Cable Forum - View Single Post - NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience

nate · 07-12-2005, 19:35

CS and TS for me have been great.

But, a close friend of mine has had nothing but trouble, I've had to intervene at times (listen in 3rd party when she calls me and puts me on coference with them) and I have to say, from what I have heard, the support that she gets is completely different.

Take the 10mb upgrade for example.

My friend lives just a few streets away, I hear from CF that 10mb upgrades have started and to call CS to get the upgrade, so I did, got the upgrade and within seconds was connected at 1024000.

She however called CS no less than 7 times on the same day as I called, to get a different response each time.
"It's not available yet"
"It's just trialling, you can't have it yet"
"It's only available to new customers"
and the best,
"10mb? Don't be silly. The network isn't capable of that"

On one of these calls where I was 3rd party, I intervened and told the CS advisor that I had called up not less than 4 hours ago and was straight away upgraded to 10mb.
He proceeded to tell me that it is just trialling, you have to get it through the trials team and you will only get speeds of about 5mb.
I told him that I had called CS and was getting full 10mb, being an ex-employee, I even showed him where in SABS he had to go to change it. (Yes, I'm a patrionising bas***d..:P)
To which he said he was not authorised to do so.

After all this, I told her to just wait until it officially rolled out and do it then.
So, 5th December rolls around, we both had mailshots telling us that 10mb was going to be available from this date..

So, she calls CS to get upgraded on the 5th, low and behold..
"10mb is still not available, new customers only"

So, again, she calls them, has me on conference call..
This time, the guy tells her, "It's just trialling at the moment, but I can upgrade you"

It took a long time, a lot of frustration, but we got there, yet it seems CS staff STILL were not in the know about the product, even on the day of launch!

It leads me to believe that NTL's CS team are not informed very well of new products and upgrades. Some seem to know, others don't.

I think that some learn from customers that new products are available, enquire about it with their managers and the like, and learn from that experience.

Others, flat out deny any such product exist and do this all day, don't bother to ask anybody, despite that fact they may have been asked about the product dozens of times.

The fact remains however, NTL are not communicating, or not communicating properly, to front line staff.

This certainly was the case when I worked @ NTL Tech in Newport, 2002-2004.

There was a comment that was frequently heard around the call-centre;
NTL, The complete communications company; except when it comes to communicating anything to their staff.

Seems this still stands true.

07-12-2005, 19:35	#671
nate Inactive Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Cardiff, UK Services: Sky Digital, NTL Phone & 10mb BB Posts: 126	Re: NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience CS and TS for me have been great. But, a close friend of mine has had nothing but trouble, I've had to intervene at times (listen in 3rd party when she calls me and puts me on coference with them) and I have to say, from what I have heard, the support that she gets is completely different. Take the 10mb upgrade for example. My friend lives just a few streets away, I hear from CF that 10mb upgrades have started and to call CS to get the upgrade, so I did, got the upgrade and within seconds was connected at 1024000. She however called CS no less than 7 times on the same day as I called, to get a different response each time. "It's not available yet" "It's just trialling, you can't have it yet" "It's only available to new customers" and the best, "10mb? Don't be silly. The network isn't capable of that" On one of these calls where I was 3rd party, I intervened and told the CS advisor that I had called up not less than 4 hours ago and was straight away upgraded to 10mb. He proceeded to tell me that it is just trialling, you have to get it through the trials team and you will only get speeds of about 5mb. I told him that I had called CS and was getting full 10mb, being an ex-employee, I even showed him where in SABS he had to go to change it. (Yes, I'm a patrionising bas*d..:P) To which he said he was not authorised to do so. After all this, I told her to just wait until it officially rolled out and do it then. So, 5th December rolls around, we both had mailshots telling us that 10mb was going to be available from this date.. So, she calls CS to get upgraded on the 5th, low and behold.. "10mb is still not available, new customers only" So, again, she calls them, has me on conference call.. This time, the guy tells her, "It's just trialling at the moment, but I can upgrade you" It took a long time, a lot of frustration, but we got there, yet it seems CS staff STILL were not in the know about the product, even on the day of launch! It leads me to believe that NTL's CS team are not informed very well of new products and upgrades. Some seem to know, others don't. I think that some learn from customers that new products are available, enquire about it with their managers and the like, and learn from that experience. Others, flat out deny any such product exist and do this all day, don't bother to ask anybody, despite that fact they may have been asked about the product dozens of times. The fact remains however, NTL are not communicating, or not communicating properly, to front line staff. This certainly was the case when I worked @ NTL Tech in Newport, 2002-2004. There was a comment that was frequently heard around the call-centre; NTL, The complete communications company; except when it comes to communicating anything to their staff.** Seems this still stands true.