NTL/chorus downgrade fee

dinneenp

Hi,
I'm with NTL and have the 'select' package- €26 a month.

I phoned up to downgrade to the basic package- €20 a month.

They said there's a new downgrade admin charge of €10!
funninly enough you don't have to pay an admin charge for upgrading...

I know it's a very small amount but it's pure taking the pis$.

Yours angrily,
Pa.

IsThatSo?

Agreed!!!

Initially when I spoke with the CS in NTL they said it was a fee for upgrading or downgrading, but a few weeks later this had changed to downgrading only.

I read a discussion on this before, over in the Cable section of these boards, I think, and one poster used to ring and get Sky sports if there was a good match on and then cancel the next day, just paying for the match as such. My guess is that the fee is to stop this kind of chopping and changing and the occasional changers have to suffer the consequences.

It would be nice if they just charged the serial up/downgraders though

eth0_

Well you can blame the dbox users for this charge.
Face it, the majority of people who are downgrading to basic cable are doing so because they've bought a decoder that gives them free cable.

Apparently NTL are losing a huge, huge amount of money over these boxes.

rubadub

Would this charge have been in any contract before signing up?

Do you have to upgrade for a certain period, and if you cancel before the end of it you get charged this €10?

If not what would be to stop them offering movies at €10 per year, loads sign up, then at the end of the year upping the charge to €1000 for movies for the next year, and charging a downgrade fee of €800.

Obviously you would just cancel the lot in that case, but is it a possibility. Or could they even try an overall cancellation fee?

GerardKeating

rubadub wrote: »

Would this charge have been in any contract before signing up?

Do you have to upgrade for a certain period, and if you cancel before the end of it you get charged this €10?

If not what would be to stop them offering movies at €10 per year, loads sign up, then at the end of the year upping the charge to €1000 for movies for the next year, and charging a downgrade fee of €800.

Obviously you would just cancel the lot in that case, but is it a possibility. Or could they even try an overall cancellation fee?

You are allowed to cancel after a price incease, even if you are within the one year contract.

Xterminator

eth0_ wrote: »

Well you can blame the dbox users for this charge.
Face it, the majority of people who are downgrading to basic cable are doing so because they've bought a decoder that gives them free cable.

Apparently NTL are losing a huge, huge amount of money over these boxes.

It has nothing to do with that. The fee is to discourage users from downgrading. Make it easy to upgrade, and difficult to downgrade.

Sky are the same. 'Well if you cancel now, you ill still be charged' you must give a months notice.

The users of starview and other boxes will not be deterred by a 10 euro fee because they will save themselves far more every month. How would such a fee discourage them?

Now if they sent out an inspector to eveyone who downgraded ... that might be different.

rubadub

Xterminator wrote: »

The users of starview and other boxes will not be deterred by a 10 euro fee because they will save themselves far more every month. How would such a fee discourage them?

It won't, it is a case of UPC at least getting something out of them. There must be a lot more downgrading going on due to the boxes, so at least they get something back

Xterminator wrote: »

Now if they sent out an inspector to eveyone who downgraded ... that might be different.

That would cost a fortune, and also the customer gets payback for once, telling them when they will be in. Usually it is the customer having to take days off work only for the engineer not to turn up. Now the shoe is on the other foot, they have already changed boxes in tallaght, and the customer tells them when to come out, and if they are not in then they have to arrange another time. Taste of their own medicine for once.

Anyway the customer would know they are coming and just hide it on the day.

Solair

Actually to be fair to Sky, they don't charge a downgrade fee. They charge a month ahead all the time on their bills i.e. if you receive a bill on 01 January it covers the period from 01 January to 01 February.

However, if you downgrade in the middle of the billing period they credit you on the next bill for the unviewable days.

They only require you to keep a channel package you've upgraded to for 30 days. So, if you want to try something out for a month, it's quite easy to do.

It's quite a fair system and there's no penalty for downgrading.

The UPC (NTL & Chorus) approach is damn nasty and designed to give you a little financial slap in the face to discourage you from downgrading.

patrickmooney

I was just told by UPC sales this charge is only on Sky Channels as Sky charge UPC this, which in turn is passed onto us customers. But dinneenp was charged this to downgrade digital tv package. UPC appear to be making the fees up.

BostonB

UPC need to get their act together.

Stop charging for extra points, downgrades etc. That just annoys people and drives them away, or they find a way to circumvent it.
Just charge for the boxes and match SKY prices or go cheaper.
Match Sky + functionality, that works. The DVR is missing critial Sky+ functionality for me.
Proper support, I don't think they ever came out to fix my analog TV signal despite repeated requests.
Get better boxes. Their DVR, remotes and digital boxes are as slow as heck.

I have UPC/NTL because its the only wired BB I can get. Even then I have contention issues at peak and also bad lag to Irish servers, but not UK. I never bothered to upgrade to digital TV because I don't watch much TV happy with the basic stations. The only reason I'd upgrade to digital now is because they don't come out and fix the dire analog reception. Even then I'd prefer a Sky+ box. The cost over the NTL DVR is the same more or less.

dinneenp

What features is the DVR missing that Sky+ has?

(I hate the slooow NTL)

BostonB

If what you're taping moves to a different time it adjusts the recording accordingly.

sportbilly

dinneenp wrote: »

What features is the DVR missing that Sky+ has?

(I hate the slooow NTL)

Series Link

BostonB

I got something in the door that said they'd be doing this in the future. But I'm not hopeful they'll do it right.