ntl worst service in UK in poll

[Neil]

Originally Posted by ian@huth

Neil, am I going or are you?

Must be you!

Originally Posted by ian@huth

If that is how long it took me to get a reply I can only assume that this would be the answer. Are you suggesting that if it took me a couple of hours to get a reply then I should answer with two days?

Well I don't like to ass u me...

I didn't want to know what it took you to get a reply, what I wanted to know was how long (knowing ntl) do you think it would take to get a reply to an email sent today from their website (for example)?

Originally Posted by ian@huth

one example:

Do you accept that the poll on here about what you will do if hard capping is introduced is accurate or do you think it is highly flawed. What are your reasons for that decision?

I can't see how a poll based on the future can be either valid or invalid.

Is it 'flawed'? Can't really say yet can we?

The difference between that poll & the result of the worst customer service poll that ntl won, is that one is based on actual results/history, the other is based on specualtion of what may happen int he future.

Will people leave? Who knows, I did, not because of the cap, but because of the crap service.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Neil

Must be you!



Well I don't like to ass u me...

I didn't want to know what it took you to get a reply, what I wanted to know was how long (knowing ntl) do you think it would take to get a reply to an email sent today from their website (for example)?

God Neil, I cannot believe what you are saying. If my experience shows me that it took say 4 hours then that is the only answer I can give. It doesn't matter what anyone else may say or think.

Answer this. If it has taken you an hour to drive to work every day, how long do you think it will take you to drive to work (knowing the road)?

Originally Posted by Neil

I can't see how a poll based on the future can be either valid or invalid.

Is it 'flawed'? Can't really say yet can we?

The difference between that poll & the result of the worst customer service poll that ntl won, is that one is based on actual results/history, the other is based on specualtion of what may happen int he future.

Will people leave? Who knows, I did, not because of the cap, but because of the crap service.

No, the IMRA survey was speculation that all other NTL customers had the same opinion as the ones surveyed.

Even though the cap poll on here is based on future events I would say that it is very flawed and there is no way that the results of it will anyway tally with the percentage of customers they may lose.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by ian@huth

No, the IMRA survey was speculation that all other NTL customers had the same opinion as the ones surveyed.

No, the survey said that ntl came top in a survey for bad customer survey.

That simply means more people asked gave bad ffedback about ntl than anyone else-that's not speculation, it's fact.

Originally Posted by IMRS

NTL was yesterday named as providing the WORST customer service in Britain.

The communications firm moved up three places from last year to lead the league of shame.

Originally Posted by ian@huth

Even though the cap poll on here is based on future events I would say that it is very flawed and there is no way that the results of it will anyway tally with the percentage of customers they may lose.

But I'm not disagreeing with that, I said as it's in the future there's no way of knowing (yet)

[Jason1]

Well sorry folks in my experince if and when i need to call c/s there crap. Recent example, called to get dd date changed to be told sorry computer said no, cant be done as I only have broadband.

ntl's dd comes out 2 days before i get paid. So i gave them my debit card details instead and was told i would have to pay £2 non dd fee even though i wish to pay by that direct debit, but cant have it come out on a day i want.

As expected they still take it by direct debit instead of debit card.

Only good thing is this new harmony billing system only always under bills me paying £10.43 for 750bb.

There may be good ones but they never answer my call.

[h3adru5h]

Ok.... Neil appears to be following fale logic. It appears that due to the poor experience he has received, all customers must be experiencing the same as following the exact same logiv, the service is very ppor across the board.


This is, as I said, false logic.

On average, about 2% of ntl: customers make a complaint regarding the service received. Because ntl recently appeared on Watchdog, doesn't make them a bad company. Much like any other company run by human beings, there will undoubtedly be errors that (on the vast majority of cases) are avoidable. I am in no way belittling the poor experiences of the customers who appeared on Watchdog, however the 3 (THREE) people who appeared on the program is far from the total customer base of ntl:

Now before you start ranting - as I have already covered, roughly 2% of ntl customers complain. This is a statistic taken from OFCOM, the ONLY information you should really look into as realistic and accurate unlike a marketing survey which can be notorious for being innacurate or incorrect.

Please don't think I'm defending ntl, as I am instead offering an alternative view on this argument. So, a marketing research company has performed a survey of customers of several sectors. It's important to view this with scepticism however due to the fact that the amount of people questioned was not included to the results as well as the percentage.

It is sad then Neil may have been part of the 2% of customers who experienced poor service with a need to complaint. It's also important to mention that there is then the remaining 98% of customers who are somewhat satisfied/satisfied/very satisfied with the service. It is a very difficult uphill struggle to once again satisfy a dissatisfied customer - something I have worked hard to do in the past.

For clarification, please consult the OFCOM website for the league table of complaints.

Little side notes:

• No service (whichever company) is perfect. Unless someone invents the completely perfect, foolproof system then this will continue to be the case unfortunately.
• It is impossible to keep 100% of your customer base happy. As above - there is currently no perfect system in place. Errors that may annoy customers are on a whole fault related, human error or for reasons outside of ntl's control.

__________________

Originally Posted by Jason1

Well sorry folks in my experince if and when i need to call c/s there crap. Recent example, called to get dd date changed to be told sorry computer said no, cant be done as I only have broadband.

ntl's dd comes out 2 days before i get paid. So i gave them my debit card details instead and was told i would have to pay £2 non dd fee even though i wish to pay by that direct debit, but cant have it come out on a day i want.

As expected they still take it by direct debit instead of debit card.

Only good thing is this new harmony billing system only always under bills me paying £10.43 for 750bb.

There may be good ones but they never answer my call.

Sorry to hear that you too are dissatisfied with the services. This can however be resolved easily by keeping money to one side so you have the money in your account, ready for the direct debit when requested. This isn't a facetious comment but instead an option open to you. I agree that the systems may appear inflexible at times however you will only need to pay by debit card once and then, following the above routine, you can pay by direct debit.

Also, it is recommended that you call cusotmer services to advise them that you are not paying full price. By allowing yourself to be undercharged, you are in essence breaching the terms & conditions and as such opening up yourself to receive backdated charged for the periods you have been using the service without paying the full price. I mention this in order to avoid a further complaint.

Originally Posted by Neil

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)

No, i rang because my STB had failed and i wanted them to replace the STB and install a SACM as well
__________________

Originally Posted by Neil

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??

Good customer service doesnt equal a happy customer.

[robtufts]

Originally Posted by gary_580

Good customer service doesnt equal a happy customer.

It usually has a very close corrolation though.

[scrotnig]

Originally Posted by h3adru5h

Also, it is recommended that you call cusotmer services to advise them that you are not paying full price. By allowing yourself to be undercharged, you are in essence breaching the terms & conditions and as such opening up yourself to receive backdated charged for the periods you have been using the service without paying the full price. I mention this in order to avoid a further complaint.

Official policy is that overcharges are backdated but undercharges are not.

The worst that should happen is the charge gets backdated to the beginning of the current month or bill period.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by h3adru5h

It is sad then Neil may have been part of the 2% of customers who experienced poor service with a need to complaint. It's also important to mention that there is then the remaining 98% of customers who are somewhat satisfied/satisfied/very satisfied with the service. It is a very difficult uphill struggle to once again satisfy a dissatisfied customer - something I have worked hard to do in the past.

For clarification, please consult the OFCOM website for the league table of complaints.

Little side notes:

• No service (whichever company) is perfect. Unless someone invents the completely perfect, foolproof system then this will continue to be the case unfortunately.
• It is impossible to keep 100% of your customer base happy. As above - there is currently no perfect system in place. Errors that may annoy customers are on a whole fault related, human error or for reasons outside of ntl's control.

The fact that only 2% complain does not mean that 98% are (even somewhat) satisfied.

And some of the errors that annoy customers are most definetely not fault related. NTLs billing system is a shambles. I cancelled my services (which I was very happy with) in September, and so far, NTL have not been able to close the account. So, 6 months after cancelling, I am still being billed. I have been told on numerous occasions that the account is fully disconnected. Then it mysteriously reconnects again. I have now called NTL close to 10 times* (as they messed up my BB disconnection as well) and they are unable to disconnect my account. The last person I spoke to told me 'there was nothing she could do'. When I asked to speak to a manager, she told me there were no managers about, but she would arrange a call-back. Why am I not surprised that never came...

I am sorry, but I have never seen a company handle a disconnection so utterly incompetently, and I am not surprised at all they gained top spot in this survey (no matter how flawed it is/ may be).

*average wait times 20 minutes, if you don't get a busy tone and they don't tell you to call the number you have just dialled.

[h3adru5h]

Originally Posted by danielf

The fact that only 2% complain does not mean that 98% are (even somewhat) satisfied.

And some of the errors that annoy customers are most definetely not fault related. NTLs billing system is a shambles. I cancelled my services (which I was very happy with) in September, and so far, NTL have not been able to close the account. So, 6 months after cancelling, I am still being billed. I have been told on numerous occasions that the account is fully disconnected. Then it mysteriously reconnects again. I have now called NTL close to 10 times* (as they messed up my BB disconnection as well) and they are unable to disconnect my account. The last person I spoke to told me 'there was nothing she could do'. When I asked to speak to a manager, she told me there were no managers about, but she would arrange a call-back. Why am I not surprised that never came...

I am sorry, but I have never seen a company handle a disconnection so utterly incompetently, and I am not surprised at all they gained top spot in this survey (no matter how flawed it is/ may be).

*average wait times 20 minutes, if you don't get a busy tone and they don't tell you to call the number you have just dialled.

Ummm... ok.

Well... where do you get your facts from? You may wish to re-read my post as I stated clearly that the levels of satisfaction range from somewhat satisfied/satisfied/very satisfied. And again... we seem to be falling into the trap I mentioned - Because you have had poor service from ntl, does not mean every customer has received the same. I am sadly no longer in the postition to help you with this matter, but i'm sure there is someone here who is. Alternatively, you may wish to write to the complaints department if you strongly feel you are not getting anywhere with customer services.

Oh yeah... Scrotnig...
Undercharges are backdated in most cases.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by h3adru5h

Ummm... ok.

Well... where do you get your facts from? You may wish to re-read my post as I stated clearly that the levels of satisfaction range from somewhat satisfied/satisfied/very satisfied. And again... we seem to be falling into the trap I mentioned - Because you have had poor service from ntl, does not mean every customer has received the same. I am sadly no longer in the postition to help you with this matter, but i'm sure there is someone here who is. Alternatively, you may wish to write to the complaints department if you strongly feel you are not getting anywhere with customer services.

Oh yeah... Scrotnig...
Undercharges are backdated in most cases.

Facts: Ok, I probably should have said that my experience suggests that the billing system is a shambles, or that is was a shambles for me. However, a look at the billing section on this forum will show that I'm not the only person that experienced problems with billing. Frankly, the mind boggles as to why a disconnection needs to take 6 months and 10 calls to CS (assuming this has now been resolved, which I don't believe). And I can happily state that it is a fact that I have never has this much aggro over a disconnection.

Regarding satisfaction levels: I merely remarked that if a person doesn't complain that doesn't mean the customer does not have complaints. (I have so far, not complained).

I never suggested all customers have the same experience, in fact, I specifically mentioned I was very happy with the services I was getting from NTL.

[Chrysalis]

given my recent spat over been double billed for my broadband and their failure to recognise a bill from 1 feb to 31 march as double billing I have to give the thumbs down to CS Im afraid.

[ian@huth]

I have just received a response from IPT to the email I sent to IMRS.

Ian

<snipped for privacy purposes>

This was an independent survey carried out by IMRS, Internet Market Research Services. The sample size was 2,959 and asked respondents to nominate a brand/named business for best and worst customer service. Answers were free text.
The survey is no longer live.
Best wishes
CJ

[georgepomone]

Hi All,
what makes it worse is that PC World, Curry's and Dixons are better positioned than ntl. Three divisions of Dixon's Retail. A lot of us could go on about them as well. The only question I have with this is how can a cable company be compared with supermarkets. Everyone uses supermarkets but not everyone has access to cable. Not taking away the faults with ntl. In the same list as BT. Hardly a good way to compare.
George.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by h3adru5h

Oh yeah... Scrotnig...
Undercharges are backdated in most cases.

Not unless the policy has changed in the last 3 weeks (and no-one has mentioned it to any of the CS staff I still talk to).

No-one I know, or trained, would ever put a charge back on, and backdate it, if it was removed by error.