Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

Sensitive monkey aren't we? :hugs:

I have this vision of a monkey - both hands and tail fully occupied, such is said monkey's workload. Think of the phrase as a compliment - a recognition of your skill and dedication. [How am I doing with the placating?] It honestly wasn't meant as you've interpreted it :no: The direct access to NTL employees is the big attraction of this site - you're valued :Yes: I just see call centre work as the modern sweatshop :erm: Uniform, plain, controlled. Maybe NTL is relaxed and colourful - I dunno.

It's monkeys, not monkies. Change the y to an i and add es. So it would be monkeies, which is gibberish, hence monkeys. English language for you :rolleyes:

:Peaceman:

Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

I think a way customers themselves could help reduce the wait time is to have their account number handy or be able to recite their telephone number, so much time is wasted with customers not having any information available and having to go off and find the last bill.

Also taking 5 minutes to tell me how long they have been waiting adds to the length of the call and the wait time for the next person in the Q ;)

Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

Not to worry, I'm a phone monkey too.
I'm employed by EDIT: A major mobile phone company who I hear give out special bananas to those who manage to get a certain amount of personal information from each customer so they can spam them in the future by SMS then charge 'em for it. :monkey:

Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

<greencreeper realises that phone monkeys probably wasn't the best phrase to use on a forum full of, er, sensitive phone monkeys>

:Peaceman:

Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

Your joking!!! People phone up without their account number or knowing their home phone number. No wonder there are excessive wait times, must be so many people making repeat calls because they cant express their problem properly.

Its a bit like when you see women (sorry but ive only ever seen women do this)they queue to put money in the parking ticket machine, when they get to the front of the queue they then scramble around in their handbag for the parking ticket and money. Hellooooooooooooo you knew you needed the money and the ticket when you joined the queue!!

Re: How ironic!!!
 

Why should it be the luck of the draw? Surely these such instances should be occasional at worst, yet I think many customers could validate such claims right?

I agree, most operatives wouldn't hang up for no reason (although it does happen). A phone system going wrong (and so often) is ludicrous for a call centre, AND a phone company!

OB, as customers we don't take average readings of three call centres when we call up - we call up and someone (usually and eventually) answers. It's irrelivant to anyone that doesn't work at ntl which call centre you end up at.

Can I ask what the guidelines are for deciding who is abusive and to what degree?

If you're talking about people swearing and threatening you, then I would agree with your action. If you're talking about someone raising their voice, then you need to ask yourself why they are doing it before acting as judge and jury.

I've had many instances where everything starts out fine, but the people at the end of the phone make the problem worse and refuse to do anything about it. I am not afraid of challenging these people, which sometimes they seem to consider 'abusive'. I say they're in the wrong job and should work harder to help the customer. And yes, I've been cut off several times - but it will always come and bite them back later on.

Again this is fine, but who decides what is 'abusive'? I'm with HSBC too, but I have never encountered this, namely becuase I have never had a problem with them - their call centre staff are knowledgeable and friendly - and if they run into something they can't answer, they go and ask someone who can.

Compare to ntl (and I know I am generalising here) but on the whole the call centre staff are indifferent (often lacking in basic manners) not informed (OK this is not their fault, it's ntl's) and regularly make-up answers to the questions they don't know anything about. See the difference?


But there are a lot that don't. You have to see it from both sides. Now I'm not blaming a lot that don't know for not knowing, but the guilty ones should not be on the end of the phone line.

But these (and yourself) are the stars...you are the ones who give a damn, don't hang up on people, know the answer or offer to find out. If only ntl employed more like you. It's impossible when talking in general terms not to tar the good ones with the same brush as the bad - I'm sure such comments were never aimed at you.

Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

We will shortly be conducting our own tests, maybe next week.

Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

Spot on, I was out trying to setup a client's Tiscali broadband connection. I tried phoning customer support cos he wasnt getting an ADSL signal and to find that they have an Indian Call Centre who had no idea what i was going on about, were following a script, etc.. Put the phone down twice, finally got to speak to someone who spoke decent English and could understand what i was going on about on the 3rd call.

Re: How ironic!!!
 

I disagree that it's irrelevant - what if they had called one of the other call centres, and the results were different?

Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

With regards to this, do have any recommendations about who to phone, which department and a query that we could ask them all?
So far I know it'll be NTL, Telewest, BT and maybe a few others related to telco or broadband connections such as popular online hardware shops (dabs etc) or DSL tech support lines.

Each one will be phoned three times, once in the morning, afternoon and early evening to make the tests as fair as possible.
They will then be scored on waiting time in the queue and customer service quality (query resolved, attitude/tone of voice etc) then the results will be submitted as a Cable Forum UK press release to major news agencies/websites.

Re: How ironic!!!
 

Must admit OB i agree with andygrif. If i phone NTL i dont really care where to call gets answered (as long as its in Britain!!). If there a three call centres then they should all provide a consistent service. A far as im concerned a call centre is only as good as the worst operator working on that call centre.

At the end of the day the media proabably made one call and it was bad so they made a story. Most of whats in the press just highlights what they want the story to be and not a scientific survey with any real basis to the results.

Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

But the customer knows they have not made an action to terminate the call, either it has been wrongly transferred, the software has caused a bug to drop the call, a headset has been left on auto answer while it's owner goes to the bathroom, all of these things are caused by problems at the call ctr end, not the customer end. I understand that you are not sitting cradling a telephone, but "putting the phone down", is the coloquial epression to describe what happens.

NTL work on a phone number they force you to have whether you use it or not (I'm a DTV customer, so lets take that as fact and not debate it). It sits in the corner of the living room with nothing plugged in and I'm expected to remember this number?

I Must say of late calling the 0800 052 2000 number punching in a random 01992 number (and trying to report a telco fault - best place to call to moan about green cabinet doors IMHO). I have got through to a person within 5 minutes each time. My experience says things are getting better.

Just a shame the Service Continuity team cannot be bothered to follow up on the mails the call centre generate.

Re: NTL is call centre with longest wait in Mirror test
 

Well if its anything like today there is n hour wait to speak to digiTV faults and a 15 min wait for CS! :rolleyes: All I want to know is if the engineer is going to bother to turn up this time :mad:

And if that woman tells me about front row again I'm going to trash my phone. :(

Edit - Richard, as for DSL suppliers I'd say the top 5 :

BT Broadband (both sorts)
Pipex
Tiscali
Wanadoo

Re: How ironic!!!
 

If you work in one of them, then of course it's relevant to you as you don't want to be tarred (and feathered) with the same brush as an underperforming centre.

But if you put yourself in my shoes as a customer (or just think of any other call centre'd company you call) it doesn't matter one jot where you're calling. There must be a standard of service that everyone adheres to if the system is to work. If one doesn't perform, it needs sorting.

You cannot seriously expect customers to differentiate between three call centres - bear in mind that many still think their calls are routed to the local office so the person answering might actually know something about the local systems and places.

In fact one of the things about routing calls to multiple locations is one of the biggest negatives to customers. You can rarely get to speak to the same person twice, meaning you have to jump through the same hoops many times - O2 is the worst for this as they seem to have thousands of locations and your call usually gets routed to the wrong department.

I agree, queues are certainly getting shorter, I'm not sure I can say the standard of care is improving though.

Re: How ironic!!!
 

Well, going by your argument, if they had got one of the other call centres they would either have found a problem, so the issues are endemic, or they would have had no problems in which case the problems stem from just this one particular call centre.

Either scenario is bad for NTL. If it is an endemic problem then NTL can`t get any of their call centres running correctly. If it is a problem with just this one then why don`t NTL do something about resolving those issues.

Whichever way you cut it this is a failing on the part of NTL that needs to be resolved. Make a very crude assumption, if calls are split equally between three call centres then 1/3 of of NTL customers aren`t going to get a good quality of service, that is still too high by a long stretch.

*Edit* One other quick point that the call centre staff should take on board. The NTL systems seem to be frequently broken so that when you try to get through to a department it runs through all the recorded messages before just going to an engaged tone. If you press 0 to be put through to a general operator then they shouldn`t get stroppy that you have come through to that department rather than the one you want when you have absolutely no choice in the matter.