Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Indian Call centres aren't always that bad....

When I had problems with my BB recently (see here http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...d.php?t=35274), the only truly helpful person I spoke to, & who actually sorted my problem, was a TS rep at the Indian call centre. Whereas the TS & CS reps I spoke to at the UK call centres proved completely useless.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

People seem to thinks that if all these jobs were in the UK then everything would be OK. FACT: You cannot get people with the necessary technical knowledge to work in callcentres in the UK. I remember when tech support for ntl: was in Newport and there was often 100+ calls in the queue.

So lets pay them more shall we ? Maybe 20k for an Internet tech ? Fine, but guess who will be squarking when their bills go up to employ them !

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Were the queues that length because they could not get people with the necessary technical knowledge or because NTL would not employ enough operatives to keep the queues down? NTL staff who had the necessary technical knowledge lost their jobs which could have been retained if overseas call centres were only used for the overflow of calls which the UK call centres couldn't handle. Perhaps a better solution would have been to retain the UK call centres and have a telephone system which gave the caller the estimated time for their call to be answered with the options to press "1" to hold for a UK based agent or to press "2" to have your call handled overseas.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

The agents in India were starting to take STB calls when i left (June) so i am pretty sure that they will take both now.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Thank you Chris for the update..I will remember next time to not split them.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Thats a good idea, I feel more at ease knowing an estimated time of wait, and having the choice of where my call is taken would be great.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Yes it's a good idea but in all honesty, how many people are going to press 2 !! There is so much bad press about overseas call centres I can't believe many people would.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

then it would serve to pass a message on from the customers :)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Reading an article in the daily mail last week, the article states that abbey national is to pull the plug on cs in india, claiming, ( abbey national ) " We have listened to our customers concerns, our reputation is something we need to protect "

What does that attitude say about ntl's? I have my own thoughts.
Discuss....

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Life in an Indian call centre: http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/stor...604686,00.html b

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I am sure ntl are happy with the conditions these people work in? otherwise surely they would pull out? :)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

remarkably similar to life in a UK call centre if you ask me...

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Yep. I'm sure for most call centre team leader jobs you need a degree in making posters from glitter and pasta shapes rather than actually having any real ability

*Apols to any competent TL's who may read this but they are in minority compared to extras from the muppet show.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

If it is a 5 year contract I guess we will know 5 years after they moved if they are pulling out.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I'm currently working for a well known router manufacturer we have an indian call centre and I have first hand experience of an indian call centre. I must fight there corner and say they can do a very good job that won't happen in an EU call centre, trust me when I say you'd never get the numbers in a call centre full of tommy english (as it were).

But I do agree that the problems are often down to the understanding of problems by the people in those call centres, I see calls everyday about problems that I can solve in 5 minutes where the customer has spoken 3 hours talking to people in our call centre.

In an ideal world there wouldnt be any indian call centre's, in the real world they need giving a better understanding of customers and there problems.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

That's what I hear too, number of people ring up, and totally unprovoked say how nice it is to talk to someone in a UK call centre who will listen and then the customer just has a moan about the indian call centre... :erm:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Damn right, the amount of people that say to me there glad to speak to someone english. To be fair there is two english people in our department of 25 who are native english and thats due to the fact we support the whole of europe.

What people don't understand is why its needed, if any company like NTL for example had a support desk in the UK it'd take three days to wait on hold and everyone would comlain they would never get through.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

What's wrong with Welsh, Scottish or N Irish? ;)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Our hold time is usually no longer than ten minutes, probably takes them that long to go through the menu system too! :D

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

nothing ;) well actually..... :p: seriously though the problem with indian call centres is i hate NTL's this blasted woman who i keep coming across over the past few occasions is utterly useless. where's a call to an english call centre has resulted in a slightly better service in my experiance, ok so it took two ocassions to get the job done when getting through to a english call centre but hey atleast what i wanted i got, i just hope i get someone as nice as the lady i got the other day :erm:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Glad I read the post regarding Abbey! I rang just the other day and asked to transfer some money into a friends account (£40) the woman at the other end kept asking me how much!!
"£4 00 sir?"
"no £40, four, zero"
"ok sir £400"
at which pint I hung up, emailed abbey complaining and got a call in 5 minutes to a UK based chap!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

You're quite right when you say people do not realise why it is needed, I do not realise why it is needed when there are people unemployed in england who could do the job, but you guessed it, cost!
Do not want to sound ignorant, and I am happy for someone to put up the correct figures, but I would hazard a guess that NTL can afford to pay 4 indian call centre staff compared to one english based cs staff, so yes they are needed from NTL's financial position.
Sadly, when a problem takes someone half an hour to solve compared to someone who will do it in less than 5 minutes there is something wrong.
So if NTL put in the financial investment in jobs over here people will not have to wait three days.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

When I rang tech support this morning to cancel my engineer I got the swansea tech support for first time in months :)

Call was short and dealt with easily.

The previous day when I rang up and had the india call centre the service wasn't too bad although there was a poor signal the sound kept cutting out.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

As a current Call Centre/Tech Helpdesk operator, that made me LOL.
__________________

Regarding taping calls.

Its not illegal, it just the recording cannot be used for ANYTHING other than personal use.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I phoned yesterday about my upgrade and tried to explain that when I upgraded from 1.5Mb to 3 Mb they upgraded the billing but didn't do the up grade, and asked had they done the same for the 3Mb TO 10Mb. I was deafened by the silence and I gave up?

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Yes, it has no standing legally if the call agent is not informed and/or has not consented and they have the right to terminate the call if it is recorded without consent.

All our calls, AFAIK, are recorded anyway.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Well.... I have read all of this thread, but I have to say that I've just had a good experience with the call centre, if it was India. the accent was definitely Indian and the line was a bit patchy.

But... the chap I spoke to was very patient with ny intermittent connection problem. at the end of the call, all though there was no direct solution, he had explained the different possible problems so well and how to track them, that I was eventually able to solve the problem myself. turned out to be a dodgy Bit Torrent client that was hogging my bandwidth.

Excellent job, just wish I could phone the particular bloke back and thank him for his skill and patience.

Cheers

Crypto

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

You can use the responsetek form on the main forum page for sending feedback to ntl, if you include your account details and the day/ approximate time of the call then this will enable ntl to pass your comments to the person you spoke to :)

Having been in the position myself, i know that positive feedback from a customer makes the day to day chore of a call centre job worth it :)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Why thanks Chris W,

it will make my day also if I can say thanks.

cheers

Crypto.

p.s. smilies don't seem to work at the moment!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Sorry to be such a noob, but I can't find the responsetek form.

Can you help me out please?

Thanks

Crypto

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=81
top of the main forum page ;)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Yeah, I thought that. Had a problem a few weeks ago with internet, MSN toolbar was stopping some sites from loading, so I got rid of it and it sorted out the problem. The guy I spoke to at level 2 Broadband support gave me his name and extension number and said "contact me again if this doesn't sort it". Well I phoned Broadband support, got put through to Indian call centre I think, asked for the extension number and was told "sorry we can't put you through from here"! I wanted to thank the guy and also would have been useful in case anyone phoned up with a similar problem!

DOH!

Sorry I can't remember the guy's name that gave me the helpful advice, but thank you whoever you are anyway! :)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Reinstalling a friends PC after a HD failure, had to make use of the call centre as what they had written down for their email password looked completely wrong (and was!).

Can't criticise the helpfulness, but we both had extreme difficulty following the accent - all sorted though, despite pretty well everything having to be repeated.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I just rang tech support to report a problem of random intermittant connection. It's only been happening since this morning.

The agent I got through to was of course in India and claimed her name was 'rachel'.

What annoyed me originally was she simply could not understand my postcode and 3 times she had to confirm my name.

She told me (in that script-reading way) that we had to reboot the pc and modem.

I asked her what good that would do, she told me it sometimes corrects the fault. When I told her I'd already done that each time my connection dropped, she told me we could not proceed any further until we'd done that.

:banghead:

I complied, she asked me if that had solved the problem.

How would I know!!! The problem is a random intmermittant connection!!

She then told me to switch my firewall and antivirus off (that old chestnut :dozey: ) and asked if my connection was ok then.

:banghead: :banghead:

I reminded her a third time that the problem was 'random' ie it could happen at anytime.

She then told me to reboot the machine and start up in safe mode with networking which I did. She asked me if I was able to browse like that, to which I answered I could.

She then proceeded to tell me that the fault could only be with my firewall.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

I tried to tell her for a fourth time that that it was RANDOM - ie just because I boot up in safe mode and can browse does NOT mean the problem is identified!! It just means that the problem (which is random) just had not occured!

All I had in return to this was "Sorry Mr David but what we have done so far has indicated to me that the firewall is the problem"

:disturbd: :disturbd: :disturbd: :disturbd:

I told her I found very unhelpful and ended the call. I rang straight back.

Got through to a 'Sudhir'.

He seemed to get my postcode and house number the first time, which was encouraging. But he ended up going through the same script and blamed my firewall. When I told him about the fact that browsing in safe mode did not prove anything, he proceeded to tell me what a firewall is.

I asked him to stop as I know what it is and how it works and he then told me "Well this is where I think your problem is".

I've lost the will to live...... :(

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Welcome to my world,, oh how I wish Igni was still working at NTL he found the problem last time and got it fixed but now I am back to random cut offs.

I was told that they can't find the problem if its working and if it drops tehinternet its back up before you get through to tech support.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Sadly not everyone can have people ranging from a network engineer (in the field) to one working centrally to diagnose their faults, otherwise your bills would be a tad higher each month ;)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

possibly true sadly things have slipped since you left. How is your new job?


Perhaps if NTL gave teh network loving care the dropouts wouldnt be as bad or regular.

I have these daily and am only told to not worry about them yet most tally up with dropped connections,

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I think that someone in the upper echelons of NTL who decided to source out this kind of support needs a kick up the backside.
Do they have any idea of the difficulties faced by cusomers when they get through to these call centres in india? I would hazard a guess that they do not.
As if NTL do not have an image problem already, they are only feeding it by having these overseas call centres.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Russ its not only indian call centres that you get the script even the UK ones where keeping to the script

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I've not spoken to tech support much in the last 2 years but when I get through to Swansea, either they're not using a script or they hide it very well.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Agree! Whenever I have spoken to someone in Swansea they have been very helpful. (I always have problems with the Indian call centres because I am not the named person on the account).

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Actually by doing that they're following correct procedure - they are only to deal with the account holder unless written permission has been expressed.

By the way, I'm not saying the indian people only ever use scripts - I've spoken to a few who don't sound like they are - but the Swansea guys seem to either hide it well or are much more confident to use their own initiative.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

What I should have added was the Swansea people will accept the password system originally set up by NTL the Indian call centre wont.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Its what I said before, if you get swansea they use their initiative and common sense whilst the indian folk follow the rule book to the letter which can be very frustrating.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Flattered as I am by that I don't think that's true :) I wasn't really that big a fish in the grand scheme of things. No possibly about it either, premium standard tech support requires premium standard costs, in ntl I was a lot more expensive than a tech support agent, and knowing Indian salaries you could probably employ a footy team of them for what I cost.

New job is good, and there's also no way on God's green Earth that I would go back to working for ntl thanks :)

Last I heard network in Manchester as a whole was excellent, as it was the entire time I was there, perhaps there are issues in your area more locally?

That's a failing in tech support, not much that anyone else can do with it. It's impossible to monitor each and every street cabinet I'm afraid.

Regarding the rest of it until the metric for call handling measurement is changed from the quantity of calls to the quality and 1st time resolution rates (IE no-one should ever have to call about the same thing twice) you're stuck with things as is.

If it's such a major issue there is always the choice to take your business elsewhere. If your connection is as plagued with faults constantly as you suggest perhaps ADSL would be a better option for you.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

That's the second time in a week that you've reminded me that I used to work for them - wow, you certainly like to keep my history close to your heart don't you!

I called tech support as it was a tech support issue......:disturbd:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Just thought I'd mention it as when I had cause to call tech support/cs I mearly mentioned I used to work there and they cut the rubbish out.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Amidst the gloom.... today woke up to no BB access at all. Rebooted the cable modem and PCs. No joy. So called support and got throuigh to India. Certainly a hint of scripting initially but an exceptionally polite and patient woman diagnosed and resolved my problem (router) and then explained how the fault occurred (bit of a 'whooosh' noise as it flew over my head but she certainly seemed to know her onions).

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Lucky you. My company have had to give me a laptop for work so I thought prior to wirelessly connecting to my desktop I would try networking it. Could not make the connection live so Phoned Tech Support at NTL(India)

The conversation went something like this (apologies for lack of tech knowledge as I am sure that everybody will know the answer to my problem anyway)

Started with the usual not understanding my postcode and could not understand why i lived in flat no 5 house no 20.

Me: Hello I am trying to make a network connection from my desktop to laptop.
TS: So Mr. Kevin what you are telling me is you are trying to make a network connection from your desktop to laptop.
Me: Yes should I be trying to connect to RJ11 or RJ 45 on the laptop.
TS; So Mr. Kevin what you are telling me is should you be trying to connect to RJ11 or RJ 45 on the laptop.
Me: Yes I cannot get it to see the desktop, can you tell me what to connect to.
TS: SO Mr. Kevin what you are telling me is you cannot get it to see the desktop and can I tell you what to connect it to.
Me: Oh F#@k off.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

LOL :p:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Hopeless. Although that said understanding postcodes can be difficult for us natives too, s/f, b/d, etc etc, normally I reconfirm it with the phonetic alphabet which can be quite embarrassing especially if you've misheard.

It's the phone line really.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Well when I mentioned a router in my setup to tech support a few days ago they said they do not support routers and promptly ended the call!
I rang again and was told the same thing - although Paul had checked everything and the problem was nothing to do with the router. I called back last night (having removed it) and was told that there is a problem with the ntl network. The fault has now been logged and should be sorted out in 48 hours.
The first guy was definately reading from a script and was no help whatsoever, the lady last night was much more helpful and ran tests on the line etc which the first tech refused to do point blank. Shame they can't all be trained to the same standard!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

What exactly is wrong with reading from a script?

Most troubleshooting involves working through the possibilities that a given set of conditions suggest. Experience will suggest what the most common cause of a problem is and how to check for it. Working methodically through a troubleshooting script ensures that nothing is overlooked and the solution arrived at in as short a time as possible.

You see many posts which complain about the support person sticking to a script even though they have been told that the customer is an experienced user who has tried the obvious. The support person does not know what level of knowledge the customer has and usually the customer cannot convey the level of their experience and is often not as experienced as they think. I would bet that many customers who have had years of experience and think they know it all have at times overlooked the simple, obvious solution to a problem they have.

Working to a properly written and researched script is the best way to tackle any problem. Any other approach is just taking a stab in the dark.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

When someone is rigidly reading from a script, it indicates to me they have no technical knowledge at all, and this doesn't give me much confidence in the person to solve my issue, particularly if something 'unexpected' happens.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Why would it give you that impresssion? Most tasks in life have a best method of undertaking them and having a written script of what to do and when ensures that you follow the best method. Any deviation from the script by definition means you are not following best practice. What unexpected happening renders the scrpt unworkable?

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

The best qualification in such matters IMO is experience. You can put any TSA through training but if they've had no experience then they'll be at a distinct disadvantage.

Just because they're following a script doesn't mean they understand what they're saying, or what it is they're advising me to do.

Given the choice, I'd much rather be advised by someone who has knowledge of what they're telling me to do.

Don't get me wrong - using a script isn't neccessarily bad if they do it in their own words. But when they speak in such a way that you can tell they're reading word-for-word, you've then got to ask why they aren't confident enough to "fly solo" so to speak.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

How can you tell if a TSA is experienced or not by the words they use when attempting to solve a customers problem? You could take the most experienced member of the TS team and give them a troubleshooting script. That person may decide that the best way forward is to read from the script to ensure that they do not overlook any step. If they are reading from the script then it is easier to read the written words than to translate them into their own wording. Following a script does not equate to lack of knowledge or confidence. There can be management instruction to follow the script precisely for various reasons.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

From my experience working in ntl's tech support, the ones who closely followed the script were the ones who had little or no confidence or experience. It was (and pressumably still is) ntl's policy to allow us to use our personalities in dealing with customers as it made us sound more 'human' and 'personal' so the use of reading scripts word-for-word was left for those who didn't quite understand what they were doing.

Ihear what you're saying about not wanting to leave anything out but it's still possible to do this without reading a script. They could have a list of things to try but put it their own way. This IMO sounds more professional and capable.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Russ i have to say your wrong, ive worked in tech support in swansea for over 3 years, & have never seen a script for teching calls, in use, or even offered to people to use, all this talk of scripts does get a bit boring after a while...

Not getting into the arguement on the india call centre side as have never worked there, so cant give an answer on that.. ( saying that, nor have alot people here & they seem to know everything that happens there ;) )...

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Maybe there should be an added option when phoning tech support.

Press 1 for scripted support
Press 2 for non-scripted support

:p:

Problem is, we are also talking about non-technically minded customers here (who have never seen this forum or any other to do with their service).
For them, it's just a case of "it doesn't work". Add this to the language barrier and the non-personal interaction from Indian tech support (ie. almost robotic), and i can see the necessity of a script.

The only way around this has been stated above.... Experienced staff, who know exactly what they are talking about and who are comfortable on the phone.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Would you expect scripted support to be better, worse or the same as non-scripted support? Consider the fact that the support script has probably been written by a team of the most experienced customer support staff and is how they would tackle the customer's issues.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Then why do you disagree with him, I believe russ has confirmed that this isnt a problem with swansea it is with india and you have just said you cant comment on that. I back Russ up on this one, when getting the india call centre there is obvious scripting and if the problem isnt with your own pc then the tech usually gets stuck on what to do, not promising at all. It also gets frustrating when they dont learn how to log your call and pass on feedback to higher level tech's, I have had the odd occasion one or 2 times where the tech has some intelligence and tries to work out the problem himself but unfortenatly this is a minority.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

A better options would be this.

Message "Please note to make our calls handled faster plase make sure you do the following before giving us a ring. Reboot your pc, reboot your modem, disable your firewall and make sure you have no viruses. If you have done all this and the problem persists please choose from the following options. Option 1 - For experienced users, Option 2 - For users who feel they need step by step instructions"

2 been scripted.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Things have changed - there was a 'script' back then.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I stand corrected then, you believe Russ is right, & You believe they use one in the India call center , then it must be true, after all those hours you spent working for Daksh in india & IBM, i bow to your superior knowledge......

personally i think they dont use one, & im in a far better postion to "guess" than you are, i speak to them every day, unlike you.....

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

No need to be petulent - what I'm saying is with the Indian callcentre they give the impression of script reading far more than the guys in Swansea do. I'm not saying they all use it because I've not spoken to them all, but there is a definate difference in call style between the two.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

im sorry you get the impression that people are using a script but can tell you now that, not one person in tech support ( swansea ) uses a script for tech'ing calls . As ive said im not 100% sure on india, personally i dont think they do, theres a possiblity, but i doubt it, as there are to many variables to consider when it comes to calls/pc's/customers/Ntl.... for a script to work or be anywhere near accurate......

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

OK but I'm not saying they definately are - I'm saying they used to. Either way, when you call and get through to Swansea, there is little or nothing in their manner to suggest or give the impression that they do.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Could the difference merely be due to the Swansea being more used to lifestyle differences etc so they feel more accustomed on the phone than the India call centre? Whether or not the scripts are used or not is a moot point, and I wouldn't suggest the indian operators are more or less technically aware (in general) than those in Wales. There is evidently a difference though, I'm sure it's just that the call centre isn't in Britain, you can pick up things in conversation or subconsciously speaking to people in your own country than people in a completely different continent in a different lifestyle.

We have scripts :o but
- no-one knows/can remember where they are or even cares
- it's rubbish service to use them or at least convey the impression of using them
- yes there are things to check but the skill is using appropriate questions to find out what the problem is not following a script
- you can normally tell a customer's capability after talking to them for a while, obviously you can't overlook simple things but obviously "no power script for dummies" would not be suitable for "no power script for people who know about PCs but just want the repair service" even though a lot of the actual ground covered may be the same!

That and most people would know the steps to solve common problems after about a week or two, from memory, so they're not really needed.

Personally I'd say scripts in TS were a bad idea, because all you need is a bit of skill trying to pinpoint the problem, which obviously would vary on who you're talking to, plus it implies zero initiative if the impression's there one's reading from a script. The closest I have to a script is a notepad file of things to check, assorted clippings I've picked up, and a load of bookmarks to useful sites/intranet pages to find quickly...

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Are scripts any use?

What do you think the pilot of the plane flying you to your holiday destination uses prior to take off? Would you feel more comfortable flying with a pilot who ignored the pre-flight script and decided to just rely on experience?

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

that would be a check list or a flow chart, not a script, you'l find these are used in all varying mannors in any problem solving enviroment where you get repeat problems/situations.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Whilst I hate to agree with Russ :D the Indian call centre staff member I spoke to doid sound like she was following a script. However, this purely seemed to be used to diagnose an issue and therefore seems pretty sensible if perhaps a little impersonal. Once my issue was diagnosed, the solution and then the explanation of the solution were clearly not scripted.

But scripted or not, I was happy with the service, which is the main point surely.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Barfly did it not occur to you when you communicate to india you are probably not talking to TS agents but possibly management or people in other parts of the building who are not customer facing?

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I'm just off the phone to them. The last two times I've called them I've thought scripts were being followed but this time it sounded natural.

There were some gaps in the conversation (probably trying to decipher my accent) but it seemed to get resolved fairly quickly.

Now all I need is for someone to actually phone me back to arrange an engineer to replace the one that went AWOL last weekend and sort the dropouts and I'll be happy.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

There is very little, if any difference between a check list and a script. As you rightly say they are used in problem solving situations to ensure best practice is followed and nothing essential is missed. In the UK you are likely to get the individuals own wording of what is on the script but in India with English not being their first language you are more likely to get the wording exactly as in the script with slight hesitation because it is not their natural language.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

And guess what didn't happen :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Phoned again this morning and now have another engineer booked for Monday. The guy I spoke to was pretty clueless and said Monday morning was the only option I had.

Now hopefully this one will actually arrive.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

And this is one of my pet annoyances caused by out-sourcing any kind of customer-facing departments: I want to speak to someone who I know can understand my concerns, my language, my tone and can empathise with my situation. When all the responses I get are almost robotic due to my first language not being theirs, it feels very impersonal and faceless.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Yes i do speak to tech support agents & very rarely do i speak to mangers or people in a non customer facing role, probably 90% are customer facing of the ones i speak to, so they would be the same people you speak to...

Did not occur to you i work for the company, i deal with them every day, on this subjuct im going to have a slightly better level of understanding & knowledge, so please believe me......

---------- added 26-11-2005 at 16:30 ----------

Have to disagree here, there is a very large difference between a script & a checklist, if i was told to use a script to do my Job, i would quit, as it would become too mundane & difficult to fix issues... I have a mental checklist for every type of problem i have ever come across & this is nothing like a script as even that checklist has to charge depending on the circusmtances & doesnt tell me what words to use or how to say things to customers....

A script is... " hello my name is xxxx... Can i take your account details, thankyou... what seems to be the problem blah blah" very robotic & something you have to follow rigoursly,.

A checklist or flowchart, is a list of the best fixes for certain issues, that should be used as reminded for an agent to make sure they have covered anything, nothing should ever be so rigorous that it cannot be changed or altered according to the sitaution.....

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Oh it gets better and better.

Seeing as I didn't trust them I called back in to be told by the customer services side of things that they had no maintenance orders or faults booked for me.

Back onto the broadband line. Back to india (and its about here I lose patience with life itself)

Through the usual rigmarole and get my account up.

I ask about the engineer visit. "What engineer visit" is the reply.
I give him the confirmation number I was given and get told this is for an engineer request only and not an actual visit.
By now I'm getting a little bit angry and tell him that it was a confirmed visit and, lo and behold, it magically changes into a confirmed visit.

The strange thing is he can't tell when the confirmed visit is for. Now if I was the cynical type I'd think he was just trying to get me off the phone but that could never be the case could it?

So another 5 minutes on hold and it now is confirmed for Monday morning. I don't think I should hold my breath.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Some more fun, was at my parents' house today when their connection went off. Tried rebooting and all that mullarky but the modem would not lock on and gave me a 192 IP.

Phoned tech support, got through to a 'Dave' (yeah right) who told me it must be my router.

I told him my parents wouldn't know what a router was if it danced naked in their kitchen.

Again 'Dave' told me it was my router.

I explained once more that my parents do not have a router.

'Dave' asked me if I was sure as this MUST be a fault with my router.

:banghead:

I told him for a third time, there was no router.

He then asked me to make sure that the CATV cable was securely attached to the modem. I checked and it was.

I remember the actual words to his reply "Well Mr Russ I can only tell you that this is a problem with your router; I will need you to disconnect it before I can continue".

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

I told him for the last time it was NOT "the router" seeing as there was not and never had been one connected.

He put me on hold "to run some tests" (or as it sounded to me, to "go and ask someone else what to do as I am all out of ideas").

When he returned he told me he could now "see a fault" and an engineer would be required. He put me on hold while he connected me to a "2nd level" agent who would arrange the call-out".

After 20 minutes of on-hold music I hung up and rang them back.

I got through to a 'Max' ( :rolleyes: ) who gave me his extension number (BIG mistake, old Maxy boy) who said he would put me through to someone to arrange the call-out. I asked him to not put me on hold after what just happened. He told me he would have to do this in order to transfer me. I asked how long I'd be on-hold for.

His actual words?

"About 3 or 4 minutes".

20 minutes later I hung up having heard nothing but on-hold music.

I rang back a third time and spoke to 'Sarah' (..yep, you guessed it...) who I relaid my plight to and asked to be put back through to 'Max' on extension xxxx - she did a bit of checking - only to find out that he'd finished his shift 20 minutes ago and had left the building.

Yep, old Maxy-baby put me on hold then went home.

I went nuts at this and demanded to speak to a supervisor and surprisingly enough was passed on to one straight away.

An engineer was promptly booked and I recieved an apology about 'Max' and an assurance that it'll be looked in to.

So is this the Indian's newest tactic, to assume adopted 'British' names? I find that a bit dishonest seeing as they require me to confirm my identity.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Barfly I understand but you dont seem to understand the customer experience. It is simple when speaking to swansea tech's they dont seem so inclined to blame the customer's equipment and seem more informative about problems on their own network, when speaking to someone in india they persist on blaming the pc and each agent goes through the exact same motions every time. I could probably ring up swansea with the same issue 3 times and get a different type of resolutions each time and india would probably give me a scripted response. This doesnt bode well for ntl, if their own staff insist the customers are wrong and that the problems are not happening.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

So back to the original reason for the thread. A plea to NTL to not continue with the Indian tech support, thirteen pages of predominantly disgruntled customers. Is this enough for NTL to pull their fingers out of their arses or are they as usual unconcerned about customer feeling.
I originally had broadband with NTL as my phone and TV are also with them, so it seemed logical to continue. I am now looking at alternative ISP's as this is the last straw for a non-techie like me.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Well our experience with CS this week was exactly the same as Russ, even down to being told the router was the problem - when on the second call to them Paul had removed it! The problem is still ongoing, (even though they said it would be resolved in 48 hours - it all started last Monday) and I've had no feedback from the Responsetek thing even though the auto reply told me I'd be contacted in 4 days.
Looks like today will be spent deciding who our new ISP will be! :D I've already changed the phone provider - ntl will lose customers hand over fist at this rate.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Unfortunately I can't see 13 pages of complaints stopping NTL from choosing to outsource call center work to India. Yes there are problems with language barriers when calling India but the guys and gals in the Indian centers are often trying their very best to answer calls correctly and many of them take great pride in working for companies like NTL and BT in India as those jobs are very much sought after. (I know for sure that BT has at least 1 doctor working in their call center part time as the money is so good in India) At the end of the day it comes down to money, using call center staff in India is significantly cheaper than using the same number of staff here, would you rather they employed 100 British call center staff or 400 Indian call center staff?
Yes it's annoying that many TS and CS people work from scripts BUT that is how they are supposed to work. More experienced and knowledgeable support staff will often recognise what the issue is and be able to skip sections or direct the caller down the route they need to take with answers BUT calls and staff are monitored regularly to make sure they are not deviating from their role and from the "script" as that is where mistakes can occur very easily.
Currently we have problems with our connection, due I'm sure to a network fault somewhere in our area but my only problem with the person we contacted in CS the first time was the fact that he blatantly saw a router as his get out of jail card instead of running tests to see if there was indeed a network fault as we were pointing him to. Obviously if we had managed to get the tests done first time we would have been in a better position to chase up the problem that we still seem to have but now it's Sunday and to be honest even if we call I can't see anything happening now till Monday.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Suppose it is all a matter of time (and experience) for peeps in India really :)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

If I had a choice I would have the 100 knowledgable British staff any day. Extending waiting time for a problem would not bother me, I would do what I usually do, put the phone on hands-free and get on with doing something else until answered. If anyone needs to get hold of us in the meantime my partner and I have mobiles so an hour or so with the phone tied up is not a big issue. But asking for tech support from someone with the technical knowledge of my five year old is an issue. She can read a script too.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

So you would rather have a 3-4 hour delay instead of a 30 minute delay before being answered? It's all well and good you saying that you would be happy to wait for a British member of staff but that doesn't necessarily mean you will get a knowledgable member of staff. No company will see a long queue for tech or customer support as acceptable I'm afraid and they will do what they can to drop the queue times without spending an outrageous amount of money.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I can't help thinking that with NTL it is money first. They used to be one of the best and cheapest for Broadband, not only are they saving money by using India they are not reinvesting this HUGE saving. Whilst other companies continue to strive for a piece of the action Ntl is beginning to drift behind, with their Caps and failure to yet introduce 10mb broadband after promising for so long. Is it any wonder that people are getting more and more frustrated with a lacklustre service.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Would rather have the 100 british staff where first time resolution is much more likely, so be it I have to wait longer to speak to someone, its a free call anyway.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I can bet I know who it wont be ;)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I can guarantee you will wait longer, for some telecom companies the Indian call center staff make up 90% of their advisers available during the afternoon/ evenings. If companies were to move to British staff only they will have to restructure their shifts or close lines early as they will not have enough staff to cover the calls up to 8pm. We get plenty of complaints about time spent waiting to be answered by NTL, if you were to drop the Indian call centers the wait time would be prety much guaranteed to double. BTW as I said before where is it guaranteed that by getting someone in a British call center you are certain to get a quick resolution?? I've spoken to British and Indian call center staff for NTL and to be honest the only guaranteed resolution I got was via a staff member here who gave us his extension number ;)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I phoned up 3 once and pretended to be my wife (im a bloke).. they asked the security questions and didnt have a clue I was her husband - LOL

Having got an intermittent fault... she said if she sent an engineer and it was no fault found.. they would charge for the visit.. I said, go on then.. charge me.

She transfered me to Customer services.

NTL - Your INDIAN call centre SUCKS !!!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

There is no doubt in my mind that it is money first and customer last, otherwise why source out jobs from britain?
Atleast abbey have turned around and admitted they made a mistake with the indian call centres, can we see NTL save a penny doing this? I dont see it.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I would predict initially a huge jump in waiting times, but then it will die down because as their is less repeat calls going for unresolved problems there will be total less callers. Also due to no language barrier calls should be shorter in general anyway and without the need for waiting for a script to be followed helps as well.

---------- Post added at 02:46 ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 ----------

We should have a poll which is more important?

Waiting time or Quality of service (first time resolution)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

You and me both mate...

I spoke to someone at the Indian based center for the first time today and after 5mins found myself beginning to boil as his script sent us round in circles.

I had to put the phone down on him in the end as I was worried I would frighten the poor fellow.