NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience

[Pip]

Originally Posted by scastle

If NTL are giving bad service, that is bad. No two ways about it. However, they do have to get the permission of the building owner before they can do anything in a building. If the cabling is bad, and runs all over the building (which it probably does), they will have to get the permission of the building owners (or at least the management company running it) to do that work.

I totally agree and believe me we have not let the management off the hook. One of the other problems is that they both provide equally bad service.

Apparently the 'reason' we had no service for 7 weeks was because : ntl said the contract for maintaining the aeriel ended in November, management said it ends in April 05, ntl then said it was because of illegal use of equipment , management said they couldn't find their copy of the contract but ntl were liable, ntl said they weren't but they would fix new cabling, the new cabling was fixed and then there was a problem with the signal box. As of today, it's a problem with the cabling. My cabling is now 'spliced' off my neighbours so we both know when the other has no t.v and can nip round for a cuppa whilst we wait for the engineer.

I'm sure you get the idea by now. Between them, ntl and TMO couldn't organise a ****** in the proverbial brewery.

Over Xmas I visited residents who are housebound and found them watching 'snowy' pictures on their t.v

This has been going on for years and it's not in the least bit funny.

On the bright side, management clearly know the problems and will be installing a 'communal' satellite for residents to feed off. It will only take another 18-24 months.

Originally Posted by Gogogo

No mick I'm not claiming what you say. I'm sure there are genuine complaints but overall NTL Customer Services are no worse than others. I had to call a fair number of various customer service agents for different UK companies recently and in comparison NTL seemed ok to me.

Frankly that's tosh. NTL's customer service is notoriously poor. I speak not just from my own experience but press reports on CS in which NTL feature with depressing regularity. I do not blame individuals within CS particularly for this but **** poor management which, judging by the service, does not look to invest in decent training and systems and does not understand the value to the business of customer or staff retention. I was advised by one CS adviser that NTL training teaches them "to speak to the customer as they speak to you". So if you get a customer phoning the complaint department, quite possibly having been kept on hold for a fair while, and having navigated the annoying automated menu, and you should sound as irate as them! That's gonna help.

In contrast tech support generally seems vastly superior, by and large offering prompt, helpful and unfailingly courteous advice.

NTL could do worse than look at HP/Compaq's after sales service systems - online, organised, very swift and, in my experience, very, very impressive.

Anf if anyone out there wants to say this is just typical NTL bashing well I'm sorry, NTL needs, on more occasions than most, to be bashed. It did not get its poor reputation by being the Mother Teresa of the cablecomms world.

I don't think it is fair to say that all call centres are equally good or equally bad. I have had a very frustrating time on the phone with British Gas, Scottish Hydroelectric and Sky. I have had a superb experience on the phone with Virgin Home Energy, Scottish Hydroelectric and Sky. Some are universally awful, few are universally brilliant. Some mainly get it right, some mainly get it wrong. The fact is, some are better than others, and if NTL is poor, it is a very shoddy defence indeed if all that can be said is 'well x is just as bad!'. We should be demanding excellence, not equal mediocrity.

All of those options were available in the poll at the top of this thread so we could try to get an overall view of where on the line from abysmal to heavenly NTL truly is. I notice that it has closed (no surprise there, I started it an aeon ago), so I am opening it again for our newer members to add their votes.

[Biffo1262]

A quikie -

I was helping a friend to tweak his machine when we encountered a problem with his email account as is had started asking for his password. For the life of him he couldn't find anything that would work. We ring NTL; it goes like this -

Good evening NTL please could you tell me .... blah blah etc
What seems to be the problem

I can't get my email password to be recognised or I've got the wrong one.

Sorry Sir I can't help you!

Sorry, why not?

Data Protection Act

But it's my account

I don't know that

Well ask me the security question

Can't do that

Why not?

Data Protection Act

But it's MY information

Sorry Sir can't help you

(ME as an aside...He's just taking the p!ss)

Put me on to your Supervisor

I'll give you the number of someone who may help.

Well thanks a lot.


Dials number ....'This number is no longer in use'

We ring back and ask for a supervisor.

How can I help?

WE tell him what happened... needless to say he's incredulous and thinks we're having him on. He checks the account access on his computer. Guess what? NOTHING. He says will attempt to check the 'footprint' and will get back to us. In the meantime he sorts the email problem out with no fuss and proper courtesy.

I would imagine there is one lazy, bone idle, self-satisfied, smug plonker somewhere in NTL who's very pleased with himself at such a jolly jape.
Either that or as I suggested; he was proabably due to leave NTL at the end of the week!

BTW can anyone tell me why NTL's email servers are so unreliable that I have to resort to ugh Hotmail for a reliable service.

[percyw]

Well I only have phones and broadband. So far never had a problem with the phone and broadband access tends to be OK with a few rare outages. Been a customer for 10 years.

[Stuart]

Actually, can't remember if I posted this (if I did, I can't find it), but I had an interesting situation with my email password.

Basically, I forgot the password that I used for my email account. I phoned NTL to ask for it. They confirmed I was the account holder. Then the customer services person said something interesting. They can only email my NTL email account password to my NTL account..

The second time I phoned, I was told I should use the web to create a new one..

[jfunk]

Buggered up the bills every month for the first several months and also this month where I'd scrapped the TV and phone services. Other than that they've actually been great. Even fixed, within a day, the exterior cable where I'd dropped a rock on it whilst digging up the patio! Phone is answered relatively quickly too.

[maxtoralias]

I am a newbie to NTL and have had cause to ring CS on a few occasions to date and have found that they are helpful and friendly. I have not adopted a confrontational approach and have been clear from the outset what I want to achieve during my discussion. Thus far, I have had a minor signal problem with the STB which was reset remotely without fuss and a minor issue with the outgoing e-mail server which was resolved in a short period (maybe by luck rather than judgement). I changed my mind during the install to have a SACM rather than the STB modem and this was also dealt with without fuss or drama. Everything seems to work as promised and the installation engineer was professional and extremely helpful. I hope that my obvious good fortune continues

[humphreys barmy]

If you've had a peaceful time with ntl, then heartest congratulations !

It's all fine and dandy up until something goes wrong. When it does, then big time trouble !!!
Will someone in the management structure give those poor individuals a break, and actually teach them the workings of the computer system they're sitting in front of, before they're set loose on the public. I spoke to so many of them, who were adament that I couldn't get copy telephone bills, or that they had been sent out and lost in the post. Actually more than one person was kind enough to intimate that i was a liar !! Far from good relations there. The only reason I wanted copies, to excersise my right of looking at the telephone bill, was because apparently a nil bill is never sent out to customers. It wasn't as if it was a true nil bill either. Messing up the Broadband invoicing led to numerous credits.

I did find one member of staff in the end who sent me copies of these elusive bills through the post. She couldn't understand what the problem had been.

NEITHER DID I.

[flook]

Called NTL customer services this morning to enquire about upgrading my BB connection. I was told that I'd have to have a new STB (I knew that, thats the reason for the call in the first place). Within 2 minutes, a very helpful lady had booked an engineer visit for next week, and given me a time window. Excellent service, friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and informative.

If of course the engineer fails to show, the internet vanishes without trace, or my tv fades to black and white next week, you'll be the first to know

[dgreenfrog]

Been with NTL for 3-4 years during which I had no problems with my TV/PHONE and BROADBAND servicies except rebooting thr STB when the TV froozen up

last year I downgraded my BB no problem but with not watching the TV no more I decicided to ditch the TV and hearing about all the new BB speeds through ADSL BT-Lines only I pondered about ditching all of my servicies and starting again with phone (BT) and optional BB ISP NTL have since offered phone (free-rental) and BB from my 300 Too 1m for £10.00 a month but I,m unsure if this will be capped and whether this deal has a catch when all speeds jump up does anyone know if I would be wise too take up this offer (6 month deal) or do you presume its a catch for ship jumpers

Having read some of the CS horror stories on here, I decided to give the 'Broadband Medic' interactive support a try. After waiting about 40 minutes for a response, the 'enquiry' was kindly closed by a support rep. I have a screen dump as evidence. The call was allocated to a support rep (the log gives his name). Two seconds later, the log shows him requesting my post code, etc. Two seconds later, the log shows him closing the call because I HAD NOT RESPONDED WITHIN 5 MINUTES! As far as I am concerned, this is equivalent to someone hanging up the phone on me, and is unacceptable.

Originally Posted by JohnHorb

Having read some of the CS horror stories on here, I decided to give the 'Broadband Medic' interactive support a try. After waiting about 40 minutes for a response, the 'enquiry' was kindly closed by a support rep. I have a screen dump as evidence. The call was allocated to a support rep (the log gives his name). Two seconds later, the log shows him requesting my post code, etc. Two seconds later, the log shows him closing the call because I HAD NOT RESPONDED WITHIN 5 MINUTES! As far as I am concerned, this is equivalent to someone hanging up the phone on me, and is unacceptable.

It's clear that NTL place a lot of misguided faith in the BB Medic, which in the end is useless and a poor substitute for real support. Clearly, rudeness from those responsible is unacceptable.

I have no problem with the PRINCIPLE. I'd rather leave a window open on my PC until some-one responds, than be hanging on the phone. I've used interactive support from other companies to good effect. However, NTL need to get their act together wrt 'rogue' staff who just cut you off. One advantage of BB Medic is that it logs the name of the person responsible - no hiding behind false names.

[jtribe]

For my two pennys worth , never had a problem with there net connection that wasnt dealt with promptly, even being passed from the overseas call centre to the welsh version(is that classed as an oversea call centre?) Anyway biggest problem is with the poor TV service now that is terrible, allways have to restart the STB as it locks out or losses the connection with the guide or interactive. Some times even loss of all pictures. But its easier to unplug and reset than wait on the phone for 40 mins!