ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

NTL was yesterday named as providing the WORST customer service in Britain. Link

Re: NTL worst service in UK
 

yesman Have to agree ntl over the past year have gone down the pan they have lost there way at the moment and are desperately trying to regain the customers trust but I can tell you that decisions made two years ago in the area
I live and work to save money have back fired and guess what they now look like
returning to the practices they used to carry out what, but what they donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t realise is the damage has already been done I could have told them that two years ago but hey I am only a pleb who is on the sharp end every day its a case of you sow what you reap.

Re: NTL worst service in UK
 

*Checks surprise-o-meter........no surprise registered*

There will be those who flame me & tell me how the customer numbers are going up, so all is ok & I am just biased, yet the facts speak for themselves-ntl are dire when it comes to looking after their customers.

ntl's attitude to it's customers sucks, I have seen it at the very highest levels in the company, & this result just supports what I already know (& have done for a long time)

The also seem to treat their staff with about as much respect as they do their customers (I.E very little)

Are you listening ntl??

There is a culture within ntl that perceives customer's (& therefore ntl's) problems as a pain, & it's in there like a cancer because it has always been the same for the last 7 or 8 years, & there has been a massive management/staff change in that time, so why do ntl still suck when it comes to customer service???

Also-just to clarify, I am not aiming my comments at any of the ntl associates that we have posting here.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

It hasn't gone downhill around here yet - but from all the stories I read of redundancies etc I fully expect it to. On the face of it, ntl seem to be losing the plot, maybe because all the senior management are too busy thinking about their merger with Telewest.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

I have to admit I've had a few dealing with NTL CS and it's always been fine, recently calls have been answered within a couple of minutes. I guess it depends on your area.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

I thought I had better add that I have no axe to grind with NTL, I was just passing on the news :tu:
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I wouldn't call you a pleb mick, nevertheless, you only reap what you sow :D

Actually I thought NTL were turning it around so to speak, whenever I have had the need to contact them, it is usually sorted, maybe I have been lucky.

Bad CS usually starts at the top at the management level and works it's way down through the ranks.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Striking headlines but how representative is it? How many people responded to the survey by Internet Market Research Services (IMRS) and how many of those have NTL services? Was any screening done to ensure a representative spread of respondents? Did respondents express their own experiences or just their feelings having read one sob story about a company a few years back.

Internet surveys can be very biased and totally unrepresentative.Take the poll on here about what you will do if hard caps come to NTL. The poll shows that a massive number of NTL customers say they will leave NTL but we all know that this is extremely unlikely. Any casual visitor to this site may see that poll, not bother reading any of the posts and presume it is representative.

I wish that articles such as that one in the Sun wre accompanied by more facts about how the results were obtained and what questions were asked. Look at that questionaire on ntlworld.com that asked which of two options you preferred. The results of that questionaire could suggest that customers want something that is far removed from what they actually do want if the questions had been worded differently.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Ian-with Tesco winning, I'd say the results of the poll were accurate.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Not really good enough thought Neil.

As I asked in the other thread, does anyone know how the survey was conducted, how many people took part and who sponsored it?
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:clap:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

OB-Even if it were only 1000 people-more people voted for ntl as the worst for customer service than the best. :shrug:

I know you are going to try to disprove/discredit the fact that a survey resulted in ntl being worst for customer service, but the fact is that it's not the 1st time (or is this just coincidence? ;) )

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

I note O2 are also in there so I believe its is somewhat accurate. I haven't had a problem with NTL lately but there was a year when all I seemed to have was some idiot on the end of the phone who didnt know how to resolve the problems I was ringing about.

Of course there's no real weekend cover no either so NTL are loosing out because of that too.

O2 customer service is also DIRE. I don't believe it is as bad as some of the NTL complainents. They do TRY to get things right they jsut fail a lot.

NTL deserves its latest bit of bad publicity. Maybe they will wake up and restore weekend customer services or even resolve problems immediately. WE wil ahve to see.

Sian

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

It's not about disproving or discrediting.
If you choose to make decisions on such a small number of opinions, that's up to you. I'd rather get the full view and make a more informed choice.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Hear Hear! - We know the issues NTL have had in the past and it seems they are unable to resolve anything in a small amount of time. Understanable that somethings take awhile to resolve, but shouldn't the customer come first? You would think (well at least I would and do on the helpdesk I work on) the would take customers as the first thing to make happy? At the very least give good customer service? To me it makes little sence to anger the customer as it almost like shooting themselves in the foot.

I mean when me and Neil went to hook they didnt have much to say did they? Not that bothred about the 100 Page complaits I printed of and slapped on Azad's desk...probably got thown in the bin when we left :rolleyes:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

We don't know how many people took part in the survey or how close the results were. How can anyone say who is worst for customer service if they have only used one of the companies in a particular sector. If it is a general who is worst without reference to the field in which the companies operate then companies like NTL and BT will nearly always come out worst as a problem with them does affect the customer whereas Tesco not having a tin of Heinz baked beans is of little significance to them and wouldn't involve a visit to the customer services desk.

It could be that Neils 1,000 customers more voting for NTL were all visitors to this site who had been taken in by Neils spin and weren't even NTL customers. :D

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

It could be, but ntl are notorious for having abysmal customer service (Watchdog anyone?)

They have been the same since the very early days of nthellworld.com (why was that set up?)

A quick look aaround the board will uncover the same issues that customers of ntl have been having for years...

Ian-you & OB are right, & all the ntl customers that post here & other BBS's are wrong (hell even the IMRS must have gotten the survey results wrong)

ntl are great & everyone else is imagining the poor customer service they post about, I myself imagined it when I was on the receiving end of the BS, & I also imagined it when I went with Frank to visit ntl.

Sorry-my bad.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Yes clearly it's the survey that's at fault, after all ntl's reputation for quality customer service is second to none!

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

I'm in Coventry and last week I needed to phone NTL to get my 1571 service put on. The other end didn't have time to ring before it was picked by a very pleasant helpful Welsh lady. I think I was routed to Swansea for some reason.

Not suprised NTL customer service came out poor I think its more a case of the shear volume of customers rather than a precentage of customers experiancing poor customer service. ;)

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Agreed, but the customers on watchdog are not representative of every customers experience with ntl.

Because someone with a talent for web design was ****ed off enough with them to spend time creating the site :shrug:

Of course. But lots of customers don't have any issues at all.

Don't be so facetious Neil, it doesn't suit you. I don't believe either Ian or myself were saying that the survey was wrong. Just that you can't judge a company on those results alone. Unless it suits you and you're entirely unable to accept that whilst some people have good reason to hate ntl, others do enjoy a genuinely good service? :shrug:

Grow up. :rolleyes:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Neil, with all due respect your impression of NTL was set in stone some years back and nothing anyone says is going to change that. The poll irrespective of its accuracy would be about customer service satisfaction now, not historically. If you were stranded on a desert island for a couple of years with no contact with the outside world and the first thing you did when rescued was take part in that survey you would still say NTL were the worst. :)

It is not a question of whether I, you, OB, IMRS or other sites are right or wrong. It is a question of the validity of the results and the methods used to arrive at them. How many people that visit this site have an image set firmly in their mind about NTL even though they may have never been a NTL customer or experienced NTL customer services first hand?

Do you accept that the poll on here about what you will do if hard capping is introduced is accurate or do you think it is highly flawed. What are your reasons for that decision?

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

With Sainsbury's apparently having the sixth best customer service in the country, I'd say they are not.. Sainsbury's has terrible service (far worse, IMO, than NTL - not that I am saying NTL is good), as do Virgin (try finding out what has happened when you enable voicemail on a Virgin mobile and it doesn't work - you'll be on the phone for hours).

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Just bad enough to get escalated to a national TV program then? :rolleyes:

Was he the only member of the site (no) did it have several thousand members all grateful that someone had given them somewhere to realise that they weren't alone in the ntl BS they were experiencing? (yes)

Oh...that's ok then, that makes it just fine.

You were doing what you do every time something comes along that proves ntl have poor customer service, & that's trying to discredit it-I wonder if you would do the same if they came out top for best customer service? (unlikely)

I'm not-I'm judging them on the poor experience I received as a customer, the BS I witnessed with my own eyes when visiting ntl sites, & the fact that they have email servers that constantly fall over, the fact they TW manage to communicate everything to their customers & ntl don't, the fact that ntl have several consumer websites discussing their poor customer service, the fact that they have been deemed poor enough to win several awards for bad customer service, & the fac that their farce of a billing system was bad enough to get them on BBC's watchdog.

Not at all, but when ntl start winning best customer service awards, I'll believe that they are capable of improving.

How mature.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

omg how many times does this arguement appear. (and always the same people arguing!)

Neil JUST Maybe NTL dont actually want to be the worlds best customer service company as that comes at a price. They are there to provide a TV, BB and Teleco service, yes they then need to provide customer service but it doesnt have to be the best by any means. In fact if NTL answers calls within 1 second everytime people called, it would tell us one thing, they are over staffed and therefore the customer is being over charged!. The difficulty is balancing peak demands with cost. OK they no where near do this well or at all maybe but at the end of the day there are always going to be people who are not happy waht ever happens.

The arguement about Watchdog is a bit lame!! the programme is just a bunch of worthless wingers nowadays. You only have to watch it for 5 mins to realise the presenters are useless. I mean how many times can you say "so what are you going to do for these people". If they had any idea about helping consumers they wouldnt focus on individual problems they would target the root causes and then really slate companies.

Rant over.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Why the emphasis on "proves" as that survey and any other you care to name does not prove anything. All it shows is that an unknown number of respondents answered an unknown number of questions that were worded in an unknown way which resulted in a table based on those answers being drawn up which only represents the views of those customers on the questions asked.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

That's the most pathetic thing I think I've ever heard-do you realise just how bad that actually sounds??

Oh do be quiet-you are talking out of your rear end.

Unhappy customers=no business.

That is just sheer class! People don't expect calls answered within one second, all they expect is for their problem to be dealt with efficiently, not put the phone down & feel that nothing will happen (I suggest you take a look through the billing forum Gary)

So why has it always been the same issues for ntl customers, what does that tell you?

Not really-it's clearly upset enough people to get on national TV-how is that "lame"?

Thanks for sharing your opinions with us there Gary.

Was that a rant? Sorry, I thought it was more of a nonsense spout.

Come back when you have something sensible to say, rather than the nonsensical ramblings of a madman.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Made my day that did! :D

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

It's also a survery conducted by an unknown company (I had never heard of them before this) and published in a newspaper owned by the same company that owns NTL's main competitor, and has been known to regularly give Sky free publicity (see various Private Eye issues for evidence of this).

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

maybe thats because your a sad individual who has got nothing better to do than slate NTL (As you always appear to be doing that)

I dont think it was necessary suggest people are talking from their arse. This is a discussion forum and everyone as there own experiences and opinions. I mean your such an expert that you know exactly how many people have to complain to watchdog before they make a feature for the programme.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Maybe. :)

Then don't make comments that can only have come from there Gary-any business needs to succeed in customer satisfaction, that's the whole point in being in business.

Correct, but you were giving your "opinions" & what's there to discuss about that?

There you go again-stating "facts"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Edit]-On a more serious note Gary, how happy would you be paying the going marlket rate for a product, to a company that has no real interest in being high up when it comes to satisfaction awards?

Pipex (for example) has done a similar thing to ntl & bought up several ISPs (a la C&W buyout), yet you don't hear Pipex customers contnually complaining about the same issues year after year do you? (no)

I don;t see ntl achiebing ISO 9001:2000 accreditation for it's systems & processes (it's a British Standard award like a 'kite' mark)

http://www.uknetawards.co.uk/2004/

http://www.uknetawards.co.uk/2003/

No mention of ntl there.

So if you're suggesting it's ok to pay a company that doesn't really want to do well in terms of customer service, then you're even more bonkers than I thought you were!

Look-I'm sorry if I offended you, & I'm always happy to discuss [u]issues[/i], but I can't discuss your opinions. :)

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

There are quite a number of survey sites popping up on the internet. Some of these offer rewards for completing surveys and quite often get out of giving the rewards because they say they are screening applicants and you are not in the required target group. This after a number of screening question that were probably all that they were wanting answers for.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Not true. The company i work for has decided that customer service is of little importance and actively manage their call centre to the lowest level of staff possible


The point in being in business and the only point is to make a profit

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Please keep the personal comments out of posts people, or a topic closure will be on the cards.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Neil, that is true to a certain extent (not the bit about gary_580 talking out of his rear end), but any company has to strike a balance between good service and the cost of providing a good service. Admittedly, NTL sometimes seems more interested in the cost of providing a good service than it is in the good service itself.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

It is true I'm afraid-how can you openly say that looking after customers is not important?? :confused:

So just because your employer thinks customers aren't important, that means it's ok for every other company in the world to adopt that attitude does it? :dozey:

Tell me-how does any company make a profit with no customers?

:erm:

Let me just read that again....

Ok....

Right-so when your firms customers get fed up of the clear lack of importance placed on them & go elsewhere, & your firm goes bust, how are you going to feel about that?

Will is still be OK?

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

I do (Apparently ;)) I get my BB, TV and Phone from NTL. Do i think they provide a reasonable service for the £'s i pay. Yes sir! Do i think they're a fautless company. :D Of course not.

My personal experience with NTL is that ive used them ever since they took over my local franchise of C&W which is probably about 8 years ago if i remember correctly. How many problems have i had with the services?

Phone = 0
BB = 1
TV = 1

The BB issue i had was a couple of years back when they had a general problem in my area after a thunderstorm about 2 years ago which took them about a month to resolve. The TV problem was where i kept losing channels and again it took them about a month to "totally" resolve it. Both cases i agree it took too long but then again 2 faults in the 8 years isnt too bad IMHO.

How long did it take to get answered when i called, varied from instant to 20 mins but then agin i dont really care about that as i dont call them very often. How long does it take to get an eng to my house, my experience has usually been within 24hrs. On one occassion it was within 10 minutes which caused me to ask the eng jokingly "Got nothing to do!!" :D

So, at the end of the day im happy with what i pay (as its discounted ;)) and im happy with the devil i know than the ones i dont.

Its that representative of the world, who knows! but i also dont regard the watchdog view of the world as representative either.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

The biggest problem that I have with that survey by IMRS is that it is almost certainly conducted on the internet and its results are seriously flawed because of this. If you look at the worst companies reported in the survey they are virtually all connected with computer companies and communications companies that provide internet access, something that the respondents all use. I wonder what the results would have been if the survey was repeated on the ground with market researchers asking the questions face to face in a large shopping centre.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Well i guess it all depends an what your after in a company and what the company does. If for example i invest 1000's of pounds with an investment company. I might not be too interested in how fast they answer the phone when i call them or how fast they send a letter to me, what i am interested in is the profit they make and then share with me. If im getting one of the best returns on my investment then im likely to stay wit that company regardless of what customer service i receive ;)

Agreed NTL are different and as scastle has so rightly pointed out, there is a balance between cost and customer service level and NTL havent got that balance right. However im sure that customers wouldnt be prepared to pay more for extra customer service staff.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

So do you pay the price that ntl charge the rest of it's customers for your products, or do you pay a discounted rate?

You seem to pay a discounted rate, now that would imply you are happy with the products for the price you pay.

So I'll ask you again-would you be happy be paying ntl for their products at their full asking price?

Clearly the answer will be no as you must have complained to get that discount.....

Now that blows all your theories apart, as you were unhappy paying full price for a second rate service.

Now that you pay the discounted rate for the same services you are satisfied, so where does that leave the rest of ntl's customers that pay full price & get messed around by all the CS-BSâ ¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢?

As I suggested earlier, take a look through our Billing forum to get an idea of how how poorly ntl can treat their customers: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=34

But you probably already know seeing as you have a nice discount....:rolleyes: ;)

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

i didnt even kno the survey was out there, how can it be fair when hardly anyoone knows about it?


if it was me i would have voted for orange afraid!!!

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

But the issue here is How ntl deal with a problem, not how good the service is.

It seems obvious that the actual services are fine, the bone of contention is when one of those services goes wrong .....

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

No it doesn't, you can;t make a profit with no customers.

We're not talking about an investment company where you expect a risk. We are talking about a company that provides TV/Phone/BB, where it's not unreasonable to expect a good level of customer service.

You don't say!?

Correct-& why should they when they can pay the same amount of money to an ISP with a good customer service reputation, instead of a mickey mouse one like ntl?

Let's just do the maths here....

£720 per year of your hard earned cash (average £60.00 per month for TV/Phone BB) to a company whose poor customer service is well known & well documented.

Or.....

£720.00 per year of your hard earned cash (average £60.00 per month for TV/Phone BB) to a company/companies whose good customer service is well known & well documented.

I'll get back to you on that one.....:scratch:
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I am referring to Customer Service, not how reliable the BB/DTV/Phone is or isn't.

It's not the products ntl suffer with primarily, it's what happens when you ring them to (try to) get an issue resolved quickly & efficiently.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

.... erm .... thats what I was saying ;)

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

That reasoning is highly illogical. I cancelled my NTL phone line a couple of years back because NTL call charges had become more expensive than BTs for my usage. I was not cancelling because I was receiving a bad customer service or a bad telephone service, just a cost issue. NTL retention called me and offered me free talk unlimited for a year to stay with them. This swung the balance in favour of NTL cost wise so I took the discounted deal and stayed.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Not really a relevant comparison IMO Ian, as your 'beef' wasn't CS related, it was price related.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

They offered me a £10 a month discount for a year the last time i had a problem. I didnt ask for a reduction and wasnt expecting one, in fact i was amazed when they offered it. Im not going to say no to discount, however i would have still payed the full price if i had to and been happy with it.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

No Neil, gary said he was getting a discount so you presumed it was because he had complained. I was pointing out that some people get discounts even though they have no complaint about the service itself. Look at all those customers getting 12 month discounts as new customers and why they are getting the discounts.

I have emailed IMRA regarding the survey but no response as yet. Perhaps they have a poor customer service department or something to hide. :D

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

So why phone to complain, why not just carry on paying full price?

Sorry Gary, but I don't believe you (I'm not calling you a liar here BTW :) ), but you rang to complain about substandard service, & the fact that you were paying full price for a less than full product (hence the discount to make up for it)

You phoned (rightly) to complain about paying full price for a poor product/service-so tell me, what would happen if ntl didn't offer these 'sweeteners' to people like you, due to the fact that (like your company) happy customers weren't a priority??

What would happen is people would leave in their droves & give their money to a company that did care about them, that's what.
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And I was 100% correct-I pay attention to what foes on regarding my site Ian. ;)

Agreed-just as you did, but if you hadn't been offered it you would have been a BT customer now, yes?

Those are budgeted for Ian, CS cock up/rebates aren't.

Perhaps, but it's only been a few hours. :)

How quickly do you think ntl would respond to a similar email query do you think?

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

In this case yes, good memory. :tu:


Yes I would.


Are you sure, I would hazard a guess that thay are all budgeted for. Still doesn't alter the fact that a discount doesn't always indicate a dissatisfied customer.



Not emailed NTL for a while but my last email was to Simon Duffy and replied to in less time than the one to IMRA who may not even reply.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Another poor comparison Ian. ;)

You didn;t email the CEO of IMRA, you emailed their CS/equivalent.

Let me ask you this....

How long do you think it would take ntl CS to respond to an email enquiry from their website?

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Presumption, how do you know who I emailed and what I asked? ;)

Looking back through old emails I have a couple that were replied to within the hour, some took a few days though and some never got a response. Don't make the assumption that all these were complaints about my services, they weren't. :)

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

It was presumption, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. :)

I never mentioned a complaining email, I just asked you how long you thought it would take someone to get a reply from ntl (something that you still have not answered ;) )

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

I did answer with times it took me to get a response if you look again. :)

If you look back through this thread you will find several questions that you have chosen not to answer, just cherry picked the ones that suited you. ;)

I suppose we had better pack this in or one of those mod types will be along to rap our nuckles. :) :angel:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

cant believe this rant is still going on ntl's customer service is crap always has been and always will be end of. Dont need no polls to tell us this just dial 0800 052 2000 see for yourself

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

I do, when I have a problem, and the service has not been 'crap' yet. :dozey:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

:LOL: What you have done is tell us how long it took you to get a reply!

That's very different as to how long you think it will take to get a reply. ;)

You should know me better Ian :angel:
I am not one to avoid anything, & I have not intentionally dodged any questions. :)

Leave them to me! :batty:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Sorry, but whilst I agree with a lot of what Neil says, it isn't crap all the time and I have much evidence to prove it. There are plenty of good people in ntl who work really hard to provide a decent service, and manage it successfully, myself being one such person.

But it is right to say that way too often the standard of service is not up to scratch.
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Well done on that Ian, because he's never once replied to any of mine:(

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Lo 'Scrot :wavey:

As you will be aware, I am very clear when I post about 'ntl monkeys'

These are the idiots that cause customers to come here & seek help from people like you. :)

Also-If those monkeys didn't exist, then this site would not be here. ;)

Now, where were we?? :erm:

And the poll referred to at the start of this thread would support what you (an ntl employee) have just said.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

BT at number 2 is a bit of a surprise they've been pretty good to me in my dealings with them.

NTL CS sucks in a lot of cases, simple as. It's what happens when you have undertrained undermotivated staff being run by managers whose main metric is how many calls can be processed in what period of time, rather than sensible metrics such as 1st time problem resolution, customer satisfaction and other things that obviously aren't as sexy on the stats.

Quite shocked when I saw that a Telewest trainee CSR was receiving training in the HFC network. Most of ntl's CSRs and even TSB wouldn't know a node or tap if you hit them with it, simply because no-one in ntl feels the need to train them properly.

Re: NTL placing a certain amount on how much they want to spend to achieve a quality of customer service: bingo. All those in power at ntl (the people whose money saved it from bankruptcy) care about it getting their money plus extra back. They really don't care what happens as far as customers go, that's Simon Duffy's problem with whatever resources they let him have (an unenviable job, getting grief from above and below!)

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Spot on!! :tu:
Always been the same for ntl, stats mean prizes to Hussain & his cronies.

Same again, ntl have very backward thinking when it comes to training. :td:

I've been saying this for a loooong time regarding ntl, the rot starts at the top, & the rot at the top don't give a stuff about customers. :td:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Neil, am I going :batty: or are you? :confused: If that is how long it took me to get a reply I can only assume that this would be the answer. Are you suggesting that if it took me a couple of hours to get a reply then I should answer with two days? :confused:


one example:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

I just did that because i needed the PIN resetting on 3 of my STBs (for some reason you can no longer do it through the engineers menu- grr) Took me 20 seconds to get through the options (entering phone number chosing option 5 etc etc) and then the call was answered immediately. Total call duration 2mins 10seconds.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Not really Simon Duffy's fault, I'm quite sure he wants to do it right, but he's constrained by the board, whose primary interest, as you'd expect from investment companies, is the dollar / pound signs.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Must be you! :p:

Well I don't like to ass u me...

I didn't want to know what it took you to get a reply, what I wanted to know was how long (knowing ntl) do you think it would take to get a reply to an email sent today from their website (for example)?

I can't see how a poll based on the future can be either valid or invalid.

Is it 'flawed'? Can't really say yet can we? :shrug:

The difference between that poll & the result of the worst customer service poll that ntl won, is that one is based on actual results/history, the other is based on specualtion of what may happen int he future.

Will people leave? Who knows, I did, not because of the cap, but because of the crap service. :shrug:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

God Neil, I cannot believe what you are saying. If my experience shows me that it took say 4 hours then that is the only answer I can give. It doesn't matter what anyone else may say or think.

Answer this. If it has taken you an hour to drive to work every day, how long do you think it will take you to drive to work (knowing the road)?



No, the IMRA survey was speculation that all other NTL customers had the same opinion as the ones surveyed.

Even though the cap poll on here is based on future events I would say that it is very flawed and there is no way that the results of it will anyway tally with the percentage of customers they may lose.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

No, the survey said that ntl came top in a survey for bad customer survey.

That simply means more people asked gave bad ffedback about ntl than anyone else-that's not speculation, it's fact.

But I'm not disagreeing with that, I said as it's in the future there's no way of knowing (yet) :confused:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Well sorry folks in my experince if and when i need to call c/s there crap. Recent example, called to get dd date changed to be told sorry computer said no, cant be done as I only have broadband.

ntl's dd comes out 2 days before i get paid. So i gave them my debit card details instead and was told i would have to pay £2 non dd fee even though i wish to pay by that direct debit, but cant have it come out on a day i want.

As expected they still take it by direct debit instead of debit card.

Only good thing is this new harmony billing system only always under bills me paying £10.43 for 750bb.

There may be good ones but they never answer my call.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Ok.... Neil appears to be following fale logic. It appears that due to the poor experience he has received, all customers must be experiencing the same as following the exact same logiv, the service is very ppor across the board.


This is, as I said, false logic.

On average, about 2% of ntl: customers make a complaint regarding the service received. Because ntl recently appeared on Watchdog, doesn't make them a bad company. Much like any other company run by human beings, there will undoubtedly be errors that (on the vast majority of cases) are avoidable. I am in no way belittling the poor experiences of the customers who appeared on Watchdog, however the 3 (THREE) people who appeared on the program is far from the total customer base of ntl:

Now before you start ranting - as I have already covered, roughly 2% of ntl customers complain. This is a statistic taken from OFCOM, the ONLY information you should really look into as realistic and accurate unlike a marketing survey which can be notorious for being innacurate or incorrect.

Please don't think I'm defending ntl, as I am instead offering an alternative view on this argument. So, a marketing research company has performed a survey of customers of several sectors. It's important to view this with scepticism however due to the fact that the amount of people questioned was not included to the results as well as the percentage.

It is sad then Neil may have been part of the 2% of customers who experienced poor service with a need to complaint. It's also important to mention that there is then the remaining 98% of customers who are somewhat satisfied/satisfied/very satisfied with the service. It is a very difficult uphill struggle to once again satisfy a dissatisfied customer - something I have worked hard to do in the past.

For clarification, please consult the OFCOM website for the league table of complaints.

Little side notes:

• No service (whichever company) is perfect. Unless someone invents the completely perfect, foolproof system then this will continue to be the case unfortunately.
• It is impossible to keep 100% of your customer base happy. As above - there is currently no perfect system in place. Errors that may annoy customers are on a whole fault related, human error or for reasons outside of ntl's control.

__________________

Sorry to hear that you too are dissatisfied with the services. This can however be resolved easily by keeping money to one side so you have the money in your account, ready for the direct debit when requested. This isn't a facetious comment but instead an option open to you. I agree that the systems may appear inflexible at times however you will only need to pay by debit card once and then, following the above routine, you can pay by direct debit.

Also, it is recommended that you call cusotmer services to advise them that you are not paying full price. By allowing yourself to be undercharged, you are in essence breaching the terms & conditions and as such opening up yourself to receive backdated charged for the periods you have been using the service without paying the full price. I mention this in order to avoid a further complaint.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

No, i rang because my STB had failed and i wanted them to replace the STB and install a SACM as well
__________________

Good customer service doesnt equal a happy customer.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

It usually has a very close corrolation though.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Official policy is that overcharges are backdated but undercharges are not.

The worst that should happen is the charge gets backdated to the beginning of the current month or bill period.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

The fact that only 2% complain does not mean that 98% are (even somewhat) satisfied.

And some of the errors that annoy customers are most definetely not fault related. NTLs billing system is a shambles. I cancelled my services (which I was very happy with) in September, and so far, NTL have not been able to close the account. So, 6 months after cancelling, I am still being billed. I have been told on numerous occasions that the account is fully disconnected. Then it mysteriously reconnects again. I have now called NTL close to 10 times* (as they messed up my BB disconnection as well) and they are unable to disconnect my account. The last person I spoke to told me 'there was nothing she could do'. When I asked to speak to a manager, she told me there were no managers about, but she would arrange a call-back. Why am I not surprised that never came...

I am sorry, but I have never seen a company handle a disconnection so utterly incompetently, and I am not surprised at all they gained top spot in this survey (no matter how flawed it is/ may be).

*average wait times 20 minutes, if you don't get a busy tone and they don't tell you to call the number you have just dialled.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Ummm... ok.

Well... where do you get your facts from? You may wish to re-read my post as I stated clearly that the levels of satisfaction range from somewhat satisfied/satisfied/very satisfied. And again... we seem to be falling into the trap I mentioned - Because you have had poor service from ntl, does not mean every customer has received the same. I am sadly no longer in the postition to help you with this matter, but i'm sure there is someone here who is. Alternatively, you may wish to write to the complaints department if you strongly feel you are not getting anywhere with customer services.

Oh yeah... Scrotnig...
Undercharges are backdated in most cases.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Facts: Ok, I probably should have said that my experience suggests that the billing system is a shambles, or that is was a shambles for me. However, a look at the billing section on this forum will show that I'm not the only person that experienced problems with billing. Frankly, the mind boggles as to why a disconnection needs to take 6 months and 10 calls to CS (assuming this has now been resolved, which I don't believe). And I can happily state that it is a fact that I have never has this much aggro over a disconnection.

Regarding satisfaction levels: I merely remarked that if a person doesn't complain that doesn't mean the customer does not have complaints. (I have so far, not complained).

I never suggested all customers have the same experience, in fact, I specifically mentioned I was very happy with the services I was getting from NTL.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

given my recent spat over been double billed for my broadband and their failure to recognise a bill from 1 feb to 31 march as double billing I have to give the thumbs down to CS Im afraid.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

I have just received a response from IPT to the email I sent to IMRS.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Hi All,
what makes it worse is that PC World, Curry's and Dixons are better positioned than ntl. Three divisions of Dixon's Retail. A lot of us could go on about them as well. The only question I have with this is how can a cable company be compared with supermarkets. Everyone uses supermarkets but not everyone has access to cable. Not taking away the faults with ntl. In the same list as BT. Hardly a good way to compare.
George.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Not unless the policy has changed in the last 3 weeks (and no-one has mentioned it to any of the CS staff I still talk to).

No-one I know, or trained, would ever put a charge back on, and backdate it, if it was removed by error.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

This is something I know - as I am (for now) working within a department where one of our functions is to monitor this as well as many other tasks.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

NTL Customer Services / Support / Disconnect Team

The following is atrue story.

July 2004 - Week2
Customer is visited by NTL rep and told he can have NT BroadBand at 1M but he would need an NTL phone as well.
Customer looks at prices, takes advantage of 3 months BB at half price and signs up.

July 2004 - Week3
NTL Engineer arrives with SACM and installs both SACM and Telephone.
Engineer also hangs around whilst customer goes on-line with SACM.
Both services working fine.

July 2004 - Week4
SACM is connecting slower than dial-up, or not connecting at all.
Customer picks up phone to call NTL, but phone is dead.
Customer uses friends phone to contact NTL and explains SACM and phone both unusable.

August 2004 Week1
Customer tries phone daily, to see if it has been fixed.

August 2004 Week2
First bill arrives for part-month of service and following month in advance.
Customer uses friends phone to remind NTL that neither service is working, so recent bill is seen as a joke/insult.
NTL inform customer that £9.99 has been refunded to the account fort he lack of telephone but customer would need to contact CM support about the SACM.
Customer goes to local post office to pay bill but is unable to as the payment slip has been printed and cannot be adjusted.
Customer reminds NTL that BB is not working.

August 2004 Week4
Customer finds telephone working again and contacts NTL to find out how to pay adjusted bill.
NTL inform customer that he can simply pay the following months bill which will take the £9.99 adjustment into account.


September 2004 Week1
Bill arrives, unadjusted.
Customer calls NTL to find out what to do next, but no-one is in a position to help as Customer's services had been suspended for late payment.
Customer has no choice but to pay outstanding £82.05 if customer wishes to get anything done.
Customer pays full outstanding amount.

September 2004 Week2
Customer calls NTL to discuss recent payment and pending compensation.
NTL are reminded at this point that BB should have been half price.
NTL credit customers account with the equivalent of 3 months half price broadband plus 2 weeks telephone line rental.
Customer reminds NTL that BB is still unusable.

October 2004 Week1
Bill arrives with a £9.50 credit, but no mention of other credit or recent FULL payment.
Customer calls NTL to discuss and is informed he can ignore this bill as the account is now showing in credit.
Customer reminds NTL that BB is *STILL* not working.

October 2004 Week2
Customer has called NTL BB support over 10 times, each time the problem has been "escalated" in a bid to resolve it.
Customer explains that he is sick of calling and being told ir will work fine after 48hrs.

November 2004 Week1
Bill arrives with £33.92 Credit.
Customer calls NTL and explains that it is all very nice not to have to pay for lack of internet, but customer would prefer to pay and USE it.

December 2004 Week1
Bill arrives with £5.56 Credit.
Customer reminds NTL of the continuing lack of BB service.

January 2005 Week1
Bill arrives for £23.49
Customer calls NTL and points out that he is being expected to pay the half price BB deal but the service was only useable for 1 week.
NTL explain there is nothing they can do about this, customer needs to speak to CM support.

January 2005 Week2
Customer makes lengthy call to CM support and is passed to 3 different people who ultimatly advise him to DISCONNECT from NTL: and find another provider! CM support provide customer with the number needed to disconnect.

January 2005 Week3
Customer finally calls the disconnection team, who reimburse the 3 months half price along with a £10 good will gesture.

January 2005 Week4
Customer is still calling CM support every other day (some people in call centres have gotto know customer by now)

February 2005 Week1
No bill!
Customer calls NTL to discuss lack of bill and is informed the account is at least £45 in credit.
Customer also calls BB support to remind them of lack of service.

February 2005 Week2
Customer is talking to tech support and points out that he has gone in the same circle fro the past 6 months.... report problem, problem escalated.
Tech support (after a 90 min call) decide to let customer speak to a senior who has contact with engineers in customers area.
Customer is reliably informed there is on-going work in his area fro at least another MONTH.

February 2005 Week4
Customer has had enough.
A quick call to BT tells customer that he can save about £8 per month with a 2M ADSL connection.
Customer calls NTL disconnection team........
First they offer half price telephone line rental (broadband has already been paid in advance!)
Customer explains that eh wants BROADBAND and has done since last July. The only course for customer to take at this point is to go ADSL. This means customer will need a BT telephone line, as NTL lines do not support ADSL.
NTL put customer on hold for 10 mins.....
Then they explain that AOL offer broadband and don't need BT lines.
Customer explains to NTL that this is not suitable for customer as NTL cannot provide customer broadband. It actually took Customer over 15 mins to get this point across!
NTL explained that under these circumstances, they were prepared to disconnect the SACM as there was no service. However, customer must keep the telephone line until the 12month contract is up.

Customer explains that he signed up for broadband AND telephone line.... as NTL failed to provide BOTH, that contract was void.
Customer also explained that no second contract was agreed or signed, so customer was no longer held by 12month contract.
NTL told customer he was wrong and would be liable for the complete contract.

Customer explained that as he needed a BT line, there was no reason to keep the NTL one.
NTL stood their ground.

Customer asked to speak to a senior and was informed that he was already talking to a supervisor.

Customer asked what could be done to disconnect the telephone service and was told there was nothing that could be done under any circumstances.

Customer took legal advice from a friend who was in the room and decided to take an odd approach......
Customer informed NTL that the contract he had signed was now void as NTL had agreed to disconnect one of the services.
Customer explained that no calls would be made from the NTL line, nor would calls be taken as the telephone would be connected to the new BT line.
Customer welcomed NTL's bills and explained that once the amounts were high enough to warrant NTL's use of bailiffs, Customer would then remind NTL of their legal standing and NTL would have no choice but to drop the whole procedure.
Customer also explained that all this would be put in writing by customers legal advisor and be sent to NTL in the hope of a more suitable closure.

NTL then told customer that if he isprepared to write a letter, NTL could disconnect the phone right away.

Customer was shocked for a moment, then asked NTL to repeat.

Customer then explained that if he was to write in, he would write a full and complete account of NTL's failings from day1, offer this to his legal advisor who would then inform NTL that customer is within his rights to cease the contract early.

NTL then said that all customer needed to do was ask to have the phone disconnected in writing and it would be done right away.

Customer asked why he was not told this at the beginning of the call and was informed that NTL wanted to keep customer at any cost!!!


Yeah, NTL customer services rock!

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

So your department monitors every transaction put through Harmony, ICMS and SMS?
And if you do put a charge back on and backdate it do you advise either the customer or the CSR who removed it?

Sometimes there are reasons why the charges are not put back on from the date they were removed.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

The point with this survey though is that it was carried out on the internet. Everyone taking part would have a telecoms or broadband supplier so these would be prominent in their minds. Everyone would also have a computer and Dixons group is one of the biggest suppliers of these. In my mind that makes these companies very strong candidates for the worst customer service. It is highly unlikely that supermarkets would feature high on the list of poor customer services as who is going to complain if they don't have a jar of coffee. This was a survey that was virtually forced to come up with the type of results that it did.

The other point is that it was less than 3,000 responses with a blank field to put your worst and best customer services in . NTL may only have had a couple of dozen or even less saying it was the worst for all we know.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

dezzo - there is a huge amount you wouldn't know and many departmental roles that you have never heard off. I don't want to argue about this as there is no reason to.

Also, getting back on topic, ian@huth is correct. I still think the survey is flawed...... or misleading.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Suuuuuuurrrrrreeee ;)

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Well, in ICMS regions it is extremely rare for a charge to be backdated more than a month, although the company does have the right to and if someone is being particularly rude or threatening then I have seen it doen. It's usually where it's one of those customers that demands the rules be followed to the letter....fine, so the charge gets backdated sir as that's the letter of the rules.

However, the general policy in ex Cable & Wireless regions remains that backdating is only done if it's in the customer's favour. This was mentioned in training courses as well.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

And SMS. In fact unless it the charge was removed on purpose (friend of ex-CSR) or the customer is being very unreasonable this is never done.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

If the installations are anything to go by then they are the worst company in the UK.It's all bish-bash-bosh and scarper as far as I have seen when contracting for them. :Yikes: It doesn't help when the contracting firm they use in london and south-east is a mickey mouse organisation.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Very Dodgy Survey covered in a Highly Dodgy Murdoch News Paper, which I wouldnt even consider fit enough to wipe my arse on! as it already has so much crap spread over it pages!

Umm strange how Sky customer service doesnt figure in that lot, they are by far the worst I have ever dealt with, and not even a single mention in this dubious survey! from the very fact you have to PAY to dial it up, thats automatically a bad start! You have to pay to have it fixed up regardless of whether the problem is you fault......or the fact that the installation 'person' installed the dish in a wind tunnel down the side of your house against your better advice saying 'Itll be fine as he chugged on his way'. Is there really any point in them? Can they actually do anything except book a tech visit for £65?

And Tesco?! Having a laugh! They are useless too! Brought a bag of mince from there it was 100% When I complained through the website that it wasnt fit for human consumption and asked what they would do, they tell me to take it to my local store, my local store says they cant take it without a reciept, and I should send it to some customer satisfaction address (sure the posties will appreciate the smell of rotting mince if it takes the usual 2 weeks for 1st class post!).

Tesco like so many companies in the UK offer good products at good prices but offer a terrible service. How many times have you tried to get an advertised special offer? 'Where the buy one get one free Pepsi?', 'Sold Out', 'Whens some more come in?' '15th' 'Oh thats after the offer finishes (how convienient!)

Unfortunately ntl are not alone in the world of bad customer service, those in the good list are probably there more by luck than Customer Service expertise.

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

Ive been using ntl for over 5 years now (just upgraded to 3MB from 1.5Mb) - The upload speed HAS increased to 300kbps (37K/sec - they should of really doubled it!!!) - ive never had a problem wif the service - ive only once had to phone them to deal with anything (and yes we do have a ntl Landline/Digital TV(3 Decoders)) - and we really have never had a problem with ntl - i must admit the time that i have phoned them once many years ago it was a bit of a nightmare - but in my experience all these call centres are the same - u r ### in the queue please use option after option to get anywhere then end up redirected - or having to respond in writing - its not just ntl all companies r the same - especially when it comes to communications - and lets face it ntl did invest £2Billi on to install the infastructure (no government help like in the US) - oh and they need to re-think the 1Gb limit - even thou i reguarly download sometimes more than 4Gb daily...

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll
 

4gb a day????? what on? I think you need to rethink your service provider... :erm:

Re: ntl worst service in UK in poll