andygrif
13-12-2004, 03:08
Just thought I'd share this with you:
My email was playing up this afternoon, (usual problems, time outs, rejecting passwords) so I check the status page, nothing. So I leave it a couple of hours and check the page again, still nothing.
So I decide to venture into the BB Tech Support line. Couple of issues recorded there which were relating to emails being rejected by some other ISPs but nothing about problems sending and receiving.
So I wait in the queue...for 20 mins.
We go through the process of identifying who I am and then I'm asked what the problem is.
So I explain the problem, also saying that the situation is the same on all three of my PCs plus the webmail access, plus accessing my POP-3 via Yahoo Mail. This was at 7pm tonight.
We go through the motions of disabling firewall and anti-virus (I know they need to check this but it is rather stupid given that unpatched PCs are generally affected in seconds of having a firewall updated, but as I'm behind a router, I'm not too concerned).
Still rejecting password.
So then she tries to talk me through changing settings in Outlook...or rather she presumes I'm using Outlook Express, so I stop her and tell her I'm using Outlook 2003. "I'm sorry sir, then we cannot offer you any technical support".
Unbelievably, for me at least, I keep my cool. So I explain that if she tells me what she was wanting to achieve in Outlook Express, then I will know how to do it in Outlook 2003. She says she can't, and asks me to set up Outlook Express instead. I explain that I have removed OE from the computer.
She then tells me that she could change some settings on my account which might work, from her end, and could I give her my security word.
What security word? The security word you set up on your account. I have never set up a security word on my account. Everyone has set one up, she says. I haven't got a security word I say. That's no problem, all you need to do is call customer services and they can change it for you. But they're shut on Sunday, I say. You will have to call tomorrow.
But I don't even have a security word to change, I say. It's normally your mother's maiden name, she says. OK, so I give my mother's maiden name, just in case I'm going mad. No, that's not correct, she says. That figures, I say, as I have never told you my mother's maiden name!
So I rapidly realise that we're not going to get anywhere, she won't do anything to my account (and I can understand that if she's being told by ntl I have a security word) and leave it be.
So she's very apologetic and we say goodbye and that's that. Five minutes afterwards, lo and behold a message appears on the status page saying that there are problems with email sending and receiving!!!!
First, why when problems are identified are they not quickly posted on the status page? Two and a half hours isn't good enough. Same thing on the recorded phone message.
By not doing this, the call queues are longer and they have to hire more staff (or pay more Rupees to the support line company for dealing with a higher volume).
Second, why is it always a problem with the customers' PCs? I know we need to check these things as a matter of course, but I seriously doubt mine was the only call telling them of this problem today.
Third, what the hell is ntl doing with blinking security words? Has anyone else run into this problem? I'm very good at remembering who I give such words to, I've never been asked by ntl for one before and I very much doubt I have ever set one up - if I had it must have been when I first got my account 9 years ago, in which case why have I never been asked for it before?
Fourth, er, that's it!
Sorry to vent my splein, just needed to unload. Over to you......
My email was playing up this afternoon, (usual problems, time outs, rejecting passwords) so I check the status page, nothing. So I leave it a couple of hours and check the page again, still nothing.
So I decide to venture into the BB Tech Support line. Couple of issues recorded there which were relating to emails being rejected by some other ISPs but nothing about problems sending and receiving.
So I wait in the queue...for 20 mins.
We go through the process of identifying who I am and then I'm asked what the problem is.
So I explain the problem, also saying that the situation is the same on all three of my PCs plus the webmail access, plus accessing my POP-3 via Yahoo Mail. This was at 7pm tonight.
We go through the motions of disabling firewall and anti-virus (I know they need to check this but it is rather stupid given that unpatched PCs are generally affected in seconds of having a firewall updated, but as I'm behind a router, I'm not too concerned).
Still rejecting password.
So then she tries to talk me through changing settings in Outlook...or rather she presumes I'm using Outlook Express, so I stop her and tell her I'm using Outlook 2003. "I'm sorry sir, then we cannot offer you any technical support".
Unbelievably, for me at least, I keep my cool. So I explain that if she tells me what she was wanting to achieve in Outlook Express, then I will know how to do it in Outlook 2003. She says she can't, and asks me to set up Outlook Express instead. I explain that I have removed OE from the computer.
She then tells me that she could change some settings on my account which might work, from her end, and could I give her my security word.
What security word? The security word you set up on your account. I have never set up a security word on my account. Everyone has set one up, she says. I haven't got a security word I say. That's no problem, all you need to do is call customer services and they can change it for you. But they're shut on Sunday, I say. You will have to call tomorrow.
But I don't even have a security word to change, I say. It's normally your mother's maiden name, she says. OK, so I give my mother's maiden name, just in case I'm going mad. No, that's not correct, she says. That figures, I say, as I have never told you my mother's maiden name!
So I rapidly realise that we're not going to get anywhere, she won't do anything to my account (and I can understand that if she's being told by ntl I have a security word) and leave it be.
So she's very apologetic and we say goodbye and that's that. Five minutes afterwards, lo and behold a message appears on the status page saying that there are problems with email sending and receiving!!!!
First, why when problems are identified are they not quickly posted on the status page? Two and a half hours isn't good enough. Same thing on the recorded phone message.
By not doing this, the call queues are longer and they have to hire more staff (or pay more Rupees to the support line company for dealing with a higher volume).
Second, why is it always a problem with the customers' PCs? I know we need to check these things as a matter of course, but I seriously doubt mine was the only call telling them of this problem today.
Third, what the hell is ntl doing with blinking security words? Has anyone else run into this problem? I'm very good at remembering who I give such words to, I've never been asked by ntl for one before and I very much doubt I have ever set one up - if I had it must have been when I first got my account 9 years ago, in which case why have I never been asked for it before?
Fourth, er, that's it!
Sorry to vent my splein, just needed to unload. Over to you......