ntl no-tv charge jumps 30%

daymobrew

I have ntl/upc for broadband and Sky for TV.
I pay a "Fibre Power Broadband Standalone Charge" to not have their analogue TV.

It used to be 12 euro for 2 months. This bill it has jumped almost 30% to 15.50!!
This is quite the rip off - it's a charge to not receive a service!! It is racketeering?

I'll have to inform PriceWatch.

I have Sky TV because it is infinitely better.

GerardKeating

daymobrew wrote: »

This is quite the rip off - it's a charge to not receive a service!! It is racketeering?

No, it's basically line rental..

Basically the bb charge is discounted for TV users, you do not take the TV, you do not get the discount...

mehmeh12

But it makes no sense-being charged for a service that you are not using.

Plus is a well known fact that the upc tv service is as dodgy as hell.

jimoc

You're not being charged for not using TV.
You are simply being charged for using broadband.

Think of it this way. (figures are crap, jsut for illustration)
A = Charge for service A1 = TV charge (20 quid), A2 = Broadband Charge (20 Quid)
B = Admin type charge B1 = TV Admin (10 quid), B2 = BB Admin (40 quid)

Cost of TV service = A1 + B1 = 30 quid
Cost of Broadband = A2 + B2 = 60 quid
Cost of Both = A1 + A2 + B1 = 50 quid

The idea is, they WANT you to use both services so charge extra admin if you only get the broadband.

ardmacha

But it makes no sense-being charged for a service that you are not using.

You are using the cable infrastructure, why should you not pay for it? Why should only TV users pay for it?

As stated above it is basically line rental.

talkingclock

ardmacha wrote: »

You are using the cable infrastructure, why should you not pay for it? Why should only TV users pay for it?

As stated above it is basically line rental.

the OP is already paying for the cable infrastructure as he is subscribed to broadband via this cable infrastructure. The OP is not getting broadband for free (i assume) nor is he robbing something from poor UPC/NTL.

rubadub

daymobrew wrote: »

I pay a "Fibre Power Broadband Standalone Charge" to not have their analogue TV.

That seems a strange way to word it. In effect they are giving a discount to people already subscribed to TV, which I would expect.

Burger king recently had a deal where if you bought a proper meal you could buy nuggets or other things for 99cent, if I wanted the nuggets without a meal they might be €1.99 I would not call the extra €1 a "charge to not have the meal."

http://www.upc.ie/broadband/thirty/

Fibre Power Broadband 30Mb for €42 a month and FREE connection when you order online.

Price shown is when added to an existing TV connection. Otherwise a Fibre Power Broadband Standalone Charge of €7.75 a month applies

If I had UPC TV and then got broadband with them I would be well pissed off if people could get just broadband at the same price as I pay extra. I would expect a discount. How they word it is just marketing, like pizza places have "free delivery" and then a "walk in discount". The €7.75 is like a rental/connection fee as said above.

lensman

daymobrew wrote: »

I have ntl/upc for broadband and Sky for TV.
I pay a "Fibre Power Broadband Standalone Charge" to not have their analogue TV.

It used to be 12 euro for 2 months. This bill it has jumped almost 30% to 15.50!!
This is quite the rip off - it's a charge to not receive a service!! It is racketeering?

I'll have to inform PriceWatch.

I have Sky TV because it is infinitely better.

of course it's a racket,..this is an old nut I & others raised here many time over the years,..your paying for the companys inability to supply you with a BB only service,..they won't/can't eliminate the analogue TV signal from your connection so they invented this sneeky stand alone charge in order to suck a few more euro from you,...BTW as in the past the raising of this issue here brings the upc supporters club out fighting so forget it daymobrew,.. your in the minority I'm afraid

daymobrew

lensman wrote: »

your paying for the companys inability to supply you with a BB only service,..they won't/can't eliminate the analogue TV signal from your connection

I think that they could do it - there is a splitter at the box, lower frequency output is for TV and higher for BB. They could change it to be a single output splitter.

lensman

daymobrew wrote: »

I think that they could do it - there is a splitter at the box, lower frequency output is for TV and higher for BB. They could change it to be a single output splitter.

ahh yes but that would be to you "the customers" benifit so that makes it a non starter,..the only service they supply which is of top quality is the BB service so you should use it to your advantage as I do, with the recent upgrade I now have the 30MB BB package, I use blueface.ie for my phone service, this is a quality VOIP service which works over the upc BB connection,..€149 per year for all my landline calls to Ireland/UK,...a once off fee of €10 to keep my eircom number before I gave them the boot, another saving there,...the upc phone service can't compete with this.

rubadub

lensman wrote: »

brings the upc supporters club

Most posts I read are about how bad UPC are, very few seem to think they provide a good service. All the posters above were trying to explain that it is basically a line rental charge, and that the current subscribers are in effect getting a discount.

lensman wrote: »

your in the minority I'm afraid

Yes, the minority who cannot figure out this type of phrasing used by marketers.

I think that they could do it - there is a splitter at the box, lower frequency output is for TV and higher for BB. They could change it to be a single output splitter.

And they would probably charge you rental for this splitter.

Again.

Fibre Power Broadband 30Mb for €42 a month and FREE connection when you order online.

Price shown is when added to an existing TV connection. Otherwise a Fibre Power Broadband Standalone Charge of €7.75 a month applies

This could just as easily be phrased.

Fibre Power Broadband 30Mb for €49.75 a month and FREE connection when you order online.

Price shown is when only subscribing to broadband. People with an existing TV connection will get a discount of €7.75 per month

There would be less admin etc involved having 1 person subscribed to both, rather than dealing with one person subscribing to broadband, and another to TV, less lines to support, less stuff to install etc.

lensman

well we all realy know whats going on here,..they know a BB only customer can plug the cable in their TV & avail of the analogue channels bad minded lot that they are :rolleyes: who would ever dream of doing this:eek:,..the very thought of it:eek:,..of course they can't accuse a customer of doing this but they can & do charge you this BB only fee, perhaps they should call it a "just in case you might be tempted to watch our analogue channels as well as using our BB service" charge

daymobrew

rubadub wrote: »

Yes, the minority who cannot figure out this type of phrasing used by marketers.

Ouch. Did I say something to offend you?