ANSWER: 46 According to one unhappy customer

NTL needed nine months and 46 engineers to diagnose a simple television fault, a customer claims.

And Steve Dixon says the firm then added insult to injury by charging him £200 for a service that never worked properly.

Mr Dixon, 21, who describes himself as a full-time father, lives in Groundwell Road, Swindon, with girlfriend Claire Ruddock, also 21, and their 15-month-old son, Liam.

He had a £24 a-month satellite television system installed in October of last year.

Mr Dixon said: "About three weeks later, we started getting problems.

"The digital box kept locking up, stopping us from receiving programmes.

"Sometimes, we couldn't even get terrestrial channels.

"Between October of last year and July of this year, we had 46 engineers coming out to us.

"Then the last engineer we had out told us that our system had not been connected to the outside box in the street. "We were being charged £24 per month for the service, and now we have been landed with a £200 bill for a TV service.

"We have no intention of paying for a service we never received.

"After the problems began, we just paid for the service every now and again, because we weren't paying if we weren't getting the service.

"I have sent NTL a letter, com-plaining about the matter, but so far we have had nothing back from them."

NTL spokeswoman Liz Nichol-son said: "According to our records, there have not been 46 visits by engineers, but we only keep records as far back as March 14. The customer has had problems with his cable TV, and we are quite happy to credit him with that."

Ms Nicholson added that Mr Dixon also owed money for an NTL telephone service, which had not been disrupted, and that the firm would insist on his paying.

Last week the Evening Advertiser revealed that NTL is to close its shop in the town centre. The firm insists it took the decision after surveys revealed that customers preferred dealing with telephone helplines.

But a number of aggrieved customers and former customers have suggested that it was because staff at the shop had to field too many complaints.