Should I switch to NTL? - Page 2

Jules · 07-06-2006, 14:42

I have been with NTL for years and had a few problems but they have always been sorted (touching wood desperately lol) But on the whole I am happy with them

zx128k · 07-06-2006, 15:19

Do not sign up for any of the NTL services, I have after being with them a long time, am getting everything disconnected as it is to much trouble. BT phone BB get 8Mb 768kb (no download cap) on ukonline (get the netgear modem only). Two things with ntl is if you fit in with their billing system you are o/k but if you don't then thats ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£10 for late and if you like add ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£4 if you don't use direct debit. Phoning support because you have a problem (it does not work + disconnecting) now costs you money, so they keep you on the phone for as long as possible i.e time wasting. Changing any services and it could cost you ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£20 (someone told me this one).

If you are on BB they may bring in new terms reducing what you can download at a moments notice (ofcourse without telling you) and traffic shaping is the next big thing ntl are looking at. If you use newgroups (usenet) then look elsewhere too, online game problems you can get on ntl are choke, loss and bad pings. At the moment the problems I have where choke and DNS so in CS:S I could not connect as the server downloads for maps could not start as the IP could not be resolved.

And last of all, on the phone it takes 5 minutes to get the acount setup and the services arranged for installation but try and disconnect them and you will be on the phone for over 30 minutes waiting then another 5 minutes getting things done and 10+ minutes with the guy time wasting. God I h8 this company.

Toilet-Duck · 07-06-2006, 15:36

I switched from nildram MAX because of the usless syncing for over a month and pings in games due to my conjection at the exchange. Changed to NTL a few weeks ago and have been very happy so far top speeds 24/7 and 15 pings in games

. Havent had a disconnect once since it was installed

Sumanji · 07-06-2006, 16:16

To the above two posters, where do you guys live and what broadband packages do you use?

Cheers,

Suman

bmxbandit · 07-06-2006, 19:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sumanji

I live right next to the Lenton student area in Nottingham, so will the NTL service here be a bit pants with all the students raping their connections with warez 24/7?

ive had absolutely zero problems with the internet speed in 4 years here, and i've lived in different areas of lenton each year

although, i have had more than a few customer service issues and the tv service was appalling/didn't work 2 years out of 4... but that's a whole different kettle of fish!

zx128k · 07-06-2006, 19:16

Sumanji Belfast here.

Sumanji · 07-06-2006, 20:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmxbandit

ive had absolutely zero problems with the internet speed in 4 years here, and i've lived in different areas of lenton each year

Is that the general concensus around Nottingham you reckon? There are a fair few threads on here about outages and bad speeds in/around Nottingham though

Used to use NTL in my 2nd year and 3rd year in student houses, but didn't really pay attention to speed and stuff back then! Seem to recall frequent freeze ups and needing to reboot the modem though

Would really like to upgrade to MaxDSL and be done with it, but with the attenuation and SNR I get I'm lucky to get the 2MB I have atm! NTL 4Mb is looking more and more tasty...

Cheers,

Suman

bmxbandit · 07-06-2006, 20:33

hard to say really - from the people i've talked to, i think it's pretty good round the lenton area... but i guess there's a certain amount of pot luck involved.

Sumanji · 07-06-2006, 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by homealone

you have to use the NTL supplied one, I'm afraid ...

Are you sure about that mate... I've read people using Teryon, 3Com, Motorola etc. modems?!

Cheers,

Suman

ntl customer · 07-06-2006, 23:15

Quote:

Are you sure about that mate... I've read people using Teryon, 3Com, Motorola etc. modems?!

Cheers,

Suman

Those are long standing customers who have had their cable modems for years. When the first services came out, you had to purchase your own modem (like you do on DSL). This isn't the case anymore, and has been for some time - I think yuo use to get a discount if you had your own modem, but not any more. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that they don't allow you to hook up your own modem to the network full stop, unless you were one of the 'legacy' customers who had to buy their own modems.

I wouldn't touch ntl with a 20ft bargepole. My 'experience' with them was nothing short of ghastly - the billing was inept and you spent ages on hold to speak to a CSR - mind you, back then it was free to call, but the wait times were long - so much so, that on one occasion I could predict what advert for their products was going to come on next - sad I know, but it gives you an indication of how long you had to wait; you could go "ah, here comes the one for ntl's football tv packages'. Again, for the bloody umpteenth time.

The other main killers for me, apart from the long waits to customer service (and shyte on hold music) and inept billing, were the fact that the email went down pretty much every day and I remember at one point, email was taking ages to get delivered and I always got authentication errors on a daily basis, and webmail was just as bad as it relied on the same backend servers which held the mail, and had problems. Result - lots of premature greyed hair and aggro. Plus lots of "have you got my email" questions.

The other was the fact that they had the forced proxy servers, which not only were a pain in the butt as it caused no end of problems with websites. Some wouldn't recognise your proper IP and refuse you access (rapidshare is an example of this - they think you've downloaded too much and ban you from their free service).

It broke streaming media too - causing it to become hit and miss. Some sites wouldn't work at all, whilst others were very intermittent. An example of this was when Radio 1 had the clips of the top 40 singles you could listen to, only about half of them would load. Others would time out with errors. Same with the BBC news site.

And to top it all off - when the proxies broke down (which they often did), you'd have to do the legendary 'proxy dance' - i.e. fiddle with the settings in IE, choose a ntl proxy from a list of many, whack it in and hope it wasn't down for maintainence, or simply bust or overloaded. Ah, bad times, bad times.

As you can probably imagine, I ditched them at the earliest possibilty for proxy free browsing with Pipex, whom I've been with for nearly 2/3 years now (in fact I think our "anniversary" is coming up soon

). I've been happy with their QoS, but their CS leaves quite a bit to be desired. Although, admittedly I have to rarely contact them, if ever. So that's good thing I guess.

With regards,
One of ntl's many exes (yeah, ex customers that is

).

Toilet-Duck · 08-06-2006, 00:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sumanji

To the above two posters, where do you guys live and what broadband packages do you use?

Cheers,

Suman

North East here on the 10mbit.

The great thing about ntl at the moment is they are offering a 30 day money back guarantee, so if you sign up and later on when its installed and all setup you decide you dont want ntl anymore simply ring them within the 30 days after the installed it and tell them your not happy. And they will come collect the modem charge you nothing and cancel the direct debit

zx128k · 08-06-2006, 00:08

Or they will say you did not call and/or you are on t a 12 month contract.

Sumanji · 10-06-2006, 01:56

Hmm, still in two minds about this... totally conflicting reports! Would I be ok to start a new thread specifically about Nottingham or would I get told off for thread spamming?

Cheers,

Suman

SnoopZ · 11-06-2006, 21:19

VERY happy with my 10mb broadband. Perfect speeds, very very low pings in games and hardly any disconnections. Just the DNS problem over the last week like most people were having and 1 billing error are my negative points on them.

peanut · 11-06-2006, 22:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

VERY happy with my 10mb broadband. Perfect speeds, very very low pings in games and hardly any disconnections. Just the DNS problem over the last week like most people were having and 1 billing error are my negative points on them.

Word for word for me too, and I'm in the Suffolk area, I can't compain at all, apart from the customer service but the techno's that install the stuff so far have been excellent.