Jeez why one earth would the CS/ TS say that
it's not as though he is helping things is he. Without a tv signal lock you were never going to get a BB feed. You may well be suprised at how good some of NTLs "monkeys" are
Make sure the engineer doesn't leave before things are sorted this time, even if it means making him call in to get someone else sent out if he can't get the job done himself.