.

I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cats
Litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for
both you, and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have
not become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at
the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if
you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture.
Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and it's
worthless employees.

Have a nice day - may it be the last in you miserable short life, You
irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of tw*ts,

[hoops1]

Ring them up and tell them your Eurovox(dodgy box) isnt working they will have you cut off in 15 mins

[tricky_colour]

I rang NTL three weeks ago to move my services to a new address and they told me it would take up to 14 days. After a few follow up calls and e-mails (which weren't replied to) I have lost my patience waiting for them to connect me at my new apartment. (A friend of mine moved into a new place last week and her NTL account was set up and her box installed within 3 days.)

Does anyone know how much notice you have to give them to close your account? My last bill was at the beginning of June for the next two month period. Do I have any chance of getting any of this money back seeing as I am paid up until the end of this month?

Anyone had similar problems?

Ring them up and ask them on what date you can close your account.
It will be in your contract somewhere.
Or you can say you want to close it and they will tel you on which date
it expires.

However the main thing is you will probably find their attitude changes when you tell them this!!
Remember the contract is worth a lot of money to them, thousands over the years, and most people usually stick with their provider.

They might even offer you a better deal, however if you are a big downloader, "an internet hog" they might be happy to let you go. ;)

So you just have to weigh up how good the deal you are currently getting
is before you chose your words.

Might be worth mentioning you are thinking of subscribing to their most expensive TV package (if they do them) too.

[holidaysong]

They said someone will be in touch with me on Tuesday or Wednesday to close the account. It's just stupid that it would take so long.. Anyway the person on the phone did say that because I had been waiting so long that I would get my money back from the day I requested to have my services moved.

[Mr A]

Tell the you're going to report them to Comreg. (http://www.comreg.ie/)

NTL are scum, simple as that. I've had the misfortune to deal with them several times and they have missed appointments repeatedly and generally been a nightmare to deal with.

It's a sad fact though that many people have little other option than to choose them. With proper competition they would be out of business in a year.