NTL Service Status

[ian@huth]

There has been a number of threads of late talking about problems with proxies and the advice often given is to ring NTL. Some say ring TS others say CS or faults. Calls to TS are chargeable and I don't think that customers should be charged to report faults with NTL services.

I believe that most problems are never notified to NTL giving them a false idea of what problems there are.

What I would like to see is a very prominent Service Status link near the top of the Ntlworld.com home page that is religiously kept up to date. On the service status page they could have a section to report faults with your service, maybe the main faults being listed and you just having to select the correct one and enter your postcode. I am sure that customers would be more willing to use this than take the trouble to telephone NTL and if the fault reporting was constantly monitored by NTL would give them a more accurate and earlier warning of problem areas.

What would your idea be for an easy way to notify NTL of problem areas?

If it's non urgent I use the cablemodemhelp e-mail address, or the midlands support address for non internet stuff - otherwise the phone seems to be best.

I found the talking to a rep on BB Medic to be quite good - but I think this is still a trial atm.

[Frank]

ianathuth - the problem is that the majority of customers are simply not technical enough to identify a fault, and so require teching beforehand in order to identify a fault with ntl's end.

I don't think an online fault reporting service would work for this simple reason. Your points about ntl improving their service status page are quite true though, and something that has been "coming soon" since I worked there.

[ian@huth]

I appreciate what you say about customers not being technical enough Frank but if they went to a service status page and there was a simple list of services that they could choose one from (TV fault, internet fault, email fault, etc) which when selected prompted them the route to follow including theappropriate telephone numbers to get the fault resolved it would be a help. If this was monitored it could give NTL pointers to where problems were occuring.

How many times have we had threads asking what telephone numbers to use for contacting various NTL departments? They are not prominently given on ntlworld.com being hidden behind several links. To find the service status page you have to click on the help button on the home page

[quadplay]

Ian, what you are suggesting is, I believe, going to be built into Broadband Medic (in a basic way), about which you can find more details here.

Remember also, the the TSB can now be contacted on the freephone number 0800 052 2000, by selecting Faults, then Broadband. The Service Status page is also available at http://www.ntlworld.com/serverstatus

[Neil]

Originally Posted by ianathuth

There has been a number of threads of late talking about problems with proxies and the advice often given is to ring NTL. Some say ring TS others say CS or faults. Calls to TS are chargeable and I don't think that customers should be charged to report faults with NTL services.

I agree 100% Ian, but I don't think there's an ISP out there that offers freephone tech support.

I believe that most problems are never notified to NTL giving them a false idea of what problems there are.

I agree 50%

I think a lot of problems don't get reported to ntl, & I also think that they appear to do little or nothing about a lot too. Scanning through the site, I see the same old issues that people are having with ntl, that they have been having for years, so I'm not really sure what they do with fault reports.

What I would like to see is a very prominent Service Status link near the top of the Ntlworld.com home page that is religiously kept up to date.

Me too.

On the service status page they could have a section to report faults with your service, maybe the main faults being listed and you just having to select the correct one and enter your postcode. I am sure that customers would be more willing to use this than take the trouble to telephone NTL and if the fault reporting was constantly monitored by NTL would give them a more accurate and earlier warning of problem areas.

Again, good points, but something that ntl know should be happening (God knows we suggested it enough times during .com meetings)

What would your idea be for an easy way to notify NTL of problem areas?

That's a double edged sword there Ian, as informing ntl is only a small part in getting the fault fixed. You need knowledgeable people on the other end of the line with the ability to pass your fault to someone who can resolve it if needs be (no shame it not being able to fix a network issue if you're a 1st Line Tech)

There lies the problem IMHO-you have some techs who are not at all technical enough to say they have exhausted their knowledge so they will need to escalate it, & you have a system that prohibits them from escalating it-why do you think ntl keep advising people to change proxies?

NB-A friend of mine lost his internet connection last night while I was talking to him, so I offered to look at the Server Status for his provider (Telewest/Blueyonder), & was most impressed with what I saw, & it makes a total mockery of ntl's SS page (again-something that has been pointed to in ntl meetings many times.....)

[iain_herts]

all you have to call is 151 and the option2 1 of the options in option 2 takes you to ts for FREE