Open cabinet problems.

Andy Day · 14-09-2006, 14:59

I guess everyone has seen the grey cabinets on street corners etc which contain I guess the NTL distribution hubs. We have a problem in our area - Hemel Hempstead HP1 - with kids ripping the doors off and interfering with cabling inside.

I've reported this to NTL whose solution was to send an engineer to stick the door closed with installation tape. Highly satisfactory!

Needless to say this did not last long and once again the cables in our local box were damaged and I was without television and broadband for five days. The engineer who restored the cabling and my TV and broadband did nothing about the cabinet but left the door lying on the pavement and the wiring exposed!

Is there anyway of persuading NTL to take maintenance of their street furniture more seriously? Or perhaps some way of reported directly to their engineering division, which, it has been explained to me are not "customer facing".

IanUK · 14-09-2006, 15:40

Perhaps if you aren't getting anywhere, the best approach is to tell NTL that you'll stop relying on their woeful ability to provide you with a service and get a Sky dish instead...

Zee · 14-09-2006, 15:56

I see these green/grey things open all the time, if i see them open i do try and close them but there isn't much i can do, they really need to get their act together.

Nedkelly · 14-09-2006, 17:44

When we attend a open base unit and its needs a new parts the team that deals with it are not very fast .it took them 4 weeks to replace a door on a cabinet

We were in the base unit nearley every day because they were pulling out customer drop cables.it was beeter for us when we had a local engineer who would repair them same day now some contractor comes and does it

Andy Day · 15-09-2006, 08:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nedkelly

When we attend a open base unit and its needs a new parts the team that deals with it are not very fast .it took them 4 weeks to replace a door on a cabinet

We were in the base unit nearley every day because they were pulling out customer drop cables.it was beeter for us when we had a local engineer who would repair them same day now some contractor comes and does it

Hi Ned. The problem I have is firstly, the cabinets are obviously too flimsy. It would seem common sense for NTL to beef them up and spend less sending engineers out all the time. (Or perhaps that is just to much like common sense). Even I, with the limited engineering facilities I have in my garden workshop, could make an angle iron steel clamp with a stout padlock to go round the whole case and hold it shut.

Secondly how the hell does an engineer think two loops of insulating tape will do anything?
I went around to our local cabinet and wound half a roll of gaffer tape round it to hold the door on yesterday. Why couldn't the engineer do that?

The trouble is, NTL has us over a barrel with the telephone connection as it is so costly going back to BT and Sky, but I'm getting close to taking that hit and telling NTL to stick it!

Nedkelly · 15-09-2006, 15:19

I totaly agree some of the cabs are not very strong .But we as service techs do not carry spares to mend the cabs we only allowed to carry new locks

In some aeras we haved beefed up the cab but they still manage to break in.

The last resort is to put the cab under ground this seems to solve the problem .But it shoulnt come to this .Having your connection ripped out all the time in very anoying but it takes ntl a long time to do anything about it.They just keepsending out techs to put the customer back on.

iain_herts · 15-09-2006, 15:32

we are going back to BT in october and we have a engirneer comeing out to replace our cable from the front of the house to the main phone point free of charge (cos the ntl guy decided to cut our BT box out)

nho1993 · 09-10-2006, 15:08

my street cabinet is right next to our house as we live in number 1 and its always taped up but in like every 2 weeks breaks loose and opens again all the time, its annoying to see that

co103 · 13-10-2006, 21:37

Most of the time its cos contractors dont put the doors back on in their haste to finish... Its a Bl00@y nusiance. I reckon a good 25% of faults occur through this, not to mention the truck roll for a Network Enginer to sort it out ! Bahh Humbug - thats my winge for today !! cya all!

erasmus1964 · 10-11-2006, 17:28

This is rather an act of despiration. I have asked NTL to replace the lid on one of their street cabinets in the Crystal Palace area, have contacted their customer service at least 10 times, and on each occasion been assured that someone would come out to replace the cover. In the meantime the local vandals have started to rip out the cables, and sooner or later, considerable damage will be done to the phone and cable connections therein. The problem started on the 20th of October, the box number is 15505203 and I was just wondering if anyone here knew why it is taking them so long to send out someone with a new lid and secure it.

The longer it is left like this, the more likely that very serious damage will be done to it, and NTL will have extremely annoyed customers all along that street.

kibblerok · 10-11-2006, 17:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Day

Hi Ned. The problem I have is firstly, the cabinets are obviously too flimsy. It would seem common sense for NTL to beef them up and spend less sending engineers out all the time. (Or perhaps that is just to much like common sense).

Don't be silly, that won't look good on the spreadsheet.

Quote:

Secondly how the hell does an engineer think two loops of insulating tape will do anything?
I went around to our local cabinet and wound half a roll of gaffer tape round it to hold the door on yesterday. Why couldn't the engineer do that?

Same as above, overworked techs, simple solution... move to the next job. The tech has solved the problem, could fix it properly but he doesnt have the tools and will have a supervisor on his case for spending too long on it and missing other jobs.

ntl think its all rosy - ie.. we had 100 call outs and done them all. what they don't take into consideration is that they'll be back out to the same things again and won't see the customer dissatisfaction, poor network performance, reduced life of equipment and churn as a result.

georgepomone · 10-11-2006, 18:35

Hi All,
tell Steve Burch. He is the one who say's we are going to have "Fun".
Perhaps he will do something about it.
George.

neoapple · 13-11-2006, 17:20

not as bad as someone who set fire to the inside of the box in my local area............ no tv, phone or bb for ages.