Compensation for loss of service?

"Sorry your phoneline's dead - why not use your mobile instead?"

So?If you have an alternative you are not high and dry.Even if you don't own a mobile I bet you know someone who does.

"Digital telly not too great? Go off to sky then!"

Well it's a choice?More than anyone had 25 years ago.

Incog.

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

[MOD MODE ON]
[SCOUSER MODE ON]

CALM DOWN!!! CALM DOWN!!!

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Sorry Nem xx

[seaneeboy]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

So?If you have an alternative you are not high and dry.Even if you don't own a mobile I bet you know someone who does.



Well it's a choice?More than anyone had 25 years ago.

Incog.

Yep - I do apologise for egtting a bit flippant, obviously this is more important to some than others.

The point I was trying to make, albeit in my own hamfisted way, was that you shouldn't HAVE to have a backup of an essential service like a phoneline.

[seaneeboy]

OB, I respect the way you help people on this site in your capacity as an NTL Employee, however find your way of putting across points somewhat abrupt. I apologise if you (or anyone else on the site) feel I was being rude or abusive towards you, but I hope you can understand that you do sometimes rub people up the wrong way and can bring out a defensive postition.

It's a shame it's got to this point, I hope these feelings don't run so high again.

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by seaneeboy

Yep - I do apologise for egtting a bit flippant, obviously this is more important to some than others.

The point I was trying to make, albeit in my own hamfisted way, was that you shouldn't HAVE to have a backup of an essential service like a phoneline.

Agreed, but the offer ny BT to sidetrack your calls is NEW. Even with a broken down car not all garages offer a temp replacement, and what about Gas supply, Electricity, Washing machines, etc etc ...

What BT does os great, but is by no means the NORM ...

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by seaneeboy

OB, I respect the way you help people on this site in your capacity as an NTL Employee, however find your way of putting across points somewhat abrupt. I apologise if you (or anyone else on the site) feel I was being rude or abusive towards you, but I hope you can understand that you do sometimes rub people up the wrong way and can bring out a defensive postition.

It's a shame it's got to this point, I hope these feelings don't run so high again.

Hey, it's all virtual ...

OB is very opinionated, I for one enjoy the frankness she brings to the site, and to me is a typical woman ....

I don't think any harm has been done .... now please play nicely

Originally Posted by seaneeboy

Yep - I do apologise for egtting a bit flippant, obviously this is more important to some than others.

The point I was trying to make, albeit in my own hamfisted way, was that you shouldn't HAVE to have a backup of an essential service like a phoneline.

So we will rip out all the phone boxes then?

We have always had to have some form of back up.I remember the days of BT(and BT only as there was no choice) when your phone didn't work you had to go to the nearest public phone box.No talk of compensation then or even of restitution.

Incog.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by orangebird

I wasn't asking the 'VICTIM'... LMAO - You think he'd lost a limb in some terrible medical blunder...

Agreed (and sorry for your loss BTW). A few years ago, one of my family had back pain, that was caused by a tumour (not malignant) that was repeatedly misdiagnosed by our GP. Put basically, he mis-read an x-ray, refused to refer this person for an MRI scan and diagnosed the tumour as (alternatly) bad/too good posture. One day, this person saw another doctor who immediately referred them to the local hospital, who did an MRI scan and found the tumour, then referred this person to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Now, this person survived (only just - when they got the op they needed, they were around 1 month from death), but will be affected for the rest of their lives. Anyway, I digress. We did start to fight for compensation. Not, as you have said, for the sake of the money (although it would be nice), but to get someone (preferably our now ex gp) to take responsibility for the mistake.

I can honestly say, I never imagined the NHS could clam up so tight. We have never got any compensation (although I do have it on good authority that our ex-gp had the costs of the treatment at RNOH - many thousands of pounds - cut from his budget), nor did we get an apology.

So, I do agree that loss of a phone line (unless you are disabled and housebound) is not that much of a problem.

As to your question about how much compensation: I think BT's offer is quite fair. Although I will stress that DTV and broadband are not what I would call essential services, so the compensation should be just the line rental for the phone.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

So we will rip out all the phone boxes then?

Actually, BT are doing a fairly good job of that round my area already. Well, taking out the phones (they actually leave a note where the phone was to the effect they have done this) then leaving the boxes to get vandalised..

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Anyway to suggest these days that a landline is the ONLY form of telecommunication is a misnomer.We are in the age of the mobile and most households even those of the elderly have access to another source of communication.

I think that compensation should have been restitution of the loss of service for each day and the same amount again for the inconvenience.A months free service should come later if the problem isn't resolved.After this then the customer should be asking themselves if they want to stay anyway.

Incog.

What you have to remember is that the telephone is not just for idle chit chat and is a two way service. We have three mobiles in the house but could still experience problems and suffer financial loss if our NTL line was down. Consider the following incidents that have happened to us in recent months.

Our 4 year old grandson was injured in an accident at school. The school tried to call my daughter on her landline but she was out so they tried her mobile. They got no response because she was driving on the motorway so they called our landline which they had the number for. Fortunately we were in and answered, but if the line had been out of action?

We had a problem with our cooker and was told that an engineer would be with us on the Monday and he would call during the morning to tell us when he would be arriving. He did call and near to the time that he was due he phoned again to say that he couldn't find our street. It is a fairly new cul-de-sac off a side road and does not appear on street plans yet nor is likely to be known by anyone other than residents on the street. As our landline was working all went well and we were able to slip out for a couple of hours before he was due to arrive. If our line had been out of action though we would have had a problem.

There could be many reasons that people who do not have your mobile number want to call you on your landline and missing that call through a non functioning telephone line could cost you a lot of wasted time and money.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

Agreed, but the offer ny BT to sidetrack your calls is NEW. Even with a broken down car not all garages offer a temp replacement, and what about Gas supply, Electricity, Washing machines, etc etc ...

What BT does os great, but is by no means the NORM ...

The thing is, it is not easy for a garage to offer you a temp car, they have to buy the cars which can cost a lot of money. With Gas and Electricity, it is also difficult (unless the Supplier lends you a generator for the electriciity, or camping gas appliances and a bottle for the gas). Call diversion is just a setting on the exchange, and should be relatively easy (and maybe cheap as well) for NTL to implement.

They are competing with BT after all, and one of the areas BT is competing on is Customer Service.

Edit: One other point. As pointed out by ianathuth above, a phone line can be considered an essential service (and indeed is by ofcom). Most people can (for a short period at least) do without Electricity or Gas. The only exception being for heating in Winter.

[SMHarman]

We are also forgetting that some services cannot be diverted from your landline, bit difficult to dialup (whats that) from a mobile, send a fax from one, and more importantly have your burgler alarm monitoring diverted via one. So the line being out can cause some people insurance worries (or internet withdrawal symptons) too.

Originally Posted by seaneeboy

Nemmy's just hit upon the crux for me - the level of Customer support we get from NTL should be uniform and fair, not a lottery of how generous the operator is feeling.

very well said, I need say no more.

[Neil]

I think that people are forgetting that it was not what actually went wrong in the thread starter's situation, but how it was handled by ntl....

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Neil

I think that people are forgetting that it was not what actually went wrong in the thread starter's situation, but how it was handled by ntl....

Actually, I thought that was the point we were trying to make?