Ntl - Wtf?!

[tris-]

for some reason, ntl decided to give our phone number to another customer!
apparently she got an ntl line in yesterday and was given our phone number. now the phone number we have had for 6 yrs goes to some total stranger and we have NO PHONE NUMBER AT ALL and they have cut the phone line off.

we phone them up and said "why is our phone number not ours anymore", ntl claim it never was ours and the fact we used it for 6 yrs is a mystery worthy of strange but true.

what the mother fucking hell is this all about?! anyone had this before? i really have no faith in the idiots sorting it over the phone and are bound to ask us to write in with proof that the phone number was ours. if so, im gonna go down to their call centre and unleash something terrible on them (i know where it is you see).

 

[Draylor]

im gonna go down to their call centre and unleash something terrible on them (i know where it is you see).

Youll be lucky if it hasnt been outsourced to Pakistan/India/Bosnia/wherever is cheapest this month yet.

But hey, thats why the name NTHell stuck.

 

[Lazarus]

I ditched NTL when our exchange was enabled for broadband.

I then got a very strange call from someone with a distinct middle-eastern accent asking me to reconsider and take up NTL broadband.

Strange since NTL didnt offer broadband in my area.

 

[Will]

Youll be lucky if it hasnt been outsourced to Pakistan/India/Bosnia/wherever is cheapest this month yet.

But hey, thats why the name NTHell stuck.

Cardiff, usually, for NTL.

 

[DaGaffer]

I ditched NTL when our exchange was enabled for broadband.

I then got a very strange call from someone with a distinct middle-eastern accent asking me to reconsider and take up NTL broadband.

Strange since NTL didnt offer broadband in my area.

Heh, I got rid of NTL (tv and phone) about 3 months ago, I've had dozens of mailshots, calls etc offering broadband since, which, just like you, isn't available here.

Edit. As for proving your number - don't you have an NTL bill? The number's on that. Just fax it to them.

 

[tris-]

could they be in breach of data protection for giving out my number to someone?
at the moment we are trying to move house and stuff, people are phoning all the time. what if this woman with my number is a loon and pretends to be us?!

 

[Scouse]

If I were you I'd be straight on line to OfCom - the telecoms watchdog. Ring 'em up and see what your rights are.

Some bloke on the radio mentioned the other day that he writes to the CEO of companies that he's complaining to, outlining politely the problem and threatening legal action - he says it never fails to bring a large compensatory package

 

[itcheh]

When I got Telewest installed they gave me someone elses number ... really pissed her off when the engineer kept on asking the HQ to send a test call and she kept answering. They similarly had no idea why this had happened and they then took 11 days to give me a new number.

I complained and got 3 months broadband for free ... which was nice.

 

[Yaka]

its happens alot, when i got ntl 6 years ago i was given someone elses phon number, the person even acused me theft until the local ntl rep intervened good thing the ntl woman was fucking fit woman, other wise i woulda given her a rollicking for giving me a someone else number

 

[Tom]

Have you considered the Skype service, and just ditching NTL altogether? Poor service doesn't deserve any kind of reward.

 

[Yaka]

im thninking about switching to sky when the sky HD service arrives, was thinking of going for nildram adsl then they began doing silly caps

 

[Sharma]

No offense if anyone here works for NTL but in all honesty, the people who work for NTL are complete and utter fucking retards, the technicians aren't even trained properly by the looks.

I nearly dieing laughing when the technician said "Sorry cant find anything wrong with the modem yet its still broke" after I complete beat the shit out of it after puitting up with complete SHIT internet service for 2 months, sadly I dont control the bills in this house and I have an ignorant mother.

It's a sad fact but NTL are clueless and probably one of the worst ISPs on the market.

It's unwise but I have actually let off on the phone a few times before at some of the phone tech help, it's immature but my god it does help calm the nerves when youve kicked off at the idiot on the other end with a torrent of abuse.

Anyway, use your bill, you can prove your phone number with it iirc, make sure you know your rights and what youre going to do if they refuse to aknowledge you.

 

[tris-]

gonna phone ofcom on monday.

we got blagged the other day. this was the guys excuse for the incident "ok, after looking carefully it seems someone else with a similar name to you was owing us money. by mistake we cut you off. you should be back on at 8pm". my mother told me this and i lol'd . first off what kind of shit billing system that would be if people were not allowed to have similar names in fear of having their service cut, bailifts at the door etc. secondly, what the fuckk.. thirdly they close at 8 so we couldnt of phoned back to say "hey nob rot, its not working".

so we phoned again, some supervisor give us £10 credit for using the mobile to phone em. they said the earliest time they can change it back is the 14th, wtf! they can cut us off quick enough but fuck you if you want to use ya phone again.

and still, they will not tell us why we were cut off or even tell us what our 'new' number is!

 

[Jonty]

Good luck in getting it sorted, tris- I remember some trouble a while back with ntl and our number, although thankfully nothing this serious.

Talking of ntl, they're set to launch a 10Mbps broadband service tomorrow which will likely replace their existing 3Mbps at no extra cost, although details are still sketchy. Additionally they are also continuing with the gradual introduction of their revised on demand service. It brings play/pause/fastforward/rewind facilities (and removes start times) to all movies and selected TV programmes via an automatic firmwire update for existing digital customers in certain areas (we've now received the update and, slight latency aside, it's very cool for something free).

Personally, whilst I don't control who we're with, I have to say that in terms of cost and features I still think ntl offer a good deal. That said, we've gone through about three cable/digital boxes due to faults, their dial-up service was very hit-and-miss, and their support varies from very helpful and prompt to comically bad. I guess it's just the luck of the draw with them, overall.

Kind Regards

 

[tris-]

10mbps to replace the 3mbps? omg im gonna squirt all over my self. mine runs at 4mbps as it/

 

[Nightchill]

Had a similar thing here tris, though not to that extent. We were getting calls asking for someone we'd never heard of. After a few of these we tried calling "our" number from a mobile and, instead of our landline ringing, it went through to another random woman who, confused by what we were saying, hung up.

Anyway, NTL were suitably bemused and, after a few days, changed it back. Our number had been given out as a temporary number or something similar.