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littleraven
17-09-2004, 06:15
On Tuesday 7th Sept the nice man and his assistant arrived to install Broadband, TV and Telephone. The Broadband worked instantly, and now, some 11 days later, we are still waiting for NTL to activate the TV and phone. Trying to get through to customer services (from a phone box) is impossible. I have spent over 10 hours in that phone box since the installation date trying to get answers. (10 attempts at trying to get through waiting at least an hour each time!!!). Then, when I do get through I either get cut off, or forwarded to someone else. Then I get annoyed as no-one still speaks to me. I have sent emails. Only one has been asnwered with a standard reply which tells me that NTL are having technical problems with installations during that time and that no-one who had installations during that week have been activated yet.
11 days now. I am fed up. :o

Maggy
17-09-2004, 07:51
Hallo and welcome.I'm sorry you are having problems and I'm sure someone who works for NTL will be along later to help. :)

However as we do have several members who work for NTL who come here in their free time to offer help and assistance it might be polite and politic to remove the word monkey from your postings.It does rather upset them because they pride themselves on being helpful and useful no matter what others in the company may do and they feel they do not deserve that epitaph. :(

I certainly agree that your situation is not fair and most certainly not right and I'm sure if anyone can help they will. :)

Incog. :tu:

littleraven
17-09-2004, 07:59
Took your advice and eliminated the monkey;)

greencreeper
17-09-2004, 10:25
Took your advice and eliminated the monkey;)
Wise move. I called them "phone monkeys", meaning it in a sort of nice way, and upset two of them oops: :D

St.John
17-09-2004, 14:29
STB for digital TV installed 3/9/04. Guess what? Still not connected. Have also spent hours phoning "high call volumes" "wait in excess of one and a half hours" etc. etc. Did manage to through but still no wiser as they do know of the problem but nobody seems to have any idea when it will be fixed.
Worse had my bill today - still being charged for the old analogue TV service which I no longer have. Much easier to through to billing than faults (only 15mins) - they have agreed a refund.

Chris
17-09-2004, 14:31
Wise move. I called them "phone monkeys", meaning it in a sort of nice way, and upset two of them oops: :D

Ahem ... between the three of you I think you've probably used the 'M' word more than in the original first post. :nono: :p:

littleraven
17-09-2004, 14:37
On the one occasion that I actually did manage to get through to them, they could not even find my account number, even though I had it to hand. It was not on their computer!!! Whoever it was I spoke to put me through to another dept., but after waiting another long time for someone to actually speak to me I gave up and hung up. What annoys me so much is that when you call to book an installation you get straight through, but if there is a problem, it is like they just don't want to know. When you do get through they just pass the book. I have now been without a phone for 11 days. A courtosy call to my mobile would have made all the difference to my attitude towards NTL, but they can't even be bothered to do that.

Shaun
17-09-2004, 14:54
You're not going to get connected anytime soon I'm afraid, I've just sent our TV back to then as they have no eta for a fix on the provisioning computer that connects the new equipment to the system. The manager that I spoke with (Dean Hall) said it could be 6 days or 6 months!

Ho hum.

Maggy
17-09-2004, 15:18
Ahem ... between the three of you I think you've probably used the 'M' word more than in the original first post. :nono: :p:

Maggy
17-09-2004, 15:19
Sorry! Only trying to help. :(

Chris
17-09-2004, 15:23
Sorry! Only trying to help. :(

np, I'm being ironic ... it's Friday afternoon, time to unwind and be silly. Wibble. :spin: :)

Maggy
17-09-2004, 15:27
np, I'm being ironic ... it's Friday afternoon, time to unwind and be silly. Wibble. :spin: :)

Oh I've finished work.History last lesson.Was the Romulus and Remus story true with sweet little year 7.

Now I'm sitting with a huge cuppa and a very large bar of choccy.Bliss! :)

St.John
21-09-2004, 20:09
:) Now we are "activated"

Is the problem over?

littleraven
21-09-2004, 20:15
oh no... still waiting... 14 days and counting...

scrotnig
21-09-2004, 20:17
oh no... still waiting... 14 days and counting...
This is not acceptable at all.

Is there no one on here from littleraven's region that can pick this up?

littleraven
22-09-2004, 05:44
Now on day 15 without activation. Following on from the previous, are there any NTL engineers working in the Loughborough area that can tell me something positive. Emails I send to support at NTL are either unanswered or to be honest, the two I have had back are vague (technical problems), and rude.(I've told you before etc).

It is pointless trying to phone, I can't get through and have better things to do than waste hour after hour in a phone box. I have even emailed them to cancel the contract. They won't even reply to that!

I am becoming extremely frustrated now. We have had no phone for over 2 weeks and NTL do not seem to care less.

marcopolio
22-09-2004, 08:32
Now on day 15 without activation. Following on from the previous, are there any NTL engineers working in the Loughborough area that can tell me something positive. Emails I send to support at NTL are either unanswered or to be honest, the two I have had back are vague (technical problems), and rude.(I've told you before etc).

It is pointless trying to phone, I can't get through and have better things to do than waste hour after hour in a phone box. I have even emailed them to cancel the contract. They won't even reply to that!

I am becoming extremely frustrated now. We have had no phone for over 2 weeks and NTL do not seem to care less.
Oh man, yet another satisfied customer. I know that this is annoying but this is also why it is taking hours to get through to us "phone monkeys" ;)

Basically, there is a fault which means that your box / telephone line is not being activated through a new system. All us guys who answer the phone have been told that (off the record!!) there is a fault and we don't know when it will be fixed. We then have to tell the customer that, yes, I know you have not had service for a week/two weeks/a month etc but there is nothing I can do to help and nothing I can do to find out how long it will take to resolve.

Seriously, we are down on staff and calls have increased tenfold (at least) which means that we are constantly letting people queue for an hour.

We are trying - well most of the staff are, and we really can't do any better. If I could let you know more I would be as I said, all the staff are also in the dark. :erm:

If we get told any news, I will post and let you know the info :angel:

Maggy
22-09-2004, 09:02
Also with NTL's record any compensation will be equal to the number of days you have been without your phone or TV.All the phonebox calls won't even be in the equation.Perhaps if it goes on any longer and it is already at an unacceptable time they will let you off the first months payment altogether though I wouldn't hold your breath. :(

Incog.

marcopolio
22-09-2004, 09:26
We have been told that the customer will not be paying for the time without service but in ntl's case, what will probably happen is everybody will be billed as normal and the customers who realise, call in and are willing to wait in the queue will be credited back.

Those who don't realise, or are not willing to wait.... :dozey: more money into the coffers of Mr Ntl

Maggy
22-09-2004, 09:38
We have been told that the customer will not be paying for the time without service but in ntl's case, what will probably happen is everybody will be billed as normal and the customers who realise, call in and are willing to wait in the queue will be credited back.

Those who don't realise, or are not willing to wait.... :dozey: more money into the coffers of Mr Ntl

Yes that sounds about right. :(

GazzaB
22-09-2004, 10:22
Shall we just say that the new billing system is having "teething issues." As I have previously mentioned in other posts I think most staff were expecting this kind of issue as they have happened on the other previous "billing upgrades" that have taken place.

No good for ntl's reputation though and frustrating for us as staff that we cannot do anything about it till the issue is fixed.

Ho hum!
:o
Keep smiling!

poolking
22-09-2004, 12:26
isn't there a backup system, or can't NTL afford another hamster? :D

TiggerT
22-09-2004, 13:50
Hmmm, is this related to the problem registering new users to the broadband internet too?
I had someone install phone and broadband internet last Saturday. Phone worked straight away, but their system will not let me register for broadband internet. The modem and everything works, I can even ping other machines, and get to the autoregister web page, but nothing else. Trying to register on the web it says it can't determine my modem's MAC address.
I've experienced the customer/technical "service" too, hours in queues listening to their "GREAT NEWS!..." and music. They are aware of the problem and are working to fix it.... try again tomorrow.
But their status page shows a similar problem since September 14th! What can take so long to fix such a serious problem?

T.

Maggy
22-09-2004, 13:57
Hmmm, is this related to the problem registering new users to the broadband internet too?
I had someone install phone and broadband internet last Saturday. Phone worked straight away, but their system will not let me register for broadband internet. The modem and everything works, I can even ping other machines, and get to the autoregister web page, but nothing else. Trying to register on the web it says it can't determine my modem's MAC address.
I've experienced the customer/technical "service" too, hours in queues listening to their "GREAT NEWS!..." and music. They are aware of the problem and are working to fix it.... try again tomorrow.
But their status page shows a similar problem since September 14th! What can take so long to fix such a serious problem?

T.

More to the point have they stopped accepting new customers until the problem is sorted?

scrotnig
22-09-2004, 13:58
Hmmm, is this related to the problem registering new users to the broadband internet too?
I had someone install phone and broadband internet last Saturday. Phone worked straight away, but their system will not let me register for broadband internet. The modem and everything works, I can even ping other machines, and get to the autoregister web page, but nothing else. Trying to register on the web it says it can't determine my modem's MAC address.
I've experienced the customer/technical "service" too, hours in queues listening to their "GREAT NEWS!..." and music. They are aware of the problem and are working to fix it.... try again tomorrow.
But their status page shows a similar problem since September 14th! What can take so long to fix such a serious problem?

T.
This is a different issue, I think.

A problem has come to light with modems that have a MAC address starting 00028A5. These are not being recognised by the provisioning system, and therefore cannot currently be registered.

This is being treated as a maximum priority problem and will be rectified shortly.

No other MAC addresses are affected.

You can check your MAC address by looking on the underside of your modem.

If it is this that is causing your problem, then it's NOT the issue that's on the status page, as it's only come to light today.

scrotnig
22-09-2004, 14:00
More to the point have they stopped accepting new customers until the problem is sorted?
No, because they only found out today. Any new customers signed up today won't be affected since the problem will be solved by the time they get installed.

Maggy
22-09-2004, 14:21
No, because they only found out today. Any new customers signed up today won't be affected since the problem will be solved by the time they get installed.

But what about the original poster's problem?Are they still accepting new customers?

scrotnig
22-09-2004, 14:36
But what about the original poster's problem?Are they still accepting new customers?
I don't know as regards that, as it isn't in my region. It's a really bad situation, I agree.

Shaun
22-09-2004, 14:56
More to the point have they stopped accepting new customers until the problem is sorted?

No :rolleyes:

Thats why we sent ours back :(

littleraven
22-09-2004, 16:24
As for new installs... NTL were next door at just after 8 this morning to install TV and Phone. I did manage to speak to the engineer who was aware of the problem. And they carry on with these installations even though they know there is a major problem... He thought that there would be no problem getting my immediate neighbour "switched on", and couldn't explain why ours is still waiting for activation after 15 days. He promised to log my "grievance" when he got back to his yard. (Thanks mate).

Maggy
22-09-2004, 16:44
Well that's just wrong and disgraceful.I'm sure that could almost be considered fraud.

littleraven
22-09-2004, 16:47
I shall have to phone them and suggest that. Oh... I can't can I... my phone has not been activated yet!!!

oxbro
22-09-2004, 19:09
I don't know as regards that, as it isn't in my region. It's a really bad situation, I agree.Similar problem in the Oxford Area. NTL installed the modem and telephone yesterday morning. The phone works OK but the welcome letter didn't have a pin number for registering the broadband service. Managed to obtain a pin from support but the registration server couldn't validate the account so never got as far as entering the MAC address that starts 00.02.8A.
Judging by another post here, I imagine that we would still have been unable to complete the registration because of the unrecognisable MAC address.
Support suggested that Oxford was one of the areas with activation problems. Can anyone confirm this? Anyone else have problems with validating the pin and account info? :confused:

scrotnig
22-09-2004, 19:27
Similar problem in the Oxford Area. NTL installed the modem and telephone yesterday morning. The phone works OK but the welcome letter didn't have a pin number for registering the broadband service. Managed to obtain a pin from support but the registration server couldn't validate the account so never got as far as entering the MAC address that starts 00.02.8A.
Judging by another post here, I imagine that we would still have been unable to complete the registration because of the unrecognisable MAC address.
Support suggested that Oxford was one of the areas with activation problems. Can anyone confirm this? Anyone else have problems with validating the pin and account info? :confused:
Ok two different issues here....

If your MAC address starts 00028A5 then you won't be able to register yet.

Note the 5 at the end there......other 00028A MACs, eg 00028A1, are fine. It's just the ones with the 5.

If it's not that, then it could be the other issue, but check your MAC address first, that will tell you for certain.

oxbro
22-09-2004, 20:31
Note the 5 at the end there......other 00028A MACs, eg 00028A1, are fine. It's just the ones with the 5.Thanks for that Mark. It's 00028A1, so no problem there.
If it's not that, then it could be the other issue, but check your MAC address first, that will tell you for certain.Once the registration problem reported on the service status page has been resolved, I imagine a connection will be possible: http://www.ntl-isp.ntl.com/ServiceStatus/ServiceStatus.aspx

The question I would like answered is: 'Will this problem be resolved for all areas of the Country at once?'

If some areas are resolved sooner than others, will the status page explain which those areas are? I know that my daughter and her friends are anxious to get connected asap.:)

nostra
23-09-2004, 09:51
hey oxbro, what is the error message you get when you try to register on the ntl reg server https://80.5.178.26

???

:D

oxbro
23-09-2004, 13:31
hey oxbro, what is the error message you get when you try to register on the ntl reg server https://80.5.178.26 (https://80.5.178.26/)
???
:DI can't remember exactly. Something like, 'An error has occurred. Cannot verify account details'.
Certainly, the only option was to go back and try again. I believe the pin must match the name on the account.
Customer support was unable to provide an explanation.:shocked:

Marge
23-09-2004, 13:33
There has been a problem with registrations for the Cable Modems, sounds like it's still ongoing.

SMHarman
23-09-2004, 13:35
Dunno, my parents registed fine a couple of hours ago.

scrotnig
23-09-2004, 13:57
OK just to clarify, Oxbro's problem was NOT related to the reg issue on the status page. I think I have sorted it now.

oxbro
23-09-2004, 16:16
OK just to clarify, Oxbro's problem was NOT related to the reg issue on the status page. I think I have sorted it now.Thank you Mark, for sorting that out. Apparently its working now.

mcfc2134
30-09-2004, 09:33
Had NTL Broadband and Digital TV installed into our new flat yesterday afternoon. Engineer said wait 20 mins and you channels will come on......

So this morning I rang customer services to simply ask where they were (at this point the internet wasnt up and running). Obviously I now know the problem, but why dont they say something when the engineer visits?!

Also, anyone have any idea when I can expect to see what I've ordered?!

Plus, the MAC Address of my SACM begins with 00028A5, but it registered fine!

GazzaB
30-09-2004, 09:54
Hello all,
Just to clarify the 00028a5 issue is now sorted and has been for a few days now. Registration is still intermittant though!

scrotnig
30-09-2004, 10:14
Hello all,
Just to clarify the 00028a5 issue is now sorted and has been for a few days now. Registration is still intermittant though!
There seem to be issues with some registrations using the CD.

Anyone having such trouble should try manual registration using https://autoreg.autoregister.net.

There are instructions for doing this in the Cableforum Knowledgebase HERE (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/kb/29/how-to-set-up-your-ntl-broadband-connection-without-a-cd)