NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience - Page 49

Russ · 02-05-2006, 10:50

Phoned ntl last night because my browsing speeds were abysmal. I know there are some upgrades going on so I wanted to find out if that was happening in my area.

The CS said he couldn't see anything and put me through to Tech Support.

In India.

I explained my problem to the tech support guy who went through the usual procedure of trying to blame my router (only I don't have one) and then my firewall (same problem with or without it).

He then asked me to do a download speed test and I gave the results of 9.6mbps. As I'm on 10Mb he told me that is a very normal speed to get for that service.

"Yes I know" I replied.

And then......silence.

I then said "So what now?".

He replied that as my speed was normal for my service, he couldn't see a problem.

At this point I hung up. I made it clear at the start of the call that my problem was slow browsing speeds, not download speeds so why didn't he listen to me?

People like that should not be in tech support IMO.

Oh and as for my browsing problem, it seems to have cleared up now.

Chris W · 02-05-2006, 20:29

Have you filled in the responsetek form sir?!

Oh and it sounds like a proxy issue imo... If I were him i would have tried that as soon as you mentioned slow browsing problems.

NiceShoes · 04-05-2006, 09:21

No option but to vote AWFUL.

I always thought they were great - until I had to phone them. It was then that I realised how utterly useless they are. Now I actually DREAD having to phone them.

The technical support team are fine, they've always been really helpful but then my problem's never been anything specifically unusual (my mother was told "how should I know?" when she had trouble connecting a new laptop to the internet - 4 hours on the phone over 2 days, still nothing).

Their customer 'service' team in my opinion will tell you anything to get you off the phone - as I mentioned previously, they charged me for 6 films at my old address when i wasn't living there - my replacement bill has yet to materialise and they don't know the meaning of the word empathy. As a representative of NTL, they should stop being so blase and do what they're paid to do, i.e. fix the problem at first point of call.

And don't even get me started on their electronic menu system - for one that new Geordie voice, probably intended to be friendly and calm the irate customer down, but more so the fact that it tells you to call back at a convenient time and then cuts you off after listening to said Geordie voice for the best part of 5 minutes. Why would I ring if it was an inconvenient time? But then this is the crazy, upside-down world of NTL.

I work for a large telecoms company myself and if I treated my customers the way they do I'd not only have been sacked but I'd also feel very ashamed of myself.

Merlin99uk · 04-05-2006, 09:49

Never had a problem with CS, always polite and friendly. Recently had a problem with the phone line, was told they'd send a Techie out to me within 90 minutes...

They did !!

Sure enough, within 90 mins a techie was at the door!! Nice chap, problem was located and sorted (the cabinet on the corner of the street). He even came back next day to check everything was ok.

Broadband, well I think I've had maybe three periods of downtime in all the time I've been with NTL, (joined when they were still Cabletel. All were less than 6 hours and all late at night, I presume they were upgrades.

Makes me sometimes wonder why people have problems with them at all.

NiceShoes · 04-05-2006, 10:52

I don't know, maybe they just have it in for me

James Henry · 05-05-2006, 22:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merlin99uk

Makes me sometimes wonder why people have problems with them at all.

Had a couple of issues when I was with them. Some billing probs, some customer service probs, some CS-BS as well which wasn't appreciated. A few technical issues most resolved quickly, one took a very long time.

Overall a fairly poor experience.

mustangsally · 06-05-2006, 15:12

Up till recently i had no problems with ntl and in fact thought they were great after being with them for 3 years and in fact i told my MIL to use them they were so good,since i have moved however i have had nothing but problems mainly with customer services and the house moving team although i have to say i have never had any problems with the technical support team.So i have had to vote completely awful as we have had problems every day since moving

Monserrat · 12-05-2006, 15:15

NTL have been great - I give them 9.5/10. The only aspect that they lost out on was when I first called CS to actually sign up to NTL. This was September 2002 and it took me over an hour to get through to an agent. I gave up and tried a few days later and I only had to wait for a few minutes before I connected to an agent. Once I got talking though, the agent was very polite and helpful.

In June 2003, I moved to another house in the same town, just a mile away from where I was previously. I contacted CS, got straight through to an agent and arranged an engineer's visit so that I could get my existing NTL:120 modem wired up in the new place. This was no hassle at all.

In terms of downtime, I normally get 24 hours of downtime once per year. Last year was the worst when I was down for 6 days. The culprit was actually another house on the same road to where I live. The fault at that house caused my house to go offline too. It took more than one engineer visit because of the knock-on effect from the offending house. Took a while to discover it. Once again though, the engineers were nice and helpful.

This week, my NTL:120 modem went faulty in that it kept on rebooting itself and was rarely sync'ing. I managed to get a same-day engineer appointment. The 120 modem was exchanged for a new 250. Job done!

theboylard · 15-05-2006, 09:39

2p

Phoned ntl Saturday as I'm on the 1mb for a tenner deal they did last year, due to go up to normal price in June. Been wanting to upgrade for a while and as they were going to shift the 2mb to 4mb, I thought I'd better do it manually as I know their billing systems are awful - another story!!

Two rings, a bit of Geordie lad (less than a minute) then on comes Wayne.
Explain that I want to upgrade, he replies no problem. Looks at bits, fiddles around his end then tells me he can offer me the 2mb (with the June upgrade to 4mb) for ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£19.99 for the first 6 months.

Not one to turn down a nice offer, I take it!!!

But, (come on, there is always a but with ntl) the 2mb upgrade hasn't happened yet - still waiting for it to appear. Wayne did say that it would take 24hrs, I'll give it until Wednesday then start shouting.

I'll hold off the vote until then.

hapless
ps. If I'd voted 2 years ago it would be 'kin awful - I was treated terribly and it's still going through legal channels.

theboylard · 15-05-2006, 17:22

ok, update for you.

Looking at the modem config, nothing had changed so I thought I'd better call them and check up.

Spoke to one lad who didn't seem very sure of himself, so I got put through to "tech support" - in India

First he accused me of lying when I said I'd requested an upgrade! Nice CS skills, he'll go far!
Next he gave me wrong details and couldn't tell me what the MAC address of the cm was, I told him.
Following his instructions, we went through the online upgrade (why?!) where it kept failing with an error (because the password he supplied was wrong, and I read it back twice!!!!!) and eventually he said, his best CS hat on:
"I can't help you anymore, you'll have to do it yourself!"

Eh?!

So, off to pick the rugrats up, get home, on the phone again but a bit of a wait this time, then through to Mike in Swansea.
Fantastic, did it all there and then and went through all the old account stuff, he's calling me next week which saves a truckload of grief re the legal stuff.

So it's really a 2 bad, 1 good scenario for me - the initial call on Saturday - talked the talk but didn't walk it, the first call today which had me boiling and then Mike saved the day with a courteous and professional manner that was extremely efficient to boot.
Only wish I had a direct number for the lad!!!

Now I just wish I could get TVDrive here and I'd sign up for TV again, as long as Mike dealt with it!!!

All this praise sounds a bit gay, but it's not often a cs/ts rep impresses me!

hapless

tonecold · 21-05-2006, 02:04

I wouldn't hold your breath about that call "next week", I have also been told this and nothing at all happened.

Love the name tho hapless, I was a big Mark and Lard fan too

tonecold · 21-05-2006, 13:16

Quote:

I work for a large telecoms company myself and if I treated my customers the way they do I'd not only have been sacked but I'd also feel very ashamed of myself.

I coud say the same, except I'm in Tech Support for a software company, not telecoms. I would also actually expect to be fired and rightfully so.

*** sorry for the double post, The EDIT button wasn't showing up***

theboylard · 22-05-2006, 09:41

Stop....

Carry on!!

tonecold · 22-05-2006, 12:15

I'd say Waaaaaaap but last I heard there was still a shortage of them. Jobsagoodun

Raxor · 22-05-2006, 22:34

When i have phoned them up to request assistance, i had absolutely no problems. When i was first upgraded to 10meg i was having problems. I told them what it was and a tech came round the next day to change the modem. Had little problems after that.