Cable Forum - View Single Post - NTL Indian support centres

AlanYork · 12-07-2005, 19:24

I had someone out from NTL today at the third time of asking. The ready light was flashing intermittently on my SACM. It was a power level issue which appears to be fixed now. The first agent I spoke to a week ago was Indian, she advised me to reboot which worked and she then assured me the problem would not recur.

Today it did and a different agent, again Indian told me she could not help as the problem had righted itself just as she took the call.

Sods Law, the minute I put the phone down, it happened again. Call number 3 and agent number 3...an Indian, who arranged an engineer visit and that seems to have fixed it...but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Two points. My service from NTL has been appalling from Day 1 when they messed up my cable installation and set me up with a crossed line on my phone. Other "worldbeaters" include last month insisting I needed a new ethernet card or some such, when what I actually needed was a Windows disc and reinstallation of Windows and sending around an engineer (not the guy who came today who was very good), whose idea of customer service was to be as curt and rude as possible and whose charming phrases included "nothing wrong with your modem mate so its not our problem".....

Second point...it could be argued that using Indian call centres is symptomatic of NTLs attitude to customer service....do it on the cheap as we already have their money.

Now these Indians are educated people, they speak better English than I do Urdu, but I know from experience (I do 12 hour night shifts in a call centre looking after people who've had their credit cards stolen all over the world) that you can be as politically correct as you like, but most people just do NOT want to speak to an Indian call centre. It really is that simple. The sooner companies realise this simple fact, the better off we will all be. I wish I had a quid for every time someone said to me "thank God you're English" before asking me to help them having just spoken to their bank's Indian call centre and then been passed along to us, and if you think tech support is hard, try dealing with a mugging victim in Prague or someone who has been robbed by bandits on a bus in Ecuador! Why do you think Nat West advertisements make a point of saying our call centres are in the UK??? It's not racism, but neither is it rocket science to understand why.

12-07-2005, 19:24	#19
AlanYork Inactive Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 178	Re: NTL Indian support centres - a plea to NTL I had someone out from NTL today at the third time of asking. The ready light was flashing intermittently on my SACM. It was a power level issue which appears to be fixed now. The first agent I spoke to a week ago was Indian, she advised me to reboot which worked and she then assured me the problem would not recur. Today it did and a different agent, again Indian told me she could not help as the problem had righted itself just as she took the call. Sods Law, the minute I put the phone down, it happened again. Call number 3 and agent number 3...an Indian, who arranged an engineer visit and that seems to have fixed it...but who knows what tomorrow will bring. Two points. My service from NTL has been appalling from Day 1 when they messed up my cable installation and set me up with a crossed line on my phone. Other "worldbeaters" include last month insisting I needed a new ethernet card or some such, when what I actually needed was a Windows disc and reinstallation of Windows and sending around an engineer (not the guy who came today who was very good), whose idea of customer service was to be as curt and rude as possible and whose charming phrases included "nothing wrong with your modem mate so its not our problem"..... Second point...it could be argued that using Indian call centres is symptomatic of NTLs attitude to customer service....do it on the cheap as we already have their money. Now these Indians are educated people, they speak better English than I do Urdu, but I know from experience (I do 12 hour night shifts in a call centre looking after people who've had their credit cards stolen all over the world) that you can be as politically correct as you like, but most people just do NOT want to speak to an Indian call centre. It really is that simple. The sooner companies realise this simple fact, the better off we will all be. I wish I had a quid for every time someone said to me "thank God you're English" before asking me to help them having just spoken to their bank's Indian call centre and then been passed along to us, and if you think tech support is hard, try dealing with a mugging victim in Prague or someone who has been robbed by bandits on a bus in Ecuador! Why do you think Nat West advertisements make a point of saying our call centres are in the UK??? It's not racism, but neither is it rocket science to understand why.