ntl: to penalise non DD customers & late payers

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ClubMan

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In case anybody else (other than myself) had not noticed until now it seems that ntl: will start charging customers who do not pay their bills by DD an additional €3 from April 2007. They also now charge €7.68 for late payments since November 2006. All this on top of their recent €2 per monthly/€3 per two montly billing period price increase. :(
 
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RainyDay

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Re: ntl: to charge non DD customers €3 from April 2007

How are they going about notifying their customers? I haven't recieved any communication on this change.
 
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ClubMan

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Re: ntl: to charge non DD customers €3 from April 2007

I think that we were notifed of the increase in normal subscription charges with our last bill (October). The current bill (December) includes details of the subscription charges as well as of the non DD and late payment "penalties". Not sure what happens with those paying less frequently than every two months...
 
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DrMoriarty

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I hope to Jaysus BT don't follow suit! :eek:

Amid the billing shambles that I've experienced from them since day one, they managed to 'unregister' my DD details about six months ago, and I've been sending them cheques (usually for the corrected amount!) ever since...
 
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ClubMan

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The ntl: thing is a bit of a pain. I prefer not to deal in DDs as far as possible but I'll probably have to put one in place for ntl: soon to avoid the penalty.
 
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DaveD

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I read this in the paper at the weekend and it was all I needed to decide to dump NTL. I use them for digital TV and cable modem, so I'm switching to Sky for tv and BT Ireland for phone/broadband (so Eircom are out also!). Should save me about €27/month and not have to deal with NTL which is worth much more. I won't set up a DD with NTL due to billing problems a few years ago which took forvever to sort out.

Hopefully Sky and BT will be easier to deal with ;-)
 
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Towger

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I dumped them over a year ago. They still owe me about 3 euro, still no sign of a cheque in the post.

Towger.
 
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PaulH

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NTL have been bought out at sometime in the (recent?) past by another media company, UPC.

It seems that as part of this exercise, they have implemented a new billing system and have had significant customer service issues as a result.

See here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055018616

They also featured on Joe Duffy on Monday. Listen here, from about 15 minutes into the show (Real player required):
http://www.rte.ie/rams/radio/latest/Mon/rte-liveline.smil

My experience with NTL is that when it worked well, it worked well, and I had been a customer since they took over Cablelink.

However, I moved house recently and had no luck in getting NTL to set me up at the new address. I eventually emailed their customer service and sales email addresses with a deadline, which I doubt anyone ever read. Going to go with Sky instead, for one year anyway (they had a promotion recently).

In light of the situation that seems to exist within that company at the moment, I would be very slow to sign any direct debit mandate.

Hope that helps,
Paul.
 
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efm

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Got the letter from NTL yesterday and I have two questions/issues

1. Can NTL force you to move to DD's (ie by penalising you if you don't set one up) - is there any law or guideline being broken by this move by NTL?

2. The late payment fee kicks in 14 days after the invoice date - now I received my NTL bill yesterday the 19th Dec which had an invoice date of the 8th Dec giving me just two days to pay the bill - once again does anyone know if any law or guideline is being broken / abused here

I certainly feel aggrieved but if NTL are 100% legally entitled to do what they are doing then I'd just better grin and bear it.

Anybody any thoughts? Is there any point in contact the Office of Consumer Affairs or IFSRA or Comreg about any of this?
 
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RainyDay

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GeneralZod said:
There was a article in yesterday's Irish Indo based on the current AAM thread on the evils of Direct debits over standing orders
Click to expand...
The well-intentioned suggestion to go for standing orders instead of direct debits for Sky etc is presumably impractical, as Sky etc will not permit this, regardless of how much you pressure them.

efm said:
Is there any point in contact the Office of Consumer Affairs or IFSRA or Comreg about any of this?
Click to expand...
It would certainly be interesting to see what ODCA have to say on this one.
 
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ClubMan

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I have emailed the ODCA about the DD penalty and will post back if/when they get back to me. I didn't ask about the late payment penalty.
 
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polaris

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Chorus offer a similar "reward" if you pay their monthly fee by DD; 27.99 as opposed to 29.99.
 
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ClubMan

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ODCA got back to me and, among other things, had this to say:
The issue of imposing a charge on customers who do not avail of their
direct debit payment facility by NTL is not illegal. While we agree that it
is sharp practice to do so, NTL are not breaching any legislation
enforceable by our office
Click to expand...
By the way - I didn't actually call it sharp practice myself in the email to ODCA.
 
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Sarsfield

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Well my ntl bill was waiting for me when I got home this evening. I have until tomorrow to pay if I want to avoid a late payment charge! The bill date is December 7th.

I know it's Christmas and letters can get delayed but I'm not at all sure the bill was posted on the 7th! The envelope isn't franked or stamped so it may not have been posted until yesterday for all I know. I won't pay the €7.68 late fee quietly!
 
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sherib

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I was told by an ntl technician this week that ntl has been taken over very recently by (I think he said) a Belgian company called something like "UPL". I wonder if this has anything to do with the new direct debit policy? He also said something to the effect that ntl and Chorus are part of the same group.

It doesn't seem as if a consumer has any choice regarding piped TV - is this a monopoly? The same chap told me that his Sky satellite dish often gets blown around so that doesn't offer a reliable choice.
 
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Decani

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Yes. If you look at the Chorus and NTL websites they are virtually identical. The product pricing has been aligned and Chorus are looking for more people so maybe they're going to rebrand NTL Ireland as Chorus?
 
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TarfHead

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I received my ntl bill yesterday and noticed that they've levied a new charge on me without warning.

Many times over the past 10 years, I've taken out a subscription to SKY Sports and/or Movies and then cancelled whenever I was finished with it, e.g. SKY Movies for Christmas, SKY Sports for Tri-Nations rugby. Each time they've refunded the 'unused' amount of the subscription previously charged.

The current bill omits the most recent refund but includes a levy labelled subscription cancellation charge. They never advised me of this when I phoned to cancel the Sports subscription in November.

I've logged the complaint with them and am waiting for a reply.
 
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