dr wadd

Fair enough, but the flip side of that arrangement should also exist, that tech support people have enough knowledge to realise when customers have equal (or greater) knowledge to them. I had to get a new config sent through to my cable modem a couple of weeks back. I don`t want the person in TS telling me that I need to completely power down my PC and cable modem for it to become effective when I know with 100% certainty that going into the cable modem on board diagnostics will allow me to reboot the CM and get the new config without jumping through all those hoops. I don`t want TS taking me through the dummies guide to broadband when I've phoned up and given them a very specific technical diagnosis.

To move away from broadband, I don`t want someone in faults telling me there is nothing wrong with my phone line simply because I can call customer services from a completely different location, despite the fact that I've given them a very detailed and precise description of the problem. And no, before anyone asks, she didn`t check my home line remotely or anything technical like that, she simply couldn`t grasp the fact that the phone at my office had no bearing on my phone at home.

It's one thing to moan about the attitude of customers, but until all the CS/TS staff stop treating customers with contempt and assuming they are idiots then no-one at NTL is in a position to complain when customers get frustrated.

I stressed all in the above paragraph as there are decent, helpful representatives at NTL, but as a rule of thumb, if I have to speak to NTL on the phone I can safely make the following assumptions 99% of the time.

1. The person on the other end of the phone won`t actually listen to what you are saying, almost as though they have a "random fault" generator that they use rather than paying attention to the fault you are reporting.

2. No matter how much information you give them they are likely to ignore it and follow the set crap about rebooting your PC. Lights out on cable modem, reboot the PC, yeah, that's going to work.

3. If you make a specific point that needs to be recorded in notes it isn`t going to be recorded. 4 or 5 calls to NTL a couple of weeks back, specifically stressed that I needed an RGB capable STB for a replacement, each time checked to see if that had been logged in the notes. I think you can guess what the answer was each time.

4. If you aren`t getting good service and ask for a supervisor the person on the phone will refuse point blank unless you persist on the line for an extended period. It normally turns out that the supervisor is even less helpful than the person you first spoke to.

5. If you ask for a call back work on the presumption that it isn`t going to happen.

There are exceptions, and as I posted on another thread (or possibly this one) the guy I had to deal with on Friday night was polite and went out of his way to be helpful. But in the main I can apply these rules and they`ll be an accurate representation of the process.

Finally, I forgot to mention this in an earlier post, while suffering my woes with NTL over the last few weeks I was forced to make a call from my office. After about 25 minutes on hold one of my colleagues asked me who I was waiting for all that time. I just told her to guess. Her immediate answer was simply "NTL". I had not said a word about who I was trying to call, simply being on hold for that long is enough for people to assume you are calling NTL. They really do have a serious reputation problem.