ntl worst service in UK in poll

[h3adru5h]

Originally Posted by dezzo

Not unless the policy has changed in the last 3 weeks (and no-one has mentioned it to any of the CS staff I still talk to).

No-one I know, or trained, would ever put a charge back on, and backdate it, if it was removed by error.

This is something I know - as I am (for now) working within a department where one of our functions is to monitor this as well as many other tasks.

[Stuart W]

NTL Customer Services / Support / Disconnect Team

The following is atrue story.

July 2004 - Week2
Customer is visited by NTL rep and told he can have NT BroadBand at 1M but he would need an NTL phone as well.
Customer looks at prices, takes advantage of 3 months BB at half price and signs up.

July 2004 - Week3
NTL Engineer arrives with SACM and installs both SACM and Telephone.
Engineer also hangs around whilst customer goes on-line with SACM.
Both services working fine.

July 2004 - Week4
SACM is connecting slower than dial-up, or not connecting at all.
Customer picks up phone to call NTL, but phone is dead.
Customer uses friends phone to contact NTL and explains SACM and phone both unusable.

August 2004 Week1
Customer tries phone daily, to see if it has been fixed.

August 2004 Week2
First bill arrives for part-month of service and following month in advance.
Customer uses friends phone to remind NTL that neither service is working, so recent bill is seen as a joke/insult.
NTL inform customer that £9.99 has been refunded to the account fort he lack of telephone but customer would need to contact CM support about the SACM.
Customer goes to local post office to pay bill but is unable to as the payment slip has been printed and cannot be adjusted.
Customer reminds NTL that BB is not working.

August 2004 Week4
Customer finds telephone working again and contacts NTL to find out how to pay adjusted bill.
NTL inform customer that he can simply pay the following months bill which will take the £9.99 adjustment into account.


September 2004 Week1
Bill arrives, unadjusted.
Customer calls NTL to find out what to do next, but no-one is in a position to help as Customer's services had been suspended for late payment.
Customer has no choice but to pay outstanding £82.05 if customer wishes to get anything done.
Customer pays full outstanding amount.

September 2004 Week2
Customer calls NTL to discuss recent payment and pending compensation.
NTL are reminded at this point that BB should have been half price.
NTL credit customers account with the equivalent of 3 months half price broadband plus 2 weeks telephone line rental.
Customer reminds NTL that BB is still unusable.

October 2004 Week1
Bill arrives with a £9.50 credit, but no mention of other credit or recent FULL payment.
Customer calls NTL to discuss and is informed he can ignore this bill as the account is now showing in credit.
Customer reminds NTL that BB is *STILL* not working.

October 2004 Week2
Customer has called NTL BB support over 10 times, each time the problem has been "escalated" in a bid to resolve it.
Customer explains that he is sick of calling and being told ir will work fine after 48hrs.

November 2004 Week1
Bill arrives with £33.92 Credit.
Customer calls NTL and explains that it is all very nice not to have to pay for lack of internet, but customer would prefer to pay and USE it.

December 2004 Week1
Bill arrives with £5.56 Credit.
Customer reminds NTL of the continuing lack of BB service.

January 2005 Week1
Bill arrives for £23.49
Customer calls NTL and points out that he is being expected to pay the half price BB deal but the service was only useable for 1 week.
NTL explain there is nothing they can do about this, customer needs to speak to CM support.

January 2005 Week2
Customer makes lengthy call to CM support and is passed to 3 different people who ultimatly advise him to DISCONNECT from NTL: and find another provider! CM support provide customer with the number needed to disconnect.

January 2005 Week3
Customer finally calls the disconnection team, who reimburse the 3 months half price along with a £10 good will gesture.

January 2005 Week4
Customer is still calling CM support every other day (some people in call centres have gotto know customer by now)

February 2005 Week1
No bill!
Customer calls NTL to discuss lack of bill and is informed the account is at least £45 in credit.
Customer also calls BB support to remind them of lack of service.

February 2005 Week2
Customer is talking to tech support and points out that he has gone in the same circle fro the past 6 months.... report problem, problem escalated.
Tech support (after a 90 min call) decide to let customer speak to a senior who has contact with engineers in customers area.
Customer is reliably informed there is on-going work in his area fro at least another MONTH.

February 2005 Week4
Customer has had enough.
A quick call to BT tells customer that he can save about £8 per month with a 2M ADSL connection.
Customer calls NTL disconnection team........
First they offer half price telephone line rental (broadband has already been paid in advance!)
Customer explains that eh wants BROADBAND and has done since last July. The only course for customer to take at this point is to go ADSL. This means customer will need a BT telephone line, as NTL lines do not support ADSL.
NTL put customer on hold for 10 mins.....
Then they explain that AOL offer broadband and don't need BT lines.
Customer explains to NTL that this is not suitable for customer as NTL cannot provide customer broadband. It actually took Customer over 15 mins to get this point across!
NTL explained that under these circumstances, they were prepared to disconnect the SACM as there was no service. However, customer must keep the telephone line until the 12month contract is up.

Customer explains that he signed up for broadband AND telephone line.... as NTL failed to provide BOTH, that contract was void.
Customer also explained that no second contract was agreed or signed, so customer was no longer held by 12month contract.
NTL told customer he was wrong and would be liable for the complete contract.

Customer explained that as he needed a BT line, there was no reason to keep the NTL one.
NTL stood their ground.

Customer asked to speak to a senior and was informed that he was already talking to a supervisor.

Customer asked what could be done to disconnect the telephone service and was told there was nothing that could be done under any circumstances.

Customer took legal advice from a friend who was in the room and decided to take an odd approach......
Customer informed NTL that the contract he had signed was now void as NTL had agreed to disconnect one of the services.
Customer explained that no calls would be made from the NTL line, nor would calls be taken as the telephone would be connected to the new BT line.
Customer welcomed NTL's bills and explained that once the amounts were high enough to warrant NTL's use of bailiffs, Customer would then remind NTL of their legal standing and NTL would have no choice but to drop the whole procedure.
Customer also explained that all this would be put in writing by customers legal advisor and be sent to NTL in the hope of a more suitable closure.

NTL then told customer that if he isprepared to write a letter, NTL could disconnect the phone right away.

Customer was shocked for a moment, then asked NTL to repeat.

Customer then explained that if he was to write in, he would write a full and complete account of NTL's failings from day1, offer this to his legal advisor who would then inform NTL that customer is within his rights to cease the contract early.

NTL then said that all customer needed to do was ask to have the phone disconnected in writing and it would be done right away.

Customer asked why he was not told this at the beginning of the call and was informed that NTL wanted to keep customer at any cost!!!


Yeah, NTL customer services rock!

[Derek]

Originally Posted by h3adru5h

This is something I know - as I am (for now) working within a department where one of our functions is to monitor this as well as many other tasks.

So your department monitors every transaction put through Harmony, ICMS and SMS?
And if you do put a charge back on and backdate it do you advise either the customer or the CSR who removed it?

Sometimes there are reasons why the charges are not put back on from the date they were removed.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by georgepomone

Hi All,
what makes it worse is that PC World, Curry's and Dixons are better positioned than ntl. Three divisions of Dixon's Retail. A lot of us could go on about them as well. The only question I have with this is how can a cable company be compared with supermarkets. Everyone uses supermarkets but not everyone has access to cable. Not taking away the faults with ntl. In the same list as BT. Hardly a good way to compare.
George.

The point with this survey though is that it was carried out on the internet. Everyone taking part would have a telecoms or broadband supplier so these would be prominent in their minds. Everyone would also have a computer and Dixons group is one of the biggest suppliers of these. In my mind that makes these companies very strong candidates for the worst customer service. It is highly unlikely that supermarkets would feature high on the list of poor customer services as who is going to complain if they don't have a jar of coffee. This was a survey that was virtually forced to come up with the type of results that it did.

The other point is that it was less than 3,000 responses with a blank field to put your worst and best customer services in . NTL may only have had a couple of dozen or even less saying it was the worst for all we know.

[h3adru5h]

dezzo - there is a huge amount you wouldn't know and many departmental roles that you have never heard off. I don't want to argue about this as there is no reason to.

Also, getting back on topic, ian@huth is correct. I still think the survey is flawed...... or misleading.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by h3adru5h

dezzo - there is a huge amount you wouldn't know and many departmental roles that you have never heard off.

Suuuuuuurrrrrreeee

[scrotnig]

Originally Posted by h3adru5h

This is something I know - as I am (for now) working within a department where one of our functions is to monitor this as well as many other tasks.

Well, in ICMS regions it is extremely rare for a charge to be backdated more than a month, although the company does have the right to and if someone is being particularly rude or threatening then I have seen it doen. It's usually where it's one of those customers that demands the rules be followed to the letter....fine, so the charge gets backdated sir as that's the letter of the rules.

However, the general policy in ex Cable & Wireless regions remains that backdating is only done if it's in the customer's favour. This was mentioned in training courses as well.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by scrotnig

Well, in ICMS regions it is extremely rare for a charge to be backdated more than a month,

And SMS. In fact unless it the charge was removed on purpose (friend of ex-CSR) or the customer is being very unreasonable this is never done.

[sweaty]

If the installations are anything to go by then they are the worst company in the UK.It's all bish-bash-bosh and scarper as far as I have seen when contracting for them. It doesn't help when the contracting firm they use in london and south-east is a mickey mouse organisation.

[themelon]

Very Dodgy Survey covered in a Highly Dodgy Murdoch News Paper, which I wouldnt even consider fit enough to wipe my arse on! as it already has so much crap spread over it pages!

Umm strange how Sky customer service doesnt figure in that lot, they are by far the worst I have ever dealt with, and not even a single mention in this dubious survey! from the very fact you have to PAY to dial it up, thats automatically a bad start! You have to pay to have it fixed up regardless of whether the problem is you fault......or the fact that the installation 'person' installed the dish in a wind tunnel down the side of your house against your better advice saying 'Itll be fine as he chugged on his way'. Is there really any point in them? Can they actually do anything except book a tech visit for £65?

And Tesco?! Having a laugh! They are useless too! Brought a bag of mince from there it was 100% When I complained through the website that it wasnt fit for human consumption and asked what they would do, they tell me to take it to my local store, my local store says they cant take it without a reciept, and I should send it to some customer satisfaction address (sure the posties will appreciate the smell of rotting mince if it takes the usual 2 weeks for 1st class post!).

Tesco like so many companies in the UK offer good products at good prices but offer a terrible service. How many times have you tried to get an advertised special offer? 'Where the buy one get one free Pepsi?', 'Sold Out', 'Whens some more come in?' '15th' 'Oh thats after the offer finishes (how convienient!)

Unfortunately ntl are not alone in the world of bad customer service, those in the good list are probably there more by luck than Customer Service expertise.

[WazzaUK]

Ive been using ntl for over 5 years now (just upgraded to 3MB from 1.5Mb) - The upload speed HAS increased to 300kbps (37K/sec - they should of really doubled it!!!) - ive never had a problem wif the service - ive only once had to phone them to deal with anything (and yes we do have a ntl Landline/Digital TV(3 Decoders)) - and we really have never had a problem with ntl - i must admit the time that i have phoned them once many years ago it was a bit of a nightmare - but in my experience all these call centres are the same - u r ### in the queue please use option after option to get anywhere then end up redirected - or having to respond in writing - its not just ntl all companies r the same - especially when it comes to communications - and lets face it ntl did invest £2Billi on to install the infastructure (no government help like in the US) - oh and they need to re-think the 1Gb limit - even thou i reguarly download sometimes more than 4Gb daily...

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by WazzaUK

Ive been using ntl for over 5 years now (just upgraded to 3MB from 1.5Mb) - The upload speed HAS increased to 300kbps (37K/sec - they should of really doubled it!!!) - ive never had a problem wif the service - ive only once had to phone them to deal with anything (and yes we do have a ntl Landline/Digital TV(3 Decoders)) - and we really have never had a problem with ntl - i must admit the time that i have phoned them once many years ago it was a bit of a nightmare - but in my experience all these call centres are the same - u r ### in the queue please use option after option to get anywhere then end up redirected - or having to respond in writing - its not just ntl all companies r the same - especially when it comes to communications - and lets face it ntl did invest £2Billi on to install the infastructure (no government help like in the US) - oh and they need to re-think the 1Gb limit - even thou i reguarly download sometimes more than 4Gb daily...

4gb a day????? what on? I think you need to rethink your service provider...

[dilli-theclaw]

Just remember this is a discussion about ntl's service and not CAPS - there are one or two threads about that already