ntl...hell or heaven...u decide!!! (NTL)

Member Name: khilit

Product:	NTL
Date:	26/09/02 (295 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a few quid cheaper then BT+SKY together, Broadband speeds brilliant..if available in your area

Disadvantages: monopolised market, Non-existent customer services, Try to con you into paying for everything

NTL…Hanging by the thread in my eye’s. I have been an NTL Customer for almost two years now. I am from the North-West London region (Kenton, Harrow) and not sure whether I can call myself lucky to be getting NTL Television and Phone services.

The opinions that I have read on DooYoo, for NTL, probably sum of most of the one’s that I feel with regards to NTL. However, I would like to focus my opinion on the whole NTL service rather then just their Internet (broadband and dial-up) service.

And why do I still continue being with them…here are my reason’s…

NTL Package:
It includes your phone and Base television package (28 channels), cost currently set at £20.00 per month. Getting your phone line from B.T., the basic package cost is £11.50 per month. The basic Sky package costs £10.00 (42 channels). This gives you a £1.50 saving per month. I have currently subscribed for the family pack and this including my phone line costs £25.00 and gives me around 90 channels (not all of them are watch-able, some are really pathetic).

NTL Telephone:
I am not a person who can get rid of BT services. I still keep that line and use it for all my voice calls. Afterall, they are more trust-worthy when it comes to keeping my conversation going. Also, any problems that you encounter from their (B.T.) side, they are ready to compensate you for your trouble.
This is quite the contrary with NTL phone services. The day the final big-brother voting was on…picked up my phone and a dead tone!!! Surprise…surprise!!!

Broadband vs NTL Dial-up
NTL, I got it for their Broadband services. Still relatively cheaper then a lot of companies out there. Unfortunately, they got me signed on because of Broad-band, but come two years later, still waiting for this service to be made available to my area. Nevermind, I continue to use their NTL World dial-up service at present. Not always 100%, more like
90% connection @ connection speeds averaging 40kbps on your 56k modem. I guess that is not too bad. But ofcourse, you have to pat their back for the £10.00 charge for their Internet access, not that bad a price (there is a cut-off after 2 hours, but you can reconnect almost immediately).

NTL Television service:
As far as their television services go, yes, I have faced several days of freezing pictures, no sound, shaky movies and also, total loss of Cable television services. And that’s when you get to the difficult side…contacting their customer services and technical support line. I have personally called up at two different times to report the same problem and spoken to two different people. The first customer service rep told me there was a problem with how my box is located and it would cost me to have it moved. The second rep said….they shall amplify the signal to my house and it should be fine. (Ofcourse, the latter solution was the one that I sought for).

Please read some of the other opinions on this site regarding NTL. They are more practical with the users giving some of their own ghost experiences.

As for my conclusion, I feel, its really nice to have NTL services as long as you do NOT get ANY technical faults happening either on your phone/television or internet connection. For if you do…BE PREPARED to be cut off from the rest of the world for a good couple of weeks and expect NTL to send you a bill for THEIR negligence. I think, I shall continue keeping my B.T. line….Just in Case!!!

Summary: