NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience

[Kliro]

Well we've been with NTL for about 7 years now, first with the C&W boxes and phonline, now with NTL box phoneline and 150k BB.

In all that time I'd say we've called about 5 times and each time the CSA is freindly and tells you what they are doing all the way through and of the most part fix the problem, often much faster than expected.
I phoned about a battery eating remote, the CSA was nice and I got the new fangdangled remote 2 days later.
I've just now got off the phone with a CSA who was also very freindly and has sent the problem on to anouther department.

So all in all I'd say those who have problems with the CSA's must provoke them through their attitude, and I can truthfully say I have no problems with the CS at all

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Ankhsunamun

O.K..... I worked for NTL in the North East region, (Bellshill, Scotland) until March this year when I finally left and I am here to stick up for the CSA's who get nothing but abuse from morning til night from customers, who more often than not come on screaming right from the start and it is VERY difficult to get them to shut up for 2 minutes so you can find out what the problem is !! More often than not, the CSA can fix the so called 'problem' then and there and it is the customer who has been 'playing' around with the remote or their kids have and they have locked the system or have caused the stb to lose the channels altogether!! Granted there were times when it was NTL's fault, but I found from experience that all I had to do was contact the correct department and get it fixed. However, sometimes customers would call at ALL hours and expect all the depts to be working, ( We had to sleep sometime !!), then that would set them off again as we could do nothing to help until the following morning. The staff at ALL the call centres are always under pressure about the number of calls they take and length of time each call takes, also the amount of time you have customers on hold while you are sorting out a problem, so the pressure is intense and I want to stick up for them as I took this for 6 yrs and finally could take no more!!!!

Welcome to the forum Ankhsunamun

[captain747480]

Originally Posted by captain747480

The first 3 bad experiences were dealt with by my flatmate as the account was in his name so I'm afraid not.

The fourth one I didn't ask although to be fair I didn't think it was a bad experience until I found out the next day that I'd been mis-informed.

The fifth, I've not got the name of the person I initially spoke to, but following my complaint I did get a nice letter about Premium Rate Diallers and Virus Checkers and Firewalls from a member of the NTL Customer Liaison Team in Swansea. I replied to him immediately (15th June) and have not heard anything since.

I'm not sure if it's fair to mention his name on here just yet but if you egg me on I might do.

It's now 5 weeks since my letter and still no reply, so I sent another letter off today.

I'll let you all know if this one 'Provokes a Response'.

[nidave]

This is the bottom of another post so forgive me but I wanted people to read it. I have jsut had a great response from ntl - my bb & CTV went off yesterday (thurs) afternoon. called faults (afte being put through to both the CTV & BB faults dept ) was told and engineer would be out on sunday. at 5 pm (fri) I got a call asking if we were in as the engineer was in the area. He fixed the problem (it was a loose wire on the box on the side of the house).

I work in a call centre for a bank and callers forget that you are a person and you are trying to help them. Especaly if they are upset. Its hard work dealing with that type of call all day every day. Anyone who dosent agree - I will get them a job at my place.

[seaneeboy]

Nice one nidave, always good to hear a CS Success!

Originally Posted by Ankhsunamun

The staff at ALL the call centres are always under pressure about the number of calls they take and length of time each call takes

Strangely enough I was talking about this very point with a friend this afternoon, and frankly I think that whoever thought up that approach to customer service should taken to a very high cliff and pushed off. CS should not be about attempting to rattle through as many calls in a hour as possible, it should be about taking as much time as it takes to get the problem resolved. If a problem takes half an hour to resolve then that time should be spent resolving it, not trying to get the customer off the phone as quickly as possible.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by dr wadd

Strangely enough I was talking about this very point with a friend this afternoon, and frankly I think that whoever thought up that approach to customer service should taken to a very high cliff and pushed off. CS should not be about attempting to rattle through as many calls in a hour as possible, it should be about taking as much time as it takes to get the problem resolved. If a problem takes half an hour to resolve then that time should be spent resolving it, not trying to get the customer off the phone as quickly as possible.

Well said, I couldn't agree more.

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by dr wadd

Strangely enough I was talking about this very point with a friend this afternoon, and frankly I think that whoever thought up that approach to customer service should taken to a very high cliff and pushed off. CS should not be about attempting to rattle through as many calls in a hour as possible, it should be about taking as much time as it takes to get the problem resolved. If a problem takes half an hour to resolve then that time should be spent resolving it, not trying to get the customer off the phone as quickly as possible.

I agree with you 100%, but IMO the targets that we have at work are perfectly attainable, personally on each shift i am 2-4 minutes under the target. I think the target is necessary to make sure that people work as hard as they can and don't just waste time on calls (making people reboot an unnecessary number of times or "i just need to pop you on hold" are classic ways i have heard of to do this).

I take the approach that a call takes me as long as it takes. if i get a complicated problem it might take an hour or more, if i get someone asking for their password it will take about a minute, so it all balances out.

MB

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

I agree with you 100%, but IMO the targets that we have at work are perfectly attainable, personally on each shift i am 2-4 minutes under the target.

At the risk of accidentally inflating your ego, I would say that in this forum you have demonstrated that you are far from a typical NTL employee.

[Ken W]

Originally Posted by Chris T

OK, let's have a definitive answer to this thorny issue. What is your own personal experience of NTL customer services?

Tell us your story, and don't forget to vote. I'm going to try to set this up as a public poll so we can all see who voted what, as I am interested to explore the allegation that those who claim not to have trouble with CS are in the main NTL staff in disguise.

Hi,
My experience with NTL customer services has been very bad.
I only have One NTL phone line with only Remider call no other features.
Three months ago my phone bill arrived and it had Reminder call entered Three times for the same billing dates at £1.50 totaling £4.50, I contacted CS and explained the problem and they said they did not know what had happened but they would arrange for £3.00 refund which happened ok.
The next month Reminder call was again there three times, so contacted CS and go through the whole saga again and once again they said they would refund £3.00 but that did not happen, on the next bill it had Reminder Call three times yet agiain!!

Why can't CS get the billing correct!

It is NTL's Customer Services where they shoot them selves in the foot!

Walter

[lsgworldl]

i phoned them once when my cable wouldnt connect and they had me on the line for a long time doing tests and stuff,then they say your box is broken we will send an engerner to fix it, I was well it was working fine when I went to bed, they were no its broken, ok, I wait

So I go to town, and I get a call on my mobile saying they were doing work in Leicester, where I live I was ok, I had a felling it wasnt my box, he said it was fixed then, so when I go hiome I try and cnnect, nothing I phone up and they are saying on the msg it was a routine thing and they knew about it days before, nice the support didnt know about there routine stuff

BUT

I phoned up about my network, and they said we dont support networks, and Iwas like its not workign on a single pc, he said reinstall my O/S and if it dont work, to call him personal and he would help me with my network as well

so some of them are helpfull some are not informed of stuff

[Brian Longstaff]

In general, not had any problems with NTL customer service until recently.
We cancelled everything - broadband, TV, phone.
Why we cancelled was because I was fed up of the internet going down and me having to then go all the way downstairs to unplug the box and then all the way back upstairs again to wait for the internet to come back again. This is not good, as both myself and my wife suffer from arthritis. Add to that since the e-mail "upgrade" I gpt fed up of slow e-mail servers for 30% of the time I am online.
Then the TV went off. No channels, nothing. Problem being this happened on Saturday, and apparently there are no engineers available to fix anything at weekends, which is diabolical service!!!!
So, we phoned, and I got a bloke who, as soon as I informed him we wanted to cancel everything became barely civil to me, his voice on the edge of dripping with contempt. Not the way to talk anyone into staying with a company!
So, they came yesterday to remove our set-top box, but the phone box and socket were left. And people who have accidently used our old ntl e-mail address say that it's not bouncing - and people who have accidently used our old ntl phone number say it's still ringing (although we don't hear it because we have unplugged the phone).
And our bill.... It was for the period up to mid October - the full amount!!!! We phoned billing and they say it will be altered on our next bill. I have a bad feeling, though that we are stil going to be charged for line rental and e-mail....
If that happens we're not only willing to take this to trading standards, court, Parliament or wherever, but we will certainly NOT be reccomending NTL to anyone!

[Larnyboy]

Got a problem at the moment with our phone ,it dont work ,it hasent worked for over a week,it went off on saturday 28th august ,over the weekend and bank holiday tryed to get customer support ,no luck ,got intouch with them on tuesday 31st august ,the person was booked to come out on thursday 2nd september between 12-00pm and 6-00pm ,had the day off work ,no one turned up ,spoke to some one thursday 7-00 pm (long wait on the phone) ,said sorry about this, problems with the call centers,re booked in for sunday 5th september between 8-00 am and 12-00 pm got up early,still no one came ,so to sum it all up have been with out phone for over a week ,had a day off work (waisted),mounting mobile phone bills trying to get to speak to (top A++) customer services
I am in the Northampton area if this is any help ,i mean dont call there customer support they will take the message but they wont pass the booking to the service people


The thing is how long will this episode go on till its sorted ,how much more will it cost me not to use the phone
sorry im getting more angry thinking about this ,
nice service guys keep it up

also i want to thank cable forum for helping me vent
thanks

[lsgworldl]

did you call repairs not cs?

[Larnyboy]

Yeah called CS that was right wasnt it