Is a half hour wait acceptable?

[Theodoric]

My broadband connection was not available last night, so I phoned the ntl help line on 0845 6500125. I had a half hour wait before I was dealt with. So, is a half hour wait considered acceptable by ntl? I know that compared to that abomination known as customer service provided by C&W (pardon me whilst I count to ten), this is somewhat of an improvement, but is it really an acceptable level of customer service? I'd say not.

One other point. When I got through and explained the problem I was told that I should have been told at the beginning of the telephone call that there was some sort of known problem. I wasn't told any such thing. When I told them this, the reply boiled down to, "Oh, weren't you?" followed by a rapid change of subject.

[grum1978]

No half an hour is not classed as acceptable in anyone's book, howver last night I would imagine that this..

DNS - affecting all internet packages (RESOLVED)
25 November 2003 16:32

Due to a major server outage, ntl:home internet customers on all packages may currently be experiencing problems with ALL internet access, including web browsing, email, ftp and newsgroups.
Our engineers are currently investigating and hope to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Please note that due to the nature of this outage our technical support lines are much busier than normal, resulting in long wait times on all lines. If you suspect this issue affects you, please check this page or the ntlworld server status line on 0800 052 4315 for updates

This has now been resolved

might of affected the time you had to wait

[downquark1]

I've had well over an hour in my long history with the company

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by Theodoric

My broadband connection was not available last night, so I phoned the ntl help line on 0845 6500125. I had a half hour wait before I was dealt with. So, is a half hour wait considered acceptable by ntl? I know that compared to that abomination known as customer service provided by C&W (pardon me whilst I count to ten), this is somewhat of an improvement, but is it really an acceptable level of customer service? I'd say not.

One other point. When I got through and explained the problem I was told that I should have been told at the beginning of the telephone call that there was some sort of known problem. I wasn't told any such thing. When I told them this, the reply boiled down to, "Oh, weren't you?" followed by a rapid change of subject.

just one point when you / we had a problem did you check ntl's server status page to see if there were any problems
also why didnt you think of ringing c.s first to see if there were any known problems , it is freephone

[Ramrod]

Completely unacceptable, but all too common!

btw....I did get a message at the beginning of the call when I rang tech support.

52 Minutes I waited in one call once, then I was cut off.

[Tricky]

NTL aren't the only ones, been holding on for vodafone for past 34 minutes good job battery is charged!

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

just one point when you / we had a problem did you check ntl's server status page to see if there were any problems
also why didnt you think of ringing c.s first to see if there were any known problems , it is freephone

he may not have been able to get online to actually SEE the status page.

Incog.

[scrotnig]

Sadly when something unexpected happens that causes a major outage, the company are unlikely to have enough people available to deal with the ensuing attempts by almost EVERY customer to get through.

Many customers still try to get through even when a recorded message is on the line explaining the problem.

[Graham F]

Originally Posted by Mark B

Sadly when something unexpected happens that causes a major outage, the company are unlikely to have enough people available to deal with the ensuing attempts by almost EVERY customer to get through.

Many customers still try to get through even when a recorded message is on the line explaining the problem.

Please tell me you aren't being serious when you say

to deal with the ensuing attempts by almost EVERY customer to get through.

are you trying to tell me that almost all the one million plus internet customers tried to contact ntl last night abt this fault?!?

With one company (not ntl) we rung up at about 4pm & waited 3 hours once (the call was important so we needed to get through as my brother needed something for work) After waiting 3 hours (lucky the phone was on loud speaker) we got a message saying all the staff had now gone home & could we please ring back tomorrow (or course, we didnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t) We sent a few emails & about 6 days later we finally got an answer. Thereââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s the worst service we have ever had & u thought ntl was bad

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

he may not have been able to get online to actually SEE the status page.

Incog.

very true stooooooooooopid me , mind you i would still ring the free number first :p :p

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

just one point when you / we had a problem did you check ntl's server status page to see if there were any problems
also why didnt you think of ringing c.s first to see if there were any known problems , it is freephone

1) Er, without an Internet connection I couldn't check the status page.

2) The number I phoned was simply the one I'd noted for Tech Support when I started with ntl. However, for future use, I'd be grateful if you could give me the best number to phone if I have a problem in future; I'll store it away in my ntl info file.

[Graham F]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

very true stooooooooooopid me , mind you i would still ring the free number first :p :p

I'm sure that ntl did/do have a service status line as well but the 0800 number escapes me at the moment

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by dieselking

With one company (not ntl) we rung up at about 4pm & waited 3 hours once (the call was important so we needed to get through as my brother needed something for work) After waiting 3 hours (lucky the phone was on loud speaker) we got a message saying all the staff had now gone home & could we please ring back tomorrow (or course, we didnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t) We sent a few emails & about 6 days later we finally got an answer. Thereââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s the worst service we have ever had & u thought ntl was bad

Now that is one thing that seriously annoys me, that is when a company closes down the help line dead on the notified closing time when they know that customers have phoned up well before the closing time and are still waiting. I had Gateway do this to me on more than one occasion.