I think NTL CS has dramatically improved. A couple of years ago I used to have quite a lot of power related problems - waiting for the call to be answered used to be from 20 minutes to a hour or so - only to be cut off again! Now the phone is answered very quickly in comparison. But they've still a way to go yet.........
A few days ago I upgraded from 1.5Mb to 3Mb yet my download speeds only increased from 1.5 to about 1.8Mb. I called CS toll free, they answered within a few seconds and I spent over an hour on the phone with them. (very tedious as I had already checked everything they suggested, but I understand that many users may not know how to fault find) They originally insisted that the speeds were normal but after contacting the supervisor (and at my insistance) they agreed to send an engineer out with a replacement modem.
They engineer arrived within the expected time period and tested signal levels etc. He was initially saying that my downloads were as to be expected, saying that 1.8Mbit/sec (about 220Kbyte/sec) was normal for the 3Mb service, but after listening to my problem in detail he finally agreed to swop out my old modem for a new one.
Presto - problem solved - downloads now up to around 3Mb (about 350kbyte/sec) in all cases. So much for 1.8 being normal.
So although the phone was answered promptly and the engineer came on time (which is a great front line change) I had to push to get an engieer at all and also push the engineer to swop out the modem, which I had already determined by elimination was the cause of the problem.
I was fobbed off at all levels saying that my download speeds were normal. The only saving grace was that I had tried my next door's modem which worked faster even though it was config'd for 2Mb.
For info: my original modem was a SB3100 and it would for some reason would clip at around 1.8Mb. The new one, an NTL250, works a treat.
Duncan