ntl worst service in UK in poll

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Neil

Oh do be quiet-you are talking out of your rear end.

Unhappy customers=no business.

Neil, that is true to a certain extent (not the bit about gary_580 talking out of his rear end), but any company has to strike a balance between good service and the cost of providing a good service. Admittedly, NTL sometimes seems more interested in the cost of providing a good service than it is in the good service itself.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by gary_580

Not true.

It is true I'm afraid-how can you openly say that looking after customers is not important??

Originally Posted by gary_580

The company i work for has decided that customer service is of little importance and actively manage their call centre to the lowest level of staff possible

So just because your employer thinks customers aren't important, that means it's ok for every other company in the world to adopt that attitude does it?

Originally Posted by gary_580

The point in being in business and the only point is to make a profit

Tell me-how does any company make a profit with no customers?



Let me just read that again....

Originally Posted by gary_580

company i work for has decided that customer service is of little importance

Ok....

Originally Posted by gary_580

and actively manage their call centre to the lowest level of staff possible.

Right-so when your firms customers get fed up of the clear lack of importance placed on them & go elsewhere, & your firm goes bust, how are you going to feel about that?

Will is still be OK?

Originally Posted by Neil

[Edit]-On a more serious note Gary, how happy would you be paying the going marlket rate for a product, to a company that has no real interest in being high up when it comes to satisfaction awards?

I do (Apparently ) I get my BB, TV and Phone from NTL. Do i think they provide a reasonable service for the £'s i pay. Yes sir! Do i think they're a fautless company. Of course not.

My personal experience with NTL is that ive used them ever since they took over my local franchise of C&W which is probably about 8 years ago if i remember correctly. How many problems have i had with the services?

Phone = 0
BB = 1
TV = 1

The BB issue i had was a couple of years back when they had a general problem in my area after a thunderstorm about 2 years ago which took them about a month to resolve. The TV problem was where i kept losing channels and again it took them about a month to "totally" resolve it. Both cases i agree it took too long but then again 2 faults in the 8 years isnt too bad IMHO.

How long did it take to get answered when i called, varied from instant to 20 mins but then agin i dont really care about that as i dont call them very often. How long does it take to get an eng to my house, my experience has usually been within 24hrs. On one occassion it was within 10 minutes which caused me to ask the eng jokingly "Got nothing to do!!"

So, at the end of the day im happy with what i pay (as its discounted ) and im happy with the devil i know than the ones i dont.

Its that representative of the world, who knows! but i also dont regard the watchdog view of the world as representative either.

[ian@huth]

The biggest problem that I have with that survey by IMRS is that it is almost certainly conducted on the internet and its results are seriously flawed because of this. If you look at the worst companies reported in the survey they are virtually all connected with computer companies and communications companies that provide internet access, something that the respondents all use. I wonder what the results would have been if the survey was repeated on the ground with market researchers asking the questions face to face in a large shopping centre.

Originally Posted by Neil

Tell me-how does any company make a profit with no customers?

Well i guess it all depends an what your after in a company and what the company does. If for example i invest 1000's of pounds with an investment company. I might not be too interested in how fast they answer the phone when i call them or how fast they send a letter to me, what i am interested in is the profit they make and then share with me. If im getting one of the best returns on my investment then im likely to stay wit that company regardless of what customer service i receive

Agreed NTL are different and as scastle has so rightly pointed out, there is a balance between cost and customer service level and NTL havent got that balance right. However im sure that customers wouldnt be prepared to pay more for extra customer service staff.

[Neil]

So do you pay the price that ntl charge the rest of it's customers for your products, or do you pay a discounted rate?

You seem to pay a discounted rate, now that would imply you are happy with the products for the price you pay.

So I'll ask you again-would you be happy be paying ntl for their products at their full asking price?

Clearly the answer will be no as you must have complained to get that discount.....

Now that blows all your theories apart, as you were unhappy paying full price for a second rate service.

Now that you pay the discounted rate for the same services you are satisfied, so where does that leave the rest of ntl's customers that pay full price & get messed around by all the CS-BSâ ¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢?

As I suggested earlier, take a look through our Billing forum to get an idea of how how poorly ntl can treat their customers: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=34

But you probably already know seeing as you have a nice discount....

[leeswin]

i didnt even kno the survey was out there, how can it be fair when hardly anyoone knows about it?


if it was me i would have voted for orange afraid!!!

[Nemesis]

But the issue here is How ntl deal with a problem, not how good the service is.

It seems obvious that the actual services are fine, the bone of contention is when one of those services goes wrong .....

[Neil]

Originally Posted by gary_580

Well i guess it all depends an what your after in a company and what the company does.

No it doesn't, you can;t make a profit with no customers.

Originally Posted by gary_580

If for example i invest 1000's of pounds with an investment company. I might not be too interested in how fast they answer the phone when i call them or how fast they send a letter to me, what i am interested in is the profit they make and then share with me. If im getting one of the best returns on my investment then im likely to stay wit that company regardless of what customer service i receive

We're not talking about an investment company where you expect a risk. We are talking about a company that provides TV/Phone/BB, where it's not unreasonable to expect a good level of customer service.

Originally Posted by gary_580

Agreed NTL are different and as scastle has so rightly pointed out, there is a balance between cost and customer service level and NTL havent got that balance right.

You don't say!?

Originally Posted by gary_580

However im sure that customers wouldnt be prepared to pay more for extra customer service staff.

Correct-& why should they when they can pay the same amount of money to an ISP with a good customer service reputation, instead of a mickey mouse one like ntl?

Let's just do the maths here....

£720 per year of your hard earned cash (average £60.00 per month for TV/Phone BB) to a company whose poor customer service is well known & well documented.

Or.....

£720.00 per year of your hard earned cash (average £60.00 per month for TV/Phone BB) to a company/companies whose good customer service is well known & well documented.

I'll get back to you on that one.....
__________________

Originally Posted by Nemesis

But the issue here is How ntl deal with a problem, not how good the service is.

It seems obvious that the actual services are fine, the bone of contention is when one of those services goes wrong .....

I am referring to Customer Service, not how reliable the BB/DTV/Phone is or isn't.

It's not the products ntl suffer with primarily, it's what happens when you ring them to (try to) get an issue resolved quickly & efficiently.

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by Neil

I am referring to Customer Service, not how reliable the BB/DTV/Phone is or isn't.

It's not the products ntl suffer with primarily, it's what happens when you ring them to (try to) get an issue resolved quickly & efficiently.

.... erm .... thats what I was saying

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Neil

So do you pay the price that ntl charge the rest of it's customers for your products, or do you pay a discounted rate?

You seem to pay a discounted rate, now that would imply you are happy with the products for the price you pay.

So I'll ask you again-would you be happy be paying ntl for their products at their full asking price?

Clearly the answer will be no as you must have complained to get that discount.....

Now that blows all your theories apart, as you were unhappy paying full price for a second rate service.

Now that you pay the discounted rate for the same services you are satisfied, so where does that leave the rest of ntl's customers that pay full price & get messed around by all the CS-BSâ ¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢?

As I suggested earlier, take a look through our Billing forum to get an idea of how how poorly ntl can treat their customers: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=34

But you probably already know seeing as you have a nice discount....

That reasoning is highly illogical. I cancelled my NTL phone line a couple of years back because NTL call charges had become more expensive than BTs for my usage. I was not cancelling because I was receiving a bad customer service or a bad telephone service, just a cost issue. NTL retention called me and offered me free talk unlimited for a year to stay with them. This swung the balance in favour of NTL cost wise so I took the discounted deal and stayed.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by ian@huth

That reasoning is highly illogical. I cancelled my NTL phone line a couple of years back because NTL call charges had become more expensive than BTs for my usage. I was not cancelling because I was receiving a bad customer service or a bad telephone service, just a cost issue. NTL retention called me and offered me free talk unlimited for a year to stay with them. This swung the balance in favour of NTL cost wise so I took the discounted deal and stayed.

Not really a relevant comparison IMO Ian, as your 'beef' wasn't CS related, it was price related.

Originally Posted by Neil

So do you pay the price that ntl charge the rest of it's customers for your products, or do you pay a discounted rate?

You seem to pay a discounted rate, now that would imply you are happy with the products for the price you pay.

So I'll ask you again-would you be happy be paying ntl for their products at their full asking price?

Clearly the answer will be no as you must have complained to get that discount.....

Now that blows all your theories apart, as you were unhappy paying full price for a second rate service.

Now that you pay the discounted rate for the same services you are satisfied, so where does that leave the rest of ntl's customers that pay full price & get messed around by all the CS-BSâ ¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢?

As I suggested earlier, take a look through our Billing forum to get an idea of how how poorly ntl can treat their customers: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=34

But you probably already know seeing as you have a nice discount....

They offered me a £10 a month discount for a year the last time i had a problem. I didnt ask for a reduction and wasnt expecting one, in fact i was amazed when they offered it. Im not going to say no to discount, however i would have still payed the full price if i had to and been happy with it.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Neil

Not really a relevant comparison IMO Ian, as your 'beef' wasn't CS related, it was price related.

No Neil, gary said he was getting a discount so you presumed it was because he had complained. I was pointing out that some people get discounts even though they have no complaint about the service itself. Look at all those customers getting 12 month discounts as new customers and why they are getting the discounts.

I have emailed IMRA regarding the survey but no response as yet. Perhaps they have a poor customer service department or something to hide.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by gary_580

They offered me a £10 a month discount for a year the last time i had a problem. I didnt ask for a reduction and wasnt expecting one, in fact i was amazed when they offered it. Im not going to say no to discount

So why phone to complain, why not just carry on paying full price?

Originally Posted by gary_850

however i would have still payed the full price if i had to and been happy with it

Sorry Gary, but I don't believe you (I'm not calling you a liar here BTW ), but you rang to complain about substandard service, & the fact that you were paying full price for a less than full product (hence the discount to make up for it)

You phoned (rightly) to complain about paying full price for a poor product/service-so tell me, what would happen if ntl didn't offer these 'sweeteners' to people like you, due to the fact that (like your company) happy customers weren't a priority??

What would happen is people would leave in their droves & give their money to a company that did care about them, that's what.
__________________

Originally Posted by ian@huth

No Neil, gary said he was getting a discount so you presumed it was because he had complained.

And I was 100% correct-I pay attention to what foes on regarding my site Ian.

Originally Posted by ian@huth

I was pointing out that some people get discounts even though they have no complaint about the service itself.

Agreed-just as you did, but if you hadn't been offered it you would have been a BT customer now, yes?

Originally Posted by ian@huth

Look at all those customers getting 12 month discounts as new customers and why they are getting the discounts.

Those are budgeted for Ian, CS cock up/rebates aren't.

Originally Posted by ian@huth

I have emailed IMRA regarding the survey but no response as yet. Perhaps they have a poor customer service department or something to hide.

Perhaps, but it's only been a few hours.

How quickly do you think ntl would respond to a similar email query do you think?