The wonders of automated billing

[Andrew Wood]

Having had Sky installed, I plunged in to the detail of the bill. Under Additional Services is this gem:

27/01/2010 Sky+ £292.64
27/01/2010 Sky+ £292.64
27/01/2010 Install Visit £117.45
27/01/2010 Installation Discount £57.45 CR
27/01/2010 Installation Discount £30.00 CR
27/01/2010 Sky+ Box Discounted £243.64 CR
27/01/2010 Sky+ Box Discounted £243.64 CR
27/01/2010 Payment Received £49.00 CR
27/01/2010 Install Visit £117.45
27/01/2010 Sky+ £292.64
27/01/2010 Install Visit £117.45
27/01/2010 Installation Discount £57.45 CR
27/01/2010 Installation Discount £30.00 CR
27/01/2010 Sky+ Box Discounted £243.64 CR
27/01/2010 Installation Discount £57.45 CR
27/01/2010 Installation Discount £30.00 CR
27/01/2010 Payment Received £30.00 CR
01/02/2010 Sky+HD £299.00
01/02/2010 Box Discount £49.00 CR
01/02/2010 Box Discount £100.00 CR
01/02/2010 Box Discount £150.00 CR
01/02/2010 Install Visit £120.00
01/02/2010 Install Discount £30.00 CR
01/02/2010 Installation Discount £30.00 CR
01/02/2010 Install Discount £60.00 CR
01/02/2010 Install Discount £30.00 CR
01/02/2010 Box Discount £49.00 CR
01/02/2010 Box Discount £100.00 CR
01/02/2010 Installation Discount £30.00 CR
01/02/2010 Box Discount £150.00 CR
01/02/2010 Install Discount £60.00 CR
01/02/2010 Sky+HD £299.00
01/02/2010 Install Visit £120.00
01/02/2010 Install Discount £30.00 CR
01/02/2010 Box Discount £49.00 CR
01/02/2010 Box Discount £100.00 CR
01/02/2010 Installation Discount £30.00 CR
01/02/2010 Box Discount £150.00 CR
01/02/2010 Install Discount £60.00 CR
01/02/2010 Sky+HD £299.00
01/02/2010 Install Visit £120.00
06/02/2010 Credit Adjustment £49.00 CR
06/02/2010 Credit Adjustment £30.00 CR
06/02/2010 Credit Adjustment £49.00 CR
06/02/2010 Credit Adjustment £30.00 CR

The best bit

Subtotal £0.00

[Gavin Scott]

Just be grateful you reached that conclusion I suppose. I've been trying for seven years to get my £200 back from ntl's automated billing system.

Eh? They owe you £200?

Take them to small claims court.

[Gavin Scott]

I cut my losses in the end and gave up. After scores of letters, hours of phone calls and various legal threats, I got absolutely nowhere. ntl doesn't even exist now, and I think I'm too late to make a legal appeal.

What's the statue of limitations for debt recovery?

I wouldn't have bothered with threats - I would have paid the filing fee and served them with a summons or a winding up order. That puts a rocket up most asses.

[cwathen]

A piece of legislation called The Limitation Act 1980 states that a debt can be pursued for up to 6 years after it was last acknowledged ('acknowledged' means the debtor making a payment towards the debt or otherwise recognising that the debt exists). After that it is usually statute barred and cannot be recovered (unless a CCJ has been issued against the debtor, in which case the debt can always be recovered).

NTL (or rather the company behind it) certainly *does* still exist - the way Virgin Media was formed was for NTL to take over Telewest and for NTL to then be renamed to Virgin Media. Thus the actual company has been trading the whole time and will still be liable for the debt.

However, if the debt was *never* acknowledged, then I don't know where you stand. You probably would have to take them to court to recover the money.

[WillPS]

NTL (or rather the company behind it) certainly *does* still exist - the way Virgin Media was formed was for NTL to take over Telewest and for NTL to then be renamed to Virgin Media. Thus the actual company has been trading the whole time and will still be liable for the debt.

that was the plan, but in the end Telewest ended up taking over NTL to avoid ownership issues with UKTV.