Cable Forum - View Single Post - Installation nightmare

madrob · 22-12-2006, 07:46

Aha - Well, at last (after being in contact with a manager several times) I seem to be getting somewhere. Umpteen more phone calls to NTL this week. the maanger I spoke to last week never rang back. So spoke to another manager, who said he would investigate it all.
When he got back to me yesterday he said the TV should now be on (it wasn't), the phone would take up to 10!!!! days, and he had yet to find out about the virgin thing but was insisting it was virgin I needed to speak to.
So that was the final straw. Got home, checked TV and phone still not working then rang NTL to cancel the whole thing.
Got through to cancellations and the guy did his best to keep me 'well we can give you a discount....it will take ages to get installed with someone else'. I insisted I wanted to leave so he asked if there was anything he could do to keep me....yes I said, get my phone and TV working before the end of today. 'Can't do that, he said (bearing in mind it was 5pm by this time). He then said me cancellation date was 21st Jan. I was not pleased - as I hadn't been officially installed and was certainly not going to pay for anything at all, told him all this. He said fair enough not to pay and was ok to cancel my direct debit. He said he couldn't override the automatic month as he couldn't see all of my account notes as someone else was accessing them but to him it just loooked like NTL had been installed for years (it had through the previous owner) and therefore he could only put the 1 month disconnnection on. He said that a manager was due to ring me within 48 hours though and they would be able to override the 1 month cancellation. If he didn't, then I could ring this guy in cancellations back and he would be able to sort it as he would be able to see all my notes.

Anyway, within 1/2 an hour a woman from NTL rang and asked if I had a problem paying for other people's phone calls?!. I explained all about the problems and she said 'how could she keep me?' being in a generous mood I said if she could get it all working before this manager was due to ring within 48 hours then I would stay. She said needed the smartcard and serial no off my STB .
She said she would ring back later. About 20 mins later she rang back to say that she had put the request in for my number to be changed and it would be changed 'by the same time tomorrow'. eh? I asked I was told it would take up to 10 days.....'ah, that's if you want a number transferring from BT. I still need to sort your TV out, I'll ring you back'. Then another girl rang me and asked for the STB numbers again. The original woman rang back to say it was all sorted,I should start to get channels later in the evening and that they had given me a free package upgrade for 2 months. Sure enough about 1/2 an hour later the box sprang into life.

So after all that, one (very helpful) woman managed to sort out in less than 1 1/2 hours what 2 managers, several customer service agents and I don't know how long on the phone to NTL over a week had failed to do. (Well we'll wait and see if the phone comes on but she is more credible than the others as the dig tv came on when she said it would....)......

22-12-2006, 07:46	#5
madrob Inactive Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 4	Re: Installation nightmare - shambolic NTL Aha - Well, at last (after being in contact with a manager several times) I seem to be getting somewhere. Umpteen more phone calls to NTL this week. the maanger I spoke to last week never rang back. So spoke to another manager, who said he would investigate it all. When he got back to me yesterday he said the TV should now be on (it wasn't), the phone would take up to 10!!!! days, and he had yet to find out about the virgin thing but was insisting it was virgin I needed to speak to. So that was the final straw. Got home, checked TV and phone still not working then rang NTL to cancel the whole thing. Got through to cancellations and the guy did his best to keep me 'well we can give you a discount....it will take ages to get installed with someone else'. I insisted I wanted to leave so he asked if there was anything he could do to keep me....yes I said, get my phone and TV working before the end of today. 'Can't do that, he said (bearing in mind it was 5pm by this time). He then said me cancellation date was 21st Jan. I was not pleased - as I hadn't been officially installed and was certainly not going to pay for anything at all, told him all this. He said fair enough not to pay and was ok to cancel my direct debit. He said he couldn't override the automatic month as he couldn't see all of my account notes as someone else was accessing them but to him it just loooked like NTL had been installed for years (it had through the previous owner) and therefore he could only put the 1 month disconnnection on. He said that a manager was due to ring me within 48 hours though and they would be able to override the 1 month cancellation. If he didn't, then I could ring this guy in cancellations back and he would be able to sort it as he would be able to see all my notes. Anyway, within 1/2 an hour a woman from NTL rang and asked if I had a problem paying for other people's phone calls?!. I explained all about the problems and she said 'how could she keep me?' being in a generous mood I said if she could get it all working before this manager was due to ring within 48 hours then I would stay. She said needed the smartcard and serial no off my STB . She said she would ring back later. About 20 mins later she rang back to say that she had put the request in for my number to be changed and it would be changed 'by the same time tomorrow'. eh? I asked I was told it would take up to 10 days.....'ah, that's if you want a number transferring from BT. I still need to sort your TV out, I'll ring you back'. Then another girl rang me and asked for the STB numbers again. The original woman rang back to say it was all sorted,I should start to get channels later in the evening and that they had given me a free package upgrade for 2 months. Sure enough about 1/2 an hour later the box sprang into life. So after all that, one (very helpful) woman managed to sort out in less than 1 1/2 hours what 2 managers, several customer service agents and I don't know how long on the phone to NTL over a week had failed to do. (Well we'll wait and see if the phone comes on but she is more credible than the others as the dig tv came on when she said it would....)......