Robin Hood & the Sheriff of Nottingham: Me Vs NTL

[bze lizzy]

Hi Guys,

I'm hoping there is someone out there that can give me some help & guidance with my recent dispute with NTL.

It started when I received my statement dated 19th June. I was shocked to find that they expected me to pay a bill for £124.05. I was immediately suspicious & decided to check it even more thoroughly than I normally do. My usual monthly bill for all my services with them is between £65 - £70 give or take according to the calls I make. Yet I'm seen as a low tarrif user. I discovered that they wanted to charge me for 79 calls I DID NOT make, and according to NTL I had made 60 calls to the SAME number on the SAME day with minutes only between calls.

I immediately rang customer services and explained the situation. I am quite prepared to pay for the calls I have made but NOT for the ones I have not. I asked for the matter to be addressed and to give me a new bill as ammended with the rebate for the disputed calls. I was told that was quite acceptable, I should be able to get the money discounted as I was not disputing making ALL the calls on my bill just the specific 79. I outlined these to the operator who filled in a form her end detailing the facts of my dispute. I was told I would receive a phonecall within the next 24 - 48 hrs confirming this. Surprise, surprise....... not! No phonecall so I decided to ring them again. This time I was told the hold up was due to the form not being filled in correctly. This I find hard to believe as she sseemed to have been quite thorough checking & rechecking details to ensure she had all the facts. I had to repeat matters all over again & was told I'd get a phonecall once again within the next 24 - 48 hrs. I thought aye, aye! I've been here before. I'm not prepared to be given the runaround anymore. So after ending the call I printed off a grievance letter to customer services in Luton. I stated that they had 7 days to resolve the situation as I was prepared to take matters further.

I then received a letter stating (I paraphrase the content here) " pay up or we'll suspend your services & add more charges to your account. The 7 days were up yesterday I checked the bank statement to see if NTL had been honourable but as expected they were not. Also on receipt of the first bill I instructed the bank in writing to freeze my D.D. to NTL. This they did today I have received another bill for July. They claim that my £124.05 is outstanding & demand payment plus my usage charges for this month that come to £65.93. Making total amount £189.98. I am quite prepared to pay the £65.93 as that is accurate. What is the best way to make this payment? Will they accept it?

Please help!

bze lizzy

[welly]

Hi Lizzy
Search NTL on the search on the control bar at the top of the page you will find other NTL customers that could help more than me and also contact OFCOM and see what they have to say about it and make a complaint against NTL.

Write a letter of complaint and say you dispute the amount you have to pay as you did not make the calls and that should stop them passing it to a DCA and have you got a security system on your home that is connected to a control room via your phone line???

Ofcom Website | Home page

Hope this helps a bit I'm sure others will follow very soon
Welly

[bze lizzy]

Hi Welly,

Thanks for the advice, no unfortunately I do not have such a system.
Would it help?

bze lizzy

[welly]

LOL no sorry its just sometime when you have a home security system on your home and you set it as you go out some of them phone the control room and activate it so if it is set off they contact the police.

A family member had loads of phone calls to one number over a few days and had it out with BT only to be ask the same thing.

When he contacted the provider of the system they told him it was the number the system calls when set on or off and the box had a fault and had phoned the number about 150 times over a few days.

He got the money for the calls and the box fixed so if you have not got one then it cant be that

Best to contact Ofcom and see what they can do to help with this one

Welly

[bze lizzy]

Hi Welly,

Thanks again for that. I agree I think I do need to contact Ofcom, before I get into yet another very stressful situation taking on businesses and their unending red tape.

Do you have any contact details for them please?
Is there also a proper format for dealing with them?
Would I be able to find a template letter in the site library?

bze lizzy

[welly]

Hi lizzy
Heres the link for them:
Ofcom Website | Home page

And follow the steps to make a complaint on the site and have a read first loads of info on there.

If you want to write a letter to them the address is:

Ofcom
Riverside House
2a Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 9HA

Or if your not too sure about anything then give them a ring and explain whats gone on and ask what would be the best thing to do

The number is: 020 7981 3040.

I'm sure someone has had to deal with Ofcom and do a search on here and see if any others have made a complaint about NTL.

Don't get stressed about it and like I said if a DCA contacts you then tell them to pass the debt back to NTL as you are disputing it and not going to pay it until Ofcom has been involved.

Good luck and dont let them get you down

Welly

[bze lizzy]

Hi,

Thanks for the info hopefully I'll be able to get this matter resolved soon.

bze lizzy

[welly]

Good luck

[Rich44]

Whats the number that was called 60 times, have you tried calling it to find out where/whom it is?

If you do this I would do so from a mobile so you can honestly claim you have never ever called it yourself

You never know if its someones home number they might tell you they keep getting nuisance calls with no one there and you may have identified a fault on NTLs systems

[bze lizzy]

Hi,

I have identified the number the calls were supposedly made to at a time when I was definitely in bed asleep. I am quite prepared to pay for the calls I have made & for services used which should be about £65 which is my average monthly bill.

I recently experienced nuisance calls on my mobile. The culprit/s were identified by my provider who passed the info to Beds Police. They lost the info, I made a statement, was told they couldn't act because they were protected by data protection. They refused to investigate the matter further either through laziness, apathy, or unwillingness to do the appropriate paperwork. I therefore then registered both my landline and mobile phone with the telephone preference service. Result - calls stopped.


bze lizzy