I have Quit NTL

[Andy E]

Hello everyone
On monday the 13th of october I walked out of my job at Ntl celtic faults,based in Belfast, the reason i,ve had enough. I've worked for Ntl directly for the past 8 months and indirectly as a contractor installer/ Eary Life Fault tech for 5 years,working directly for NTL is a lot better than being a contractor, you are actually treated as a human being, not like somthing that you've just stood in. The job at NTL that i applied for in Febuary was technical service rep. A manager at NTL (1 of the few good ones, lo JB ) suggested that i apply for it, he told me it would be right up my street, dealing with broadband faults 2nd line support, I jumped at the chance. So i applied and at the interview the emphasis was on computer knowledge, operating systems etc. So I gave a very good interview and two days later i got a phone call from someone in NTL (wish i could remember who) offering me a postion in the TSC. Great i thought, then i asked how much, 12k pa, I thought they were taking the ****, but no they were serious, but i was told not to worry, with my level of technical knowledge and my experience out in the field within 6 months i would be earning 15k plus, which although it didnt really impress me much, it was a hell of a lot better than 12k, and 2nd line support was somthing that i was really intrested in doing.
So i started on the 3rd march, there was a weeks induction followed by, 3 weeks systems training. I was trained by 2 wonderfull people Maeve and Jill B ,who still posts here. The first week of training covered telco faults, which i was a bit suprised at, seeing as how I was meant to be doing broadband second line support, the second week was digi faults, i thought wtf is going on here so i asked, only to be told that atm we would be working in faults but we would soon be taking second line broadband calls to ease the pressure on swansea who were up to their eyes in it. Well ok i thought, its not what i came here to do, but i'll stick with it for now and see what happens (should've known better).
So i did my training, bit boring cause i knew it already, but i towed the line and got on with it. and had a reallly good time in training, Training over, I was put into my team and started taking faults calls. Now working in a call center is a lot different than working as a tech out in the field, as a tech you are allowed a reasonable amount of time to diagnose and hopefully fix a fault. in a call center you are allowed 300 seconds, why.....well its to do with statistics, time spent on call, time spent on make busy,calls per hour, nothing at all to do with customer care, fault resolution etc.
I tried to get my head round this concept, but unfortunatley I thought I was there to help customers, but in reality its all about stats, now don't get me wrong i understand that there has to be a way to measure how csr's preform, but surely it should be measured on quality not quantity.
Managers in there arent intrested in fault resolution (with a few exceptions....lo Siobhan , lo Moira ), all they are intrested in is how their team preforms against the other teams in the call center, there are some damm good people working in belfast, who if given the time and the tools could make a hell of a difference to the overall customer expereince.But when you have managers interupting your calls, telling you that its not our problem pass them through to broadband support or customer care, it really really bugs me, and i cannot work like that, if a customer phones in with a problem , then IMHO the csr if they can help should help. not pass the customer from one department to another. For example a few months ago i had a call from a very irate customer in wales , who had been on hold for tech support for half an hour given up and tried faults instead. Now his modem was online according to my diag tools, but his pc kept showing "page cannot be displayed" ,after asking a few questions ,I discovered that he had removed the spyware"newdotnet" by simply deleting it, this im sure many of you will know totallly messes up your internet connection, so i got him to reinstall it (got it through i-mesh) and then go to add/remove and take it out from there. All the guy had to do then was reboot and presto he woould have been back online, but before I could tell him to reboot a (and i know personal attacks arent allowed on these forums,probably just as well) "manager" told me to pass him through to broadband support. That really really got to me , ffs it would only have been 2 more minutes and the guy would have been back online, and a happy customer. But no that doesnt help the call center stats so bye bye sorry but im not allowed to help you, you have to get back in the queue for broadband support. I have also on many occasions gone to customers houses in my own time, using my own diesel to help installers, who have been having problems with managed installs, these guys are my friends, i worked with them for years and if they ask me for help, then i will help them.
A certain "manager support" individual, went out with a tech for a job visit, to see what its all about, she asked the tech if he knew me, the guy said yep great guy, comes out to help us with pc issues in his own time. Apparentley this wanna be manager nearly took a buckle in her eye, and tried to start a big deal about this. Why ???? wtf has it got to do with her what i do in my own time. I dont ask the customers for any money for fixing their pc's I do it to help my friends. The same wanna be manager questioned me bringing my laptop into work, why did I bring it in ? . I brought it in to use as a tool to help customers, I have pdf manuals for most tv,s videos on it, plus a lot of other stuff i would use , in other words its a tool not a toy......it cost me 1500 quid and i was using it to help customers. Now lke Ant H I thought I could make a difference, how wrong was I ?. So on monday i walked the walk, had enough. I left in style my resignation letter is the talk of NTL belfast....lol. But I just couldnt do it anymore, and i would urge any customer phoning in, please pleasae take it easy on the csr,s, I know you have been waiting for a while in a queue but its not the csr's fault, 99% of them will try and help you the best they can, and if they do pass you on to another department its cause they have too....
I would like to thank a few people in belfast faults who really helped me.....firstly Jill B you are a star thanks so much, if i was the CEO i would make you the manager of celtic faults. Anita, Damo, Peter, Barry, Alan , Michelle m, Terry and Siobhan C....thankyou all so much..
What now ? well I've had a pretty rough year(personal stuff). I,m currently doing a degree part time in telecomms plus a CCNA, I think i'll go full time and finish it off.Good luck everyone

Andy E

[Page]

Well another NTL staff bites the dust then

Good Luck Andy

[Russ]

I was going to post the lyrics to Queen's Another one bites the dust but I don't want to be hit by a copyright court case...

Andy feel free to post as much about this incident as you wish

[Nor]

Need some paragraphs in there mate to make it easier to read.

yeah - good luck Andy, looks like another case of the people who deal with the customers being ignored, while those who don't deal, tell you how you should.

I hate all this "key Performance Indicator" stuff - imo if a manager has to resort to that, then they are not needed.

[Steve H]

Nice post mate, Shame they're forcing the decent people out

Oh well.. Moral of the story, Ask to speak to one of the %$£& managers (Then give them the grief)

Good Luck with whatever you decide to do..

[Andy E]

Russ there is no more, i was sitting there on monday, headset on taking calls, and my manager said somthing
, cant even remember what, i just went b*llox to this ,im not doing this anymore, went on make busy, cleared out my desk ,said goodbye to my team and walked out the door..........and that was it
I think some1 from belfast will post my resignation letter, im currently in spain and dont have a copy,
I cant take the credit for it, copied it from i-resign.com,
but apparently my managers jaw hit the floor when she read it.......lol

Andy E

[Andy E]

Just recieved the resignation letter from a friend

enjoy

Dear ******

After an appropriate period of deliberation, I have come to the decision to tender my resignation from NTL effective immediatley.

Please know that I still maintain a high level of respect for you as a manager and colleague, and I thank you sincerely for the support and assistance you have offered me in each of those roles. I have been proud to work for NTL over the past eight months; it has been a journey that has provided me an unparalleled foundation to move forward to new and exciting opportunities.

As such, I have decided to become a professional pirate. It has always been a dream of mine to live the life of a swashbuckling corsair, beholden to none and master of all I survey. Once my crew of unabashed rogues is assembled, we shall take to the capacious expanse of the high seas to pursue fortune, fame, and hair-raising adventure.

Our path may not be filled with the porcine comforts and technological marvels that NTL provides, but we shall nonetheless move forward to carve a name for ourselves in the annals of bold insurgency and death-defying derring-do. Once I have a keen blade at my hip and the Jolly Roger is flapping high above me, I believe I will find my true calling.

Please note that I am currently accepting applications for First Officer, if you are at all interested in applying. I will provide a full medical and dental plan, which will offer immediate coverage of all maladies other than scurvy and the occasional bout of rickets.

Sincerely
Andy E

[Nor]

Very good

[Frank]

Seems nothing has changed at ntl when it comes to call centre priorities. Strange, last I heard, they were changing the way call centres worked so the situations that Andy describes were avoided.

Join the club Andy, best to jump ship while you can mate, looks like ntl actually moving backwards now.

[erol]

Originally Posted by Frank

Join the club Andy,

Time for some 'Team NTL - Quit' T shirts maybe ?

[{FU}Fubar]

sorry to see you was unhappy with ntl, it really does amaze me that ntl can treat their staff this way, ah well looks like typicle ntl now, im taking bets for when the next person leaves

[Andy E]

Frank.......I've been an avid reader of your blog, excellent m8, It's a great shame when good people are forced out, good luck in whatever you do. respect m8
But unfortunatley in NTL the money men make the decisions, with incentive's currently in place to reduce truck rollls, and techs being told not to replace STB's (which let's face it folks are crap) unless it they are 100% sure its the box at fault, I can see things getting a lot worse before it gets better,
When i did my training, it was for 3 weeks, although I already knew my stuff, the training was excellent. But people who started after me were given, a weeks training then put on the phones, Not the trainers fault, but they needed people on the phones as quickly as possible, experienced csr's were helping them as much as possible, but by doing that they were affecting their own stats, its a no win situation.
when statistics govern you, the only winner is the money men,
I,m sorry folks but I just cant get my head round this concept, IMHO the people who pay our wages should come first, ie the customer,

Andy E

[Fingy]

On a personal note - Andy I miss you!!! The place just isn't the same.

On a work level you are a serious loss. Having someone in the call centre who worked in the field, installing and knows their way round all the equipment was an invaluable resource.

Take care dude, talk to you soon.

Jill B

[handyman]

Sorry to see you go Andy, Jill speaks highly of you..

Like you I did faults and resigned from my job, my resignation letter was not as good, though the email I sent round the dept after I left did turn a few heads. What I will say is you left at a good time, some of your managers where at Teesside not long before i left looking at a project called Online Diagnostics (OLD). OLD is simply a joke, take highly trained experienced staff then tell them they have to use a 1st line diagnostices package with as many holes in it as a tea bag. Then tell them they are wrong anf the computer is right and you instantly wind up all your best staff. I feal real sorry for Jillsy if Belfast does end up with this.

On the other hand imagine my amazement at my present job. I was on Tech support and I got a for a broadband registration in error, Asked how to transfer the call and was told na huh you take the call.

It does not matter what type of call comes through you handle it if you can, only if you can't do what comes through do you xfer or durect the customer to the right number.

And guess what most of the time except peak spots there are agents waiting to take calls. Oh and we are open 24/7 also.

Was sat on a hour call helping someone with a broadband problem for 54mins the other day, looking and waiting for someone to come over to tell me to wind up the call......but no one did.

Oks the moneys carp but the job is 100 times better than anything ntl can offer.

If ntl want to get close to offering decent customer service then they need to start addressing things from the bottom up over. Listen to the techs on the phones more, we always knew where the problems spot are and knew first. Most of the time they only interested in getting calls answered though not in sorting stuff out.

Once told one of the managers that they could lose 10 staff and still meet SLA's if done right thats £130,00 0 a year but no interest in actually improving the servioce offered. Constantly offered suggestions but none ever implemented, it's this bury your head in the sand and it will go away attitude that will be ntl's downfall in the end not some of the hard working staff that take the calls. Please go easy on them they have t0$$3rs for managers and can't help it.
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