It's really getting on my nerves now...

[Ignition]

Losing connection all together or news download stuttering?

[Pian]

Drops completely for 10-30 secs.

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by Pian

Ummm .... I got my cable renewed at your suggestion. Was this a waste of time? It certainly hasn't improved things. I am still getting regular drop-outs when dl'ing from news.ntlworld.com.

Any other suggestions?

can't remember exactly what your situation was, but things would have led me to a cabling issue if a suggest that for you.

I can find no HFC issues with mrliprings connection, thus imo a repull would be pointless.

[Pian]

Just to give you the full picture:
CMX modem (so hard to do diags)
3mb service
Monkeybreath said that he could see my modem was going at full output amplification, so suspected that transient network issues made the modem reset; suggested that a new cable pulled through would sort me out.
Duly done, with no effect.
__________________

Sorry - BBKing (not Monkeybreath) told me my signal level was the issue.

Apologies.

[mrlipring]

too busy to phone them and be stuck on hold for 30 minutes at the moment, but i'll get onto it later and let y'all know how i get on.

[mrlipring]

Ok, got off the phone to them there.

Incidentally, it broke again 10 minutes after my last post. Definitely not fixed. lol

Had some stuff to do, and called them again at 17:10. Got through maybe 15 minutes later, and had to explain EVERYTHING to the guy. Line was terrible too, couldn't make out what he was saying. Turn your headset up! Anyway, he made me go through everything again (read the notes on the account, ffs) and didn't quite seem to get it. He asked me what i wanted him to do.

I don't know, nothing else has worked yet. It's not my job to solve problems with it. The amount of time i've spent on the phone lately, it's beginning to FEEL like a job, but until i start getting a cheque for it, i'll assume it's his job. After much confusion over whether i was due another tech appointment, whether i wanted one, him generally not getting what i was saying (due to the bad line, i'm assuming), he popped me into the queue for appointments.

20 minutes later, the appointments guy answers... Tells me i need to talk to TS... I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this point.

Explain to him that i HAD just spoken to TS, and that it was TS that put me in the queue FOR appointments.

He made me one for tomorrow afternoon, but i fail to see what this technician will do that the others couldn't.

I can't really fault tech support (either by phone or on here) or the technicians, because they genuinely have tried a lot of things, and they seem as puzzled as me, but it's beginning to drag out now.

Right at this moment i'd be happy to be shot of NTL. My girlfriend would miss the music channels, but apart from that, there's nothing we get from the service that BT/DSL couldn't give, for less money and (fingers crossed) less head/wall interaction.

Originally Posted by mrlipring

<Snip>

Not heard of sky i take it

[jaycee]

I think what you should do, is the following.

Ring cancellations.. tell them you want to cancel your ENTIRE package.

When they ask why and if you'd reconsider, say "Well unless you get a SENIOR ENGINEER out here who can make my setup WORK RELIABLY, then no, I'll get my services from Sky and BT"

This, I have found, works wonders.

[mrlipring]

Originally Posted by Angelus

Not heard of sky i take it

I preferred you when you were Angel, he was less of a smart arse.

TBH mate i've only got Digital TV because it was part of the service, and i thought "why not". It's a rented flat, and a big old sandstone thing, so i wouldn't want to stick a sky dish on the side of it, and i'm fairly sure the landlord wouldn't allow it.

Personally, i rarely watch anything except BBC1,2,3 and channel 4. All channels i receive through freeview, and with better picture quality than NTL offers. Whether that's a decoding hardware problem or not, i don't know, but i'm beginning to meander.

Basically, i don't want a dish, and neither would my landlord.

Originally Posted by jaycee

I think what you should do, is the following.

Ring cancellations.. tell them you want to cancel your ENTIRE package.

When they ask why and if you'd reconsider, say "Well unless you get a SENIOR ENGINEER out here who can make my setup WORK RELIABLY, then no, I'll get my services from Sky and BT"

This, I have found, works wonders.

I've got another engineer appointment for tomorrow afternoon, so i'll see how that goes. The thing that ****es me off the most is all the different stuff i've been told. Some people have said they haven't been able to see a problem with my line. Some say the power levels are borderline. Some say they tweaked something and it might be better now... I've been told there are local problems they're aware of and are getting fixed, but nobody else has been able to confirm it.

One straight answer as to what's going on would be great. If they don't know what's wrong, why not just admit it?

yikes, still not fixed or even close to being fixed then...

im sorry to say that NTL are okay when things work, but they are a nightmare when they dont. It sometimes really feels like they dont even know their own network as it is such a nightmare to get these things fixed...

if they dont fix it or offer you major incentives, just dump them and move to someone who does have a clue...

[mrlipring]

I'm not naive enough to suggest that any other company would give better service. your average bod in the call centre treats it as a job. Some have actual knowlege of the field, but most are about as interested as they would be in a taxi callcentre, a phone banking service, or whatever else. They're also kept in the dark most of the time, and only know what they're told. If they're fed crap about it being a local problem, they'll tell us that.

Tomorrow will be the fourth engineer visit. If it's not fixed after tomorrow, they obviously don't know what's wrong, and don't care/can't fix it, so i'll be off elsewhere.

It's annoying, because i've had good speeds when it works, pings have been good for gaming, and all interaction with staff/engineers has been pleasant on the whole. Often staff have gone above and beyond, especially on here.

Glad that (being a hoarder) i still have my old ADSL modem i used at my last flat. I *nearly* gave it away to a friend.

I dunno, I use zen for the DSL connection in the office and on the very rare occasion ive called their tech support, ive always come away feeling like ive been talking to someone who really knows their stuff and its only ever been a one call thing.

probably more the small company Vs large company thing, but i know i would have zero qualms about dropping NTL and going to zen if i ever had problems like i did a couple of years back (no DSL back then, ntl was the only choice!).

[mrlipring]

yeah, i guess so. I don't imagine that Zen have a call centre in the same sense as NTL do.

ah well. A good few hours of Halo 2 there has cheered me up. Just wait until tomorrow evening.

[Chrysalis]

I agree with you there, the poor souls in TS may annoy the hell out of me but at the end of the day they are doing what they told, if they fob us of saying pc problem that is because the management have told them to do that, I think it would help tho if they recruited people who had some sort of knowledge of the net and computers in general. The emphasis seems to be on customer service skills rather then skills in the type of service.

[mrlipring]

In an ideal world though, people who know about computers should be able to get better jobs than those in a call centre.

What's the going rate for call centre work? £6ph? That's about average in Glasgow. It's not a bad rate of pay for what is essentially unskilled, no qualification work, but if i was interested in getting IT qualifications i'd expect more than £6ph.

Bear in mind also, that while you or i might be good on a pc, try explaining, over the phone, to a foreigner what to do to fix something, in English, let alone another language. The Language barrier plays a big part in the bad service.

two people, both of whom don't speak the other's language very well, if at all, trying to fix what can often be fairly technical problems, compounded by the fact that often, one or both don't know a lot about the subject.

I HATE giving british friends tech support over the phone. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to give a foreigner tech support.