Well, the meeting went ahead as planned. Simon Duffy initially wanted to know more about Cable Forum, it's history and who was running it, and what position the sites played in the grand scheme of things.
Points covered
This was covered with several sub points. i.e Customer Information Packs, a Customer Web portal, better information on Upgrades, etc, better clarity in the Terms and Conditions, returns policies, and general customer feedback. Examples of problems were handed to them by Mick. Details about the upgrades and information conveyed to customers was mentioned separately. Simon Duffy, clearly recognised that problems customers were experiencing were unacceptable and they need to establish why this is happening. Mick brought about the fact that some problems customers were experiencing keep on happening.
The response was encouraging, they were aware of some of the problems, unaware of others. Installs is being looked at in depth, with a lot of work going on.
Again we covered many points including Telephone ping pong, same complaints time an time again, Fault Tracking, Call Logging, etc.
The response was again encouraging. They want to provide a Cable Forum Liaison person who will assist us with issues and also want to provide us with an escalation route into ntl so that problems that cannot be easily be dealt with can be tracked. Call Logging was re-introduced last Monday.
No Comment
No Comment, but this has been released on their site.
http://www.home.ntl.com/page/customerupdate
This was discussed at length, and it would seem that ntl want to talk about it more internally, but Simon Duffy stated that if they want to do this in their own time, then there is not a problem. The only problem is that there is no real way of tracking this activity, hence the possible introduction of an escalation route direct into ntl.
- Press Releases and General Information
We pointed out the fact that we get rumours from internal sources, and that we get updates from Telewest, and that they are not so good at communicating information. It has been suggested that Cable Forum become an "Official" portal with which ntl can communicate plans, and information to the customers.
There are many questions that get asked regularly (TV channel renumber), etc, so it was asked that if we came up with a list of questions that people would like answers to, would they be willing to answer.
Answer was Yes, within reason, anything commercially sensitive or confidential would not be answered.
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Overall the meeting was positive, and Simon and Peter are taking many of the points we raised away with them for more consideration.
The idea of an ntl Cable Forum Liaison person who we can channel information to and get information from is very encouraging.
Also opening the lines of communication between the two parties was applauded by all.
Cable Forum will need to supply some statistics to ntl, in regard to common customer problems, and monthly statistics, which ntl will respond to.
This was the initial meeting, with lots of good ideas, and thoughts, and it would seem that there will be further discussions by email to firm some of these things up. It will probably mean a bit more work for a while, but in the long run, we hope it will make Cable Forum a much better site for customers and staff.