NTL - What A Joke

[Widescreen]

10 O'Clock last night
Cable tv cuts off, no channels what so ever

12 Midnight last night
Broadband cuts off

Phone CS, We are aware of this problem..ect etc etc.

1 O'Clock today, broadband comes back on finally.

TV is still off, phone CS we are aware blah blah blah.

No bloody way, that it takes this long to fix a problem for the TV, more like they cant get any Engineers until Monday.

FFS...bloody off.

[paulyoung666]

hi and to the site , unless you are privy to insider info , how can you possibly say how low it will take to fix a problem , you only have to look at what happened to bt with the fire in a comms tunnel to realise that some things take more time than others

Originally Posted by Widescreen

10 O'Clock last night
Cable tv cuts off, no channels what so ever

12 Midnight last night
Broadband cuts off

Phone CS, We are aware of this problem..ect etc etc.

1 O'Clock today, broadband comes back on finally.

TV is still off, phone CS we are aware blah blah blah.

No bloody way, that it takes this long to fix a problem for the TV, more like they cant get any Engineers until Monday.

FFS...bloody off.

So lets say a main cabinet is taken out by a drunk driver,That could be up to 4800 subs, In your very knowlegable postion how long do you think it will take Networks to fix ?

[Widescreen]

Thanks for the welcome.

I cant say that the problem they have would take 5 mins. But they have had since 10 O'clock last night to get an engineer, get them to the location, and see what the problem was and how to fix it.

And i highly doubt it takes them this bloody long, and the only thing you hear when you phone them up, is..we are aware.

Feels like nowdays your paying money for nothing.

Originally Posted by Bill C

So lets say a main cabinet is taken out by a drunk driver,That could be up to 4800 subs, In your very knowlegable postion how long do you think it will take Networks to fix ?

And just to add, Last one like that i did took just over 28 hours.

[Widescreen]

Looks like Anubis wants a challenge

I'm not saying the problem they have isnt MAJOR or Time Consuming.

I'm more annoyed that they dont give you an explantion apart from we are aware.

I dont pay 60+ a month only to be told i know your TV service is off and we are working on a resolution shortly, i want them to tell me that a major cabinet was taken out , or at the very least tell me it could possiblly be a day or 2 ( as that is how it looks) before the problem can be sorted.

Then again, i cant win this "arguement"....i'm just expected to hand over my money, and hear a nice message telling me that " we are aware" while my TV shows a black screen.

Originally Posted by Bill C

So lets say a main cabinet is taken out by a drunk driver,That could be up to 4800 subs, In your very knowlegable postion how long do you think it will take Networks to fix ?

Originally Posted by Widescreen

Looks like Anubis wants a challenge

I'm not saying the problem they have isnt MAJOR or Time Consuming.

I'm more annoyed that they dont give you an explantion apart from we are aware.

I dont pay 60+ a month only to be told i know your TV service is off and we are working on a resolution shortly, i want them to tell me that a major cabinet was taken out , or at the very least tell me it could possiblly be a day or 2 ( as that is how it looks) before the problem can be sorted.

Then again, i cant win this "arguement"....i'm just expected to hand over my money, and hear a nice message telling me that " we are aware" while my TV shows a black screen.

Another Stargate Fan

I am not saying that is what the problem is btw.

I have to agree with you that better explanations should be given. I too dont like the "we are awhere of the problem" message.

If i hear what it was i will let you know.

Originally Posted by Widescreen

Then again, i cant win this "arguement"....i'm just expected to hand over my money, and hear a nice message telling me that " we are aware" while my TV shows a black screen.

No you can't. Most people would be happy to be told there is a known problem, rather than loads of technical details. While it might sound nice to have an ETA, people moan if there is still a fault after the ETA, and if you give a much longer ETA to stop this, people then moan it's going to take too long.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Bill C

So lets say a main cabinet is taken out by a drunk driver,That could be up to 4800 subs, In your very knowlegable postion how long do you think it will take Networks to fix ?

Ah, they would get the disaster recovery trailer out to get the node running again...... Oh hang on theres not enough engineers these days, and I wonder when they last did a disaster recovery excersize in most regions!

I remember a lot of effort being put into a fully operational node for SDH and CATV in South Wales a number of years ago, but I would doubt knowing the current management and lack of technicains/engineers if there would be a viable, workable plan in case of disaster.

In the old days at ntl everyone would pull together, and people not on-call would help out in cases of problems like that. I think these days poor staff morale caused by the company would generally mean the customers could go and take a running jump!

[Widescreen]

Thanks Bill C

Originally Posted by Paul M

No you can't. Most people would be happy to be told there is a known problem, rather than loads of technical details. While it might sound nice to have an ETA, people moan if there is still a fault after the ETA, and if you give a much longer ETA to stop this, people then moan it's going to take too long.

Basically and not just with NTL, your expected to pay every month, and when their is a problem with your service, then your expected to be quiet, as sir dosnt know what the problem is becuase sir hasnt been told, so sir should not complain unless he knows the full details, which he wont because we wont tell him. So we will just give sir a little wee message telling him we know that there is a problem and we are working on it, and if it takes us a day or 2 or 3 or 4, then sir can jump off a roof.

Oh..well...

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Widescreen

Basically and not just with NTL, your expected to pay every month, and when their is a problem with your service, then your expected to be quiet, as sir dosnt know what the problem is becuase sir hasnt been told, so sir should not complain unless he knows the full details, which he wont because we wont tell him. So we will just give sir a little wee message telling him we know that there is a problem and we are working on it, and if it takes us a day or 2 or 3 or 4, then sir can jump off a roof.

Oh..well...

Welcome to Cableforum (before I start).


Now, the problem with giving people more info is simply how much do you tell them? If you tell most of NTL's customers too much detail, you will just confuse the hell out of them (as 99.9% probably aren't even technical, let alone network engineers). If you give too little, you sound like you are fobbing them off..

I am in a similar situation in work (I do tech support). If a user loses access to their home area, if I tell them the SAN has crashed, most would think I was speaking Swahili. If I tell them it's being investigated, they can understand that.

[Widescreen]

I Agree with you and should have pointed this out earlier.
When someone does phone up and like what NTL does already, you tell them it's being investigated.

But when the problem is still there 20hours later, are you still supposed to fob them off with, we are aware, we are working towards a resolution.

My ntl got cut off 10 last night and at this very momment is still not on, and proably wont for the rest of the night/morning.

So that will be a day and a couple of hours of no service.
A Service which i pay for, remember its not free.

They dont even have a site that informs you of TV outages, that i am aware of, and if i'm wrong, please tell me so. So when i cant get an update via phone i would at least like to log on the net and see if any news, hell they should have one anyway, so i dont have to phone them up.

Are you NTL tech guys informed every hour or 2 hours off whats happening by the engineers, so you get actual direct info on what the problem is, how many engineers are being called out, what the progress is? and possible eta.

Originally Posted by scastle

Welcome to Cableforum (before I start).


Now, the problem with giving people more info is simply how much do you tell them? If you tell most of NTL's customers too much detail, you will just confuse the hell out of them (as 99.9% probably aren't even technical, let alone network engineers). If you give too little, you sound like you are fobbing them off..

I am in a similar situation in work (I do tech support). If a user loses access to their home area, if I tell them the SAN has crashed, most would think I was speaking Swahili. If I tell them it's being investigated, they can understand that.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Widescreen

I Agree with you and should have pointed this out earlier.
When someone does phone up and like what NTL does already, you tell them it's being investigated.

But when the problem is still there 20hours later, are you still supposed to fob them off with, we are aware, we are working towards a resolution.

My ntl got cut off 10 last night and at this very momment is still not on, and proably wont for the rest of the night/morning.

So that will be a day and a couple of hours of no service.
A Service which i pay for, remember its not free.

They dont even have a site that informs you of TV outages, that i am aware of, and if i'm wrong, please tell me so. So when i cant get an update via phone i would at least like to log on the net and see if any news, hell they should have one anyway, so i dont have to phone them up.

There is a site that informs about known broadband outages. I believe the link is at the bottom of each page on this site.

Are you NTL tech guys informed every hour or 2 hours off whats happening by the engineers, so you get actual direct info on what the problem is, how many engineers are being called out, what the progress is? and possible eta.

Just so you know, I am not an NTL tech. Infact, I don't work for NTL.

However, various members do (Bill C is one).

[Widescreen]

Well still the same

Phoned ntl as i wanted to know exactly what the problem is.

But having been on hold for 20 mins on - please hold, we would like to take your call made me crazy.

So if anyone working with NTL is on here, knows what is causing this problem in Glasgow, please please feel free to share.

[Jules]

Welcome to the forum
I understand your frustration I would want to know what is causing the problem as well