Cable Forum

Cable Forum (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/index.php)
-   Virgin Media TV Service (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=11)
-   -   No Engineers Until Monday: WTF (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=18811)

Tardis 14-10-2004 15:21
No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Hi All,

Within the last hour my Digital TV Service has crashed. I'm getting nothing on any channel and my STB is showing nothing but a single light.

Anyway, my aggro is that after finally getting through to CS I was told that they cannot get an engineer out to me until Monday the earliest.:mad: which is just not good enough.:shocked:

I love my football and this weekend there are 2 ppv games on, of which I had the previlege of paying an extra £50 (in advance) to watch these games.

I have told them I want compensation for every day without cable and I want a refund for the 2 games I'm gonna miss if my cable has not return by this coming Saturday by 12:00 noon. I have threatened to reduce my full package to the minimum package if I choose to remain a NTL customer if I have to wait until bloody Monday.

I have posted this because if anyone else lives in the London W3 area you know what to expect.
I just find it puzzling that they can't get anyone out until Monday :shocked:

Any suggestions: have I gone the right way about this? Should I have said something else, etc?

Tardis

ian@huth 14-10-2004 15:33
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
From the tone of your post, if it was less than an hour since your problems started don't you think that you may have got onto some poor customer service agent with all guns blazing and maybe not given them a chance to sort out your porblem.

There have been times when I had NTL DTV that I lost all channels for a while but they came back within an hour or two. Did the person you spoke to try to find out what the problem may be or check to see if it was a local temporary outage?

Whilst it would be nice to have your own personal NTL engineer sitting in his van round the corner from you waiting for your call it is not economically viable. Holidays and sickness can affect the availability of engineers who might also be experiencing above average callouts at the moment.

quadplay 14-10-2004 15:38
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Besides which, Thursday to Monday (two working days) really isn't that bad! When I had Sky in Essex a few years back, and had a problem, it took nearly two weeks to get an engineer!

Graham F 14-10-2004 15:45
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
waiting till monday to get your tv fixed is not long really is it!! I had to wait 4 days to get my boiler at home fixed by British Gas and i would deem that more important than TV so i think you are being unfair on ntl. they should credit you back though for your time without it including the £2 that the 2 games on PPV have cost you :)

gary_580 14-10-2004 16:36
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Would you pay more to have an improved engineer service? They could employ more engineers and have them stand idle just so you could have a 1 hour response time.

In the end its not exactly a vital service and you could always go down the pub and watch it, now theres an excuse!!

Escapee 14-10-2004 16:44
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gary_580
Would you pay more to have an improved engineer service? They could employ more engineers and have them stand idle just so you could have a 1 hour response time.

In the end its not exactly a vital service and you could always go down the pub and watch it, now theres an excuse!!
I know its no excuse but ntl engineers are being worked very hard these days, the sheer amount of service calls has meant the Network Engineers are nearly all attending customer service calls these days.

It's all a viscious circle as more customer service calls are generated because the networks are not being maintained. The networks possibly have nothing to do with your fault, but cost cutting means people are having to wait longer and suffer reduced quality of service these days to make the figures look good for the shareholders.

This example wouldn't of happened a few years ago, simply because people weren't running around then like chickens with their heads chopped off and achieving nothing! to the tune of managers who dont know their ar*e from their elbows. :rolleyes:

Marge 14-10-2004 16:44
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
It's so difficult cos we have a certain number of slots that we can book, put quite simply in theres no slots we can't book an appointment. It does sometimes work quite well, I had a lady last night who at just after 7.30 pm I could have booked a morning appointment for today. She was unable to make it but was really impressed as she didn't think there would be any chance of anything so soon. I do sympathise with you as I'm sure you're frustrated, might be worth a call maybe tomorrow morning to see if there have been any cancellations ??

Maggy 14-10-2004 17:21
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
Hi All,

Within the last hour my Digital TV Service has crashed. I'm getting nothing on any channel and my STB is showing nothing but a single light.

Anyway, my aggro is that after finally getting through to CS I was told that they cannot get an engineer out to me until Monday the earliest.:mad: which is just not good enough.:shocked:

I love my football and this weekend there are 2 ppv games on, of which I had the previlege of paying an extra £50 (in advance) to watch these games.

I have told them I want compensation for every day without cable and I want a refund for the 2 games I'm gonna miss if my cable has not return by this coming Saturday by 12:00 noon. I have threatened to reduce my full package to the minimum package if I choose to remain a NTL customer if I have to wait until bloody Monday.

I have posted this because if anyone else lives in the London W3 area you know what to expect.
I just find it puzzling that they can't get anyone out until Monday :shocked:

Any suggestions: have I gone the right way about this? Should I have said something else, etc?

Tardis
Frankly you have no idea what frustration is.I refer you to this thread where it took considerabley longer than a weekend for that member to finally get a result as shown in this thread.

With all due respect waiting four days for an engineer seems hardly worth a moan. :erm:

Tardis 14-10-2004 17:24
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Thanks for your comments.



The reason for my †œtone⠃¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚ at posting my thread was because the CS agent had blatantly cut me off when I had asked to speak to a Supervisor. I was not rude to this person or anything. I have read other threads concerning the way to speak to CS and the best way is not to be volatile. So having the phone put down on me gets my back up like anyone else.



Though I do not expect my own private engineer sitting round the corner from my address I do expect better service when I pay for a service up front. I pay more now for a lesser service than I did a few years ago.



I have never had Interactive TV, which was promised when I went over to Digital from Analogue (Videotron)



CS used to be available 24/7 over the weekends and engineers worked on weekends.



NTL are too interested in installations rather keeping their existing customers happy.



I understand that engineers get sick and have holidays, fine, but why not tell the customer that. They just tell customers that †œcanâà ƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã¢â€ ¾Ã‚¢t get anyone till MondayÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šà ¬Ã‚Â Iâ₠™d like to be given an answer not an excuse.



Why do engineers not work weekends, Iâ₠™m sure some of them would appreciate the overtime. If there were a major gas leak in your area the gas company would turn up within hours. Certainly within 24hrs and work through the night if need be.



As the old adage sayââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s †œyou get what you pay forââ‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ but are we?

Tardis

Escapee 14-10-2004 17:31
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
Thanks for your comments.



The reason for my “tone” at posting my thread was because the CS agent had blatantly cut me off when I had asked to speak to a Supervisor. I was not rude to this person or anything. I have read other threads concerning the way to speak to CS and the best way is not to be volatile. So having the phone put down on me gets my back up like anyone else.



Though I do not expect my own private engineer sitting round the corner from my address I do expect better service when I pay for a service up front. I pay more now for a lesser service than I did a few years ago.



I have never had Interactive TV, which was promised when I went over to Digital from Analogue (Videotron)



CS used to be available 24/7 over the weekends and engineers worked on weekends.



NTL are too interested in installations rather keeping their existing customers happy.



I understand that engineers get sick and have holidays, fine, but why not tell the customer that. They just tell customers that “can’t get anyone till Monday” I’d like to be given an answer not an excuse.



Why do engineers not work weekends, I’m sure some of them would appreciate the overtime. If there were a major gas leak in your area the gas company would turn up within hours. Certainly within 24hrs and work through the night if need be.



As the old adage say’s “you get what you pay for” but are we?

Tardis
Although I'm not there anymore, I know locally the big difference now is the on-call engineers do work the weekend but are not sat around on-call as they used to be, they have a full quota of faults to deal with.

In the past the Network Engineers were called to help out when the service Engineers were overloaded, but now network Engineers are basically Service Engineers, they have x amount of customer calls the same as the service engineers do.

Someone just needs to look into why the service calls have gone through the roof! :rolleyes:

Mick 14-10-2004 17:33
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis

Why do engineers not work weekends, Iâ₠™m sure some of them would appreciate the overtime. If there were a major gas leak in your area the gas company would turn up within hours. Certainly within 24hrs and work through the night if need be.





Tardis
I am sure they would appreciate the overtime, not working weekends is not their decision, a decision ntl made last year because apparently there was not enough calls over the weekend to justify people being paid to sit in the call centre and engineers being available to resolve peoples problems.

Escapee 14-10-2004 17:41
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mick
I am sure they would appreciate the overtime, not working weekends is not their decision, a decision ntl made last year because apparently there was not enough calls over the weekend to justify people being paid to sit in the call centre and engineers being available to resolve peoples problems.
On call engineers in South Wales have to work as far as I'm still aware!
They used to pay overtime to the on-call engineer.

My mate who's a network tech was working last month on a saturday whilst on call, in fact I think he gets a day off in the week for this and no extra pay anymore.

These rules were enforced on them last year.

gary_580 14-10-2004 21:15
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
Why do engineers not work weekends, Iâ₠™m sure some of them would appreciate the overtime. If there were a major gas leak in your area the gas company would turn up within hours. Certainly within 24hrs and work through the night if need be.
They do. Ive had them visit on Saturdays

gary_580 14-10-2004 21:16
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escapee
I know its no excuse but ntl engineers are being worked very hard these days, the sheer amount of service calls has meant the Network Engineers are nearly all attending customer service calls these days.

It's all a viscious circle as more customer service calls are generated because the networks are not being maintained. The networks possibly have nothing to do with your fault, but cost cutting means people are having to wait longer and suffer reduced quality of service these days to make the figures look good for the shareholders.

This example wouldn't of happened a few years ago, simply because people weren't running around then like chickens with their heads chopped off and achieving nothing! to the tune of managers who dont know their ar*e from their elbows. :rolleyes:
I was agreeing. The point i was trying to make is that some people expect gold star service but dont want to pay for it.

When i said "Theres and excuse" i was refering to the fact it was an excuse to get down the pub

Florence 14-10-2004 21:23
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Perhaps the redundancies have now started to bite into NTLs engineers as they have cut them aswell as CS.

andrew_wallasey 15-10-2004 11:35
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
I personally cant understand Tardis problem. Sky often took weeks to come out when I was with them a couple of years ago. If the best thing you can do with your time is come on here and moan about nothing I suggest you get a life.

Chris 15-10-2004 12:15
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrew_wallasey
I personally cant understand Tardis problem. Sky often took weeks to come out when I was with them a couple of years ago. If the best thing you can do with your time is come on here and moan about nothing I suggest you get a life.
Eh? Just because one company dishes out crap service doesn't mean it's an acceptable standard for others to follow. If you buy the top TV packages from NTL, or premium services such as the prem plus football games as Tardis has, that represents a significant monthly spend. Finding out that you can't access the services you've paid for, and that you need to wait almost a week to get them back (all the while continuing to pay for them), is downright unacceptable.

He is not moaning about nothing, and in fact is being quite constructive in asking for advice about anything else he should be saying/doing about his situation.

Looks like he has a life to me. A bit puzzled why you can't see that?

orangebird 15-10-2004 12:27
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris T
<snip>If you buy the top TV packages from NTL, or premium services such as the prem plus football games as Tardis has, that represents a significant monthly spend. Finding out that you can't access the services you've paid for, and that you need to wait almost a week to get them back (all the while continuing to pay for them), is downright unacceptable.
Whilst I understand Tardis' frustration (although personally, I wouldn't be too bothered myself), what's the amount of money he/she spends a month got to do with? Would a customer who only has, say, the base pack and phone line have to wait longer than Tardis?

Escapee 15-10-2004 12:33
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by orangebird
Whilst I understand Tardis' frustration (although personally, I wouldn't be too bothered myself), what's the amount of money he/she spends a month got to do with? Would a customer who only has, say, the base pack and phone line have to wait longer than Tardis?
I think Tardis is just an example, he is spending a considerable amount of money and getting sub-standard service. I too wouldn't be bothered about not having a TV to watch for the weekend, but I sympathise entirely with the point Tardis is making.

The Engineers quotas are very full these days, and there must be a reason.

Chris 15-10-2004 12:34
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by orangebird
Whilst I understand Tardis' frustration (although personally, I wouldn't be too bothered myself), what's the amount of money he/she spends a month got to do with? Would a customer who only has, say, the base pack and phone line have to wait longer than Tardis?
No, everyone has an equal right to their services, and from NTL's point of view they should treat all their customers with equal efficiency (although you could say that they should fix the high-spender's service first, as if they have to pay compo, they'll pay more to him, and if he decides to leave NTL, they'll lose more - that however is not the kind of policies companies like to hold, officially in any case).

But someone who loses, say £20 worth of services is understandably more upset than someone who loses £5. I was really thinking in terms of Tardis' financial loss and how justified he is personally in feeling aggrieved, especially as he was accused of 'moaning' and being advised to 'get a life'.

Graham F 15-10-2004 12:42
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris T
Eh? Just because one company dishes out crap service doesn't mean it's an acceptable standard for others to follow. If you buy the top TV packages from NTL, or premium services such as the prem plus football games as Tardis has, that represents a significant monthly spend. Finding out that you can't access the services you've paid for, and that you need to wait almost a week to get them back (all the while continuing to pay for them), is downright unacceptable.

He is not moaning about nothing, and in fact is being quite constructive in asking for advice about anything else he should be saying/doing about his situation.

Looks like he has a life to me. A bit puzzled why you can't see that?
Almost a week, how is 4 days almost a week :disturbd: :confused:

To be fair ntl will give them back the money for the days without the service so he won't be paying for the days when they are without the service. As OB says the package someone is on should not matter its not the point at all. However if they had lost phone service i think you would find they would be out quicker

Chris 15-10-2004 12:52
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooby
Almost a week, how is 4 days almost a week :disturbd: :confused:

To be fair ntl will give them back the money for the days without the service so he won't be paying for the days when they are without the service. As OB says the package someone is on should not matter its not the point at all. However if they had lost phone service i think you would find they would be out quicker
I counted thursday and monday - five days. As for the rest - I think I addressed it when I replied to OB above. :)

ian@huth 15-10-2004 12:55
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
I think that the point to note is that Tardis started this thread less than an hour after he lost his TV service. From what he said in his opening post it makes you wonder what his initial attitude was when he first spoke to the NTL agent and whether that agent tried to find a solution to the problem or was anxious to get rid of him. Perhaps Tardis could enlighten us on what the NTL agent did to try to resolve the problem there and then. Is his TV service still off or was it a short local issue that was resolved within a couple of hours?

Tardis 15-10-2004 13:08
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Thanks for all the support and criticisms. I was just about to respond to some of your thoughts when I just noticed that my signal has now returned to my STB. Thatâ₠¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s less than 24 hrs.

I obviously went the right way about doing things and to all those who think that waiting 4 dayââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s or more is acceptable. You carry on waiting.



Oh by the way, Iâ₠™ve just had a call from NTL apologising about having the phone put down on me yesterday. I thank you.:p:

Graham F 15-10-2004 13:17
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
Thanks for all the support and criticisms. I was just about to respond to some of your thoughts when I just noticed that my signal has now returned to my STB. Thatâ₠¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s less than 24 hrs.

I obviously went the right way about doing things and to all those who think that waiting 4 dayââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s or more is acceptable. You carry on waiting.



Oh by the way, Iâ₠™ve just had a call from NTL apologising about having the phone put down on me yesterday. I thank you.:p:
Sounds like it was a netwrok issue then, rather than an indivual fault so it won't of mattered how you went abt it. Glad you got it back in time for the footy though :D

Tardis 15-10-2004 13:24
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
If it was a network fault then obviously CS had other calls from my area and proves that others and I found it unacceptable of having to wait 4 days for and enginner, don't you think!
I wonder where the engineer came from...spooky!!!

orangebird 15-10-2004 13:26
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
If it was a network fault then obviously CS had other calls from my area and proves that others and I found it unacceptable of having to wait 4 days for and enginner, don't you think!
I wonder where the engineer came from...spooky!!!
get over yourself. :rolleyes:

Graham F 15-10-2004 13:41
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
If it was a network fault then obviously CS had other calls from my area and proves that others and I found it unacceptable of having to wait 4 days for and enginner, don't you think!
I wonder where the engineer came from...spooky!!!
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO... :D

it has nothing to do with the fact that you and others found it unacceptable, if there is an outage that is affecting a group of people these can often be resolved remotely even if an engineer did fix the fault by going somewhere it would be a different type of tech.... so as OB says :angel:

Escapee 15-10-2004 14:04
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooby
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO... :D

it has nothing to do with the fact that you and others found it unacceptable, if there is an outage that is affecting a group of people these can often be resolved remotely even if an engineer did fix the fault by going somewhere it would be a different type of tech.... so as OB says :angel:
Other people probably reported the fault and an engineer fixing theirs has sorted yours in the process. I know from friends still working at ntl that single customer faults (strange as it may sound) seem to take presedence over network faults these days.

If all the network techs have 8 customer service calls a day, you can forget them being available to rush off to a network fault like they were originally employed to do! :rolleyes:

Thats why many network faults now wait until the on-call network tech has finished his 8 service calls for the day!

Tardis 15-10-2004 14:36
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
I have just learn't from a neighbour that 2 NTL vans attending the box further down our road this morning were working on it for a couple of hrs.

Sounds like there was more than 1 fault?

Chris 15-10-2004 15:20
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
I have just learn't from a neighbour that 2 NTL vans attending the box further down our road this morning were working on it for a couple of hrs.

Sounds like there was more than 1 fault?
I don't think number of vans in attendance = number of faults in the box. Possibly the second van arrived carrying spare parts that the original engineer in attendance didn't have? I dunno, there are network engineers on this board, I'm sure one of them can explain how it works.

gary_580 15-10-2004 17:59
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris T
I don't think number of vans in attendance = number of faults in the box. Possibly the second van arrived carrying spare parts that the original engineer in attendance didn't have? I dunno, there are network engineers on this board, I'm sure one of them can explain how it works.
Or they needed a spanner man and a screw driver man on the same job :D

scrotnig 15-10-2004 18:32
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
I don't think a week IS acceptable. It's usually much less than that, but I have known instances where it's longer. Saying that it's ok because Sky can take several weeks is irrelevant, as that just proves how crap Sky are in that regard. NTL do not aspire to reach that particular standard.

Today I have booked one TV fault in for tomorrow morning. It seems to vary from franchise to franchise.

andrew_wallasey 16-10-2004 09:50
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
To be fair in my franchise. Everytime I have needed an engineer they have come out same day. I even phoned at like 4:30pm and got it by 6pm.

Mick 16-10-2004 12:51
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
So you agree that it was rather unconstructive to tell someone to 'get a life' when you yourself did not exactly have to suffer the same waiting times as Tardis had to? :rolleyes:

andrew_wallasey 16-10-2004 20:36
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
No because ive had to wait for days (often weeks) for other companies to come out and I dont think 4 days (over a weekend as well) a bad lead time for an engineer to come out. What is the point in coming on this site and moaning about it?

Womble 16-10-2004 21:59
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
As a Network engineer, 4 days is not unacceptable, as a customer it would be irritating. What I find amusing is everyone is arguing about the finer points in this thread, but no one offered Tardis any advice, like going into diagnostics to find if he had a signal etc etc

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
If it was a network fault then obviously CS had other calls from my area and proves that others and I found it unacceptable of having to wait 4 days for an enginner, don't you think!
I wonder where the engineer came from...spooky!!!
Sorry to be picky, BUT, you where waiting for a Service Tech, NOT an Engineer, we (Network Engineers) provide 24/7 cover, and take customer tickets on a Sat that have been passed to us by a service tech.
FMS do not, it would seem monitor incoming calls and raise Network Masters anymore. We had a whole area (2400 subs) and all they did was raise individual tickets!! :dunce: This is also causing a problem, not least for the Customer but also for the service boys and gals that are up to their necks in it.
The worst thing NTL ever did was shut NFOC in Brighton :td:

Mick 17-10-2004 00:05
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrew_wallasey
No because ive had to wait for days (often weeks) for other companies to come out and I dont think 4 days (over a weekend as well) a bad lead time for an engineer to come out. What is the point in coming on this site and moaning about it?
:nono:

He was not moaning about it, he was using this discussion forum as it was intended, something which has escaped your attention yet again. :rolleyes:

He is quite welcome to do so and does not need nasty people like you to come out with rude comments and tell such people who have issues to 'get a life'.

Maggy 17-10-2004 00:55
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Well Mick I don't think we have all been particularly rude.After all I believe the policy on this forum is to deal with those people who have tried every means at their disposal to get their situation sorted and have failed.

Frankly I would have waited a little longer than an hour to see what happened before rushing to even phone CS because it is my experience that the occasional hiccup may well sort its self out within a very short period especially with DTV.

I think what may have upset some is that he really didn't give anyone a real chance to sort anything before he was here 'discussing' the situation and saying it was unacceptable to wait from Thursday to Monday.It was as if he was trying to jump the queue.Now as some folk here have some very long standing issues with NTL that are still not resolved, it may well be the case that it got up some folks noses and they were a little sharper than they needed to be.

Anyway it seems moot now that he has his DTV back to normal without the aid of an engineer and the 4 day wait was a non starter.Seems little point to continue the 'discussion'. :)

Mick 17-10-2004 01:02
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Incognitas
Well Mick I don't think we have all been particularly rude.
I didn't say you had though Incog. ;)

Though telling someone to 'get a life' is IMO uncalled for and rude. This is what I am getting at mainly here.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Incognitas
After all I believe the policy on this forum is to deal with those people who have tried every means at their disposal to get their situation sorted and have failed.
Which is what Tardis did. He called CS and was not happy with the outcome so he posted here to seek information, was that really so wrong? :)

Escapee 17-10-2004 01:03
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Womble
As a Network engineer, 4 days is not unacceptable, as a customer it would be irritating. What I find amusing is everyone is arguing about the finer points in this thread, but no one offered Tardis any advice, like going into diagnostics to find if he had a signal etc etc


Sorry to be picky, BUT, you where waiting for a Service Tech, NOT an Engineer, we (Network Engineers) provide 24/7 cover, and take customer tickets on a Sat that have been passed to us by a service tech.
FMS do not, it would seem monitor incoming calls and raise Network Masters anymore. We had a whole area (2400 subs) and all they did was raise individual tickets!! :dunce: This is also causing a problem, not least for the Customer but also for the service boys and gals that are up to their necks in it.
The worst thing NTL ever did was shut NFOC in Brighton :td:
hey Womble, Losing some mangers in your department soon as well then!

Tardis 17-10-2004 03:03
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
I find it incomprehensible that some of you think that waiting 4 days or more for an Engineer or Technician is acceptable.

If people like yourselves are not prepared to let NTL know how you feel and that the service they provide to you is inadequate. Then the service is really not going to improve is it?:dozey:

I was not rude to CS. I just stated that it was unacceptable and that I was prepared to lower my package from nearly £60pm to the £10pm basic package, if I remained a NTL customer. I wonder what would happen if everyone was to tell NTL that they are prepared to just have the £10 package until the service improves?



In my original post I did ask whether I have gone the right way about this or should have I said something else. As by my number of posts you can see Iâ₠™m a new member to this forum, do some of you always welcome new members with such hostile comments? The next time your cab arrives late or your new washing machine, TV or whatever arrives later than you expected. I hope you remember me sitting at home watching TV with both my middle fingers pointing up you.:p: :p:



To others, thanks for all your support.

Maggy 17-10-2004 03:25
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
I find it incomprehensible that some of you think that waiting 4 days or more for an Engineer or Technician is acceptable.

If people like yourselves are not prepared to let NTL know how you feel and that the service they provide to you is inadequate. Then the service is really not going to improve is it?:dozey:

I was not rude to CS. I just stated that it was unacceptable and that I was prepared to lower my package from nearly £60pm to the £10pm basic package, if I remained a NTL customer. I wonder what would happen if everyone was to tell NTL that they are prepared to just have the £10 package until the service improves?



In my original post I did ask whether I have gone the right way about this or should have I said something else. As by my number of posts you can see Iâ₠™m a new member to this forum, do some of you always welcome new members with such hostile comments? The next time your cab arrives late or your new washing machine, TV or whatever arrives later than you expected. I hope you remember me sitting at home watching TV with both my middle fingers pointing up you.:p: :p:



To others, thanks for all your support.
What I found incomphrensible was that you were not able to wait for more than an hour to see if it adjusted before getting on to CS/Tech support when experience has taught me that a short wait usually sorts things out.I'm also curious to know what would have been an acceptable period of time to you to wait for an engineer.An hour,a day,two days?Even the fastest service can't go much faster than a day surely?After all we are dealing with NTL here and I very much doubt if any of the other DTV suppliers would have been any quicker.

I also DON'T like the way you keep needling everyone as though we are idiots because we seem have rather more realistic ideas of how the real world operates.I'd be interested in any service that can operate in under a day when there is a technical problem but I suspect that ALL(and frankly there's not that much choice) of them will be having problems to provide any service that is faster in the present economic situation.

So when are you leaving NTL and who will you try next?Because that is the real problem.Which of the very small list of DTV suppliers is the most reliable and fixes problems instantly?If we could all know that I'm sure we would all be signed up to them.

Mick 17-10-2004 10:27
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Incognitas
What I found incomphrensible was that you were not able to wait for more than an hour to see if it adjusted before getting on to CS/Tech support
I do not see why he should have to Incog, if a problem persists and a customers wants an immediate resolution, he is in his perfect rights to contact customer services, what you may do and what someone else may do when there is a fault is irrelevant, if something happened to my service, which in the past it has, I would be straight on the phone to CS.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Incognitas
I also DON'T like the way you keep needling everyone as though we are idiots
And I do not like the way some of you have been quite hostile towards him, a new member who only came here to seek information, which at the end of the day is what coming here and seeking help is all about.

andrew_wallasey 17-10-2004 13:06
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
He has come on to have a moan and a dig at NTL that's all, he had given no one a chance to sort the problem out and in the end the 4 days was irrelevant.



If you just read his posts it just annoys me the way you can see he was obviously kicking up a fuss over nothing "i was going to lower my package from 60 pound a month to 10 pound a month". How far is that ever going to get him because unless he donââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t want premium channels anymore he will have to go to sky and wait up to 2 weeks for an engineer to come out if you have a problem.



I told him to get a life because he obviously has nothing better to do with his time than come on here to have a moan about NTL. His TV had not even been off for an hour before he came on here!!! It's pathetic!!!

scrotnig 17-10-2004 13:12
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
I think we should all stop looking at things from ntl's point of view and look at the customer here.

The customer is paying for a service that doesn't work and has to wait 5 days for it to be fixed. As far as the customer is concerned, that's crap. I don't care if Sky take longer, that just means they are more crap.

I know there are service level agreements, etc etc, but from the CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE, the customer just wants it to work, and has therefore had a 'poor customer experience', the very thing this site was set up to highlight.

Unfortunately Tardis is not in my region, or else I'd have stepped in, but all anybody has done here is pull him down for complaining about what is, for him, a mediocre service.

Shame on us all as a community for not at least offering him some empathy. Four days is NOT good if you're sat without your Digital TV service for a weekend.

Mick 17-10-2004 13:21
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrew_wallasey
He has come on to have a moan and a dig at NTL that's all, he had given no one a chance to sort the problem out and in the end the 4 days was irrelevant.



If you just read his posts it just annoys me the way you can see he was obviously kicking up a fuss over nothing "i was going to lower my package from 60 pound a month to 10 pound a month". How far is that ever going to get him because unless he donââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t want premium channels anymore he will have to go to sky and wait up to 2 weeks for an engineer to come out if you have a problem.



I told him to get a life because he obviously has nothing better to do with his time than come on here to have a moan about NTL. His TV had not even been off for an hour before he came on here!!! It's pathetic!!!
No it is not pathetic at all.

1) He was not moaning. 2) He came here to seek assistance. 3) He doesn't need to get a life. 4) If I was a new member I would not give a second look in on this place the way some of you have carried on. I am totally disgusted.

ian@huth 17-10-2004 13:44
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
What I would like to know is how long Tardis was speaking to the CS agent and what checks the agent did to try to ascertain what the problem was. I have asked this question before but it has been ignored.

I am also intrigued as to what was said and done when CS rang him back to apologise about putting the phone down on him and who rang him back.

poolking 17-10-2004 14:15
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Maybe if Tardis' "tone" wasn't so confrontational then maybe others would have reacted differently to his situation.

Mick 17-10-2004 14:38
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by poolking
Maybe if Tardis' "tone" wasn't so confrontational then maybe others would have reacted differently to his situation.
I'm sorry I must be totally missing something here... Tardis was not at all confrontational, he had a genuine issue and all he was met with was 'stop moaning', 'get a life' it just simply is an unnacceptable approach to a new member - given that this is a new member who is not used to way of forum life or indeed this forum. We were all new once would you have been happy to have been confronted with the hostilities shown towards Tardis? As Mark B mentioned above this is a community for a discussion about issues regarding ntl or Telewest and if someone has an issue, it should be highlighted and recognised as an issue and noone should be met with 'stop moaning', or 'get a life.' :rolleyes:

Maggy 17-10-2004 14:54
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Errr..Funny how we all got upset then!!!If his tone wasn't confrontational. :confused:

If we are going to behave along the lines of fair play then I have the following points to make.

If he had been told he had to wait a week to a month I would have understood.Agreed having the phone put down was unacceptable but I don't think that he was fobbed off particularly about his problem.

I have seen people told off on this site and the old .com for coming and asking for help far too early without giving NTL a chance to resolve it.Well it was resolved within 24 hours and no one has said well done for getting it sorted well within the time frame of 4 days.

We do need to be vigilant against blaming NTL for every single thing going wrong.Lets concentrate on when they do get it so very wrong but give them a chance to sort a situation out FIRST before giving them a beating.We also don't always shout out enough when they DO get it right.

I know NTL can be bad but on this occasion they weren't THAT bad.

Also he DID get an APOLOGY which is more than some customers get who have had some horrendous problems in comparison.

Incog.

Florence 17-10-2004 14:56
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
I find it incomprehensible that some of you think that waiting 4 days or more for an Engineer or Technician is acceptable.
I have to agree if I was told that long I wouldn't be happy more so if I had paid for pay to view programs that would be displayed while I couldn't watch due to waiting for the engineer. I am sure there should be some form of reward for when the service is down if it is off for more than 24 hours.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
If people like yourselves are not prepared to let NTL know how you feel and that the service they provide to you is inadequate. Then the service is really not going to improve is it?:dozey:
I have been known to let them know what I think and have always kept on at them when the service was down also letting them know if the time for the service to resume is missed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
I was not rude to CS. I just stated that it was unacceptable and that I was prepared to lower my package from nearly £60pm to the £10pm basic package, if I remained a NTL customer. I wonder what would happen if everyone was to tell NTL that they are prepared to just have the £10 package until the service improves?
I do feel for the front line staff they get the aggro from customers who cannot keep their cool when they cannot do anything its the bosses who decide if they are reducing staff and since the reduction in staff the service to the end user is not as reliable.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis


In my original post I did ask whether I have gone the right way about this or should have I said something else. As by my number of posts you can see Iâ₠™m a new member to this forum, do some of you always welcome new members with such hostile comments? The next time your cab arrives late or your new washing machine, TV or whatever arrives later than you expected. I hope you remember me sitting at home watching TV with both my middle fingers pointing up you.:p: :p:




To others, thanks for all your support.
I am sure that those who did welcome you in the more hostile way will reflect on this and perhaps try putting themselves in your position to see how they would have felt.

I was told once that it would take 24 to 48 hours for a call back to just have the engineer booked to come out. I didn't like this and found another way around the problem. Infact it was wrongly diagnosed as a modem failure when it was the network failure. This was pointed out to them and I was back online within 24 hours. I feel 24 hours should be max and if NTL cannot guarentee this they need more staff. They shouldn't have a monday to friday cover its not like buying food its a service that runs 24/7 so should have some form of support for 80 of that and there should be weekend cover all packages. This is important for the customers even if its a member of staff working from home online.

I hope you stay around the forums we are not all hostile we don't bite but we may get heated from time to time. :D

scrotnig 17-10-2004 14:59
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Incognitas
Errr..Funny how we all got upset then!!!If his tone wasn't confrontational. :confused:

If we are going to behave along the lines of fair play then I have the following points to make.

If he had been told he had to wait a week to a month I would have understood.Agreed having the phone put down was unacceptable but I don't think that he was fobbed off particularly about his problem.

I have seen people told off on this site and the old .com for coming and asking for help far too early without giving NTL a chance to resolve it.Well it was resolved within 24 hours and no one has said well done for getting it sorted well within the time frame of 4 days.

We do need to be vigilant against blaming NTL for every single thing going wrong.Lets concentrate on when they do get it so very wrong but give them a chance to sort a situation out FIRST before giving them a beating.We also don't always shout out enough when they DO get it right.

I know NTL can be bad but on this occasion they weren't THAT bad.

Also he DID get an APOLOGY which is more than some customers get who have had some horrendous problems in comparison.

Incog.
Indeed, and I disagree with telling them off.

I would always say, 'have you spoken to ntl about it', and if they say no, I may *suggest* that they do so. However, a good example of where this wouldn't work is the missing PIN numbers problem for cable modem registration. I know exactly what will happen if they phone customer services... a form will be filled in and they will be told they should hear something shortly. Whereas, in most cases, I know I can fix that issue...Monkeybreath also knows HE can fix them too...so we tend to sidestep all that and just jump in and sort it.

We should take every customer complaint seriously. After all, whether WE think it's justified or not, it's clearly a problem to the person posting it. Even if we think it is NOT justified, we can explain this politely without flaming the person concerned.

Mick 17-10-2004 15:13
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Incognitas

I have seen people told off on this site and the old .com for coming and asking for help far too early without giving NTL a chance to resolve it.
Since when? I have never told anyone off for seeking assistance on this site, I may of pointed them out in the right direction and what the best course of action is but never in my time as a member of the team on this site and on .com have I told anyone off for coming here and seeking help before contacting ntl.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Incognitas
We do need to be vigilant against blaming NTL for every single thing going wrong.Lets concentrate on when they do get it so very wrong but give them a chance to sort a situation out FIRST before giving them a beating.
IMO it wasn't ntl who got the beating in this thread, Tardis who is a new member, I feel, got the beating from some of you. Visitors looking in on this thread will be put off for life now to come and register and seek help on this forum, on this community and that saddens me, because thats means we have failed and I do not believe in failure whatsoever.

Maggy 17-10-2004 15:15
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark B
Indeed, and I disagree with telling them off.

I would always say, 'have you spoken to ntl about it', and if they say no, I may *suggest* that they do so. However, a good example of where this wouldn't work is the missing PIN numbers problem for cable modem registration. I know exactly what will happen if they phone customer services... a form will be filled in and they will be told they should hear something shortly. Whereas, in most cases, I know I can fix that issue...Monkeybreath also knows HE can fix them too...so we tend to sidestep all that and just jump in and sort it.

We should take every customer complaint seriously. After all, whether WE think it's justified or not, it's clearly a problem to the person posting it. Even if we think it is NOT justified, we can explain this politely without flaming the person concerned.
This is because you are an :angel: and truly a decent hardworking person who will go above and beyond to help your customers. :tu: NTL needs more like you.In fact they need more of people like you running the business. :D

Then maybe we will all get the instantanious service that we all want but are realistic enough to realise is not always possible. :D

Tardis 17-10-2004 15:16
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Incognitas,



Because I chose to call CS and report the fault is beyond your understanding. Why this should trouble you I have no I idea, but then Iâ₠™m not a psychiatrist, which is evidently what you need if you have issues about a person making a phone call.



NTL provide a 24 hr service of supplying their customers with cable TV all year round. Therefore I think NTL should be able to have an Engineer or Technician at someoneââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s address within 48 hrs. After all, this is what youââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢re paying for, 24 hr viewing isnââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t it?



I cannot comment on other DTV suppliers as Iâ₠™ve never used anyone else and at this moment Iâ₠™m happy with NTL. As Iâ₠™ve previously said in an earlier post. †œI could count on 1 hand the times Iâ₠™ve had to call CS over the last few years.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šà ¬Ã‚Â I am aware that other NTL customers have had possibly a worse service than me over the years. I consider myself lucky in that respect, but at the same time if we as customers are not prepared to challenge NTL and keep being brainwashed with excuses, as you clearly are, then things will not get better for any of us. At this time I donââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t need to leave NTL, Iâ₠™ve had my problem fixed within 24 hrs. I really wish you would read my posts thoroughly.



Being a new member of this forum it was not my intention to offend anyone on this forum and making them feel like an idiot. (You obviously appear to have a personality disorder) Being told that all Iâ₠™ve done is moan and to †œGet a lifeââ‚ ¬Ã‚ just illustrates how jealous and naÃÃ*’¯ve some people are that my fault was rectified within 24 hrs when your comments implied I would be waiting at least 4 dayââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s. SmartÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šà ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s dunnit.

Maggy 17-10-2004 15:27
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tardis
Incognitas,



Because I chose to call CS and report the fault is beyond your understanding. Why this should trouble you I have no I idea, but then Iâ₠™m not a psychiatrist, which is evidently what you need if you have issues about a person making a phone call.



NTL provide a 24 hr service of supplying their customers with cable TV all year round. Therefore I think NTL should be able to have an Engineer or Technician at someoneââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s address within 48 hrs. After all, this is what youââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢re paying for, 24 hr viewing isnââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t it?



I cannot comment on other DTV suppliers as Iâ₠™ve never used anyone else and at this moment Iâ₠™m happy with NTL. As Iâ₠™ve previously said in an earlier post. †œI could count on 1 hand the times Iâ₠™ve had to call CS over the last few years.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šà ¬Ã‚Â I am aware that other NTL customers have had possibly a worse service than me over the years. I consider myself lucky in that respect, but at the same time if we as customers are not prepared to challenge NTL and keep being brainwashed with excuses, as you clearly are, then things will not get better for any of us. At this time I donââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t need to leave NTL, Iâ₠™ve had my problem fixed within 24 hrs. I really wish you would read my posts thoroughly.



Being a new member of this forum it was not my intention to offend anyone on this forum and making them feel like an idiot. (You obviously appear to have a personality disorder) Being told that all Iâ₠™ve done is moan and to †œGet a lifeââ‚ ¬Ã‚ just illustrates how jealous and naÃÃ*’¯ve some people are that my fault was rectified within 24 hrs when your comments implied I would be waiting at least 4 dayââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s. SmartÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šà ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s dunnit.
With all due respect I have not been rude to you.IT was not I who told you to get a life.I merely tried to be an devil's advocate for fair play and a regard to not always jumping on NTL's case.

If you are now going to resort to insults like having a personality disorder when I have not insulted you the discussion is over as far as I'm concerned.Good day to you.

Florence 17-10-2004 15:28
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark B
Indeed, and I disagree with telling them off.

I would always say, 'have you spoken to ntl about it', and if they say no, I may *suggest* that they do so. However, a good example of where this wouldn't work is the missing PIN numbers problem for cable modem registration. I know exactly what will happen if they phone customer services... a form will be filled in and they will be told they should hear something shortly. Whereas, in most cases, I know I can fix that issue...Monkeybreath also knows HE can fix them too...so we tend to sidestep all that and just jump in and sort it.

We should take every customer complaint seriously. After all, whether WE think it's justified or not, it's clearly a problem to the person posting it. Even if we think it is NOT justified, we can explain this politely without flaming the person concerned.
Yes Mark isn't that what we are supposed to have done but for some reason members failed to. I hope Tardis will look on this experience and realise we are not all like that and stay within the community.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Mick
Since when? I have never told anyone off for seeking assistance on this site, I may of pointed them out in the right direction and what the best course of action is but never in my time as a member of the team on this site and on .com have I told anyone off for coming here and seeking help before contacting ntl.
I have only ever seen the Admins and Mods direct members new and old the best way to get help or offer to contact someone withing NTL for help.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Mick
IMO it wasn't ntl who got the beating in this thread, Tardis who is a new member, I feel, got the beating from some of you. Visitors looking in on this thread will be put off for life now to come and register and seek help on this forum, on this community and that saddens me, because thats means we have failed and I do not believe in failure whatsoever.
No Mick you havent failed the member its us the members of the community that have failed this new member. I hope any visitors will look at the end of this thread and see we are not normally like that and I hope we can promise this will not happen again. WE have always given out warm welcome to new members yet this member was given a raw deal. I hope he stays and accepts we are only human and some made mistakes in the way they welcomed Tardis to our community.

All I can say is we are not all an :angel: but tardis we :welcome: you to our forums and we are :sorry: for your first greating please accept our :handshake of friendship.

Mick 17-10-2004 15:33
Re: No Engineers Until Monday: WTF
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Incognitas
With all due respect I have not been rude to you.IT was not I who told you to get a life.I merely tried to be an devil's advocate for fair play and a regard to not always jumping on NTL's case.

If you are now going to resort to insults like having a personality disorder when I have not insulted you the discussion is over as far as I'm concerned.Good day to you.
Yes I do agree with Incog here - lets not resort to insults Tardis. I think it is everyones best interest that I now close this thread as the main issue was resolved some time ago.


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 14:26.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
All Posts and Content are Cable Forum