Metropol

A month ago I signed up for 600k (now 750) NTL broadband.

After talking to NTL themselves, I was told this was an 'unlimited' service, so with 3 people using it we could download and surf as much as we wanted. Keep in mind that we all download movies on p2p.

It was also free for the first two months.

It was 24.99 a month.

Today, I got a bill for 37 quid.

I would phone them. But I don't think they'll be there.

Jeez £37! Are you sure you haven't spent £12 on something else on NTL?

Though you are doing the right thing by not calling them now as they won't be there, they bugger off home at 8pm, unless it's the technical fault line, but ring them tomorrow as we've always had good customer service from NTL, so it might be worth a chat.

Though my friend was telling me today that he had his upgrade from 600K to 750K, I am on the verge of signing up myself, as I am currently stuck with AOL 56k, I do have an NTL (Well Cable and Wireless) Digital box in my room (The old Pace 1000) which means I already have the modem, what I want to know is if I can set it up myself, or do I need an NTL engineer to pop round? As my room is rather tiny, that is the only thing that is putting me off and is letting me thinking of choosing something like AOL Broadband or Tesco Broadband.

We've not spent anything else.

Modem was free, installation was free, no limits on it we were told, and it was free for two months - so we were not expecting to pay anything until October.

They haven't sent us an email about it, they haven't sent us a letter, etc.

Totally baffling

ntl broadband is NOW not unlimited, but you do not get charged if you go over the 1 gigabyte per day limit but will be informed by letter if you reguarly do this and will be contacted on how to meter and properly regulate your bandwidth, it sounds like you've bin upgraded to the 1.5mb service, don't know how, but i've def never heard of NTL(or nthell as soem have been known to call it) charging for bandwidth.

Indeed. Sounds like a billing error, and you're not the first nor I bet the last. I have a sneaking suspicion that they overcharge a fair few people just to see if they notice. If they don't then they're in the money...

*Keeps an eye on his ntl cable connection prices*

They charge you a month in advance, so what I'd guess is you've been charged a full month, plus the bit between when you had it installed and your bill date. This is explained in the 'Welcome to NTL' booklet, however if you were promised two months for free you shouldn't have been billed.

Instead of calling the NTL Customer Services 0800 number call their head office on (01962) 823434 and ask for customer liaison because you won't be on hold for an hour then, and customer liaison are better at handling complaints (oh yes, I had a reason to complain even before I had the service put in last week).

nwtv2003 wrote:As my room is rather tiny, that is the only thing that is putting me off and is letting me thinking of choosing something like AOL Broadband or Tesco Broadband.

Noooo! How can you be thinking of going with AOL? You're weren't on drugs when you wrote that, were you?

As said the other thread about ntl, they did this overcharging (albeit on a rather extreme scale) each month. At no time during the time we had them did they take the correct amount out of my mum's card. Not £49.98 or £24.99, but some stupidly random amount which ranged from £5something up to £78. They obviously have a problem in their billing department - either their systems are crap or their employees need sacking if they can't bloody count, which seems a little evident here.

If you have opted to pay by credit or debit card, then it maybe difficult to get them to stop taking payment or to do a refund. As soon as my mum got wind of ntl's bizarre charging policy (and tried to get a refund or explanation, but failed), we terminated our contract with them, disconnected the cable modem, changed the card and told them to take their service and stick it. If they can't bill properly each month or provide a decent service for all the inconvenience it takes to phone them and complain then they're not worthy of our custom IMO.

God, at least the people at Pipex can bill you each month, and wait for it .... for the correct amount as well. Shocking!

And if you want to phone their callcentre on the 0800 number, then do it from a landline. There's nothing more I hate hearing than someone using their mobile phone to ring it and paying for the priviledge of listening to some shite music down the phone for half an hour and then getting hung up upon or whatever. They're paying for the call if you dial from a landline, so let them. Why should you pay to complain?

It takes some convincing to NTL that they have made a mistake actually get a refund, don't worry there's a whole bunch of people in the same position out there, if you can't get though to customer service(many have tryed many times and failed) sometime there are helpful NTL staff(yes they do exist) over at cable forum who may be able to help you.

By the way, I took up the same offer as cat, and got a bill for the same amount on my doormat this morning.

At least you got a bill. We didn't even get that!

I went into the bank and filed an indemnity (sp) claim against NTL, which put the 37 quid into my bank account straight away. NTL either pay my bank the 37 quid or they are taken to court.

They told me they agreed to pay it, but to be honest, they'll have forgotten by the time they have to shell out.

Wankers.

I haven't set up a direct debit with them yet. I was told I didn't have to until I get my first bill.