[andygrif]

Originally Posted by Rob C

It's not to say that those complaining to Watchdog did not have a legitimate issue, more that the very nature of Watchdog is that is highlights complaints rahter than the silent majority who are satisfied. Indeed that is alos true of this forum, in that we frequently attract those that have an issue, rather than those that are happy.

I would suggest that every company has a "silent majority" of customers that are happy - or they wouldn't be in business. The problem comes when the unhappy minority starts growing in size - that's when they get featured on programmes like Watchdog.

In my nine-plus years with ntl I maintained that they were always OK as long as you didn't need to call them. This, IMHO, got worse towards the end rather than better. Before the centralisation of call centres you at least took your chances that the person you phoned knew what they were talking about. Now you know before you call that they don't. After my cancellation escapades it's extremely clear to me that there are elements of the system and people that plainly do not work - if I hadn't spent over ten hours on the phone trying to do their jobs for them then I would have probably called Watchdog too as I was getting nowhere fast (and being insulted by a nasty person in the Moves dept to boot).

Fortunately I Sky+'d Watchdog last night, so I will find out what it's all about later - but it sounds to me like similar problems to my experience.

Originally Posted by paul11974

ALSO NTLS RESPONSE TO WATCHDOG

<snip>

"However, to put the cases into perspective: today, NTL has 3.3 million residential customers using over 6 million services. In the past 12 months we managed the process of moving home for over 350,000 customers and received 24 million calls about a wide variety of matters. Yet, the number of complaints reduced to 0.31 per cent and customer recommendation has improved by two per cent over the past four months. While any complaint is one too many, we have seen real progress through 2005 with the number of complaints received directly by NTL falling by over ten per cent.

I'd like detailed information as to where the statistics come from. What is a complaint? How is it recorded? I gave my new address three times to three people and that wasn't recorded, let alone my disatisfaction with the fact. Indeed even when my complain was taken to the "Executive Office" there was no trace of my complaint on my notes or the person I spoke to. So I dispute ntl's offer of those figures as pure misinformation, until proven otherwise.

* New call centre technology has been introduced which helps us to keep customer waiting times to a minimum.

Granted, call times are lower now than ever. As is the chance of speaking to someone that knows what they are talking about. What has increased is the rudeness of the staff - if that was possible.

* We have overhauled our processes and introduced a dedicated team to ensure that customers moving house and transferring their services find the experience as smooth as possible.

Ho ho ho! This is the wonderful Moves and Transfers department. The only department that "doesn't talk to customers" but has a call queue of customers waiting to talk to them. It is also the worst department in ntl that I have dealt with. I gave my new address to one guy in this department on 31st October who assured me that he had all the info and he'd personally take care of it. Two weeks later I got to speak to him again, and he flatly denied speaking to me. No record of my call, no notes. This is also the department that has one "manager" who takes it upon herself to be verbally abusive rather than admitting their mistakes and sorting it out. The actual manager of the department talks the talk, very good with customers, says all the right things and then does absolutely naff all afterwards. So don't get me started on this "dedicated team". I find the offer from ntl of this bullet point personally offensive.

* In response to customer feedback, new call centre opening hours have been introduced. We operate three UK call centres, employing 3,000 people in customer services. We have recruited significantly for the call centres and continue to do so.

Yes, I'm sure customers fed back that we wanted to be able to contact them in shorter opening hours, and not at all on Sundays.

* In December, of customers surveyed post-call, 82 per cent said they were satisfied with the service they received on the call.

Is this like one of those shampoo adverts. We surveyed 12 people and 86% said their hair looked better? No-one asked me. Even so, 18% of customers are by nature disatisfied - that's nearly 600,000 customers. Oops.

I'm looking forward to watching the programme now!