Re: how long does it take
 

Yeah, I can see many people cancelling their NTL TV service if it isn't sorted soon. Were still without our requested channels 8 days after install. Its quite pathetic.

So nobody has heard of a new fix date then?

Re: how long does it take
 

Not yet mate, fired off another email to midlands area MD, the first of which got the phonecalls from NTL. 4 weeks today.


Just reset the box to check before I go to work and still no bloody good.

Re: how long does it take
 

Just spoken to NTL CS again...our box has now been made active and we're due our subscription channels within the next 2 hours....

What are chances then? Hmmm..... 10%?!

Re: how long does it take
 

We're On!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: how long does it take
 

Pleased for ya mate :tu:

Just wish some ingrate from CS would pull their finger out and sort mine. 28 days is totally unacceptable in any way shape or form. I think Im going for the record here.
It seems like getting through to the right person is the right thing to do, but getting the right one is like picking this weeks lotto numbers. 14mil to 1.

All I seems to get regardless of how polite I am on the phone is the standard NTL corperate BS.
IMHO NTL staff dont give a stuff for punters like myself, they sit back sup their cuppa, take the odd call, talk the same old BS as the person sitting next to them, end call and on to the next.

Ho Hum............ :mad: :mad: :mad:

Re: how long does it take
 

i do kinda feel sorry for the ppl in CS, the ones i've spoken to have been helpful and it seems its nothing to do with them, all they can do is pass details on to whoever is supposed to sort it.

unfortunately, this means i can do........absolutely nothing. :shrug:

Re: how long does it take
 

The CS Rep I spoke to earlier said that all CS Reps could now send a signal to sort your tv out as the activation problem had been fixed. The chap sent 2 "hits" to our box to ensure it worked....and it did. Maybe worth givin them a call?

Re: how long does it take
 

aha, i'll give it a try. the tv remote has broken now so even if cable is working i wont know :(

cheers for the help tho

Re: how long does it take
 

My TV was put in on 7/10/2004 - phone worked fine within a day but my TV hasn't been activated yet. After reading the most recent posts I'll certainly be on the phone to Customer Services in the morning. Meanwhile, here's my story which I fear is near normal for the average NTL customer...

I've had nothing but trouble with NTL when I first signed up on 16/8/2004 - I signed up for a two month free trial of Broadband in a shopping centre after asking about their offers because I was moving into a new house. I and was given my first install date by the salesman of 31/8/2004. I called the salesman to cancel this one because I wasn't going to be there
(I hadn't moved in yet) but still someone turned up - at the same time I said I wanted a TV and phone package and was promised a call back I never got. The new Broadband install date I was given was 7/9/2004 but no-one turned up. After several calls I gave up on the salesman and my calls to Customer Service put me in a maze of menus and half-an-hour of hold music, so I called NTL's head office. They gave me an 'earliest possible' install date of 25/9/2004 which I refused because it was too far ahead, and was in an afternoon when I specifically requested a morning installation. I decided I wasn't going to persue a TV and phone package until I had got my Broadband problem solved. My broadband eventually got put in on 17/9/2004 after they found an earlier date. On that date I signed up for a TV and phone package on the NTL website with an install date of 28/9/2004, and an email confirming my order. Meanwhile on 25/9/2004 I got a bill from NTL for a month of Broadband service which was supposed to be free. A call to their head office again on 29/9/2004 and I was referred the Sales team (amazing how quickly they answered my call!). I was then told that there was no record of my TV/phone package order on NTL's computer system, and that the best way to order packages is over the phone, not over the internet - if ordering over the internet doesn't work, why do NTL offer it?! Anyway I got myself a package ordered and a new install date of 7/10/2004. The engineer turned up at 8:45am, put everything in and said it would take a couple of hours for the phone to be activated and all of the channels of my package to come through. I couldn't check the phone until I bought a handset the next day, and it was working, but the TV would still only let me watch BBC1,2,3,4, News 24, CBBC, CBeebies, ITV1,2 and Channel 4. I called Customer Services the same day and after 45 minutes of hold music, an advisor told me there was a problem with the software that activated the settop boxes, which had been tested "the other night" - he took the number from my box's smart card and put it in a database, and said it could be a few days, maybe a week before anything happens. I was told I won't be charged for my TV service until it's activated - we'll see when the bill comes. Since then, I've periodically reset the box at the mains which supposedly sends the smart card's data up the system to see what I should be receiving. It's 11/10/2004 today and I've had no joy yet...

Oh, and all of this time, I've never been asked for my bank account details for direct debit, despite being told at least four times that I'd need to give them at some stage.

Re: how long does it take
 

huzzah, all sorted!

many thanks to graham, i think it was, for getting it working quickly and telling me what was really going on.

Re: how long does it take
 

:) :) :) :)
All working at last - no notification but it's all there now! That's 3 weeks exactly from installation....

Re: how long does it take
 

I've just come off the phone to Customer Services (35 minutes waiting after being told it was a 15 minute expected wait) who said they're working their way through the backlog of new installations that need to be activated, but still couldn't put a timeframe on when mine would be done :(

Re: how long does it take
 

Still waiting :(

Re: how long does it take
 

I called again on Wednesday evening, to be given no help whatsover by a CSR who didn't have much to say and didn't seem able to offer any advice. After I said I was unhappy that I'd been without a proper TV service for now two weeks since installation and annoyed that i couldn't be offered a solution he said I wouldn't be billed for it until it works and that "it's your decision whether you want to wait longer or not" - what's the alternative? disconnection, he said. if i didn't want the service i wouldn't have signed up for it in the first place i said. so i still wait...

it obviously shows how much faith ntl employees have in their own product - i work in a call centre for a different company and while i agree the service provided by the people i work for has its fair share of problems and customers are welcome to use competition, i would never suggest to a customer not to use our services and would probably get fired for doing so.

Re: how long does it take
 

I called CS on Friday evening and they took my details and told me that a fault had been logged for it and it would be back on by Monday eve... yeah right I thought... imagine my surprise when it was back up on Monday. So it looks like everythings definately back on track and they're catching up with the activations.

dvboy, only advice I can give you is to make sure the CS person you're talking to knows what needs to be done - basically as far as I understand it it was the system that links the serial numbers of your box & smart card to your account that was down and that's why we had no channels - it couldn't identify what channels it was supposed to give you. Also tell them that you know it's definately back up now. They should be able to log a fault in the system to reassign the serials to your account, obviously this means that they should be taking those numbers from you, so if they don't this would ring alarm bells for me. And then of course, once you think it might have been done, do the obligatory reboot of the box.

Hope this helps and maybe gives you some hope.

N.

ps. Make sure you keep an eye on your bill too, I was told I wouldn't be paying for the tv while it was like this, but surprise surprise no refund on my latest bill... I also phoned em up about this (seperately) and they gave me a months refund no problems.