NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with NTL's Indian based BroadBand support yesterday. I have to say, and I don't think it is the Indian centres fault, but they are completely inflexible.

In the end I had to ask to be transfered to normal support as I wanted to cancel my contract and then ask to be put through to the UK support centre after making a complaint about the Indian call centre. This worked and my problem is being resolved with an engineer due this afternoon.

So, this is a plea to NTL, please allow the Indian call centres to be flexible and DON'T make them stick rigidly to a script provided by your selves. The UK call centres do it and so can the Indian call centres. I've worked with enough Indian IT staff before to know they are very capable people if allowed to be!

Re: NTL Indian support cetres - a plea to NTL
 

The Indian call centre can arrange for the engineer to visit they have for me.

Re: NTL Indian support cetres - a plea to NTL
 

I had a similar experience to Jonbr, so much so that I will hang up and try again in order to speak to someone in the UK whatever my problem or query might be.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I often ask myself how customers know they have been connected to a call centre in India. One of my daughters works in a call centre (not NTL) and tells me that there are dozens of immigrant and immigrant descendent agents working alongside of her, many of which are of Indian descent.

In the call centre they are trained to follow certain procedures when dealing with customers and are taught the most likely problem and the best way of dealing with it for many customer queries. This may give the impression that they are working to a script and perhaps they are, but if this is the best way then it is the right way.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I'm starting to get a clearer picture of the biggest problems regarding Indian call centres.

There are two key issues that I can see; The first and most common is that the call cantres are hiring people with a less than perfect knowledge of English. That's not the fault of the person on the phone of course, and in a country where about 10% of the population speak English, I imagine that many of those speak it as well as I speak my A Level French (i.e. I couldn't work in a French call centre).

The second problem is that none of these operations appear to allow deviation from what is printed on their screen. I've had the displeasure of getting through to Dell, Powergen, NTL and Norwich Union's Indian call centres - and they are all as inflexible as the next. I would add that ntl's were at least polite, spoke English well and friendly - if still utterly unhelpful. Powergen's on the other end of the scale, were useless in all respects.

I don't object to Indian call centres per se, but when I phone I company I expect to speak to someone who is an expert on the product, has the autonomy to resolve my issue and who understands my extremely middle-England accent perfectly, and me theirs.

It does and had backfire on companies though. Powergen have just had a cancellation letter after I spent five hours over two days trying to sort a minor acount query out.

What I still fail to understand is why any company in the UK thinks it's OK to put my calls through to India for handling - but somehow don't think it's right for their sales lines to be there. Isn't that odd?

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I think that I too am starting to get a better picture of the biggest problem regarding Indian call centres (I think you'll find that a lot of this can apply to British call centres as well though).

Imagine that you work in a call centre, no matter where it is located.

You are fairly new to the job, don't have a lot of exeperience either in the product or in that field. Your employers give you a script and tell you that this is a guide to the best way to solve the most recurring problems.
What do you do? You apply that guide, of course you do because you don't have the experience to do much else and because it does seem to solve the majority of problems.

As your experience increases you feel more able to apply your knowlede to the problems that you are being faced with and eventually the script becomes superfluous (sp?).

The problem with the Indian call centres (and with a lot of the British ones) is that they are still very new and therefore manned (or should that be personned) by inexperienced staff.

Given time I am sure that they will improve, unfortunately in the mean time we are left with a less than ideal situation. Perhaps the script should be re-written, a little line at the end.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Does the script ever become superfluous no matter how much experience and knowledge the agent has?

Where a script exists it should give the best method of obtaining the facts and determining subsequent action. There should be no better way of tackling the problem but if a better way is found then the script should be altered to reflect this new information.

I don't think that Indian call centres and scripts are the problem. The customer is the problem.

You have two types of customer in the main. Those that know nothing at all about the subject and those who think they have a certain amount of knowledge.

Those that know nothing may be confused by the whole subject and unable to follow the process they are being led through. If they don't get a successful conclusion to their problem they may tend to blame anything and anyone other than themselves. It is far easier to put the blame on things like "it was an Indian call centre and the bloke couldn't understand English" than their own failings.

The ones that think they have a certain amount of knowledge may or may not have the required troubleshooting knowledge and the agent they speak to doesn't know the extent of their knowledge. Even the best expert in the world can have a momentary lapse and forget a most crucial step in troubleshooting. They can get annoyed when asked to do things which are very elementary. They also can tend to jump ahead of the agent when he/she is talking them through a process and do things that the agent doesn't want them to do. How often have you been talking someone through a process that brings up a message saying "Press OK to reboot or cancel to reboot at a later time" and told them to press "cancel" only to be told they have already pressed "OK" and the sytem is rebooting?

The glaring fact that the experienced user has forgotten is that he/she has a problem that they have been unable to solve. They are obviously either doing something wrong or they don't have the necessary knowledge. The guy with the foreign accent and "the script" may be tackling the problem in the correct way which could lead to a resolution. Getting the hump and terminating the call because he is foreign or reading from a script before reaching the conclusion could be the worst thing you could have done.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I think a lot of the problem with the script, and the indian employees limited english, is they cannot use normal communication tecniques to help solve a problem, IE A brisitsh support worker can normally guage someones age and ability through there voice patterns, language use etc... Allowing the CS bod to focus on different things.. IE ensuring there running just supplied kit.

I had a customer phone me the other day who said the indian call centre had told him to return his PC to the shop, as it wasnt accpeting his IP.

Infact the problem was he has a router between his cable modem and computer. reboot of the router and all was solved.

I think this may have been avoided if the Customer Service bod had been able to leave the script a little and start enquiring about the user set up..

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I doubt that any support worker can guage age and ability through voice patterns, etc. Does an Indian moving here from India suddenly acquire new abilities? Some people have good communication skills, others don't on both customer and company sides. Just look at some of the posts on these forums and tell me that all British posters have good communication skills.

A properly written script would ask the relevent questions about set up, etc. Adhering to the script should ensure the correct question are asked but deviating from it could lead to vital questions being missed.

You can never be sure when talking to someone about a prior support call what has actually transpired. If a satisfactory conclusion is not reached then the customer may blame everything and everybody but himself.

Quite a lot of people can become very aggressive when things are going wrong and their attitude can have a bearing on the ultimate result. Customer service agents can also have an attitude brought about by things outside of work just as much as things within work. They may just want to get you off the phone and tell you anything to make that easier to do. That applies to employees of call centres worldwide, not just India based.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Point taken, but I found when I was working on a support desk that I found that by what people were saying and how they were responding was a good way to guage how to deal with the call.

I certainly did not try to say that anyone coming here suddenly aquires new skills, but that people with english as there first language are better able to understand and deal accordingly with callers.


Yes you are correct, the point I was trying to convey was that with a good understanding of the english language, you would have the ability to pick up on wheather somebodfy was confused/not sure about your questions, thus possibly not giving you the correct answers.


I never mentioned there side of the story being as it happened, just how they reported it :)

I can argue with that, as that is human anture :D

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Having worked for the RAC taking calls from motorists whos vehicle had broken down, we had a "script" to follow. However provided we got all the information needed it did not matter in which order we collected it. Often the first priority was calming the person down enough to get the right info.
This lack of flexibility is what causes the disenchantment with the overseas call centres regardless of the company you are calling.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

If you were a NTL technical support agent and a customer called and told you that they couldn't get to any internet sites, what is the first thing you would ask them to check / do?

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Find out if they use a STB or a SACM And if any other equipment is being used like a router.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I would assume that the agent would have got the customers details on screen which would show what services they had and what equipment was installed. I may be wrong on that count though but let's suppose they had those details. Any other suggestions as to what to check / do first?

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

:LOL: This is gonna sound flippant but.....have they rebooted everything? :D

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I think it still depends on what they have.

I think CS can obtain more info from a SACM than they can from an STB and as such a diffrent "script" may be used.

Otherwise

Open a command prompt and find out what ip address they customer had. (ipconfig)

I dont work for NTL this is what i would do

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Considering NTL closed all but 2 or 3 (cant remember the exact number) of the 13 call centers we had,the chances of getting thru to India are ,well,huge!
Spike

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

To clarfiy the problem I had with the Indian call centre :

I called because my daughter called to say the connection had gone down for the umteenth time in the last week. The Indain call centre would not deal with my call because I was not by the PC/Modem in question. This I do not have a problem with.

However, I said I would call my daughter and relay the messages. The Indian call centre would have none of it telling me that they would talk to my daughter but only if I was by the PC/Modem! Yes, if I was at home he was happy to talk to my daughter, but not through me to her :confused:.

When I explianed the situation to the UK call centre, the response was "not a problem sir" and an engineer was booked. :)

I have to say I am getting very fed up with having to threaten to cancel my contract to get service, not just from NTL and not just from Indian call centres either! I very rarly call support from suppliers, but when I do expect good service, not excellent, just good.

Oh yeh, I wish NTL would get rid of those very long announcements before you get through to a human as well!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I had someone out from NTL today at the third time of asking. The ready light was flashing intermittently on my SACM. It was a power level issue which appears to be fixed now. The first agent I spoke to a week ago was Indian, she advised me to reboot which worked and she then assured me the problem would not recur.

Today it did and a different agent, again Indian told me she could not help as the problem had righted itself just as she took the call.

Sods Law, the minute I put the phone down, it happened again. Call number 3 and agent number 3...an Indian, who arranged an engineer visit and that seems to have fixed it...but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Two points. My service from NTL has been appalling from Day 1 when they messed up my cable installation and set me up with a crossed line on my phone. Other "worldbeaters" include last month insisting I needed a new ethernet card or some such, when what I actually needed was a Windows disc and reinstallation of Windows and sending around an engineer (not the guy who came today who was very good), whose idea of customer service was to be as curt and rude as possible and whose charming phrases included "nothing wrong with your modem mate so its not our problem".....

Second point...it could be argued that using Indian call centres is symptomatic of NTLs attitude to customer service....do it on the cheap as we already have their money.

Now these Indians are educated people, they speak better English than I do Urdu, but I know from experience (I do 12 hour night shifts in a call centre looking after people who've had their credit cards stolen all over the world) that you can be as politically correct as you like, but most people just do NOT want to speak to an Indian call centre. It really is that simple. The sooner companies realise this simple fact, the better off we will all be. I wish I had a quid for every time someone said to me "thank God you're English" before asking me to help them having just spoken to their bank's Indian call centre and then been passed along to us, and if you think tech support is hard, try dealing with a mugging victim in Prague or someone who has been robbed by bandits on a bus in Ecuador! Why do you think Nat West advertisements make a point of saying our call centres are in the UK??? It's not racism, but neither is it rocket science to understand why.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

andy raises a good point the fact that we never see indian sales call centres shows how much value is put into after sales support.

The problem defenitly is linked to scripted support, If the problem you have isnt referenced in the script you are basically SOL I still think its better to employ people who have knowledge of the product over customer service skills. A friend of mine who used to work for BT ADSL isp (old name bt openworld i think) was told to stop helping customers in his own way and follow the script he was also told to rush them of the line this frustrated him so he quit, people sitting alongside him who had much less tech knowledge got on better with the bosses because they were following the scripts and getting people of the lines leaving problems unresolved. Seems to be todays fashion of support.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Before i came to ntl broadband i was with tiscali broad band, and had to phone them for help many many times due to the poor service they supplied. They are also in india and they are all given british names.

One day i had to phone and i got put through to a guy who called himself dave ( in a very hard to understand indian accent ) and as he was reading a script i got his breathing down the phone for up to 2 mins at a time , which i got fed up with , after half an hour on phone the problem still was not sorted , so tiscali was history.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I am quite open minded on this subject as, going from personal experience, I have had just as bad experiences with call centres in England as I have with ones in India and vica versa. I also think that it is inevitable that all of ntl's customer service will go to India, not just the broadband support. It's quite simply a money thing and the savings they are making on wages I am sure outweighs the costs of losing a few customers who don't like the change. Again it's all down to the balance sheet and the shareholders - they are the ONLY important people as far as ntl (and many other companies) are concerned.

One thing that does annoy me though are the sales calls I get from Indian call centres... has anyone ever bought anything from these guys?

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I got the Indian call centre for a telephone problem!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I for one DEFINATLY would'nt buy from them! Was'nt the a story in the paper awhile back about your bank/c-card details been not secure! AND was'nt there a story more recently in the papers about someone selling these 'secure' details on ?
Spike

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I also work in a call centre and I've had exactly the same said to me. I agree as well - my bank have an Indian call centre (I think it's an overflow type thing - if the UK call centre is busy, then you go through to India) and I must admit after a few very frustrating conversations with the Indian call centre, I always hang up if I get through to them, and redial in the hope of getting the UK call centre next time.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

The diagnostic tools, but pretty much the same information can be obtained from both... just in different formats :)
__________________

India only do BB tech support... and this has always only been in Swansea (well since about 4 years ago when there wasn't really an official broadband tech support). Not in the other callcentres that have closed so this will not have affected the chances of getting through to India... although you are correct in saying that the chances nowadays are pretty damn high!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Scripts don't work. Nine times of out ten the problem resolution may develop as anticipated, but there's always a tenth time when something you expect just doesn't happen or isn't there. It's what makes life interesting. Where I work, it's the tenth occasions that send the newbies running for a Senior consultant :D

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I had to phone up with a problem the other day and I had to do some MS-DOS codes to test the problem and they were having to say words that begain with each letter cause I couldnt understand them!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

winver is the classic. "winder - do you mean window?" "No - V, V, not D - V for Victor". "ipconfit?" "No - FIG FIG. G for Golf". Even then they put a space between the "ip" and "config" :dozey: A colleague used to use "I for Idiot" :D

I've noticed that Asians with poor English seem to interpret questions as instructions. I've always wondered why :erm:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

As ian@huth said earlier, if this is a question that should have been asked, then the script should be modified so it is asked on each call in the future.

In my job role, I have been working on a procedure database to resolve problems. Previously we had to put the caller on hold, ask a colleague, if they didnt know, we asked another and so on until we knew what to do (i.e. not very useful). Everyone did things differently, used different tools etc - causing problems when going back to old records etc.

If we find we're not asking something we should, we update the procedure. If we no longer need to ask a question that we currently are doing, we remove it from the procedure. I do find personally that knowing how to fix some things means I do not need to read the procedure and as such just get on with fixing it. BUT, if the procedure is changed, I'll never know unless I read it... so no matter what experience a person has, the script should never come superfluous (sp?) and the operator should always consult it.

As for indian call centres, I sometimes find their accents difficult to understand. In their defence, I'm sure my scouse/rochdale accent is difficult for them to understand - so its a two way problem... and this is before any advice is given!
I do not feel they are any less competant in doing their job as at the end of the day, the Internet is an internationally used medium. Broadband in different countries connect up in similar ways, its just trying to find a common ground in terms of instructing people how to fix their problems.

NTL is operating in the UK, so we need tech support advisors that speak english. They are employing indian people who are not too fantastic at speaking english. Let me point out schools who send kids away on trips to french as part of their education to help them learn the language. How better for them to learn English to help them do the job than to actually do the job?!
Yes, it will be difficult for all in the short-term, but going to the future, providing most of the current employees stick around, we should have a team that helps us and gets things fixed asap, and keeps costs down for NTL meaning more money for improving the network!!

(a long post I know... sorry)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I had to ring my bank today concerning a matter, and the guy was indian and struggled to understand me, however he was very good at his job repeating everything I said and was efficient. To me if the india guys that work for NTL are trained better and are tech minded people there would be much less of an issue.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

re: indian people working in call centres in the UK - a lot of people do assume that if they are speaking to an indian person in a call centre, that the call centre is indian and its not an indian person in a british call centre. when working in a call centre i was listening in to a call with an asian colleague (1st generation immigrant) and heard the caller comment to a friend in the background "they've put us through to f**ing india, f***ing useless" which was charming, but possibly understandable. The caller had a strong scottish accent and there were obvious communication problems between them!

At the end of the day thats the basic purpose of a call centre - communication - and if that can't happen efficiently its failing! its fair enough if an indian person can understand every accent in this country, and respond correctly to what is being said, but if you've never lived here, understood the culture and encountered many british people, i don't think you can possibly do that.

Plus, afaik, india doesnt have an ntl network, if they've never used it, how can they know how to sort problems out with it!?!

Scripts, IMO, are a big no-no. Any muppet can read scripts, they need to be employing people with the ability to converse, not just read! But as usual, with anything, pay peanuts, get monkeys

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Check the modem is on, of course...

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Well I dont usually judge a company after one phone call, if eg. I ring up 5+ times and each time I speak to someone with an indian accent it is usually an indication of an indian call centre, the same goes on judging how good their support is I wont judge just after 1 experience.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

bad bad bad idea!

reponse to that question: "of course it's on, i'm not stupid." customer immediately annoyed....

better question: "which lights are lit on the modem?" -> tells you whether the modem is on or not, and also tells you whether the modem is locked onto it's signal/ is on usb or ethernet/ is connected to pc properly etc etc.

:)

anyway, back on topic....

I had never used ntl when i started working for them! having used a product isn't a requirement for supporting it, or knowing about it.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

but you had probably seen it in someone elses house, or used another digital tv or broadband service. the point was is that it might be quite an alien thing in india (could be wrong, maybe they do have digital!)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

1. People regulary think that they are speaking to India when the person has a strong WELSH accent !
2. Britian has a huge diversity of accents. Vistors to our CC from USA, France and Italy all commented on the huge range of accents and marvelled as to how our agents handled certain calls from Scotland, Northern ireland and Tyen and Wear where the accent was strong and they couldn't understand a word.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Or you can ask them where they are based it normally brings the correct answer, also ask what the weather is like in India as its raining here also brings the correct response. I had to explain where Manchester was once and when I commented they just said they didn't know as they had never been to the UK.


We can only hope they will improve but the ideal world would be to keep help call centres in the country the help is required. I do not have any problems with Scottish accents to the surprise of Ayrshire friends, I also have no problems with he welsh accent but the Indian accent is the hardest one to understand and this coupled with being in need of help to sort out the connection for the internet does seem to cause more problems than needed for all concerned. The help is the main priority and if its open to misinterpretation this can create more problems and anger when the customers patience gives way with constantly repeating whatâ₠¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s wrong.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Communication is a two way thing and at times it can be difficult to decide which end is the poor communicator. It is very easy to blame the Indian you are talking to if you are having difficulty communicating but it could just as easy be yourself at fault. You have only to look at some of the posts in the forums to see that the poster cannot communicate properly.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I would like to remind every one of some thing I said in starting this thread (see above)!

Indian IT staff are very good technically, but it was obvious from my dealing with the Indian call centre, that NTL have provided a script and will not allow them deviate from it. They are just as good as we are, so let them be as good.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Im not a racist, but i really get frustrated when i cant understand a word they say. I have had this numerous times, and had to bite my tounge and hang up the phone

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Maybe I'm just cynical but isn't it interesting that ntl's new Chief Operating officer was responsible for off-shoring his previous company's Customer Service to India. I think you know where I'm going with this....

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Wonder if he can offshore his job to India and save the company more money in one job than they ever could save with the call centre.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

India?

:p:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Well.....

In an oddly ironic twist I found out something about myself, my preconceptions, and (more importantly) learned to not judge based on first impressions today.

I called a company, fully expecting to get an Indian call center and get the run-around.

The person on the other end of the phone answered, and sounded Indian. I instantly went into despair mode.

My problem was resolved quickly and efficiently.

So, what did I learn?

Was it not to base my judgements of Indian call centers on my previous bad experiences with one or two?

No.

It was that I can't tell the difference between an Indian accent and a broad Northern accent when the phone line is bad. The person (and the call center) was based in this country! :D

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I agree, as I've said before " Indian IT staff are very good technically"....
I have to say, that if an Indian person is allowed to do a good job, they tend to do a better job than us westoners.

I just wish the likes of the "power people" in companies like NTL realised this and allowed their Indian staff (actual or decended) to do the job on their own, with out strict scripts to follow..... :)

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

That's true. We don't have scripts or flowcharts or anything- just masses and masses of info to access. We're expected to diagnose ourselves...

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Well it seems now Australia are finding that India call centres are not as safe as everyone tries to make us beleive.

news article about the latest failure to protect personal details.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Whole heartedly agree with much said here. Yet another article on this topic. Maybe a bit of a defeatist attitude there, but if you don't rattle the can who will?

http://www.iamalameassspammer.co.uk

Ok.. off to yabber about bandwidth capping now.. My pet hate!

<Mod Edit: Jon M - First Post Spam, Automatic Ban - I like rhyming ;)>

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Please don't join the forum purely to spam your own website. If you want to advertise with us, we offer competitive rates that you will find detailed here.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Many of you are missing the point. No only do ntl outsourse the support work to India, they also outsource the systems development and support to India.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Well the first thing to try if you are not able to browse assuming the Tech .Supp Agent knows if you have a Modem or a Stb is to check the ip address on your pc and check your Account details to see if the account is not suspended.

In addition to that the Tech Support agents also have some tools to test the connectivity of the modem and the Stb which can help them to diagnose the problem rather easily .

So lets say we have two cases:
a ) Ip address is A valid ip address : - say 80.x.x.x or 213.x.x.x ( except .248 tp .253 at the end ) then it would mean that The Problem Lies With the Pc - ( that would be either An Antivirus , Firewall , Browser settings , TCP / Ip or winsock. The first thing to try would be renewing the Ip address to see what it changes to ...

b) Ip address in an Invalid Ip address - ie 169.x.x.x

If its 169 it would be helpful to try renewing the Ip address and
rebooting the Cable modem and the pc once .
If that does not help remove the coaxial cable and check the ip address after renwing it . If it stays 169 - PC problem. And if it changes to 192.x.x.x its a Problem with the Modem.


regards :
Raymond

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

It could also be wrongly configured DNS.

We get the same but in reverse. We find out whether it's BB/DUN which gives us a few options:
- BB
these can be USB or RJ45 basically all we can do for warranty is check the port is working, usually by reconnecting it, and checking the IP. Otherwise, we'd go through the same, turn off all security, etc, try again, reset the winsock, ping 127.0.0.1, ping google, etc etc
- DUN
few things to check the modem, AT commands, checking the modem "grabs" the line, then same as before, pings, securities off, etc...

Trouble is I can imagine these poor n00bs getting referred from pillar to post between ISPs and manufacturers neither of whom are authorised, or bothered, to fix the problem... some places have premium advice lines though.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

well (a) could very likely be failed proxy server, something tech support doesnt have in their script.
(b) is most likely the pc but their could be a ntl dhcp server on the blick which has happened to me before.

I think tech support fail in this way in that if its a certian problem it can only be the user's pc, interestingly I would like to know how they are trained to deal with situation where the problem is ntl's fault and if it is something not in their script.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I may be wrong but the impression I get here is that some people imagine ntl's tech support people to be clueless unless a script is provided - whereas that might be the case with some employees, in my experience that's the minority. The rest have enough savvy to be able to offer 'courtesy support' - advice from their own experience and expertise.

If the fault is ntls then the agent will either use tools at their disposal to solve the matter or will escalate it to a department who will work on it.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I dont know what I think, it could be NTL have told the tech's to stick to their script strictly and if it isnt possible fob of the caller, or it could be the tech's just dont have the knowledge. I know the situation was much better before it got outsourced and I seen someone with similiar experience of outsourcing drop of quality in service on demon posting on adslguide. UK call centre's always had a backup option in place in that if you not satisfied can speak to a supervisor so a second chance to resolve the problem so to speak and from my own experience they tend to have been more willing to help outside the scope of the script. People who lost their job because of the outsourcing should be proud of themselves because they did a better job then who is doing it now in india.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I agree regarding Indian call centres, I telephoned tonight and to "validate the account" I needed this that and the bloody other! Totally inflexible and you just cant get a conversation out of these people! Dont they understand WE DO NOT KEEP OUR BILLS! All I wanted was a password because we have deleted the email account off the PC by accident and dont know what the password is.

(Rant Over!)

Kevin.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

And if someone else rang them and changed your account details or asked for account details without being asked for validation you would be even more annoyed, especially if you then incurred a financial penalty. Validation is there to protect the account holders from fraudulent access to their accounts. There is no point moaning that the person in India or any other call center is doing their job correctly and is looking to protect you from someone gaining access to your account fraudulently.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

There are supervisors, and senior techs in the Indian centre as well....

nobody lost their jobs at ntl when the call centre in India was opened.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

They stick to a set script too much! They dont help at all and even when the account is validated they are still hard work!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Do you speak any other language apart from English well enough to converse over the phone with someone? Could you speak another language well enough to understand technical queries etc? Don't forget that the people in these off-shore call centers are not speaking their native language when you call them up, they are often answering the phone at a very early hour in India due to time zone differences and they do their best to try and resolve issues that they may not fully understand themselves.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

So who previously did tech support, yes it was ibm but did people at ibm uk lose jobs?

There may well be supervisors in india but they too sigh to come to the phone.

Have you rang ntl tech support in india?
If yes have you spoken to a supervisor?
If no then why are you telling me its the opposite to what I say and what others have experienced, you may have used to work for NTL and it may be different to call centre's you worked in and you may also have been told its nice and rosy in india but this isnt the case.

I can compare this to nike sweatshops where the cheif exec at the company chooses to ignore the dire conditions of the child workers he employs as far as he was concerned it was the opposite to reality.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Silly question! - you just knew some one would answer that with the obvious!

(Actually I've been made redundant from IBM twice since 1974!!)

Incidentally regarding Indian call centres ironically a few years ago IBM tried deploying their DB2 lab/coc to India from Toronto but quickly had to redeploy it back again due to some seriously heavy criticism from some of their larger corporate customers.

Additionally one of IBM's largest banking customers (at the time) probably had (dis)proportionately more technical support from us for it's Indian CC than all other UK based CCs put together.
No doubt some IBM Global Services marketeer copped a nice little sweetner for stuffing NTL with a Level2+ outsourcing support contract knowing that L1 was India based and thus bound to inflate L2 call stats and quality feedback.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Actually before September 2004 it was all done by ntl. Everyone who worked in Tech Support then was TUPE transferred to IBM/Manpower, and later the India centre opened. There were no jobs cut- just extra jobs created in India.

Too Sigh?? :confused:

Yes and yes, I used to work with them every day.

I was *told* anything about the centre in India- when I was at ntl I dealt with all the levels of support in India on a day to day basis, so perhaps you could just change the record and accept that I might actually know what I'm talking about?!


yes... i can see how the situations are extremely similar :rolleyes:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

not strictly true, there were voluntary redundcies<sp> of a couple of management from tech support in swansea, & there have been no new staff taken on in swansea since the takeover/outsourcing, but plenty have left, these havent been replaced in swansea but the headcount in india has increased to cover these people who left swansea & some more on top....

complete & utter b0ll0x...sometimes if you dont know what your talking about its better to say nothin at all.....

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

So me and other customers who can see an obvious difference in quality of tech support since the move to india are talking ********, I only speaking from experience nothing else.

Chris so the tech support used to be done by ntl themselves in 2004 but no job cuts after it moved to india, so these people who used to do tech support what happened to them? they got relocated? or they still do it for a select few customers?

I don't mind been given facts that quality control has been done but I find it offensive barfly that been told what I have experienced is ******** so effectively saying I am either imagining or lying.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

So given what you say, is it a good idea to have tech support in india? sorry but where is the point in employing people who cannot converse with the very people they are supposed to be assisting?
Obviously to me NTL are saving too much money not to carry on with india call centres, otherwise they would have thought long and hard before going ahead with the idea.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I too recently had the misfortune to get through to India for broadband support.

I had had an engineer round to confirm the ethernet port on my PC had died a death (PC saying a cable was disconnected). I have had to go back to the usb connection. I phoned for confirmation on this. After a very annoying ten minutes of an Indian Gentleman telling me that it meant the cable may be faulty (Not true) he would book an engineer (which had just visited the same day). I tried to explain that I wanted help in reconfiguring my connection for usb. This continued with the man repeatedly saying 'Listen to me will you' I finally reached the end of my tether after repeatedly being rudely told to listen when the man blurted out 'FOR GODS SAKE!'. at this point I asked immediately to be put through to a supervisor where the line was disconnected. I have complained via email to NTL but as is normal with their shody service have yet to recieve a reply.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

When I had my problem with Tech support in India I emailed NTL the main man in my area and sent an email to the company NTL moved the staff to. It was this company that finally moved out tech support to India, I had no reply from this company but NTL phoned me a few times to check if everything was working alright. If you have a very bad experience then make sure the complaint goes to the top.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

When I got through to NTL support in India - I was asked about 10 security questions, sometimes the same security repeated. To rub salt into the wound the tech person, kept calling me "dear" no dear, yes dear etc - this annoyed me no end, I asked him to stop calling me dear - in the end I asked to be put through to the UK - he replied he couldn't do that. I then explained that I was the customer, I was paying for the phone call, and if he couldn't put me through to the UK then to put me through to cancellations, as I wish to cancel my contract.

Got through to the UK and explained - I wasn't happy to be put through to India, and I would rather speak to someone in the UK, Was advised to keep phoning until I got through to UK, if I got India just hang up and try again - I advised that wasn't good enough, and what the procedure was to cancel my contract. In the end I got my problem sorted by the UK and also 1 months free broadband

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Personally I find the whole outsourcing thing to be scandelous at best

I have nothing against Indian call centres themselves, other than the apparent language barrier.

But, I do have a problem with multi million pound companies laying off british staff so they can make even more money by outsourcing support to India.

I could understand it if the company in question was working at a loss, or just breaking even.

I haven't had to deal with an indian call centre...yet, but my mother has on a few occasions and like others in this thread, she was equally angry and not having a simple problem resolved and ended up cancelling the service.

Mind you, I have had to deal with a scottish and am irish operator at a call centre once, gah that was hard enough

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Data Protection act says:
8. Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

Funnily enough, certainly until recently, the Indian sub-continent was said to NOT have such a level of protection. AIUI, only transfers to Switzerland, Hungary, Argentina, Canada, and the US (Safe harbor) are allowed under this principle. However, there are a bunch of exemptions...

Cases where the eighth principle does not apply
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/80029--p.htm

Probably the two relevant ones are..

8. The transfer is made on terms which are of a kind approved by the Commissioner as ensuring adequate safeguards for the rights and freedoms of data subjects.

9. The transfer has been authorised by the Commissioner as being made in such a manner as to ensure adequate safeguards for the rights and freedoms of data subjects.


The Information Commissioner has 'binding corporate rules' (BCR) and a 'model contract' for such occasions.

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressRele...ference=IP/05/
12
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/justic...vacy/modelcont
racts/index_en.htm

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

the last time i spoke to tec in india due to a really slow connection (i'm on 3 meg and was speed testing at 128 kbps ) i was asked to run netstat .
this returned the result that i had 5 ports open, ahh he said, thats why your connection is so slow, to which i replied that he was having a laugh wasnt he?
then he argued that i was only on a 1 mb connection and then said the fault was with my pc and not a fault with my connection.
then he hung up on me.

I e mailed ntl with my issue and my experience with tec support in india and the next time i turned my pc on the problem was resolved

from what i could gather from the conversation i had with him he was way out of his depth

ho humm

s

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Speaking to a friend from India, he says that they mostly speak English over there anyway, Urdu or Hindi can almost be seen as Second Languages to them.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

never disputed this fact either way...

this has been explained many times berfore on this board, selective reading on your part i guess, but what the hell, just for you, il tell you again, Tech support employee's who were employed by NTL were tupe'd/ tranferred to IBM/Manpower, no one lost there jobs directly because of the transfer in swansea, though as i said, there were voulntary redundcies for a handfull of managers 6 months after..... tbh no great loss..;)

It was your ridiculous comparision to the Nike sweatshops that i thought & still do think is b0ll0x :dozey:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Ah, the old fob off. Pees me to the extreme cos then we have to pick up the pieces.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Ok so the ones who didnt take up a redundancy offer are now working in swansea? and what was the number who took up voluntary redundancy was it 3 figures 4 figures?

Did scrotnig used to work for tech support since he mentioned he lost his job but I cant remember if he was forced out or not.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

"It was your ridiculous comparision to the Nike sweatshops that i thought & still do think is b0ll0x :dozey:"


Youre quite entitled to have that opinion just as much as the one I have that in doing what they are doing, putting profit before customer satisfaction, are NTL really that different to Nike?
NTL have outsourced a service to increase profits with obviously no idea what is going on when a customer is unfortunately put through to these call centres, I mean are these call centres monitored by NTL management? I would guess not, maybe I am wrong, but why should a customer be informed that if he/she gets through to an indian call centre just hang up and try again!?
You can imagine the dialogue " Is that the indian call centre?"
Reply," yes sir/madam, can I have your account number please?"
" Oh its ok I will call back again "
How long would the above scenario happen before speaking to a none indian call centre?
Ofcourse we only have the word of the customer who mentioned this, but if it is true I find it worrying.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

single figures im sorry 5-10, ......Yes those that stayed are still working in swansea, either for IBM or manpower & they run at the 3 figure mark.....

AFAIK Scrotnig worked in CS or retenetions ( not 100% sure though ), he wasnt based in swansea, so not in tech support, dont know for sure but i think i remember him saying his dept was being moved to another Call centre in the UK in the line with the cutting down of call centres from 7 to 3....

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

ok thanks for the info, I thought the number's of job losses were much higher.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Scrotnig worked in Manchester.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Damn another day another 3-4 junk calls from India.Sure 1 or maybe 2 but by the time youve had a couple your patience wears thin.

The people I feel sorry for with these waste of time calls are the poor people here who have Indian accents trying to do their jobs that involves phone use.

We all get frustrated at having to walk to the phone and slam it down within seconds of the dreaded "Ello Am I Speaking too" Indian accents.

Well imagine the poor receptionists here e.g. from doctors surgeries who must surely get phones slammed down on them without people giving them time to explain why theyre contacting you.

That said what do you do listen to how some guy in India called Lee or Dave poorly tells you he can save you £50 a year on your electric bills.Don't get me wrong I understand everyone as a right to earn a living but phone advertising shouldnt be aloud,we get bombarded by adverts everywhere else.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I work for an insurance company with an Indian call centre. Now the folks are perfectly nice people, very good at there jobs and totally polite. However, they seem unable to think outside of the box, so to speak, and their attitude infuriates customers. The offical line in our company is that we cannot recruit CS agents fast enough in the uk so we have to look elsewhere. The bottom line is that we have just laid off our temporary staff in the uk.

If my management tell me that thewre is nothing to worry about and my job is safe one more time, (and here comes the clue as to who they are) they can take their 'Calm Down Dear' and stick it straight up their 'Mr Mouse' holes

Anyone want my CV?:Yikes:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

It's not the language per se that's the problem but rather idiom. When you learn a second or more language you may know the words and the grammer but that's not how it's really spoken.

So when you call you try some "chit-chat" or whatever. The poor person on the other end probably can understand the words but may miss inflection and so on that indicate real meaning.

That being said it can be a real pain if your problem doesn't quite fit what the script/system is telling them what to do.

Me : Hi, got a problem with ...
CS : You have a trojan/malware infecting Outlook.
Me : Not running Windows at the moment, Outlook not installed when I am.
CS : You need to download Outlook Cleaner from ....
Me : Not running Outlook and anyway not in Windows.
CS : We don't support Linux.
Me : That's OK, it's not a problem in Linux since it affects Windows too. It's not the PC since another PC has same problem. It's not router, problem still there connected directly.
CS : Please wait while I check 2nd line.
ping, ping plock ping diddy dum dum dum.
CS : Hi, there is no problem on the network in your area so it must be your fault. Thankyou for calling.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I worked in Manchester, was made redundant but redeployed. Then six months later left of my own accord due a change in shift patterns.

Certainly my earlier redundancy was nothing to do with Indian call centres, it was a UK restructure.

I should also say that I mainly enjoyed working for the company, did not leave under a cloud, and in fact would go back tomorrow if the job was right.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I would agree but not just indian call centres have had the same view from a uk call centre .

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I rang CS a few days ago, basically just to ask when the email system would be back up and running (national work according to status page). She asked how i connect (modem etc) and that i need to be put through to Technical Support. She said "Thankyou" and the line went dead....

I then said " PLEEEEase don't put me through to India".... (thinking she was)...

She came back on the phone laughing, she heard what i said :blush: :blush: :blush:

She was fine about it all when i told her that i had to deal with India a lot recently etc. :)

NTL Indian support centres
 

:angel:

An Indian in India ....

Common Sense prevails in those who understand the above statement and the following ...

I doubt ntl: Technical Support in India has scripts to follow .. They do sound mechanical ... I guess they have certain steps to follow when encountered with a situation !

English would be 1st language for people who are graduates and belong to well-off families ... It is for me !!

Didn't mean to offend .. nor have I taken to heart the comments on this forum as they are yours ....

:cool:

Re: NTL Indian support centres
 

:welcome:

I believe a degree is a prerequisite for a job with ntl in india.

do you work in a call centre for a UK company btw?

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Well Yes I do ....

Would be posting something interesting shortly regarding call centers in India !!

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

The problem is when call centers follow the script to the letter without being flexable at all

it would be like


me: Connections down, modem has no online light and upstream light is flashing.

them: Have you tried rebooting your pc sir.

obvisouly if the connections dead and i've just told them its becuase it cant find the upstream (by informing them the upstream light is flashing on the sb4100) i don't then expect to go though the proccess of rebooting the pc when its clearly a problem with the modem or the network.

although thankfully most times i've called NTL they've been ok , but i try to do the obvisous before calling anyway e.g reboot modem check the connections are in securly.etc

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

That's good for you. But there are an awful lot of folk out there that don't do these things first, which is why the scripted stuff HAS to be run through... There are some people out there that don't realise you have to have a PC to have BB. I know a couple of people that wanted an i-pod, but didn't have any access to a PC to download tunes... :dunce:

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

/Rant on

Very interesting thread, as the partner of someone who works for BT I have heard all the horror stories about out sourcing to India.

BT have even moved thier payroll dept out to India and it is a total nightmare trying to deal with Indian people about such a sensitive issue as employees wages.

It will all end in tears for these companies who put profit above customer service. All these mission statements that they come out with make me laugh "we want to offer the best customer service experience.... blah de blah" the only thing they are interested in is profits.

Great story from a friend who works for Centrica, their Onetell business transferred to India (with the loss of UK jobs) and the call centre was flooded out a couple of months back, they did not have the resources anymore to cope with the, dare I say flood of calls, back to the UK from a lot of unhappy customers, serves em right!

Then there was the tale of BT not recieving calls to thier Indian call centre as the two main telecom companies in India were fighting each other over who should carry the BT calls.

Then we have India and Pakistan pointing nuclear weapons at each other, hmmm very stable place.

Why do these companies think that its Ok to tout thier wares in this country whilst employing foreigners at the expense of British jobs?

Boycot them all I say.

They want your business and money but do not want to put anything back into the community in the way of employment.

What happens to the people they make redundant? back on benefits with the taxpayer footing the bill.

I cancelled an Insurance Policy with Norwich Union in light of this and would do the same with NTL if i had an alternative.

If I were Govt I would make these companies pay a damn site more tax than they are doing now.

/Rant off


DJB

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

Well Just a repetition ...

NO SCRIPT to follow ......

Whenever you lose your connection which could happen for a million reasons ... Reboot the setup in tandem ... PC (Router - if any) Cable Modem off // Cable Modem - (Router - if any) - PC .. Waiting for each to stabilise and then check the status ...

This is followed by all call centers, be it in India or in the UK !!!!

This was taught by the people from the UK .. So they do it .. We do it .. Whats the difference ??

I guess the only thing different here is that some people lost their job in the UK to give it to someone in India, Right???
__________________

From a National Newspaper Hindustan Times - 25 October 2005

'BPO crew has no voice of its own'

Work hours eat into leisure

IT IS ironic that most call centre employees are engaged in voice-based work. Yet they have no voice of their own.

Call centres typify "totalisation" of labour control or end of employee voice, says a study on work situation in BPOs at Noida. Not a single worker covered in the study was a member of a trade union or had any contact with trade unionists.

Most call centre employees conceive their identity as professionals or executives due to fancy designations with 'executive' tags although their job is to attend to customers' calls. So they feel that their problems are not similar to those in factories or other service industries.

But the main reason for the absence of trade unions in the sector is the dualistic pattern of the workforce -- in which a major proportion of employees are easily replaceable -- that keeps a check on mobilising workers, the study said.

Nasscom president Kiran Karnik, however, told a press conference on Monday, "We have no problems with trade unions. They can have them if their workers want. But nobody feels the need for unions, so they are not there."

The study says the physical design of workplaces in call centres is such that managers can keep tabs on workers and identify potential trouble-mak ers. The companies ensure that call centre agents have no leisure. They are burdened with performance targets that are constantly revised upwards and don't find time even to think of trade unionism.

BPO firms are based on the philosophy of "individualisation". Employees are moulded to act as individuals, who report to and are monitored by another individual. Even in team projects, collectivity is discouraged, said Babu P. Remesh, associate fellow at the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute.

Codes of conduct drive home the point that salary is a personal matter and should not be discussed with peers. Those who do so are warned or are subject to disciplinary action.

Trade unions are not present, but call centres do provide avenues for "controlled socialisation" such as office parties and intranet discussion forum, the study noted. But any "misuse" of such mechanism leads to punitive action. The result is that discussion forums are mostly confined to circulating jokes and tips on "productivity enhancement".

"Due to the absence of a formal collective mechanism like trade unions, issues such as authoritarian managerial styles, excessive workload, inflexible breaks and unreasonable rosters are leading to some forms of informal/formal as well as individual/collective resistance," the study said.

Some BPO workers admitted to researchers that they, at times, deliberately redirect calls to other service operators, enter misleading activity codes in the system or simply hang up on offensive customers to resist authoritarian regime of managements in the absence of any effective grievance mechanism.

Respondents reported symptoms such as nervousness, chronic fatigue, body ache, insomnia, nausea, anxiety, restlessness, irritability and even depression due to the odd working hours and stress. Workers are also subject to "emotional labour" as they are required to display certain kinds of expressions for customer satisfaction. Aspects such as moods of agents, facial expressions and words are monitored and any deviations from the defined framework are considered defects.

Karnik said he has not seen the full research report, but felt that its content does not give a correct picture of the Indian BPO industry, which he said, offered the best working conditions across sectors in India. At the same time, he said, "Everything is not ideal. Somebody somewhere may be doing a wrong thing." It's a strict regimen out No trade unions because Replaceable workforce Close monitoring by managers Absence of leisure Controlled socializing The gag Employees are moulded to act as individuals Not encouraged to act as teams Threatened with action for any deviation from rules Consequences Mental and physical sickness Inertia Stress from ` emotional labour' Skewed self

************************************************
Also while you get to enjoy your Christmas Holidays, in India the BPO Agents continue to work to give replies to "Why the connection is not working?" or "Why havent I recieved my emails?" ... UK Call Center(s) are closed on Christmas!

However, its our national Holiday - Diwali (Festival of Lights) and the Center(s) would remain open even though its a festival where the entire family gets together to enjoy and pray! Ask your Indian neighbor (if you have any, or a co-worker)

So again the BPO Agents have no Life and give up theirs for yours !!!


Would someone give me a reply to this?? Or continue badgering Indian BPO Agents??

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

My beef was the constant repeating myself to get anything done; I also found it hard to understand the Indian operator. I also find that wrongly diagnosis of my problems to be annoying, plus disturbing that a modem can be searching for sync and be told its faulty the minute the network came back the modem had sync.

I am sure that if India was losing jobs to the UK you would also show some resentment to the country taking your livelihood
__________________
Joining a trade union is voluntary not everyone in this country are members but some are and many other join after they see jobs going overseas.

Some call centre employees have been given british names to try and hide the fact they are in India this is deceiving the customers and will only create more problems in the end.

Sorry but if you want to join a trade unioin then its upto you to join

And you think its different in the UK, its not but here they do find time to join a trade union in their own time

That must be your way as here its team work if you have to be individual can't blame us for that

Iam sure if you all demand a union then you would have one

If a customer is abusive there is ways to deal with them but doing this would only make the abusive person worse and perhaps get the call centre a worse name for dealing with customers

Again its something you do to yourselves and if the people higher up create so much stress in the workforce then no wonder the custoemrs are getting a bad servcie.

Again its something that seems to be related with working in India I have many friends working in call centres who do not get like this.

************************************************
We have staff working at Call centres over xmas but its not a full staff only a few to cover emergencies.

It is something you must have agreed to when applying for the job you can't blame us for this as many would prefer all call centers to stay in the UK

I have split it to reply sorry if I cant be very sympathetic but you seem to think you accept everything then try to make it our falut you have the job.

Such a thing as gettin up and being counted if you want a union then get one dont sit back saying its our fault you havent got one. this is my personal opinion and isn't directed to any one person/company but a generalisation of Offshoring in general...

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I might start recording my call's since some people can't accept how poor tech support has become.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

NTL don't divert their calls to India, so one of the mods on here told me anyway, I'd only been on the phone to them a few minutes earlier.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

IIRC, it's illegal unless you inform the call agent the call's being recorded.

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

The 0845 tech support line for SACM has over 80% chance of going to India those using STB for now are safe

Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL
 

I guess thats why ntl ask for the number calling from to be entered so can route call to appropriate location so if in STB area get STB tech support?