NTL trial?

RicardoSmith

What happens when your NTL trial is up? Do they tell you or just start charging you?

Infini

It's not actually a trial. You sign up for twelve months but they give you the first 3 months free. You pay for the remaining 9 months.

Colly

I got the first three months at the highest speed as it is free 1.5Mbps. Then I called them like two days before it was up and asked to move to 300kbps as it is hopefully going to be upgraded to 1mbps later this year (see other threads). They messed up and never moved me over so had to call again and ask for a refund for there mistake in not moving me, once i spoke to a manager as the girl in technical support was less than helpful and just wanted me to go away rather than help me.

But once i spoke to the manager she moved me to the slower and said they will refund me the difference.

getting 36Kbps average now which i am happy enough with, as it is always on.

So yes they just start charging u and they will leave u on the super fast conection at the high cost unless u tell them otherwise. Whenever talking to the support team in ntl get names and even a ticket number which is a reference to your call.

Later

RicardoSmith

I was thinking of moving to the lower one aswell. I don't really download that much.

Colly

RicardoSmith wrote:

I was thinking of moving to the lower one aswell. I don't really download that much.

yeah u will get 34kbps which is fine for web surfing and downloading 3-10Mbyte sized files, would only take about 1.5mins to download a 3mbps file. But for the first few seconds of a prolonged download u get over 100kbps but it drops gradually to 34kbps after about 10seconds so webpages load quite fast as they normally would not take longer than 10seconds to load. They load instantly for me well almost maybe a 2second wait for heavy pages. If u are downloading movies from ligetimate sources then you would be better off going for faster conections. But even still if ur happy to leave the computer on for 36hrs u would stil get ur movie, it would take that long sometimes with a very fast connection anyways, but you could just download more stuff at the same time whereas with a 300kbps connection you are best to stick to one big download at a time to maintain its speed.

Infini

I'd probably stay at the 1.5MB/s on as theyre planning on upping it to 3MB/s when the lines upgraded with a 40GB cap. Going down to the lowest one means they'll be cutting your cap by 10GB or so I hear.

Colly

Infini wrote:

I'd probably stay at the 1.5MB/s on as theyre planning on upping it to 3MB/s when the lines upgraded with a 40GB cap. Going down to the lowest one means they'll be cutting your cap by 10GB or so I hear.

yeah sure there is a 30gb cap right now, so that is not a concern for me right now. I am sure they will start enforcing once they get the subsriptions up but untill then they want us all to spread the news that it is a great service with no holds barred. So if the rules change i will evaluate it but untill then i will go with the cheapest and stretch that as far as i can. I will be going oncall in a job i am starting soon so i may try and get them to pay for the highest speed anyways hehe, time is the only answer to all the above references.

Colly

a couple of ntl staff track boards so i will probably pm them after a few weeks and see when they are going to think of upping to the faster service and will it cost us at all. Have you heard anything about it yet? I guess I should be following the uk boards to see how they are implementing it. Like do they cap and enforce and do they charge a once of charge and will the roll it out slowly or flick switches farely fastly.

Infini

What about the 750 package. Its 10 euros deared but at least is better than DSL package lines.

Infini

Colly wrote:

a couple of ntl staff track boards so i will probably pm them after a few weeks and see when they are going to think of upping to the faster service and will it cost us at all. Have you heard anything about it yet? I guess I should be following the uk boards to see how they are implementing it. Like do they cap and enforce and do they charge a once of charge and will the roll it out slowly or flick switches farely fastly.

People have said that Ireland was upgraded at the same time as the UK the last 2 times but I'm not sure about the cap enforcement or anything like that.

Colly

Infini wrote:

What about the 750 package. Its 10 euros deared but at least is better than DSL package lines.

I have though about it will see how the work thing panes out with them paying for it, they may have a deal with eircon though and god forbid i have to put in a phone line and pay line rental and stuff like that, i will pay for ntl myself if they wont pay for it.

As for the same time to upgrade, i hope that is the case but i find it hard to believe as we are so far behind in other areas of europe in rolling our broad band out maybe they will though, it may not be as big a task as it maybe just upgrading the switches and routers etc, which could be done in one central location.

Infini

Colly wrote:

As for the same time to upgrade, i hope that is the case but i find it hard to believe as we are so far behind in other areas of europe in rolling our broad band out maybe they will though, it may not be as big a task as it maybe just upgrading the switches and routers etc, which could be done in one central location.

Well technically as I've found NTL here is actually part of the UK network. They built and own the fibreoptic network that connects Ireland to the UK and elsewhere which other ISP's here have to ride on (With the exeption of Sattelite). It's probably why customers here got upgraded at the same time as the UK.

Colly

That makes sense, would you mind if i pm ya?

Infini

I don't use the pm functions as I never actually read them but if you have a problem you should just leave a post mate.

jimmycrackcorm

Colly wrote:

would only take about 1.5mins to download a 3mbps file. But for the first few seconds of a prolonged download u get over 100kbps but it drops gradually to 34kbps after about 10seconds so webpages load quite fast as they normally would not take longer than 10seconds to load.

that's not the case - that is IE starting to download before you select the download location in the save as dialog. When you press ok it already has downloaded so much but only starts counting the time from then - hence the following gradual decrease to the expected download speed. Otherwise If you did not press ok for a couple of minutes you might get a speed of 34MB :-)

Incidentally, The first NTL bill I got after the trial was €250 or so - two months TV plus Two months upfront broadband plus a partial month for the end of the trial. A bit unexpected!

Infini

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

Incidentally, The first NTL bill I got after the trial was €250 or so - two months TV plus Two months upfront broadband plus a partial month for the end of the trial. A bit unexpected!

How exactly did the charges break down and when was this?

jimmycrackcorm

Exactly as I mentioned:
Two months tv up front ( digital)
Two months broadband max up front
partial month broadband arrear
stupid second socket
VAT

I just didn't realise that I would be hit upfront for charges when other bills such as eircom / gas etc are paid in arrears.

RicardoSmith

Good to be warned of it thanks

Drapper

250 thats steep.

I just got the Max on tial too so can i assume the first bill will be the Basic * 2 and the Max *2 ?

D

Infini

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

Exactly as I mentioned:
Two months tv up front ( digital)
Two months broadband max up front
partial month broadband arrear
stupid second socket
VAT

I just didn't realise that I would be hit upfront for charges when other bills such as eircom / gas etc are paid in arrears.

Well the digital and the arrears explains the higher bill but you could have saved money by installing the socket yourself you know. How much did that cost you?

Selik

I've just signed up for the NTL 1.5mps 3mth trial braodband today and so far so good.... Nice to be actually "always on" unlike DSL where you still have to connect using a password. I was on UTV clicksilver before and I was very happy with that but my plan is to now cancel the UTV contract and pay up the remaining two months, cancel my Eircom home line and once my NTL trial is up I'm leaving Ireland to go travelling for a year so I will then cancel all my stuff with NTL (I know there will be a fee but it's not huge)!!! When I return to Ireland I'll sign up with NTL again for all my TV and Internet needs and not have to worry about being screwed for line rental by Eircom.

Drapper

You cant do that mate !!! its a 12 month contract !!! with 3 free!!! I think?

thund3rbird_

ntl is nota 3 mth trial

it's a 12 mth contract - you get the first 3 mths free

Infini

Drapper wrote:

You cant do that mate !!! its a 12 month contract !!! with 3 free!!! I think?

Read it more closely It's a 12 month contract with the FIRST 3 MONTHS FREE!!! I haven't yet heard any information about how much it cost's to disconnect the service.

Drapper

Infini wrote:

Read it more closely It's a 12 month contract with the FIRST 3 MONTHS FREE!!! I haven't yet heard any information about how much it cost's to disconnect the service.

Thats what I was trying to say !!

Selik

Yeah sorry didn't make that clear I know that it's not a trial as such. I asked a girl on the phone if I didn't want it after 3 months could I cancel and she said yes but that there would be a fee - unlikely to be more than 2 months worth of payments for the service. Still works out cheaper for me and I get a superfast connection for the next 3 months (although I'm still not sure how to get the most out of the speed - any ideas people?) There's only so much downloading that I can do!

Infini

Giles wrote:

Yeah sorry didn't make that clear I know that it's not a trial as such. I asked a girl on the phone if I didn't want it after 3 months could I cancel and she said yes but that there would be a fee - unlikely to be more than 2 months worth of payments for the service. Still works out cheaper for me and I get a superfast connection for the next 3 months (although I'm still not sure how to get the most out of the speed - any ideas people?) There's only so much downloading that I can do!

Animesuki, torrent networks, trialware off microsoft, Etc

jimmycrackcorm

I had the socket installed in the bedroom by the builder when the house was built but didn't know then that NTL would then charge for a second socket - after all - they didn't put it in. I wired the other rooms myself.

Whats more irritating is that for the digital, I use a digi-sender to the bedroom.

I don't understand how they justify the second socket charge - and just tom make it even more confusing, the broadband is on another socket they installed but not on a seperate charge.

kin9pin

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

I had the socket installed in the bedroom by the builder when the house was built but didn't know then that NTL would then charge for a second socket - after all - they didn't put it in. I wired the other rooms myself.

Whats more irritating is that for the digital, I use a digi-sender to the bedroom.

I don't understand how they justify the second socket charge - and just tom make it even more confusing, the broadband is on another socket they installed but not on a seperate charge.

Tell them you no longer require the second socket. I did and am no longer billed for it, but it still works

StickyMcGinty

does anyone know how much the disconnnection fee is then??? i only have like 5 months left on my house lease and i'd like to get it for them 5 months! and i have ntl digital, does that matter?