Thanks, NTL, and goodbye!

[aggie]

My off-net account is being closed on Monday, as I've had wireless broadband installed - the only broadband option ever likely to be available in this rural area.

Over the last four years I have, on the whole, been very happy with the service. There have been problems from time to time but, I'm sure, no worse than most ISPs, and at £15 a month, with £15 worth of voice calls included, my internet connection has been effectively free.

Maybe I've been lucky, but I've seldom had occasion to call Customer Services, so can't comment on the quality of the service before the last month or so, since when I've called several times concerning cancelling my account and billing. Each time the call has been answered very quickly, and my questions have been dealt with in a very friendly, helpful and efficient manner. The only exceptions to this have been when I've got through to CS in India, when I've had great difficulty understanding the strong accents, and the information I've been given has been wrong. I began to hang up as soon as I heard an Indian accent and call again, choosing a different menu option. The transfer to India of the Freedom CS is the one thing that would have made me consider cancelling my account with NTL for another dial-up ISP.

I shan't be sorry to stop visiting this site. I joined here when dot com closed, thinking it might be useful, but I've found many of the moderators only interested in slamming NTL. Anyone with a good word for any aspect of the service gets flamed.

Anyway, I just wanted any CS staff who visit these forums to know that some customers are grateful for their help. Maybe you get what you give? Be polite and friendly to them and they'll be more inclined to reply in a similar fashion and make extra effort to sort out your problems. I'm sorry that your job security is in doubt, largely because of the out-sourcing of the services to India, a regrettable trend being adopted by so many UK companies. Thanks to you all for your help and patience, and goodbye.

Anita Gibbs
aka Aggie

[asdf]

Anita.. Not all of us are like the moderators (some of the moderators aren't as bad as some of the others either) and the more the merrier here.

Please stay

[Nikko]

I am sure any ntl CS staff will be gratified by your comments Anita - (well the UK based ones anyway )

Just because you have changed providers you can still contribute here - there are numerous threads/topics I find interesting beyond ntl bashing and the level of immediate technical support found here is hard to source anywhere on the net - so as asdf says - stick around

[Charlie_Bubble]

Originally Posted by aggie

My off-net account is being closed on Monday, as I've had wireless broadband installed - the only broadband option ever likely to be available in this rural area.

Over the last four years I have, on the whole, been very happy with the service. There have been problems from time to time but, I'm sure, no worse than most ISPs, and at £15 a month, with £15 worth of voice calls included, my internet connection has been effectively free.

Maybe I've been lucky, but I've seldom had occasion to call Customer Services, so can't comment on the quality of the service before the last month or so, since when I've called several times concerning cancelling my account and billing. Each time the call has been answered very quickly, and my questions have been dealt with in a very friendly, helpful and efficient manner. The only exceptions to this have been when I've got through to CS in India, when I've had great difficulty understanding the strong accents, and the information I've been given has been wrong. I began to hang up as soon as I heard an Indian accent and call again, choosing a different menu option. The transfer to India of the Freedom CS is the one thing that would have made me consider cancelling my account with NTL for another dial-up ISP.

I shan't be sorry to stop visiting this site. I joined here when dot com closed, thinking it might be useful, but I've found many of the moderators only interested in slamming NTL. Anyone with a good word for any aspect of the service gets flamed.

Anyway, I just wanted any CS staff who visit these forums to know that some customers are grateful for their help. Maybe you get what you give? Be polite and friendly to them and they'll be more inclined to reply in a similar fashion and make extra effort to sort out your problems. I'm sorry that your job security is in doubt, largely because of the out-sourcing of the services to India, a regrettable trend being adopted by so many UK companies. Thanks to you all for your help and patience, and goodbye.

Anita Gibbs
aka Aggie

Completely understand about the Indian call centre thing. I'm working on a project at the moment with about 30 indian guys who have come over to the UK to work on it. They're nice people, but some of them do have heavy accents and only a couple of them are 100% understandable and fluent. You can get by with the ones that aren't when you are stood next to them, but on the phone I think I'd struggle.

[Charlie_Bubble]

Originally Posted by Nikko

I am sure any ntl CS staff will be gratified by your comments Anita - (well the UK based ones anyway )

Just because you have changed providers you can still contribute here - there are numerous threads/topics I find interesting beyond ntl bashing and the level of immediate technical support found here is hard to source anywhere on the net - so as asdf says - stick around

Yeah, plenty of non-technical and non-ntl topics to post about.

[Marge]

Yeh don't be put off by the Indian conx, even I lost the will to live after having had to speak to them on a customers behalf

Stick around cos it's not toooooooo bad round here

[aggie]

Thanks, guys and gals. I agree some of the mods, and some of the members, aren't so bad. I just get p*****d off with the constant NTL bashing from some of them.

After these replies I guess I'd better stick around

Anita

[Florence]

Originally Posted by aggie

Thanks, guys and gals. I agree some of the mods, and some of the members, aren't so bad. I just get p*****d off with the constant NTL bashing from some of them.

After these replies I guess I'd better stick around

Anita

Great we don't like to lose anyone and all members get p****d off occasionally about almost anything... I find if a thread is really annoying I avoid reading it...

Have to watch out for those Indian call centers they are all using them the banks, BT, NTL, Dell computers the only place that has seen sense is the the catalogue company they have withdrawn from the Indian call center and brought it back to the UK after customers complained. They Listened to the customers lets hope others follow before its too late.

[Frank]

Originally Posted by aggie

I shan't be sorry to stop visiting this site. I joined here when dot com closed, thinking it might be useful, but I've found many of the moderators only interested in slamming NTL. Anyone with a good word for any aspect of the service gets flamed.

Erm I think that is a rather sweeping statement to make, and completely untrue for that matter. There are many posts on these forums to prove the contrary to what you say.

Originally Posted by Frank

Erm I think that is a rather sweeping statement to make, and completely untrue for that matter. There are many posts on these forums to prove the contrary to what you say.

There are also many posts that support it. There is a lot of NTL bashing on this site, you cannot possibly not see it.

Some of it is justified - there are many aspects of NTL that need improving (as with most large organisations) and some areas of NTL seem to be much better than others.

However, some of the bashing is just done for the sake of it, by certain people who seem to like having a dig as often as they can. It is this aspect that annoys and can drive people away (including the NTL staff).

[Frank]

Originally Posted by pem

There are also many posts that support it. There is a lot of NTL bashing on this site, you cannot possibly not see it.

Oh I see it, believe me, and I think it is a shame. I'm not arguing with that point at all, but the statement made by aggie was completely unjustified.

I've found many of the moderators only interested in slamming NTL.

B******s - I don't know one moderator who only "slams" ntl in their posts.

Anyone with a good word for any aspect of the service gets flamed

Again, a sweeping generalisation. There are many people who have good things to say about ntl's service, and you yourself are one of them pem. But of course you don't get flamed every time you post something positive, do you?

[supered]

Originally Posted by pem

There are also many posts that support it. There is a lot of NTL bashing on this site, you cannot possibly not see it.

Some of it is justified - there are many aspects of NTL that need improving (as with most large organisations) and some areas of NTL seem to be much better than others.

However, some of the bashing is just done for the sake of it, by certain people who seem to like having a dig as often as they can. It is this aspect that annoys and can drive people away (including the NTL staff).

l'll second that

Originally Posted by Frank

Oh I see it, believe me, and I think it is a shame. I'm not arguing with that point at all, but the statement made by aggie was completely unjustified.
[/i]
B******s - I don't know one moderator who only "slams" ntl in their posts.

Again, a sweeping generalisation. There are many people who have good things to say about ntl's service, and you yourself are one of them pem. But of course you don't get flamed every time you post something positive, do you?

Indeed, I was not totally supporting aggies view - in fact the more I read their post the more I tend to disagree with it myself.

There are no moderators here who "only" slam NTL - there was one came close to this just after the closure of .com - however, he seems to have lightened up in recent weeks.

And you are right - people who post the good points are not always flamed, I (and many others) are proof of that.

NTL are poor in some areas - but they are very good in others. I am fortunate that in my area they seem to be very good - I rarely get problems, and when I do, they are generally sorted out in a reasonable time. If they don't then I will be there pointing this out with the best of em.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by aggie

Thanks, guys and gals. I agree some of the mods, and some of the members, aren't so bad. I just get p*****d off with the constant NTL bashing from some of them.

After these replies I guess I'd better stick around

Anita

A lot depends on what you classify as "NTL bashing". There are a lot of comparisons made between NTL services and prices and those of their competitors. If I say that Sky has a seven day epg and NTL only have three days does that constitute NTL bashing or is it just a fair comparison of services in which NTL comes out as the poorer service?

I will post my views on what NTL products have been like for me but that doesn't mean that they will be the same for everyone and I can appreciate that some cusomers will have a perfect service from NTL in an area that I have had a bad service and vice versa.

When I had NTL DTV I was always having problems, but when I contacted them in Nottingham they were always quick to answer and quick to get an engineer out, usually within a few hours. I could not have asked for a better service from them, only problem was that nothing ever solved the problems for long.

I do not think there is NTL bashing as such, there will always be the 'rants' now and again, but this is to be expected as this is nthellworld. This is in no-way an excuse for the site to be a 'rant' site but more of a place for constructive criticism, a place to seek help from others and to share thoughts and solutions for better service quality.