UPC/NTL letter

currythis

Hi,we got a letter today from ntl/upc offering to upgrade our basic piped tv to digital tv with their pvr box with for 50c a month.
we are strongly thinking about taking them up on this as it seems like a great deal.
Also we are thinking about signing up for their broadband express aswell.
Just want to get peoples opinions on both of these services as the prices seem to good to be true!
Are they good services?

BaconZombie

Read the small print, IIRC the 50c is only for the first 2 or 3 months and then it full price, also your signing yourself into another 1 year contract starting from the day of the order.

currythis wrote: »

Hi,we got a letter today from ntl/upc offering to upgrade our basic piped tv to digital tv with their pvr box with for 50c a month.
we are strongly thinking about taking them up on this as it seems like a great deal.
Also we are thinking about signing up for their broadband express aswell.
Just want to get peoples opinions on both of these services as the prices seem to good to be true!
Are they good services?

Edit:

I got the same letter even though my service cancellation was completed on Jan 31st.

d8player

currythis wrote: »

Hi,we got a letter today from ntl/upc offering to upgrade our basic piped tv to digital tv with their pvr box with for 50c a month.
we are strongly thinking about taking them up on this as it seems like a great deal.
Also we are thinking about signing up for their broadband express aswell.
Just want to get peoples opinions on both of these services as the prices seem to good to be true!
Are they good services?

Compared to the analog service with a VCR the UPC Digital service with the dvr is light years ahead. I for one would never go back. I have not used Sky+ so I cannot compare to that service. I'll leave that to others.

seamus

Tbh it's not that bad a deal. The digital service is cheaper than the standard analogue service for a start. The PVR is €5 a month normally. So that's €60 a year. When you consider that to buy a PVR yourself will cost the guts of €300, then you're not getting a bad deal until maybe 3 years down the road when you may be better off cancelling it and buying your own (assuming they've dropped in price).

BeerNut

It'll take me a while to sort out the alternative, so I signed up for digital yesterday, currently having analogue only.

The form said I could pay without direct debit for €1.50 a month extra -- good value, IMO. It wouldn't let me skip the bank details bit so I just put in zeroes, and "No direct debit" as the name.

Today I got a phone call from a call centre asking for my bank details. I tried to explain that I wasn't going to pay by direct debit, but this wasn't accepted. She said she was cancelling the order and I should re-apply, including the bank details. I agreed, and as I was writing an e-mail to customer services explaining what had gone wrong, the phone rang and the call centre said they'd changed their minds and I could pay manually.

It is possible to not a have direct debit with NTL, but they certainly make you work for it.

AL_otto_pain

I have the Broadband express and Digital TV with DVR . I would definitly recomend both . The DVR has a few issues (see other threads) but I find it great. The broadband is as advertised 10Meg connection .

The only problem I had was my order(s) were being cancelled for some unknown reason . Once my final order went through the engineer arrived at the agreed time .

I remember reading the t&C's on UPC website but can't find it now that you can pay other than direct debit (they just strongly recomend it). They charge you more for this "service" .

murpho999

BeerNut wrote: »

It'll take me a while to sort out the alternative, so I signed up for digital yesterday, currently having analogue only.

The form said I could pay without direct debit for €1.50 a month extra -- good value, IMO. It wouldn't let me skip the bank details bit so I just put in zeroes, and "No direct debit" as the name.

Today I got a phone call from a call centre asking for my bank details. I tried to explain that I wasn't going to pay by direct debit, but this wasn't accepted. She said she was cancelling the order and I should re-apply, including the bank details. I agreed, and as I was writing an e-mail to customer services explaining what had gone wrong, the phone rang and the call centre said they'd changed their minds and I could pay manually.

It is possible to not a have direct debit with NTL, but they certainly make you work for it.

Just wondering why you won't pay by direct debit? It's certainly more convenient, and bills arrive about 10 days before money is due to be debited, so you have time to raise any queries on your bill.

I never understand peoples reluctance to use direct debit....people seem to think that they will lose money.

currythis

I think we are definitely going to order the digital plus pvr thingy aswell as their broadband express.Just wondering does the digibox need to be connected to a phone line in the same way as sky plus?we currently have no landline so this could be a problem.
Theres no problem paying by direct debit though as I find it much handier then q'ing in the post office every month!

d8player

currythis wrote: »

I think we are definitely going to order the digital plus pvr thingy aswell as their broadband express.Just wondering does the digibox need to be connected to a phone line in the same way as sky plus?we currently have no landline so this could be a problem.
Theres no problem paying by direct debit though as I find it much handier then q'ing in the post office every month!

No you do not need a landline. When we got the broadband with UPC we actually canceled our landline and its saving us a fortune. We use blueface.ie for telephone though, not UPC.

BeerNut

murpho999 wrote: »

Just wondering why you won't pay by direct debit?

Bad anecdotal experiences. The couple of times a year someone in the office can be heard on the phone trying to get a wrongly-deducted DD refunded. That, and I'm a raving tinfoil-hatted control freak.

I certainly feel justified in my decision giving the abject incompetence I experienced on the phone with NTL representatives yesterday.