Why do chorus ntl charge extra for broadband as stand alone?

mehmeh12

Hi

Why is is that when you order broadband as a stand alone product they charge you a extra 7.50? and why do non direct debit customers get charged 3.00 extra?

They have no way of stopping the tv signal from coming down the cable, so its a sort of charge to offset the cost of analogue you are also receiving. Even if you never touch it.

mehmeh12

cisk wrote: »

They have no way of stopping the tv signal from coming down the cable, so its a sort of charge to offset the cost of analogue you are also receiving. Even if you never touch it.

And subscribers just accept this? i have heard way too many stories about the signal of the digital tv being always fuzzy or in some way crap. I have no intention of ever getting the chorus tv package. But if i want to get the broadband by itself i have to pay extra for a service IM NOT USING???WTF?

gar120

another case of rip off ireland if you ask me!

jor el

mehmeh12 wrote: »

Why is is that when you order broadband as a stand alone product they charge you a extra 7.50? and why do non direct debit customers get charged 3.00 extra?

Because they can. Think of it as the line rental of the cable TV network.

dub45

jor el wrote: »

Because they can. Think of it as the line rental of the cable TV network.

Indeed! No better company:rolleyes: And did you know that if your direct debit happens to bounce which in these times I am sure is far from rare they will charge you a total of €11! Now if you find anywhere on their web site where they actually warn you about this and quantify it you are a better man than me.

Buried in their terms and conditions is a warning that they 'may' charge you if the direct debit is not met. But you are then supposed to guess whether they will or not and of course you have to guess the amount they 'may' charge - great company great country to be a consumer in. By the way your bank will charge you 12.50! too. And guess what the bank (well my bank anyways) charges UPC if a dd is not met? 97 cents - so UPC rub their hands gleefully and say 'Sure we will add on a tenner there' grand opportunity to make lots of lolly for nothing - now imagine if 10% of UPC's dd customers happen to miss their monthly payment how much that might amount to?

(By the way UPC have approx 500,000 customers.

Funnily enough most people would think that the dd system is for paying bills and not for companies to exploit to make money but hey what silly people we are! So with UPC you pay up if you dont pay by dd and you could pay an awful lot if you miss that dd!

IPSO who are supposed to look after the dd sytem have told me that such charges have nothing to do with them at all! It is quite amazing how many things have nothing got to do with IPSO.

By the way the ESB also charge you if you miss a dd again not something they warn you about either - they charge a mere 6 euros but then again can you imagine how many customers the ESB have?

-=al=-

dub45 wrote: »

Indeed! No better company:rolleyes: And did you know that if your direct debit happens to bounce which in these times I am sure is far from rare they will charge you a total of €11! Now if you find anywhere on their web site where they actually warn you about this and quantify it you are a better man than me.

Buried in their terms and conditions is a warning that they 'may' charge you if the direct debit is not met. But you are then supposed to guess whether they will or not and of course you have to guess the amount they 'may' charge - great company great country to be a consumer in. By the way your bank will charge you 12.50! too. And guess what the bank (well my bank anyways) charges UPC if a dd is not met? 97 cents - so UPC rub their hands gleefully and say 'Sure we will add on a tenner there' grand opportunity to make lots of lolly for nothing - now imagine if 10% of UPC's dd customers happen to miss their monthly payment how much that might amount to?

(By the way UPC have approx 500,000 customers.

Funnily enough most people would think that the dd system is for paying bills and not for companies to exploit to make money but hey what silly people we are! So with UPC you pay up if you dont pay by dd and you could pay an awful lot if you miss that dd!

IPSO who are supposed to look after the dd sytem have told me that such charges have nothing to do with them at all! It is quite amazing how many things have nothing got to do with IPSO.

By the way the ESB also charge you if you miss a dd again not something they warn you about either - they charge a mere 6 euros but then again can you imagine how many customers the ESB have?

all those little fee's are freakin whack, madness how they get away with it

J-blk

What excuse will they use when analog TV is shut down I wonder? If you actually do want the TV service, they have been pricing analog into oblivion for quite awhile now (it's more expensive than the basic digital pack, which is much better quality-wise and has a lot more channels).

Is there's an approximate date of when analog broadcasts will die off here (or does that only apply to over-the-air and not cable?).

jor el

J-blk wrote: »

What excuse will they use when analog TV is shut down I wonder?

It's already not available to some people (I can't get Analog TV from UPC) but still have to pay this. Like I said, it's basically line rental, and they charge it simply because they can. There's no real reason for it. They just want it.

chalkitdown

They are already arseing around with the analog signal in Limerick to make people go digital. They occasionally have the AGC setting on Sky news set too high which makes the audio drop out at least once a minute, E4 is now set to 4/3 permanently and Living can be off for days at a time.

IrishTonyO

I have broadband but don;t get the analogue tv stations

hightower1

I'd imagine the stand alone charge is there as an incentive to not have it stand alone i.e take something else from them?

If its a new thing your entitled contact them within 30 days and cancel your service. If your new to them and you weren't told you'd end up paying it by a sales person you can also cancel straight away.

Basically you dont have to pay it f you dont want to.

greenman09

thinking on switchin phone and broadband from eircom. pay 100for2months for broadband and phone with all ireland free calls. can upc match or better this. the website isn't. much help. use web for online on xbox.

jimmycrackcorm

gar120 wrote: »

another case of rip off ireland if you ask me!

How's it a rip-off when you compare having to pay for line rental for DSL broadband if you don't use the landline.

ardmacha

Phone cables or TV cable infrastructure has to be paid for, you can offer broadband cheaply as an extra, but if the subscriber isn't paying for the basic service then they should make a contribution towards the infrastructure costs. Nothing odd or rip-off about it.

dub45

ardmacha wrote: »

Phone cables or TV cable infrastructure has to be paid for, you can offer broadband cheaply as an extra, but if the subscriber isn't paying for the basic service then they should make a contribution towards the infrastructure costs. Nothing odd or rip-off about it.

Surely increasing it by 30% (as they have just done) at a time of deflation is a rip off?

Also why should tv be the basic service and not bb? Why call it tv cable infrastructure? Surely the cable infrastructure is content neutral?

Cabaal

dub45 wrote: »

Also why should tv be the basic service and not bb? Why call it tv cable infrastructure? Surely the cable infrastructure is content neutral?

TV is the basic service because thats what the cable network started off offering to people.

Why should a voice service be the basic service on a PSTN line instead of a data service?

Why do Eircom charge PSTN line rental of 25e a month when they could do something like a ULMP unbundle and convert the line to data only so line rental for voice services wouldn't be charged.

Basically UPC can charge this small fee if they wish too, its their network and it is a small fee compared to PSTN rental

mehmeh12

Does anyone here pay chorus ntl by direct debit-what has been your experience with this?

ardmacha

Also why should tv be the basic service and not bb?

If BB was the basic service for which you pay €20 a month and if TV was then an extra €10 or whatever, then people would still not be happy. People just don't like paying for things, especially in Ireland where the services are relatively expensive.

TestTransmission

mehmeh12 wrote: »

Does anyone here pay chorus ntl by direct debit-what has been your experience with this?

I did up until a month ago,had tv and broaband for 2 years with them.No issues at all.

spurious

mehmeh12 wrote: »

Does anyone here pay chorus ntl by direct debit-what has been your experience with this?

No problems whatsoever.
I have always found them an excellent company to deal with.
Plus they are not eircom.