NTL Tech support is in India

[Crivens]

Give it another couple of years, and unless something drastic happens, then all IT support will be done from another country. Probably India because of the amazingly low wages. I can tell you the service desk where I work is sh*tting bricks right now.

Personally I have no problem with it as long as the people can do their job. Some support desks are a shambles in this country, let alone in India. NTL in <hidden> for example is a complete pile of sh*te. Half an hour waits until someone answers, playing department tennis (sorry wrong dept, let me put you through) back and fore between the *same* departments for 10 minutes is also fun. And sheer level of stupidity can take the biscuit at times.

But what I do have a problem is the fact that jobs get outsourced to another country. Not got a problem with people from another country living here and doing the job (pay their taxes etc), but when it goes out to another country we are losing jobs and getting nothing back (I don't see NTL lowering their prices for example). If I went to another country and brought back, say, a TV for £1000, then declared it. I would pay a sizeable amount of tax to bring the TV here. Basically the same amount or more in total of what the TV would have cost in this country. Basically they don't want you taking away what they would have made in the UK. Ok, so how come this isn't the case here? They provide a service, surely the company should pay in the tax the difference in wages. Same idea. If it isn't about profit then shouldn't be a problem. Hell, the government probably won't go for that one because of the amazing amount of backhander bribes they get I bet.

And from there it just goes on in IT. A couple of years ago one IT project in our company was outsourced to contracters (spit), half of which came from India. They were paid peanuts by their agent company, but our company paid nowhere near the amount of UK contracters (spit again). Still, no-one really lost, apart from us hard working programmers on the normal system, who at the same time were told we had to do 2 hours overtime per day for nothing. Didn't effect contracters (rain of spit) of course, who needed the extra time to count their money.

So give it 5 years at this rate, and probably most of the programming side of IT goes out the window too.

Grrr. Angry...

Cheers

[Rone]

IF they can do the job is the right question. I was on the phone to BTs billing for my phone, and basically he couldnt give me the time of day at the other end, never mind deal with a minor problem, if you know what i mean. Yet i've spoken to other Indian call centres and been impressed, luck of the draw it seems, and yes , its going to be the way forward, or backward depending on the outcome of your call.

[Chrysalis]

I have never ever got india ringing BT.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I have never ever got india ringing BT.

And I have never, ever got India when calling Ntl (as a customer)

Originally Posted by absl

What turned out to be the solution to your problem, in the end ?

Something to do with Local area connections tab I had 2 that were active and only 1 was supposed to be active India were telling me I needed to format my machine in order for it to work again Anyway thanks to Compaq I'm sorted now. Got a flyer throught the door this morning from BT, all UK calls anytime of the day +1.5meg BB all for £31.99. Looking good to me.

[scrotnig]

People who say it doesn't matter who does the job as long as it's done right probably, or that it's a good idea to put jobs in India because it helps their economy, almost certainly haven't had to go through the experience told they are unemployed because someone in India is going to do their job and they'll have to have their house repossesed and live in the gutter.

When it happens to you, you'll feel differently, I guarantee it.

If companies based in the UK and doing business mainly in the UK want to operate here, they should be prepared to employ UK staff. If they aren't, they should be taxed at a level equivalent to the difference in wages, and that money used to promote job creation here in the UK.

This is the UK. We should be interested in preserving jobs in the UK. Only when every single person in this country has a job should we be even remotely concerned about the job prospects and living standards of people in India or any other foreign country.

Those who think this is racist....I'll do you a deal. When it happens to you and you have no job, agree now that you won't claim UK unemployment benefit and will instead clear off to India and ask them to pay it for you.

[Florence]

Originally Posted by Mark B

People who say it doesn't matter who does the job as long as it's done right probably, or that it's a good idea to put jobs in India because it helps their economy, almost certainly haven't had to go through the experience told they are unemployed because someone in India is going to do their job and they'll have to have their house repossesed and live in the gutter.

When it happens to you, you'll feel differently, I guarantee it.

If companies based in the UK and doing business mainly in the UK want to operate here, they should be prepared to employ UK staff. If they aren't, they should be taxed at a level equivalent to the difference in wages, and that money used to promote job creation here in the UK.

This is the UK. We should be interested in preserving jobs in the UK. Only when every single person in this country has a job should we be even remotely concerned about the job prospects and living standards of people in India or any other foreign country.

Those who think this is racist....I'll do you a deal. When it happens to you and you have no job, agree now that you won't claim UK unemployment benefit and will instead clear off to India and ask them to pay it for you.

well said

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Mark B

People who say it doesn't matter who does the job as long as it's done right probably, or that it's a good idea to put jobs in India because it helps their economy, almost certainly haven't had to go through the experience told they are unemployed because someone in India is going to do their job and they'll have to have their house repossesed and live in the gutter.

When it happens to you, you'll feel differently, I guarantee it.

If companies based in the UK and doing business mainly in the UK want to operate here, they should be prepared to employ UK staff. If they aren't, they should be taxed at a level equivalent to the difference in wages, and that money used to promote job creation here in the UK.

This is the UK. We should be interested in preserving jobs in the UK. Only when every single person in this country has a job should we be even remotely concerned about the job prospects and living standards of people in India or any other foreign country.

Those who think this is racist....I'll do you a deal. When it happens to you and you have no job, agree now that you won't claim UK unemployment benefit and will instead clear off to India and ask them to pay it for you.

Fully agree.

[DJ Dave]

Just called NTL and was asked for my Pin Number and i was like no have not got one, he was like oh er ok and this was picked up in India (i think) anyway to cut a long story short he could do no modem tests as he kept chaning the story when i said it may be a problem with the modem and he said like they said last time " No, It's your firewall".

[AdamD]

I have to agree, I don't like Indian call centres either
I have nothing against the indian people, but I honestly can't understand what they say half the time and it just leaves me frustrated.
__________________

Originally Posted by DJ Dave

when i said it may be a problem with the modem and he said like they said last time " No, It's your firewall".

My mother and I had that problem consistently when trying to fix our modem crashing out (Modem inside the STB), so we gave up in the end

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by AdamD

I have to agree, I don't like Indian call centres either
I have nothing against the indian people, but I honestly can't understand what they say half the time and it just leaves me frustrated.
__________________



My mother and I had that problem consistently when trying to fix our modem crashing out (Modem inside the STB), so we gave up in the end

If you called 0845 650 0125 (the STB support number) and chose anything apart from the email option, then you were not speaking to someone in India- these calls are all dealt with in Swansea

[AdamD]

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

If you called 0845 650 0125 (the STB support number) and chose anything apart from the email option, then you were not speaking to someone in India- these calls are all dealt with in Swansea

Nah I know, but i've dealt with indian call centres from other companies, namely EA Games
We did have problems getting the technicians to help us at NTL, we called twice and both times were fobbed off with excuses and stuff which wasn't true
I.E our firewall was causing our internet to freeze.

[Russ]

Just had to call ntl tech support for my parents because their browsing drops a few minutes after booting up, whilst msn and email remain fine.

Got through to some guy in India.

He asked me to reboot the pc and modem. Told him I'd already tried that, he replied he could not help me until I did it again (why??) so I did.

Still the same.

He told me it was my firewall.

I told him there was no firewall on the computer (they'd been using a router and at the moment I'd taken it out of line). He asked me if I was sure.

Russ resisted the urge to headbutt the desk.

He then told me to disable the XP SP2 firewall.

Russ really resisted the urge to headbutt the desk, instead I chose to inform him again there was no firewall on the machine.

He put me on hold.

He came back and told me he could not ping me so I will need to either lower or uninstall my firewall.

Russ actually headbutted the desk at this point.

He put me on hold again, this time without telling me. He put me on hold for so long I had time to download the freebie Zone Alarm, configure it, reboot and watch it work.

And lo and behold, connection is now fine. I'm not interested in what the problem was as it now seems to be fixed. I then hung up.

But the idiot in India would NOT listen to me and was obssessed with the idea that I MUST have had a firewall, even though I told him there was none 3 times. It's callcentre idiots like that who just won't listen which give them a bad name.

</rant over>

[badnbusy]

Originally Posted by Russ D

Just had to call ntl tech support for my parents because their browsing drops a few minutes after booting up, whilst msn and email remain fine.

Got through to some guy in India.

He asked me to reboot the pc and modem. Told him I'd already tried that, he replied he could not help me until I did it again (why??) so I did.

Still the same.

He told me it was my firewall.

I told him there was no firewall on the computer (they'd been using a router and at the moment I'd taken it out of line). He asked me if I was sure.

Russ resisted the urge to headbutt the desk.

He then told me to disable the XP SP2 firewall.

Russ really resisted the urge to headbutt the desk, instead I chose to inform him again there was no firewall on the machine.

He put me on hold.

He came back and told me he could not ping me so I will need to either lower or uninstall my firewall.

Russ actually headbutted the desk at this point.

He put me on hold again, this time without telling me. He put me on hold for so long I had time to download the freebie Zone Alarm, configure it, reboot and watch it work.

And lo and behold, connection is now fine. I'm not interested in what the problem was as it now seems to be fixed. I then hung up.

But the idiot in India would NOT listen to me and was obssessed with the idea that I MUST have had a firewall, even though I told him there was none 3 times. It's callcentre idiots like that who just won't listen which give them a bad name.

</rant over>

Out of interest, why didn't you have a firewall? I wouldn't like my connection completely open...

(unless it's built into your router of course)

[AdamD]

I have a firewall running all the time, both on the computer and built into the router, but when I have an issue like i'm having all the time lately, I remove both of those elements before contacting support.