What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

My STB box died with an Err3 code on Wednesday evening. After spending the best part of yesterday waiting for a call back that never arrived I finally got through to someone from faults who said that the earliest that they could send an engineer round was Monday afternoon. The STB just needs swapping out, so someone could just drop off a new box in passing, but apparently there are absolutely no NTL engineers working in the Reading area until Monday afternoon, a fact that I find highly unlikely.

Is this a normal wait time to get an STB replaced, and is there anyone on the board who works for NTL that could perhaps speed things up a little? As I said, all it needs is the new box to be dropped off and the old one taken away so it isn`t going to require any time from the installers.

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

thats not to bad i had to wait 5 weeks before although they where kind enough to credit my account

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

It amazes me how these wait times are allowed.
I was over in the US last week and my Mother In Law asked me to set up a new Surround Sound system she had just bought. Her STB had a digital coax output which I connected to the Amp, but found was not working.
Called up TimeWarner Cable to ask whether it should be and they offered a tech visit (at no charge) the next day as this sort of problem is a little difficult to diagnose over the phone as it is outside our normal set ups, but that the coax digital should work.

I declined the visit at that point as we were not going to be in all day, but had another look, basically their premium channels all have digital audio, but the basic ones don't, so you need an analogue connection for those (and that confuses the hell out of the auto feed select on the AV amp).

Two things here shocked me, the offer of tech support for free and next day, and secondly the fact they get digital audio :cool: on most of their channels, so she has a PVR, 2 week schedule, digital audio and 3Mb BB on her cable :mad: and it's cheaper than my bill :mad:

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

One thing that American companies have got absolutely nailed is the service culture, and it is something that UK companies should pick up on. I could see that NTL could argue on cost grounds against something like this, but surely the customer retention would more than pay for it.

Case in point, the amount of hassle I had trying to sort this out meant that the immediate next phone call was to start making inquiries as to whether I can get a Sky dish put up on my rented flat.

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

Maybe we should have a poll on engineer wait times?

When my STB died last year I ended up out of touch for almost three days because they couldn't get anyone around before then :(

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

Well said! :tu:

Couldn't agree more. :)

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

dr Wadd, Normally an engineer is available within 24/48 hrs, sometimes even quicker (except weekends.) Times seem to be longer at the moment for some reason... either there are more faults with the temperatures and weather conditions or a shortage of tech's due to holidays etc or maybe a combination of both.... anyone in a faults dispatch role care to comment?

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

When I had NTL DTV I had a lot of problems with it but whenever I needed an engineer there was always one with me within hours. Very good service from Nottingham, pity they could never give me a lasting stable picture despite several box swaps.

Just seen Gazza's post and his mention of the weather. Most of my problems with DTV were when the weather was really hot with the picture freezing and stuttering.

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

ah-hem.... ntl is an american company.... :o

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

The important decisions aren`t being made by Americans, and they are the ones with the knowledge about service culture.

*Edit* To put some context on that, Burger King and McDonalds are both technically US companies, but the UK franchises are so far removed from the US parent companies that they may as well be entirely separate. America understands that fast food should come quickly, the UK operations don`t seem the grasp that fundamental point.

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

It's weird I had a similar need for an engineer to come out. Was on the phone to ntl Wednesday eve, and the earliest appointment was for Wednesday next week, (unless I could do Thursday morning -yesterday whcih I couldn't at such short notice.) But they did say try phoning back as something might change.

Anyway called back yesterday evening, trying to request a cable modem be installed as the PACE STB wasn't coping with digi TV and broadband (data loss, very slow page loads, freezing TV piccies and channel changes, you name it). The last engineer, only a week earlier, had adjusted the signal strength, but wasn't confident that would work, and true to form it didn't. Engineer suggested I try a cable modem. Apparently I'm the furthest run from the green box in my street and theres just too much noise on the line.

So oddly after being on the phone last night for an hour, going from faults, to tech support, back to faults, an appointment was made by faults for Today, Friday to fit the cable modem, or so I thought. Engineer turns up very prompt at 12:00 today (12-4 slot arranged), but not for the cable modem install, but looks at STB, and fiddles around. Says that the faults team would never arrange an install - that's a different team who dont speak to faults. OK so hes swapped the STB for a new Samsung, which is nice, but the signal noise remains. Time will tell if this resolves it. It really don't wantn to spend more time on the phone to ntl, or at least I'm gonna invest in a speaker phone for all the time your on hold.

The question is though, how come suddenly an engineer was available for today, when nothing was available earlier on?

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

Faults wouldn't arrange a Cable Modem to be fitted, that would be sorted by Sales who would book an Install chap to sort that out.

Faults appointments are booked according to whats shown on our screen, I have spoken to a customer at 10am and been able to get someone out before 12 same morning. The points dept can only book in appointments according to how many Techs are available and obviously this can vary on a day to day basis. I know it can be very frustrating if there aren't any earlier appointments but we always offer the first available.

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

I appreciate that, but in this instance I don`t actually need an appointment as such, just someone to drop off the box and take the old one, a 30 second job they could do in passing. I simply cannot believe that there are no NTL engineers at all in the Reading area before Monday as the CS representative attempted to argue.

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

Sorry chuck, don't cover your area so don't know the state of play :(

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

That might seem like a 30 second job, but twice when I had NTL DTV my box was replaced and the new box had problems as soon as the engineer fitted it. One was a problem with the viewing card, the other had a good picture but no sound at all. So the 30 second job, which might have taken the engineer many miles out of his way, could result in getting another box that doesn't work and yet another appointment having to be made.

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

Having just seen what was involved in swapping the box, it takes a bit more than 30 seconds. OK so you are perhaps happy to unplug one and have it all ready for the engineer, and perhaps to unpack and plug in the new box. The engineer still needs to check the diagnostics and confirm the STB is working in parameters that it should be, and have time to tell somebody at ntl that there's a new box at the address, so it can then download the settings. It's not quite as simple as you might have hoped, so an appointment slot is probably the best way for it to be done.

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

I've now just had my third day when I have had to be on the phone to NTL to try and get this damn issue resolved. I eventually got my callback, a day later, and by all accounts the person making the call back hadn`t been passed any details about why the callback was required.

I missed the actual call, but since this is a clear case of left hand/right hand ignorance I felt it best to call back again to check that everything had been handled correctly. The whole situation is turning into a bloody farce.

There is apparently a problem with the faults line at the moment, so after I go through all the recorded BS I get immediately cut off. CS get stroppy when I get through to them arguing that this is a faults issue, when I`m telling them that this has gone beyond a faults issue they tell me they can`t do anything and I should report it to complaints, when I do eventually get through to faults they tell me I should report complaints to CS. The CS staff cannot maintain a consistent line, in this mornings incident I asked to speak to a supervisor only to be told she is in a meeting, then a minute later I get the supervisor on the phone who tells me she wasn`t in a meeting, she was monitoring calls (she described it as "being in a meeting with her work", I think she will have understood the snort of derision that followed that statement). Do supervisors normally spy on calls from another office? There is a statement when you phone that says calls will be recorded, but AFAIR it doesn`t explicitly state that calls will be spied on when they are being made.

Anyway, my concerns about the left hand/right hand ignorance seem to be well founded. Depending on who I speak to I get told the engineer is either coming on the 9th or 19th of August, no-one seems capable of putting the correct contact number for me on the notes for the engineer, and I still don`t know if the note I asked to be left about the specific type of STB I require has been recorded, it certainly hadn`t been noted by each person I've had to deal with thus far.

I won`t even start on the fact that the people I've spoken to don`t seem to be able to operate a phone otherwise I`ll probably burst a blood vessel. Do the majority of staff at NTL even attempt to transfer customers to the correct department, or do they just roll a die to see which random department you will be transferred to, or if you will simply be cut-off?

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

I'm sorry to say this, but this just sounds like the ntl I know.

Telephone 'ping pong'/no one wanting to 'own' a customer's problem/telling them BS to get them off the line, etc etc.

Did you get these people's names Dr W?

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

Sadly no, and to a degree I've found it often isn`t even worth asking. I can understand why they don`t give out full names, but they should give out at least a first name and an operator number if asked. Some NTL represantives give a first name right at the start of the call, but I've had others who refuse to even provide me with any information that could identify them should I escalate a complaint. With some the attitude seems to be that they hide behind a shield of anonimity so they don`t have to be accountable for their actions.

Vexingly, the one name of a person I've spoken to in the last few days is one of only a couple of people who at least gave the impression they were genuinely trying to help. That itself speaks volumes I think, we remember the peopel who give good service as an individual, the peope who give bad service just become part of the monolithic organisation of incompetence.

Re: What should be a normal wait time for an engineer?
 

That sounds just like ntl for me. :td: