NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience - Page 45

Tazfan · 07-12-2005, 10:56

Its so ironic that I get an email telling me that there has been a reply to this thread after the trouble Im having at the mo! I am currently without telephone as I was cut off yesterday! I was given a discount on Dec 3rd LAST YEAR, and all hes been well. I got a call of my neighbor who has recently moved out on Mon, tellin me ha had a letter from NTL that was mine. I knew it wasnt a Bill cause one isnt due, so I asked him to open it. It said there had been a mistake in billing,m and it had been noticed I wasnt paying something, and I should. Therefore, I am to start paying it, and also backpay as well!

I am not bothered abt starting to pay from now, but I am aggrived at having backpay to stump up that I can ill afford. To make savibngs, I asked that my phone be downgraded from Talk Unlimited 24 to the basic deal. The lady I was talking to then said "I have n,,,,,,,,,,," Line went dead. I assumed we had been disconncted, and waited to see if she would call back. After a min or two, I decided to call back. I lifted the phone, and no dial tone!! I called the 0800 number off my mobile, and got a message saying that 0800 numbers were now being charged at 10p a min! I assumed it was an error so I phoned Orange who told me it wasnt an error, and since Dec 1st, 0800 numbers are chargeable. He said all the other networks charge, so they now do as well. I wasnt impressed. So, I go get my car, and go to a friends to use her phone. I finally got though to someone (Frank) who said he would get my line reconnected (the lady I was talking to, Vicky had actually terminated my phone acccount, but put on the screen that she had only took me off Talk Unlimited 24. He tole me he went to a colleague who had an extra profile and was able to get straight into my account and reactivate my line. he also said that he would get to the bottom of this "mess" and phone me back today. I dialled my number after an hour, and still got a dead tone so I phoned NTL again and I was told that it should be reconnected, and if it was, I should phone back.
In the meantime, Im sat with a dead phone, waiting for a reconnection so Frank can phone me back and explain whats going on.

I cant go round to my friends to phone again as she is out, and I dont have any neighbors. I live in a flat above a shop in a town centre and have no neighbors.

Its worrying somewhat not having a landline. You dont realize how much its taken for granted til its not working! Im disabled and could really do with it back online.

I must admit that up until now, I have had nothing but praise for NTL staff. I have never had any problems, and CS have always been great.

Hawky2000 · 07-12-2005, 12:11

Dramatic title eh, let me begin by stating that this is not a gripe but just what actually hapened and it was (basically) all NTL's fault...

Eary one friday morning I was woken by a loud nocking at the door of my Girlfriends house where I had been staying. This was arround 7am so I was a little supprised. I ran down stairs assuming it was some sort of delivery and was met by my girlfriends housemate. (For comic reference, I was in my boxers, she her nighty) We proceded to open the door...

"******** CID, we have a warrant to search this address, may we come in..."

Now THAT was an interesting moment... No less than twelve ARMED CID officers proceded to enter the house (You don't say no to armed police) and we were politely but firmly asked to come to the station whilst they searched the house... I'd also like to point out that we weren't arrested. I did ask if we were free to leave and was told that we were free to leave at any time... and get arrested...

It turns out that there had been fraudulent adverts on a well known car sales website using stolen credit card details. These adverts were lures, with respondants being robbed at gunpoint. (As a web designer who also works part time for a credit card company my interview was VERY thorough)

It's also worth mentioning that the only reason full blown armed response and broken down doors weren't involved, was that the officer in charge had rang my girlfriends landlord who kindly pointed out that two polite early twenties girls are unlikely to be the hub of an armed gang...

Now here's where NTL come in. The police had got the IP from the car sales website. NTL had given them our address for this IP at that time. We didn't have a PHONE line or any form of internet then as NTL had only connected us a week before!

Simple error you might say, they can check and put it right in no time. It took 4 weeks! 4 weeks of being the prime suspect in an armed robbery case! 4 weeks with confiscated computer equipment and mobile phones! 4 weeks for them to tell the police they had the wrong people! (Which they had kinda worked out for themselves by this point)

You might expect that there would be some kind of large scale appology for this horrendous error... So far we've been told that the reason the address was given was that the modem (silver box) used in the bedroom (we were told we didn't have a connection, hence the new installation) was taken from the property and used to connect elsewhere.

Now I'm pretty sure that IP's are dished out by NTL at their end... NOT by the modem you used but that's just my understanding. How am I to know how NTL systems work. In short we haven't had ANY form of appology by NTL and they have still charged us for the four weeks we were without computer equipment whilst the police checked them over.

The WORST customer service ever. No other company has sent armed police to my door at 7am. Even that time I forgot to pay my mobile bill!

Derek · 07-12-2005, 12:26

Sooooooo the police asked for information from Ntl.
Ntl provided them with this information and the police acted on it?

Yep its all Ntls fault....

Hawky2000 · 07-12-2005, 12:30

The police asked for information about the IP used for the advert. NTL gave them our address for that IP when the advert was placed.

We didn't have ANY NTL connection at that time and we CERTAINLY didn't place the adverts.

NTL gave them the WRONG address and customers (Our account was activated two months after the advert was placed!)

The police wasted hundreds of hours and the expense of a warrant because of NTL's mistake.

Derek · 07-12-2005, 12:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawky2000

The police asked for information about the IP used for the advert. NTL gave them our address for that IP when the advert was placed.

The police wasted hundreds of hours and the expense of a warrant because of NTL's mistake.

Yeah they are out to get you. Honestly they really are

Maybe the department who receive any DPA requests don't trawl through all records of new customers when they receive a request.
Its fairly common for homes to have more than one connection under different names.

Unless of course you want Ntl to refuse to hand over the information that the police requested just in case they might make a mistake. Or maybe when someone leaves the property all crimes they commited in that property are declared null and void?

Hawky2000 · 07-12-2005, 12:47

A reasonable response but I am not being clear...

My girlfriend and her housemate DID live at the addres at the time the advert was placed but they DIDNT have an NTL connection (or any other as it's a rental property and we're used to using mobiles) and weren't recieving any NTL bills. When they rang NTL about getting a connection they had to come out and install a new one as they didn't have one on reccord.

There WAS no NTL connection at the property when NTL said we placed the advert.

I don't suppose anyone can spread some light on the "The IP is specific the the modem used which was used at a different address" can they? BTW the box was NOT my girlfriends which has been safely tucked away in the hose since installed.

I know they aren't "out to get" me but some kind of an appology would be nice.

Scott_Lee67 · 07-12-2005, 14:55

Personally I would take legal advice with a view to suing their arses and would most certainly go to the press with it!

They messed up big time and innocent members of the public became victims because of their incompetence! What if there was an accidental discharge of a firearm and somebody got hurt or killed? It does happen.

NTL should be made to explain their actions and make amends for their mistake.

Oh well at least the worst they do to me is to cut my phone off once every 6 months and my broadband once every 12!

Derek · 07-12-2005, 15:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott_Lee67

Personally I would take legal advice with a view to suing their arses and would most certainly go to the press with it!

They messed up big time and innocent members of the public became victims because of their incompetence! What if there was an accidental discharge of a firearm and somebody got hurt or killed? It does happen.

NTL should be made to explain their actions and make amends for their mistake.

Oh for the love of god. I give up

Now Ntl are responsible for people being shot by the police. Anyone else? Black death maybe? Air Crashes? Possibly Hurricane Katrina.

Ntl gave the police information that was requested. I'm not sure how they get this information but its possibly down to the MAC address of the modem using the the IP at the time this can be spoofed but they passed on the information in good faith.
If the police turned up mob handed with firearms I don't think they asked Ntl if this was OK with them.

Ntl, Telewest and BT (plus all the mobile operators) hand over customer details regarding criminal cases to the police every day of the year.

Hawky2000 · 07-12-2005, 15:52

Ok Dezzo, it may well have been an honnest mistake.

I do have a few other points to make though.

How exactly do NTL relate an IP to an account? Anyone know? Surely the obvious one would be to register the connection and account details used at the time without messing with MAC addresses?
I'm aware that IPs can be spoofed but how does that explain them giving out an address that had NO connection AT ALL (even a phone line) at the time they were asked about? If you don't have an active account you can't just plug into the line and use it. It needs ACTIVATING first.

I can't see any way in which you can claim NTL didn't make a mistake.

Also, when I make a mistake I appologise for it, but that's just me, why should a company like NTL care if they (albeit accidentaly) made my Girlfriend affraid to go to her own home?

Derek · 07-12-2005, 16:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawky2000

[LIST][*]How exactly do NTL relate an IP to an account? Anyone know? Surely the obvious one would be to register the connection and account details used at the time without messing with MAC addresses?

I'd assume that they check the MAC address of the modem that was allocated that IP address at the time. Then they check the address that modem is allocated to.

nate · 07-12-2005, 18:35

CS and TS for me have been great.

But, a close friend of mine has had nothing but trouble, I've had to intervene at times (listen in 3rd party when she calls me and puts me on coference with them) and I have to say, from what I have heard, the support that she gets is completely different.

Take the 10mb upgrade for example.

My friend lives just a few streets away, I hear from CF that 10mb upgrades have started and to call CS to get the upgrade, so I did, got the upgrade and within seconds was connected at 1024000.

She however called CS no less than 7 times on the same day as I called, to get a different response each time.
"It's not available yet"
"It's just trialling, you can't have it yet"
"It's only available to new customers"
and the best,
"10mb? Don't be silly. The network isn't capable of that"

On one of these calls where I was 3rd party, I intervened and told the CS advisor that I had called up not less than 4 hours ago and was straight away upgraded to 10mb.
He proceeded to tell me that it is just trialling, you have to get it through the trials team and you will only get speeds of about 5mb.
I told him that I had called CS and was getting full 10mb, being an ex-employee, I even showed him where in SABS he had to go to change it. (Yes, I'm a patrionising bas***d..:P)
To which he said he was not authorised to do so.

After all this, I told her to just wait until it officially rolled out and do it then.
So, 5th December rolls around, we both had mailshots telling us that 10mb was going to be available from this date..

So, she calls CS to get upgraded on the 5th, low and behold..
"10mb is still not available, new customers only"

So, again, she calls them, has me on conference call..
This time, the guy tells her, "It's just trialling at the moment, but I can upgrade you"

It took a long time, a lot of frustration, but we got there, yet it seems CS staff STILL were not in the know about the product, even on the day of launch!

It leads me to believe that NTL's CS team are not informed very well of new products and upgrades. Some seem to know, others don't.

I think that some learn from customers that new products are available, enquire about it with their managers and the like, and learn from that experience.

Others, flat out deny any such product exist and do this all day, don't bother to ask anybody, despite that fact they may have been asked about the product dozens of times.

The fact remains however, NTL are not communicating, or not communicating properly, to front line staff.

This certainly was the case when I worked @ NTL Tech in Newport, 2002-2004.

There was a comment that was frequently heard around the call-centre;
NTL, The complete communications company; except when it comes to communicating anything to their staff.

Seems this still stands true.

Tazfan · 08-12-2005, 18:25

My issue is now sorted. It turned out that my number no longer existed, and had to be reintroudced into the system. I was told this afternoon that it could take 48 hrs! I was not pleased. An hr later, I had a live phone again.

I still have to make back payments on something that I was told I didnt have to pay, but I now have a 10 MB connection, sooner than I thought I would get it.

tomw|neowin · 09-12-2005, 12:55

Personally I find them very hit and miss. You're lucky if you come across someone who is very helpful. I bet there are loads of competent guys on the helpdesk there but I always seem to end up with someone who isn't very helpful.

Exorcist74 · 18-12-2005, 00:01

Been with them since it came to my area (mid or late 80's),tv & internet (dialup then Cable), havent had a problen, the usual internet sub station going dead for a few min/hr or so, all in all, can't fault them.

dilli-theclaw · 30-12-2005, 14:27

I've had occasion to call them (customer services) three times over the last day and they've been polite and helpful each time. They seemed to know their stuff quite well too when I had some awkward questions

Mind you what I'd asked them to do hasn't happened yet (10mb to 2mb) and each time I've called back to ask if it's been done they assure me it has and all I need to do is reboot my modem, which I did while they were on the phone.

Still on 10mb, but I've been assured 3 times now that I'm on the 2mb billing.

edit - and a big thanks to a member here for sorting this out. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say who so I won't but you know who you are - you star you