NTL Tech support is in India

Florence · 19-12-2004, 13:29

Today at 6am the internet dropped for over 2 hours then it was back online for 4 hours to be dropped again until 12pm lasted for about 20 mins then died again. We called tech support and it was in India... useless is the best discription of our help. they just said it was the modem and would arrange an engineer. They did no tests didn't try interigating the modem!! Then they asked for a security pin number which we have never had then well you will have to call CS on Monday to get the pin number. They are hard to understand and you are forever repeating what you say. Totally out of line after all the redundancies NTL have done..

The modem is woprking again so I can only say its the network breaking up.

19-12-2004, 13:34

I had the same the other week but someone on here said they weren't in India. It's a shamble of a tech support at the moment.

quadplay · 19-12-2004, 13:36

Not all Technical Support is done in India - the Swansea centre is still going, but has been outsourced to IBM - who have also started transferring overflow calls to their centre in India. All tech support on the Langley network on Sundays is now done in India - Bromley areas are still supported in Swansea on Sundays, as India cannot get access to the ICMS system needed for STB support.

andygrif · 19-12-2004, 14:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kits

Today at 6am the internet dropped for over 2 hours then it was back online for 4 hours to be dropped again until 12pm lasted for about 20 mins then died again. We called tech support and it was in India... useless is the best discription of our help. they just said it was the modem and would arrange an engineer. They did no tests didn't try interigating the modem!! Then they asked for a security pin number which we have never had then well you will have to call CS on Monday to get the pin number. They are hard to understand and you are forever repeating what you say. Totally out of line after all the redundancies NTL have done..

The modem is woprking again so I can only say its the network breaking up.

I had the same thing last week with the usual email problems. They wouldn't help me unless I gave them a security word, which I had never set up. It turned out to be my password (clever eh, letting all and sundry loose with my password?)

I have to say that the person I spoke to was very polite and cheery, much better than I have experienced in Swansea - but less helpful - they don't appear able to do over-the-line tests from there.

BBKing · 19-12-2004, 14:57

jimbo - Kits *is* in a Bromley area, Manchester to be specific. Do you mean STB support isn't outsourced? Get an STB back, then, Kits

I've got internal questions about what India can and can't do, which I'll transfer to other channels...

quadplay · 19-12-2004, 15:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBKing

jimbo - Kits *is* in a Bromley area, Manchester to be specific. Do you mean STB support isn't outsourced? Get an STB back, then, Kits

I've got internal questions about what India can and can't do, which I'll transfer to other channels...

It is outsourced, but to IBM in Swansea, and STB calls can't be handled in India because they can't get access to ICMS. Indian agents handle Langley calls, and Bromley SACM. There are no Langley agents scheduled to work on Sundays in Swansea anymore, but there are Bromley agents, most of whom take STB and SACM calls. I know this, because I'm about to be transferred from Langley to Bromley!

Florence · 19-12-2004, 15:25

WEll I have to say I dissaprove of my details ( Data Protection) being flagged across the world to India. I shall be calling Alan Grant to complain and I am now thinking of moving back to BT to get an ISP that does not use India.

Sorry but India Call centers are no good and a waste of money I have two calls as they insisted the person whos name is on the account contact them before they could arrange an engineer. The account is flagged that I am allowed to deal with it and has been for years. Until now I have had no problems talking to tech support about the account. As for the security word he gave it and they said we didn't have the correct one. Is is the only one we have ever had. The security now to use NTL internet is nill with this call center having details and passwords.

To make people over here redundant make assurances that they wouldn't be usomg India call centers except for new business then transfer old customers to an inferior help service shows things are rock bottom and time to consider other options. I was going to move to the 3mb in Jan but if this is my tech support sorry but I I not wasting more money with this company. off line most of the day and to prove them wrong the modem is still working.. Proves it was the network the modem had continualy tried to sync with the internet but if the network is down it can't.

19-12-2004, 15:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by andygrif

I had the same thing last week with the usual email problems. They wouldn't help me unless I gave them a security word, which I had never set up. It turned out to be my password (clever eh, letting all and sundry loose with my password?)

I have to say that the person I spoke to was very polite and cheery, much better than I have experienced in Swansea - but less helpful - they don't appear able to do over-the-line tests from there.

Me neither.

Chrysalis · 19-12-2004, 16:03

Kits you feel strongly about it and so do I, when I rang up tech support last time I was speaking to someone with an indian accent but I hoped it wasn't actually india, because NTL going down this route shows they dont give a toss about customers and only their profits, people have lost their jobs which I do care about and it gives customer's a worse experience, and for tech support makes it even worse. If I am reporting a fault I would ideally like to be speaking to someone who is technically minded and knows the network, I somehow doubt this is likely when ringing up india of course like you said it's also bad security wise since it means account details are been transmitted over long distances.

19-12-2004, 16:10

Not looked at the NTL T&Cs, but AFAIK, under the Data Protection Act, you have to explicitly agree to your details being made available outside the EU. If there is no clause anywhere to this effect, aren't IBM in breach of the legislation?

Florence · 19-12-2004, 16:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnHorb

Not looked at the NTL T&Cs, but AFAIK, under the Data Protection Act, you have to explicitly agree to your details being made available outside the EU. If there is no clause anywhere to this effect, aren't IBM in breach of the legislation?

I have the original T&C printed when I first joined all those years ago. I will pull them out again but no doubt they will hastily change them either way the help was nill the are incapeable of helping like our Tech support doesover here. I shall be updating my review on NTL with ISPreview to reflect this state of affairs it vertually leaves you with no tech support on sundays now so a waste of money. Why pay them to work sunday when they can't do anything for us..

Chrysalis · 19-12-2004, 19:55

when I rang it wasn't a sunday, and I got someone in india. I tried sunday 2 weeks ago and got message saying offices not open sundays.

Florence · 19-12-2004, 20:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

when I rang it wasn't a sunday, and I got someone in india. I tried sunday 2 weeks ago and got message saying offices not open sundays.

That will make thing even worse so if I phone tomorow to get to the bottom of this I could end up back in INDIA!

Flubflow · 19-12-2004, 20:42

Someone I knew who had recently had BB installed and had to ring up (for the umpteenth time) to try and get the damn pin number to register the service. They got someone who was presumably based in a foreign land because nobody in their right mind would have employed them in this country for a phone suppot job due to the fact that you could not understand a single word they were saying. My friend apologised to the person for stopping them in their tracks to tell the them, in the nicest way possible, that he basically needs to speak to someone who can speak english properly at which point they gave him an alternative phone number which turned out to be unobtainable.
Go figure.

Stuartbe · 19-12-2004, 20:58

These call centres are the worst crack pot idea that has been drempt up yet !

As anyone who has worked in tech support will tell you - its hard enough trying to walk a ciustomer over changing tcp/ip settings ect but trying to do it with a language barier in the way is close to imposible.... Thats of corse if you have someone on the end of the phone who does not think that PCI stands for perticulaly clever interface !!!

As most of you know I lost a good job due to the centre being moved to india.... Bad Stupid idea IMHO It makes by blood boil... !!!!

Sadly a lot of companies will keep moving the call centres over to countries like India as it all comes down to one simple fact --- MONEY --- With cash saved by getting rid of decent tech bods in this country ( yes there are some decent ones ) the MD's can have two extra rounds of golf on Monday !!!

When are the busineses in the counrty going to pull there thumbs out of there backsides, stop thinking that we should be greatfull to them for the service and realise that ---- WE PAY THERE WAGES ----

Rant Over