Hello!
My girlfriend and I have been with NTL for over a year now, but recently cancelled our account in my girlfriend's name and took a new offer out (2MB BB and DigiTv for £20) in my name. Everything was running smoothly with the BB and TV until a few days after installation (approx 20 Oct 2006). Our STB (Pace) was sluggish and slow at changing channels. After reporting this to NTL and engineer was requested, but did not turn up. We rearranged but on the morning he was due out, NTL called me and told me he had rang in sick and no replacement could be sent, so we rearranged... again!
I was offered a £10 goodwill gesture for the trouble. All the time I was on the phone to NTL, I was told the engineer would bring out the new Samsung STB, but when the engineer eventually arrived, he came empty handed!
Anyway... The engineer said he would personally come back on the Monday night with the Samsung STB, but he never arrived!
I rang NTL and after being put through to the wrong department
THREE TIMES, I began explaining the situation for the umpteenth time to a lady who had trouble speaking and understanding English. I then requested to speak to a supervisor and was told they would only say the same thing. I was then transferred to yet another department, when mid-way a male voice came on the line saying,
"The customer is a tw*t - Press 1 if this was useful, press 2 if you need more assistance." I was then cut off after being on hold for over 45-minutes!!!
I rang back and was cut off twice before someone took the call and I (yet again) explained the situation and was quickly offered 6-months at half price (whoop-dee-doo
) They eventually told me the engineer had been booked for Tuesday in the afternoon,
something that I hadn't requested, and a good job I checked otherwise I would have had to deal with the £10 missed appointment charge NTL think they have the right to charge!
Eventually, after showing my complete and utter disgust with representative, I was offered an additional £30 credit to my account taking the credit on my account to £40 plus 6-months at £9.99. An engineer came out on Friday and replaced our box (that he later informed me was a
REFURBISHED box) with a brand new Samsung STB. The problems seemed to have disappeared... until today!
I don't know if there was a problem in our area (it would be nice if there was a DigiTV service status page on NTL's homepage (rather than just broadband)), but our STB froze (i.e. couldn't change channel or turn off) and had a buzzing noise coming out of the TV speakers. I did a quick reset, as mentioned on this site, and the problem seems to have disappeared, although I'm not holding my breath.
I have sent a letter of complaint to the director of customer services (like he'll actually read it
) and I'm awaiting a response, but judging by what most people seem to say on here, I'm not expecting miracles!
How the hell can a company this large treat their customers like a pile of dirt and even call them
A TW*T?!?!?!?!? It's only because NTL monopolise the market that they haven't gone bankrupt through lack of custom (plus the fact they sign you up to a 12-month contract)! Surely I have rights to cancel if NTL do not provide the service they say they do?
Any kind of information anyone can offer would be greatly apprecited, I would like some big-wig in NTL to hear about this if possible...
Cheers!