NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience

[Larnyboy]

Well phoned them today at 5.00pm took 1 hr to get through to some who inturn told us it would take a week to get some one out to look at the phone line , we explained that we have been with out the phone for over a week already and this is not ok ,we asked to speak to a supervisor,we got one after about 5 mins and explained the situation ,he took our mobile number and said he would phone us back that was 20 Mins ago still no one has phoned back
Yes nice service u got there NTL ,BIG THUMBS UP TO YA or should i say Middle finger to ya

[Russ]

I'd allow it a bit more than 20 minutes unless you were specifially told 20 minutes. This time of night can be very busy in callcentres.

Personally I'd only kick up a stink if I'd heard nothing by about 9 tonight.

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by Russ D

I'd allow it a bit more than 20 minutes unless you were specifially told 20 minutes. This time of night can be very busy in callcentres.

Personally I'd only kick up a stink if I'd heard nothing by about 9 tonight.

from experience i usually ring up during the day and have little trouble with getting thru to them

[DeadKenny]

If it was BT you'd have rights to get compensation if it's out for a day, not weeks. They'd also fix it within a day or two.


P.S. Tried to call technical support the other day...

"technical support are having technical difficulties"

Followed by them saying they probably can't help you and there may be a long wait on the phone

Was on the phone for quite a while listening to endless options and messages for dummies, only to then be cut off when I picked the option to speak to someone.

Nothing's changed in over a year

Email them with their support contact form which asks you to fill in as much detail as possible on the problem...

... and they email back saying "phone us"



If you do get through it takes a lot of effort to convince them your problems are their problems, and then you get cut off or you have to call back for some reason, and you have to explain all over again. Then if you eventually get an engineer you have to explain it all to him again, and it turns out he's not got the right equipment, so another engineer is sent who hasn't a clue about the first engineer and also doesn't have the right equipment, so another has to be sent... (this happened to me 4 times on one issue).

Make a complaint and they just get a nice pleasing sounding woman to basically say nicely that they're really sorry, even admitting they make mistakes, and basically it's a situation of "tough, we can't do anything about it" (other than a token gesture of a months refund for cable modem when it's been down for a lot longer, and what you really want is compensation for days wasted off work waiting in for engineers who never turn up at the right time, or at all).

(sorry, getting into a bit of a rant here, but it really bugs me sometimes).

[Larnyboy]

Dont apolagies i understand the ranting ,they still havent called back ,i called them again on my mobile ,waited for one and a half hours ,gave the man my details ,post code etc ,he puts me through some where else where i get the message this department is closed , nice nice nice service NTL

LOTS OF EM

[mmm]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

from experience i usually ring up during the day and have little trouble with getting thru to them

Please please tell us what number!

When I found my cable modem not working last friday I couldn't even get to the hold music until after 9 am on Saturday! It took more than 45 mins on hold before I actually got to speak to someone, and after being transferred back and forwards with waits between customer services tech support, local support hald a dozen times it was 11 am.

At least the line is now fixed, after being accepted as a network fault the eve before a planned wasted engineer visit.

[Larnyboy]

Well they asked for it ,just signed up to BT ,we payed every month on time never late for 11 months ,yes not long ,but we payed it always on time and what do NTL BELL ENDS do, treat us like POO
WELL WE ARE OUT OF HERE

for a better service






I hope !!!

[PC_Arcade]

They're by and large appalling

it takes a lot of effort to convince them your problems are their problems

and that pretty much sums up NTL corporate attitude to customers, we're a thick (Bill Goodlands infamous cap quote) lot who want nothing more than to rip NTL off at every available opportunity according to them ,as seen by the "No speed increase for leechers" comment (paraphrased) that someone (Aizan Hussein?) made a while ago, thereby ensuring that NTL remain one of the (the?) slowest speed cable internet providers at one of (the?) highest prices. The problem isn't with CS, it goes much higher than that, and until NTL start to VALUE their customers, nothing will change.

[Mikey E]

My set-top box crashed with an Err3; called CS and the engineer arrived 8 days later with the replacement. CS told us to call them back afrter the problem had been fixed and they could give us a refund. So we called them and got the refund (to be confirmed when get get the bill - but lets give ntl the benefit of the doubt) but had to wait 58 minutes before we got though. Is this a record (doubt it) or has anyone else been on-hold for longer?

Originally Posted by Mikey E

My set-top box crashed with an Err3; called CS and the engineer arrived 8 days later with the replacement. CS told us to call them back afrter the problem had been fixed and they could give us a refund. So we called them and got the refund (to be confirmed when get get the bill - but lets give ntl the benefit of the doubt) but had to wait 58 minutes before we got though. Is this a record (doubt it) or has anyone else been on-hold for longer?

You won't have to look far on here to find people who have had to wait longer than that. My worst NTL CS experience was well past the hour. To be fair to them, though, I have also been answered in under 10 minutes

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by Mikey E

My set-top box crashed with an Err3; called CS and the engineer arrived 8 days later with the replacement. CS told us to call them back afrter the problem had been fixed and they could give us a refund. So we called them and got the refund (to be confirmed when get get the bill - but lets give ntl the benefit of the doubt) but had to wait 58 minutes before we got though. Is this a record (doubt it) or has anyone else been on-hold for longer?

I frequently had the phone picked up at around 50 mins then was cut off and had to wait another 50 odd mins....

But I voted with my feet after this had happened a few times.

[DeadKenny]

Originally Posted by dilligaf1701

I frequently had the phone picked up at around 50 mins then was cut off and had to wait another 50 odd mins....

There was one time a while back where I tried for 4 days in a row continually ringing every few hours whenever I could, and each time it was practically bang on 40 minutes and then get cut off.

People have said it's changed, but it's no different today.

But I voted with my feet after this had happened a few times.

I've put up with it far too long and should do the same really .

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by DeadKenny

I've put up with it far too long and should do the same really .

Yup - unfortuately not eveyone can do that

[PC_Arcade]

NTL were on local radio (Fox FM) here (Oxford) today, in a comparison of call waiting times.

NTL averaged 50 Minutes !!!!
the next closest were British Gas with 5 minutes.

LOL, if I were NTL i'd be SERIOUSLY concerned, they're a laughing stock.

[Brian Longstaff]

Ah, but there IS a reason for the cut-offs when you're waiting for them to answer - their phone system is a limited one, so if too many people call to complain (or whatever) it can't handle them all..... And these are the people who (more often than not) are supplying your phone service....