£10 charge for missed callout

[Nor]

Had NTL for a long, long time. Have probably had 40+ visits by engineers in that time. There has never been an ocassion when an NTL enginner has called and not got me in.

I had an engineer booked to come out the other day. Was informed that there was a new £10 charge should they call and I not be there (first time I've heard them say that). To my surprise, I wandered down the stairs (on the day of the scheduled visit) to find a card on the floor telling me he'd called and I'd be charged £10 for not being in.

Is it just coincidence? Did they knock the door with a feather? Spoke to CS and won't be charged, but something seems a bit fishy to me I have to say. Previously I've always received a phone call or text from the CS checking that I'm in before the visit. Didn't receive anything that time.

[Jules]

What time did you wander though?

[Nor]

I found the note about an hour after he'd been. I was just up the stairs working, but I hear the door being chapped of bell ringing from the computer room.

[Mal]

I got told that about the £10 charge last week, when I had to ring for a fault, as well.

I also didn't get the phone call to confirm the appointment as well. It made me think that the engineer hadn't been booked properly.

[DVD Cinem]

I was also told they'd be a £10 charge if I wasn't in, but, I got a text message confirming the call out after I'd just put the phone down from cs. I also got another text message on the morning of the call out and a phone call 15 minutes before he came.

[N00N00]

Seems a reasonable charge - just need to make sure I claim 10 quid from them each time they fail to attend. These things should work both ways afterall.

[starsailor123uk]

As someone who has recently had a 2nd v+ box installed I was told about the £10 and had a letter, a phone call and a text message all the day before confirming everything was still ok for the next day which I thought was overkill but at least I was informed which was more than I was previously with NTL and Sky at a previous address in the late 90s

Also early this year I had problems with my original v+ box which meant three visits in one day and 2 replacements v+ boxes that day I had a go at custmoer services about the fault and they gave me £10 credit as the 1st and 2nd vist had not solved the problem and should have and the 3rd was in the afternoon past the agreed time ( my wife was working at home anyway so no cost)

Good service. I have always had good customer services with VM and TW (appalling with NTL / Sky Who did not give a ****) the only gripe is the long queues sometimes and the poor invoicing systems which are either ralated to the last 3 weeks or in the later a legacy or the merger(s) over time

[WHISTLED]

I can confirm its a new company wide brief - The company wants to make some extra cash so they are deliberately carding customers without knocking first. Dont tell anyone though *shakes head amazed at the people on here*

[Rapid Dr3am]

Costs £75 to send a tech, I think we should charge the full £75.

Would you tell a friend to come over and go out before they arrive? You know the timeslot, you agreed the charge.

[Jules]

Depends which friend it was lol nah just kidding

I agree that they should make a charge but it should work both ways and as has been said we should be able to get £10 when the engineers/techs/installers don't turn up

[Nedkelly]

I agree with this charge but sometimes the techs do not knock hard enough on the door .But you will be amazed at the amount of people who arrange a tech visit and go out and expect us to come back wasting our time .So 2 calls to house where the other call could of been given to another customer.BT ,British Gas all charge a lot more if you are not home .Most techs call before we arrive soyouknow we are on the way

[GordonD]

Originally Posted by Jules

Depends which friend it was lol nah just kidding

I agree that they should make a charge but it should work both ways and as has been said we should be able to get £10 when the engineers/techs/installers don't turn up

It does work both ways, VM decided to cancel an appointment without informing me, so I phoned them and pointed out that if I hadn't been in they would have charged £10 for that, they agreed and credited £10 for their cancellation.

[mentalis]

It sounds like I got lucky with my V+ install; the engineer was scheduled for the afternoon but I took the whole day of work. At 11:00 in the morning I got a phone call to say he was just around the corner, and that he would be here in a few minutes.

By the time I got downstairs he was knoocking on the door - and using his hands not a feather .

I am in an ex-NTL area if that matters.

[rogerdraig]

i have no problem with a charge IF they can give a 2 hour slot for arriving especially for faults

whether you have to take day off or not many of us have things like kids to pick up that mean we cant stay glued to front door on all of any day.

and if they miss it they should pay too.

[starsailor123uk]

Originally Posted by rogermevans

i have no problem with a charge IF they can give a 2 hour slot for arriving especially for faults

whether you have to take day off or not many of us have things like kids to pick up that mean we cant stay glued to front door on all of any day.

and if they miss it they should pay too.

Have to agree in an ideal world but they (in TW Birmingham) give you a 8-1 or 1-6 slot during the week or all day saturday or sunday (this is due to the amount of requests( including installations ) for those days.

in terms of others I have had to wait in all day, in the past, for

Sky, BT , Argos (despite giving a slot), Severn trent and SSE (to replace meters which is outside my property and in the case of ST did not even tell me they had arrived, done it and gone home!!!!)

The only issue I had with VM was the episode mentioned above where they said its was 430 whn I rang to complain about it stil not working and they(faults) said they could not do anything until the next day as it was too late. A call to CS and a statement that either they fix it that day or collect the box at the end of the month and two vans arrived in 10 mins!!!