broadband support are bad

JavaFox · 05-02-2006, 00:10

I have contacted broadband a few times via the phone and local rates to be kept on hold for lengthy periods, to be then passed back to the freephone number (which i am still paying local rates for) to be passed back to broadband support. None of them know what the other one is doing and quite frankly i doubt any of them actually know anything about networking or TCP/IP protocols etc etc, yet rather read from a script. I know the score i used to provide tech support for a gaming portal covering games, firewalls etc and their obligatory reaction was its your firewall, we were versed to say that even though you knew otherwise you couldnt say, NTL are the same except their obligatory answer is it's your pc.
NTL could do a lot better by offering online 'workshops' for users to go to instead of plugging their products. has anyone been on the NTL homepage and tried get support you just get on the NTL merry-go-round and go round and around in circles its nauseating to say the least.
NTL should employ me hehehehe I come equippied with skills, I can preach sermons from prewritten scripts, and give obligatory answers and even smile sweetly and say have a great day afterall i have 2 years experience at IGN/Gamespy for that so could even get you a reference if needs be.

Hom3r · 05-02-2006, 00:15

In general a large number of faults are cured by a reboot of PC & hardware, or updating drivers.

nffc · 05-02-2006, 00:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by david.ewles

In general a large number of faults are cured by a reboot of PC & hardware, or updating drivers.

Yes, in the same way most "faults" with PCs are caused by dodgy software, software conflicts or undetected malware.

To the OP - I would have thought having a grounding in support you'd know not to overlook the obvious.

JavaFox · 05-02-2006, 00:44

ty for your concern guys but i am not an idiot unfortunately - i just help them out when they are busy, but suffice to say not all problems are cured with the magic reboot your modem sequence as i can leave mine off all night long with no coax in it and no ethernet in it then set it all up after its had plenty of time to reset for the same problem to be there.
i had a wonderful guy from NTL call me on friday and he tested my modem and 9000 times in 3 days it has gone offline and he totally concurs its is NOT my pc so excuse me if i ignore your sterotypical well versed 'its your pc' 'rebooting your modem' cures all replies as it doesnt always.

nffc · 05-02-2006, 00:55

Yes, and if the engineer's diagnosed the modem (which could have been done over the phone) then the visit should be logged (as well as your calls) on ntl's system and so they'd be able to send a new one.

And? They have to negate the obvious, then they can check the hardware. TS people are not psychic, issues need to be diagnosed. If a new modem didn't solve your problem because your PC's shagged then you'd be equally ****ed off.

JavaFox · 05-02-2006, 01:00

nahhh nffc you aint ******** as you say there are other ISP's you know, NTL are not the be all and end all and sure dont hold the monopoly, but why should you have to take months on phonecalls to them for them to not know what is what not even test your modem on the phone which you rightly pointed out they can do and like the guy on the phone on friday said why has no one noticed the amount of times this modem goes offline, so good question - why has no one else noticed that fact? because they lied and did not 'test' the modem at all is all i can think of.
You should hear some of the great responces i have had though like its spyware, its my firewall, its my USB even though i am on ethernet and best one yet - they are routing me to the wrong place.

nffc · 05-02-2006, 01:05

I don't work for ntl so I don't see what your point is?

JavaFox · 05-02-2006, 01:13

the point is the support they offer should be tip top and pristine not following suit of places like IGN/Gamespy that fob you off with any old junk.
companies can thrive and flourish by listening to the people that matter - the paying customers instead of ignoring them. NTL support is very very lacking too much time has been invested into plugging their products on their webpage that webmaster needs to add a few real tech support pages and concentrate less on the great deals NTL has.
I could sit here all day about where the support is needed / would be appreciated but would NTL take notice? probably not which is a shame for you, me, every other paying user and NTL themselves.

05-02-2006, 08:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by JavaFox

the point is the support they offer should be tip top and pristine not following suit of places like IGN/Gamespy that fob you off with any old junk.

If you felt that badly about the way IGN/Gamespy were treating their customers did you try to change the way you looked at the faults or did you just follow the company line? and if you just followed the company line "it's your firewall" why can't NTL support techs follow the line "it's your PC"?

What I suppose i'm trying to say is if you were not open enough to look at it from a different angle why should NTL techs be any different?

05-02-2006, 10:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by JavaFox

i had a wonderful guy from NTL call me on Friday and he tested my modem and 9000 times in 3 days it has gone offline

I take it you never exaggerate anything.

JavaFox · 05-02-2006, 14:20

9000 times offline in 3 days is NOT an exaggeration that is the actual figure i was quoted by NTL themselves.

05-02-2006, 19:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by JavaFox

9000 times offline in 3 days is NOT an exaggeration that is the actual figure i was quoted by NTL themselves.

well someone is exaggerating

JavaFox · 05-02-2006, 22:48

bill c i dont care what you think at all

afterall you dont have my modem nor are you the person i spoke to at NTL that said about the 9000 drops in 3 days. so to be fair its unfair for you to judge.
but if it helps it has been far worse since i went 10mb i mean afterall the poor ambit 120 cant even cope with this modem despite 2 firmware updates which in some cases have NOT cured any issues but infact made them worse so possibly i am one of the unlucky ones who knows.
anyways all going well i should be getting a new modem tomorrow as well as new coax and hopefully this connection will cook on gas like its supposed to and quit dropping.

---------- Post added at 22:48 ---------- Previous post was at 22:41 ----------

newsflash check my pings :P

1st 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
4th 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec

now anyone that wishes to tell me its my pc now is free to go ahead 0ms ummm dont take einstein to see thats not right

Cerberus · 05-02-2006, 23:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by JavaFox

newsflash check my pings :P

1st 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
4th 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec

now anyone that wishes to tell me its my pc now is free to go ahead 0ms ummm dont take einstein to see thats not right

Not hard to edit it, is it? We can all copy and paste and edit posts.

I also doubt the fact that the modem has rebooted 9000 times in 3 days. Someone has been telling pork pies there!

With regards to support, if you're pretty much clued up about these things then why didn't you just call NTL tech support and say look I have done ABC and still no improvement. I did that and they agreed there was a fault and decided to replace my modem. I may get a couple of issues here and there but nothing too major.

In all fairness a lot of the blame for bad support comes because people get through to India (Mumbai) and there is a language barrier there. Because of this barrier people automatically assume its crap support which is not always the case.

I have been with NTL for 4 years and I have never had to bother them up until the 10mb roll out. It seems that I am not the only one suffering these issues. As frustrating as it is I am just grinning it and bearing it. OK I shouldn't have to put up with it and neither should any other customer for that matter, we all want a service that reflects what we pay for. I have no doubt though that these issues will be resolved and sooner rather than later.

Furthermore I would also like to point out that all companies have in place business rules and policies which employees have to adhere to. Just because the customer doesn't always get what they want, doesn't mean it's crap support/service.

I have worked and currently work in a CS/Support environment. The amount of people that throw their toys out of the pram becuase they dont get what Joe Bloggs got the other day is unbelievable. Until these companies change their ways there is nothing we can do other than complain and then they may listen and change.

This is the wonderful merry go round that is customer service/tech support.

Stuart · 05-02-2006, 23:35

Everyone: Can we keep things calm please?

JavaFox, .

to the forum. While I sincerely doubt your modem has lost the connection 9000 times in three days (that's once every 29 seconds, and the modem takes a few seconds to re-acquire the connection), it sounds like NTL need to do something. If Customer Services don't help, can I suggest you try the Responsetek system (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/fo...play.php?f=81), as NTL DO read this and act on it.

BTW, regarding the "scripts", and the NTL support section, bear in mind that there is almost nothing that the normal users can do to their modems, apart from rebooting them, as there are no user controls, and, from what I have been told by NTL support techs, nine times out of ten, the simple solution solves the problem.