GOOD LUCK

[kibblerok]

The best ones are where a customer is stopped on their new order when they have a large outstanding balance on their old account.

Seen a few where £xx credit was applied because it was slowing the install time (because it didnt have one) and the customers were annoyed we wouldnt proceed, an install was also given... needless to say those bills didn't get paid either....

ntl has a habbit of saying 'if we do x we will save this much money' and forget to mention that x then causes y and z and costs just as much, if not more than before

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by SOE

Since the NTL Telewest merger, things within the company have gone from bad to worse. Staff morale is at an all time low, and the general consensus is that the company has basically adopted an attitude of customers and network second, cost savings and making money for shareholders first. The few remaining staff, bearing in mind the constant threat of redundany, are overworked with little or no support from above. If a company treats it's employees in this manner, what chance for customers? The company is in total disarray with the 'synergies' not working and no plan from upper management to sort things out. You may think this is a rant by an unhappy customer or employee, but I can assure you that I am a relatively happy customer who has a very close friend within the organisation. What will be the long term effect to customers? I guess the title of this thread sums it up.

PLCs do suck BT have this problem as well.

---------- Post added at 21:11 ---------- Previous post was at 21:07 ----------

Originally Posted by scrotnig

I think one thing that's often forgotten is that no company woyuld care about customer satisfaction if it wasn't necessary to the profitability of the business.

There is often this sort of attitude going around of "ooh that's bad you should care about your customers" as if somehow that should be the first duty of any business. Well, whether people like it or not, actually the first duty of a business is to MAKE MONEY - be it for shareholders, directors, owners, etc etc. That is the sole and ONLY reason a business exists. Nobody does it because they want to "care for customers" or "give good customer service".

The customer care bit is only done to the minimum necessary to ensure the business can actually function and make a profit. One of the most abused phrases is "the customer is always right". This was initially intended to mean that when planning and running a business, you must always look at what the customer wants, otherwise you won't sell anything. However, it now gets used by people who haven't paid their phone bill for six months when they want another month of unrestricted service without paying anything! "I'm sorry, I cannot reconnect your services unless you pay your bill". "Eh, listen mate, the customer is always right, I want another month to pay..." etc etc.

Unfortunately, telephone companies have a largely appalling record on the whole customer service front. Some are getting better, but I doubt it will ever be perfect. When I worked at ntl, a senior manager once explained it like this....it is often better, when averaged out across the entire business, to let one customer leave rather than spend a fortune throwing good service at them, because it costs less money to acquire a couple of new ones. I'm not sure how true that is at ntl given the installation costs, but I can certainly see it being true at "resellers" such as TalkTalk.

This is true but compare companies that are privately owned to PLCs.

PLCs often mass sell and go for customer growth year on year if they dont get a increase in profits they are seen as a failure.

Privately owned companies are often satisfied with lower profits since its split between less people maybe only one person and are often customer focused.

Metronet isp is one good example of this as well as the isp I am with.

It would seem that NTL have no faith in their product because they go for the cheapest technology going knowing that they are going to have issues with customer satisfaction.
So the credits they do give out are offset by the money they saved in the first place on botch equipment, it is no more than a mathematical formula.
It is also common sense, why have wires going into a house that have taken time and expense to fit and not be maximising their existence? so when a cistomer calls with a threat to leave they will pull out the stops to keep them.
The other solution is for NTL to get better technology, they can then have the faith in the product, or atleast the failure rate would come down!
Then when a customer calls with a problem give them the benefit of the doubt but if after the period the customer calls back demanding another rebate thats where NTL have to draw the line, and let the customer decide whether they really want to cancel.