Wolfsbayne
18-02-2007, 14:52
Sick to death of NTL and their incompetence . . .
From December 12 to 15 there was no internet connection at all on my street (my daughter lives on the same street and she had no service). I rang technical support and was told their was a problem at their end, end eventually the service resumed however, it has been absolutely terrible. It's on less than 50% of the time, it can be on for a couple of hours then off for hours then back on again, etc. It usually goes off around 4pm which is predictable with it being peak time, etc and likely that its ntl's fault.
So I rang them back and was told that there was a problem with the modem and an engineer would come round. An engineer did come round but he said the modem was fine (internet was of course working fine at this time in the morning) and that it must be a loose wire in the wireless router. As the router is around four or five years old I thought that perhaps this could be a reason and so left it at that, the internet did seem to get a little better after I reinstalled the router (coincidence I now find) so I left it again.
Last week the internet went down again for several hours and so I purchased a new router and receiver (£60) installed them, got a decent connection and thought the problem was over. No chance, at 4pm the internet went down again so it wasnt the router. I rang technical support and was told again that it was the modem but an engineer couldnt come out to change it until Monday (five days later). Im an OU student and need the internet connection and find five days for a five minute job a ridiculous time to wait, I asked for compensation for the lack of service over the past two months and was told customer services would have to do this, so they put me through.
I spoke to customer services and explained the situation and was told that they couldnt refund me, only technical support could do a refund as it was a fault causing the poor service. Well, again NTL were trying to pass me from pillar to post as they always do so I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was told there were none available, I said I would wait but I had been on the phone for half an hour and couldnt afford the call (im disabled, I dont have the money to waste on ntl calls), so they said they would call me back, great I thought.
I did get a call back - from tv fault department NOT broadband! Eventually I got through to a advisor from that team to put me back through to customer services where I spoke to a gentleman who was at last more help. He agreed to a £40 compensation of two months internet and £4 for the phone call which isnt brilliant but something, when I asked why I was told customer services couldnt do this before he said it was up to the individual advisor whether they do a refund or not. So the previous advisor who was trying to get me back to technical support was lying! I said that I wanted to make a formal complaint and wanted a written reply and a reference number for the complaint - I was told they don't do this. When I asked how would I know if they had actually put the complaint through I was told that it was logged on the system. So I dont actually know if this is really the case. And I have had previous experience of someone calling me to offer a free months internet due to previous issues, then having the internet cut because I hadnt paid, rang customer services told them to look on the computer about the phone call and free month to be told that there was nothing logged on there! Very convenient.
To add to all of this, because I had to get a new router and receiver, when I set up the receiver on my wife's computer it was working fine. When she restarted the computer had 'crashed' (for want of a better term) and there was a windows dialogue box asking for domain username and password (never set up on there) and I couldnt get any further, so I had to reformat the computer, etc. Have now found it was a compatibility issue with the software and have been able to put the old receiver back on but now her computer is playing up and im expecting it to break down completely at any time. Not only have I brought a new receiver for no reason that I cant use, my wife's computer is just about broken because of it, all because the engineer said everything was fine with ntl when it wasnt and I cant afford to buy her a new computer which was originally a gift.
I have now written a letter and want a written response but I want to know why their staff lie, put the phone down and get the wrong department to ring back, when the engineer blamed the router when tech support said it was the modem which has now been confirmed. Im just at the end of my tether with this and feel ntl are nothing but cowboys.
From December 12 to 15 there was no internet connection at all on my street (my daughter lives on the same street and she had no service). I rang technical support and was told their was a problem at their end, end eventually the service resumed however, it has been absolutely terrible. It's on less than 50% of the time, it can be on for a couple of hours then off for hours then back on again, etc. It usually goes off around 4pm which is predictable with it being peak time, etc and likely that its ntl's fault.
So I rang them back and was told that there was a problem with the modem and an engineer would come round. An engineer did come round but he said the modem was fine (internet was of course working fine at this time in the morning) and that it must be a loose wire in the wireless router. As the router is around four or five years old I thought that perhaps this could be a reason and so left it at that, the internet did seem to get a little better after I reinstalled the router (coincidence I now find) so I left it again.
Last week the internet went down again for several hours and so I purchased a new router and receiver (£60) installed them, got a decent connection and thought the problem was over. No chance, at 4pm the internet went down again so it wasnt the router. I rang technical support and was told again that it was the modem but an engineer couldnt come out to change it until Monday (five days later). Im an OU student and need the internet connection and find five days for a five minute job a ridiculous time to wait, I asked for compensation for the lack of service over the past two months and was told customer services would have to do this, so they put me through.
I spoke to customer services and explained the situation and was told that they couldnt refund me, only technical support could do a refund as it was a fault causing the poor service. Well, again NTL were trying to pass me from pillar to post as they always do so I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was told there were none available, I said I would wait but I had been on the phone for half an hour and couldnt afford the call (im disabled, I dont have the money to waste on ntl calls), so they said they would call me back, great I thought.
I did get a call back - from tv fault department NOT broadband! Eventually I got through to a advisor from that team to put me back through to customer services where I spoke to a gentleman who was at last more help. He agreed to a £40 compensation of two months internet and £4 for the phone call which isnt brilliant but something, when I asked why I was told customer services couldnt do this before he said it was up to the individual advisor whether they do a refund or not. So the previous advisor who was trying to get me back to technical support was lying! I said that I wanted to make a formal complaint and wanted a written reply and a reference number for the complaint - I was told they don't do this. When I asked how would I know if they had actually put the complaint through I was told that it was logged on the system. So I dont actually know if this is really the case. And I have had previous experience of someone calling me to offer a free months internet due to previous issues, then having the internet cut because I hadnt paid, rang customer services told them to look on the computer about the phone call and free month to be told that there was nothing logged on there! Very convenient.
To add to all of this, because I had to get a new router and receiver, when I set up the receiver on my wife's computer it was working fine. When she restarted the computer had 'crashed' (for want of a better term) and there was a windows dialogue box asking for domain username and password (never set up on there) and I couldnt get any further, so I had to reformat the computer, etc. Have now found it was a compatibility issue with the software and have been able to put the old receiver back on but now her computer is playing up and im expecting it to break down completely at any time. Not only have I brought a new receiver for no reason that I cant use, my wife's computer is just about broken because of it, all because the engineer said everything was fine with ntl when it wasnt and I cant afford to buy her a new computer which was originally a gift.
I have now written a letter and want a written response but I want to know why their staff lie, put the phone down and get the wrong department to ring back, when the engineer blamed the router when tech support said it was the modem which has now been confirmed. Im just at the end of my tether with this and feel ntl are nothing but cowboys.