'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hello All

Since returning from holiday last Saturday, I have not had one full days service on my NTL Dial Up.

I am getting frequent cut offs after a few minutes.

My data when it comes through is comming in batches of about 20/30KB then nothing for minutes.

I have sent emails to help@ntlworld.com and via the web page, I have telephoned customer service who promised to get back to me but didnt.

I have checked the Status Line and Status Page, both of which say there are no unresolved problems.

I have tied different PCs [2] , Modems [3], Operating Systems [ME and XP including a complete re-install of XP]on a NEW HDD], but all to no avail.

I have asked BT to test my line and turn my gain up.

There are short periods when all is OK for instance this afternoon for a couple of hours, but other than that it is absolute HELL.

Is anyone esle suffering from anything like this, or is it just me?

And can anyone offer any advice?

Kind regards

Fred Flange

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

I would sign up for more than one ISP on dial-up (virgin, freeserve etc.) on pay as you go terms (1p min), so that if one plays up you can use another one.
virgin - http://www.virgin.net/customers/inte...ml?buspart=155
freeserve - http://www.freeserve.com/time/noties/default.htm
Tiscali dial up - http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/pa...ode=ZZ-NL-12HM

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hello S

Thanks for the reply, but I already have an alternative if I need it.

But I do need to get NTL wworking again, and I am more concerned to find out:

1. If anyone else has had these problems this week.

2. What is the next best step in resolving the problem?

Kind regards

Fred F.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hi Fred,
So glad you posted............I also have had terrible problems this week, frequent cut-offs, and the connection speed is abysmal, 31.2Kbps!!!!!! when normally I connect at about 48. I will probably be dead in my grave before NTL reply to my email! I am totally fed-up with them.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hi,
I've had the same problems all week since Sat pm ,just did internet magazine speed test ,results to go in their magazine,got 10 kbps !!!!
Hope NTL wake up soon.............
Sue

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hello Sue and Dusty

Thanx for the replies, can you say if you are near either Birmingham or Bristol?

No need to say which one, it's just so I can follow up something that was said to me while I was on the 'phone to them during the week.

Kind regards

Fred F.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

A bit late, but in future when someone from NTL promises to call you back, take their name, extension number and the name of their team leader. NTL seem to pump some kind of substance through their air condition which renders a lot of their employees with amnesia when it comes to calling customers back.....

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hello Russ

Thanks for the reply.

Can you confirm that I have sent my Email to the correct address:

help@ntlworld.com


Kind regards

Fred F.

PS. Meanwhile can I encourage anyone else suffering from this problem to carry out the Iternet Magazine test once a day, as this will bring the figures down, and some bad publicity might help to wake some one up in this obviously very tired and tardy company.
Link is :

http://www.internet-magazine.com/ispspeedtest/

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

PS I managed to get a reading logged of 7 [SEVEN] KBs

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hi Fred ,
Wow 7 !!! worse than my 10 :) !!
I am about 26 miles ish from Birmingham .Would love to know if that is the problem?
I have also e-mailed on the e-mail help address you gave and have also put about the speed tests and internet magazine and my dismal 10kbs.

By the way my connection seems a little better........now ,for how long.

Sue

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

I believe Ntl actually run Virgins servers for them, as they are a "virtual" ISP :erm:

Edit- Out of intrest what package are you guys on, is it the freedom one or the Ntl "onnet" package?

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Thanks Sue



The reason I asked about the location is that I telephoned

0800 052 2000

During the week and spoke to Customer Disservice, although they can not of course offer any assistance to us DialUp people, I thought they might at least be able to take some details of a problem which they obviously have with their system, and pass it on to the appropriate department - but NO! They wouldn't discuss it.



We have to pay them via a Premium Rate line to tell them that they have a problem, it beggars belief.



Anyway when I described the problem to her she asked me if I lived in the Bristol or Birmingham areas, as she had had a number of similar complaints from people living there over the last few days.



Can you believe that they don't have some way of communicating with themselves to pass on such vital info?



I feel sure that I will be looking at broadband before too long, but because of the 'free 'phone calls' currently available on this set up, it would probably cost me double, as I am fortunate enough to have someone pay for a fair proportion of my outgoing calls each month.

One thing is certain though the last company which I would approach is NTL.

They not only lack Customer Focus, I think they must actually be looking the other way.

Kind regards

Fred F.

@ D - Yes I think it is called Freedom, but they have changed it so many times since I signed up that it is a bit confusing to say the least. I pay £15.00 p.m. for unlimited, and get the first £15.00 of 'phone calls free.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

If you're that unhappy the only thing I can suggest is changing suppliers, it seems nonsensical to pay them a premium rate to get a problem fixed. There may be a member of the dial-up team here that can help you, I'm unsure if any of our visiting staff work there now as I know they are in the process of outsourcing dial-up tech support.

One of the mods might know, I'm sure they'll post a name if they do. If there isn't anyone here that can help then you may want to try visiting www.ISPreview.com and have a look if there is another package to rival the one your on :)

edit Having a flick through the forum to see if I can spot a dial up tech that visits I came across this : http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...56&postcount=1
So I don;t think it's going to get better anytime soon mate, that post is dated December 03!!! :rolleyes: :(

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Thanks for the reply D.



AFAIK there is no other ISP who offers the Free Telephone calls deal, so whereas I get unlimited access for 'free' at the moment because my phone calls are chargeable, I would have to pay for this type of service with anyone else.



Anyway having a brief respite at the moment 49K connection downloading at about that speed.



Trouble is at next Dial Up in 45 minutes, it will probably go back to 10k again, its just the frustration and the virtual denial by NTL that gets my goat.



If they posted on the Status Page saying they have a problem, at least I wouldn't have spent the week checking out every piece of equipment I have here to see if the problem was at this end, which from the responses received, it seems it is not.



Any way it looks as though my hand may be forced at some stage looking at the rocky position they seem to have got themselves into financially.



Regards



Fred F.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

@ D

Beware of www.ISPreview.com , it now leads me to a General Search Page with Pop Ups.

Has it changed? or perhaps the address is wrong!

Thanks anyway

Fred F

PS. Back down to under 10 KBs again !!!!!!!

Do you think I might be due to a refund if it goes a whole week without a full service, or is there some small print in there somewhere?

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

My bad, the address is http://www.ispreview.co.uk/ :erm: :dunce:

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

The problem here (IMHO anyway) is that people have chosen an ISP knowing that their support line (should they need it) is 50p per minute, now the time comes that they need it-no one wants to pay 50 p per min.

I'm not saying 50p per min is a reasonable charge, but people signed up by choice with those conditions, no one forced them to.

At the end of the day you need to contact ntl on their 50p per minute support line, or find another ISP that doesn't charge that much-I doubt you will find one though.

But please don't go moaning about a products charges, when you signed up to those (potential) charges in the 1st place.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Or you could just go pay aol or a different co £16.99 per month and have free tech support. You either pay for the support in the monthly charge or like ntl does it pay for it when you need it. I have to agree with neil in that you signed up for the service knowing what costs would be involved.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

In all honesty don't you two think Ntl should put something on the service status page to say there is a problem??

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Be very careful when asking BT to turn up the line gain as it will enhance any noise you already have on the line, plus if its turned up too much you can get echo feedback which will also make your internet connection worse.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hi Fred,
I'm back to dreadful connection again,it's awful..............

I had an e-mail "stuck" a while ago and contacted customer disservice as I couldn't get into webmail to try to clear it,I got exactly the same response you did.There should be some way to tell them a fault without paying premium rate.I also said can you contact them and get someone to phone me back of course the answer was no then I remembered tech help is now in India isn't it???

I also had a problem at the weekend with "cannot send e-mails message mutant bagle o " scared me and trying to find info and stingers etc on a barely there frequently disconnecting "service" was so hard,
I found a message that someone else had this and it ? turned out to be a technical fault,no mention on the status page............

I am using the "Freedom " package as well . I started in January.
I have tried my pay as you go connection and it's perfect so it's definately NTL .

Sue

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Neil ,
No one should have to pay 50p a minute to notify a company they have a fault.........
I have been with other service providers who charged 50p a minute tech help but never had to contact them except to change phone number as moving.
The difference with NTL appears to be they don't answer e-mails.
It could be sooo simple to improve communication and service have more staff answering e-mails .

As a new "freedom" user is the situation likely to improve or has it been like this a long time?

Sue

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

No problems with NTL dialup here (touch woody), last time I did have the sort of trouble you are having, it was my modem that was the cause. Brought a new one and it was all ok.
Having said that, I see other people are having the same problem in the same area, so must be a localised connection issue.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Dont you have an alternative email account that you can fall back on in times like these?

You could also try calling your local NTL franchise & speak to customer services more than often they are quite willing to usually transfer your call free of charge.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hello All

Still having the same problems here.

Just to clear up a few things.

1. Can someone confirm the correct Email Address for Dial Up Customers to report service issues to NTL. It would be wrong to complain that they haven't answered if they haven't received the mailings, but if they have then it does look as though they just don't care.

2. I don't think anyone has griped about paying a service line to get Tech Support, that is not the issue here. The issue is that NTL seem to have a problem with their equipment, and either do not have the facility to find out from their customers that they have a problem, or perhaps are too busy making all their BroadBand adjustments to deal with it.

Regards

F. Flange

PS. Regarding the change of modem, you will see from my original post that I have tried using Three Different Modems on Two different machines under Two Operating Systems, one of which has had a complety fresh installation on a brand new HDD.

PPS. I don't mind if Neil rants a bit, I am inclined to agree with the gist of what he says about NTL, and although they are now under new management, there is still plenty of the old wood hanging on and that is probaly what is wrong with them.

PPPS. Yes other ISPs are available but again that is not the point. Occasional short breaks in service can't be avoided, but we are talking about a virtual lack of facility for a whole week.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

No.

You had it right the first time, although it's worth bearing in mind that NTL give priority to incoming calls, with emails a distant second.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Russ when you ring the dial up tech help phone number the people at the other end are definatly Indian.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

some people there may be indian... but dial up support is definately not in India!!

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Dr Awsome.......
Thanks for trying to help.
Quote:
Dont you have an alternative email account that you can fall back on in times like these?

Yes I do but use the NTL one as my main address so still couldn't get my normal mail at my main address,will use one of my others thanks

re You could also try calling your local NTL franchise & speak to customer services more than often they are quite willing to usually transfer your call free of charge

I have done that before ,they transfer me no problem ,but just say we can't deal with tech things. I asked wheres my dial box please,can't answer that ,when will I get the changeover so I don't have to prefix 1263? ,again don't know .???????
Are you saying it is definately possible to get through to tech support from customer services???????

By the way the connection is finally ok this morning hope it lasts.

As Fred said a week with connections sooo slow, pages cannot be displayed nearly every time ,very very frequent disconnections is awful.

Can't see how customer service will improve by cutting so many jobs :(

Thanks again
Sue

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hello All

Sue- I'm back on air again this morning, [3 successful dialups at 50K] which rather conclusivley points the finger at NTL rather than our systems. Too much of a coincidence otherwise.

So Finger and everything else crossed.

Think I shall be leaving NTL soon though, the stress of the last week has been almost unbearable - my fault I suppose for being a net junkie, but I don't think I could go through it again.

Will have to start looking around for the best BB deal - is there a good thread anywhere?

Thanks again Sue for posting, it does help to be able to share the burden a bit.

Kind regards

Fred F.

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Not even the off-net "freedom" package??? :confused:

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

I thought it was only Freedom 'Telesales' that are based in India?

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Hi Fred ,

Glad you're back too...............

Let me know please if you find a good reasonable ,provider,with some customer service too :)

Glad you posted too.
The "mutant bagle0 " can't send e-mail message scared me and trying to download with the worst in the world connection was awful not fun ,spent all of Sunday checking my pc and found nothing,Bagle is a nasty worm with backdoor capabilities.
Luckily someone else had posted the same problem and someone was pretty sure it was a technical fault.
I really wish NTL would brave putting known faults on status page.

I read a bit about firefly service provider who use another provider as backup if they have problems.Apparently this week there backup also have problems so they used another,I wonder if it was NTL???
Looking at their status page it is so human ,explanatory,appears honest much better than NTL'S..........

Happy surfing Easter,
Sue

Re: 'Orrible Week - Is it Just Me?
 

Maybe NTL dont think their dialup customers are important enough. (is this speculation?) :)

Firefly have a good informative relationship with their customers wether you are a dial-up, isdn & broadband customer, i have found that they're very supportive & very honest with their information, i remember once reading that they asked their customers what support method suits them, with regards to the hours their telephone - email - live chat support is manned. When i conversed with them many times in early January by email i recieved a good fast reply. :tu:

They did however have a few problems towards the backend of last year & they sorted the problems out as quick as they could keeping their customers informed all the way though that period.

If anyone should come across a competitive priced fault free isp let me know.. :)