NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience

[mosaddique]

Rang them about a minor problem with not being able to view updates to my website. Their attempt to fix it left me without the ability to update my website (kept getting permission denied). They fixed the problem (not of my making) 16 days later.

Their technology works very well, however, their support is questionable. Seems to vary with who you get. May be it is their training or lack it of their personnel. Who knows?

On the plus side they are a bit better at answering the phone - The waits are now shorter.

[Table]

Originally Posted by towny

OK, let's have a definitive answer to this thorny issue. What is your own personal experience of NTL customer services?

Tell us your story, and don't forget to vote. I'm going to try to set this up as a public poll so we can all see who voted what, as I am interested to explore the allegation that those who claim not to have trouble with CS are in the main NTL staff in disguise.

Hi everybody,

I have nothing to do with NTL apart from being a customer for six years with cable, phone & dial-up/broadband. I've always found NTL customer service people to be friendly and helpful whatever I'm ringing up about, I've never called them about broadband as I've never had a problem with it. Yes, early on, it was hard to get hold of people but this has improved massively over the years.

There was this awful Welsh dude once who decided to be a belligerent jobsworth at £1 per minute, though to date, this is the only problem I've had with CS. One time, while ringing up about a different matter, the call centre person noticed we'd been overcharged for a few months under some arcane offer. She alerted us and quickly put it right, which was a good job because I'd probably never have noticed. They were especially good when I had broadband installed, I actually felt they cared about my experience with them.

Also, There are one or two saucy lads working at NTL who've been good for a laugh or two when dealing with me which is pretty good going considering the abuse they're sometimes subjected too.

I'm not normally this positive about things, I'm going soft - Wah NTL punched my cat.

[Escapee]

I have only had 2 occasions to contact them, the first was a problem with dial-up that they were unable to sort. The modem worked perfectly with AOL but would not work with ntl!

OK, I bought a new modem and gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Recent Problems.

I had a letter from Wescot about a missed direct debit 14 months previously, I got cut off three times by customer services. The first time I was put on hold and then taken off hold to hear someone in the background say "Just terminate the call" that was it I was back to the menu!

After being just cut off in mid sentence on another 2 occassions I had to resort to asking an ntl employee for help, I never received any communication from ntl about the debt and its funny how they took another 13 consecutive direct debits without any trouble. I had no argument about the owed amount I just couldn't get any sense out of them to pay it.

When I eventually got a call from someone they credited my account, apologised and would not accept any payment from me.

The end result was OK, but all the hassle could of been saved if they had just let me authorise payment for the outstanding amount, I know this type of story is very common place recently and its all down to the terrible state that ntl is in. Unfortunately ntl is a company that seems to go from bad to worse as the good people leave and the rotten apples take their place.

[goldoni]

Customer service itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s a pretty good description so itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s a pity than some people working in that department do not understand the meaning, also that without customers like you and me they do not have a job. Most times they are very helpful and resolve any issue very quickly and you feel like a customer. Then thereââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s that small minority who donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t seem to be playing for the same team.

One thing I think is a must with the logging system, if a customer phones in and they access the account it should be time and date stamped and who viewed your account details. Two years ago I was told a new system was coming on line with regards to data protection. With two recent contacts with NTL it would seem they still are unable to tell who has logged into my account unless that person adds some notes. With the recent fiasco at AOL I would think NTL would want to protect themselves as a company.

That being said I can watch my TV (the interactive service needs a re-think) make and receive phone calls, view the WWW and send emails all for about £65.00 per month. My telephone bill with BT was more than that per month six plus years ago. I always put things on a set of imaginary of scales and if the good outweighs the bad it canââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t be that bad. One thing to remember NTL is run by people and like all human being we make mistakes, have you heard of the old saying †œIts better the devil you knowââ‚ ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ�

NTL 7/10 COULD DO BETTER

[captain747480]

I've had a number of experiences with NTL over the years and non of them have left me with a whole heap of confidence in them.


Firstly about 3 years ago myself and my flatmate moved from House A to House B. We contacted NTL and asked to have our TV and Telephone moved. The TV was moved immediately but we were told we'd have to wait up to 4 weeks for the phone. After waiting a couple of weeks without hearing anything we contacted them to chase up and were told that because we wanted to keep our existing number we would have to wait. When we pointed out that we hadn't requested that we kept our exisiting number we were told 'Oh in that case we can do it anytime you want'. Bad experience Number 1

Secondly once we had sorted out that we could get the phone 'anytime you want' we arranged an instal date. NTL were a no show. We rearranged and NTL were a no show. We rearranged again and after waiting in all morning my flatmate called NTL to be told that they had installed the phone. When he pointed out that he'd been in all morning and no-one had called round the NTL CS Rep checked that account and confirmed that they had installed the phone but unfortunately they'd connected upto the house we'd just left and not our new house. Bad experience Number 2

Thirdly we had a problem with the TV picture freezing. We were repeatedly told to reboot the box etc. Eventually we got an engineer out who found that someone had put a T-Piece on our feed in the roadside cabinet and hence our signal strength was too low. Bad experience Number 3

Next after having not had NTL for a year and having tried to get Sky (can't because we've got No Line of Sight due to trees at the back of our property), I finally had to deal with NTL again.

Having used their website to order 600k BB, TV and Tel I received a call from NTL to confirm my order and was told that I couldn't have Broadband because it wasn't available in my area (Blackheath). I was absolutely fed up and stomped round the house all evening feeling sorry for myself. Eventually my fiancee said that we might as well get the TV and Tel anyway and keep the BB via our exsiting ADSL supplier (fairADSL). I contacted NTL the next day to resurrect the order only to be told that Braodband was available in my area. Bad experience Number 4.

Once we'd established that I could get what I wanted we booked a date and NTL turned up, installed all the kit and it all worked. Good Experience Number 1.

Finally upon receiving my first full bill I found an £18 call to a premium rate number which was made when no-one was in the house (except the cat). I queried this with NTL CS and was told I'd probably been the victim of a premium rate dialler scam and I should contact ICSTIS to report it. Although I pointed out that my PC was not, is not and never will be connected to my NTL telephone line the CS Rep still insisted that there was only one explanation and that was the Premium Rate dialler one. So far I've made 2 complaints about this and have yet to get it resolved although I have had a very helpful letter telling me all about Virus Checkers and Firewalls both of which I've had for considerable longer than I've had NTL. Bad Experience Number 5.

So in summary as far is I'm concerned it's Bad NTL 5 Good NTL 1.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by captain747480

<snip>

Did you get the name of this person you spoke to re 'diallers' ?

to the site btw.

[Edit]-Did yo get the names of any of the people who messed you around?

[Nemesis]

Welcome to the site, , that's it, let it all out.

We're here to help, so stick around

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

Welcome to the site, , that's it, let it all out.

We're here to help, so sick around

yeh sick around

nice typo Nem



{Nem} I've edited it now

[captain747480]

Originally Posted by Neil

Did you get the name of this person you spoke to re 'diallers' ?

to the site btw.

[Edit]-Did yo get the names of any of the people who messed you around?

The first 3 bad experiences were dealt with by my flatmate as the account was in his name so I'm afraid not.

The fourth one I didn't ask although to be fair I didn't think it was a bad experience until I found out the next day that I'd been mis-informed.

The fifth, I've not got the name of the person I initially spoke to, but following my complaint I did get a nice letter about Premium Rate Diallers and Virus Checkers and Firewalls from a member of the NTL Customer Liaison Team in Swansea. I replied to him immediately (15th June) and have not heard anything since.

I'm not sure if it's fair to mention his name on here just yet but if you egg me on I might do.

[cookie_365]

I think NTL's problems lie 'behind the scenes' in that things occassionally happen to cause incorrect bills to get sent, proxies to go down etc, but any time I've had a problem needing to call cs (2/3 times) it's all been fixed pronto by friendly people.

[Overkill]

I had an NTL account for two trouble free years when they still had analogue cable services. This account was closed in 2001.

Last year, after moving in with a new flatmate, we decided to get digital TV, phone and BB through NTL as the package seemed a lot cheaper than getting everything seperate. We also took up a free installation offer. After eveything was installed, all seemed well. The TV was great, though the Interactive wa s abit clunky. We didn't install the BB straight away as my flatmate was waiting for a new laptop, so we decided to wait for that.

Here's the letter we sent to NTL following the first three months of our account:

Dear Sir

I am writing to you to express in the strongest possible terms my utter lack of satisfaction with your service. During the last two months since signing up for the NTL combined television/telephone/broadband package, on 13 September 2003, I and my flatmate, Alan Fewings, have had nothing but grief.

The main problems have been as follows.

The NTL telephone landline failed after the first few days. Contacting NTL elicited the response that the line was fine and it must be the handset itself that was faulty, so we purchased a new one, only for the problem to remain unresolved.

Continual problems with the set-top box: interactive services often not available; channels and other controls 'freezing', necessitating unplugging the box. Between 16th September and October 7th we made FOUR separate calls to report this problem and each time this simply resulted in the box being 're-set' from NTL's end, despite our suggestion that the box itself may be faulty.

Despite signing up under a 'no installation fee' offer, the first month's bill saw my account being debited £25 for installation! A call to NTL did, however, result in this being deducted from the following month's bill.

October 9: My flatmate, Alan Fewings, spent over two hours on his mobile trying to get advice on installing the broadband service. The result of those two hours of attempting to get advice resulted in the simple instruction to install anti-virus software. Also, he arranged for an NTL engineer to visit to resolve the on-going landline problems. At the same time, the NTL adviser recommended that we have a new set-top box installed (something we had requested on more than one occasion before). We were told that the NTL engineer would bring a new set-top box.

October 10: Anti-virus software installed, but computer already infected. A one-hour mobile call to the helpdesk resulted in fresh advice which temporarily resolved the problem, but then the virus returned.

October 11: NTL engineer visited, repaired the landline (at last) but did not bring a new set-top box, saying that he had 'not been told to'. Instead he attached a 'booster' to the back of the box.

Astonishingly, the next few weeks passed with few problems, apart from the usual set-top box ones (freezing menus, no programme information), until...

November 13: all TV channels via the set-top box unavailable. Fresh phone calls result in the statement that we do need a new box, exactly what we had asked for a month previously and were supposed to have received. However, the soonest an engineer can come out to install one is November 17.

There are several things that I find unacceptable.

First, I am disgusted that my flatmate, having spent £21.84 in mobile charges calling your helpdesk, was told that NTL would not refund the money as 'he could have asked us to phone him back'. This is totally unacceptable. Given that the main point of his call was to sort out our defective landline, should it not have occurred to the member of staff speaking to him to put two and two together and ask how it was he was calling, and could they call back? In any case, my experience in dealing with NTL is that when told I will be called back, it doesn't happen and I have to make the call myself.

Second, I am extremely angry that I have to take time off from work on Monday 17 November so as to enable an NTL engineer to replace a set-top box that we had several times asked to be replaced, and which you yourselves said would be replaced, but which wasn't due to NTL's ineptitude! I am doubly angry in that when I called, Thursday 13 November, I actually had that day and the next off work, and yet, despite the appalling incompetence of NTL leading to this problem in the first place, I was told that it was impossible to send an engineer while I was at home. This is, quite simply, a disgrace, given the circumstances leading to the problem.

The penalties we have suffered as a result of NTL's crass ineptitude are, in summary:

· Mobile call costs to NTL 'helpline': £21.84 (a copy of the phone bill is enclosed)

· Time without phone: around 25 days

· Time without TV reception: 5 days

· And several days leave from work between us wasted on having to be present for yet another of NTL's almost invariably useless call-outs

Needless to say, at no point have we been offered compensation. I would like to know just what you intend to do about this. We except to be compensated for our additional costs, our time without service and our general inconvenience. If this is not forthcoming we may have to consider our subscription with you as our first three months do not bode well for the future.

Yours

Result?

A £50 refund. Good, but not really great for three months of misery.

Since then things have gone relatively well, until this week. The BB internet (through set top box) has gone twice in a week meaning more calls to NTL to 're-boot' the box, but now although we can connect, the BB service is very very slow and most pages 'time out' before they are opened.

NTL's response? Not our problem. If you can connect to the net, then the problem is with your PC, not NTL.

Charming.

[Stephen Robb]

UDT has never had a problem with ntl: he is the problem. He stated sometime back that he had Sky and a BT line! So why have an ntl: package?

[DeadKenny]

I won't go into the long list of hassles over the years, but suffice to say that my experiences of NTL's customer service (and most things NTL) has been sheer hell (and this goes back to CableTel days too, nothing's changed really).

The only reason I'm still here is because eventually I got my broadband sorted (thanks to some helpful guys on the original nthellworld.com forum) and that changing to ADSL is a lot of hassle having to apply for a BT line, buying equipment, and the risk of being turned down for ADSL due to a potentially poor quality line (though ADSL prices are getting so attractive with £30 for uncapped 1Mbps with the likes of PlusNet).

I'm still p'ssed to this day that NTL cost me quite a few days off work which is a lot of money and all they could do after much complaining was to give me the run-around by just appologising but offering absolutely NOTHING in the form of compensation ("we don't compensate for time off work", yeah but you screwed up on 4 occasions and don't even turn up sometimes. That's a hell of a lot of money it cost me!! ... "so what" is effectively their answer ).

Sorry, but NTL CS get the worst mark from me. I don't even bother calling them now as it just makes my blood boil thinking about it

Originally Posted by Stephen Robb

UDT has never had a problem with ntl: he is the problem. He stated sometime back that he had Sky and a BT line! So why have an ntl: package?

Broadband perhaps?

I have an NTL phone, NTL broadband but have Sky. Why?... because they p'ssed about for so long with Digital TV and broken promises (Remember the infamous "coming soon"? ), I gave up and went for Sky Digital which had been out for years. It was definitely the right decision as it took them another year to get digital TV and even then it didn't support RGB or have widescreen and took them years to sort that out, and even now doesn't have all the channels I want. It's not a price issue though, both work out the same. I could possibly go to a BT line though just so I can try and get ADSL and then be rid of NTL once and for all if that succeeds. It's hassle though.

[secular]

Problems -

1. 9/03 - After being assured that the balance of my phone bill was being paid out by Direct Debit, my phoneline is disconnected. Decide to use my work mobile and not pay the £50 reconnection fee. 6 days later someone sharing the same street cab as me ends up with a crossed line. I.E. phones ringing in 2 houses. 4 phone calls later and the line was still crossed
2. 6/04 - Move house, before I leave check the phone - still a crossed line
3. 6/04 - New house contact CS for a 150k BB line-

• 1st rep - IMS's me - give up after 20 mins.
• 2nd rep - no service in that area.
• 3rd rep - You could have BB but the area is oversubscribed. (Using the only tool consumers have against NTL - beligerence - keep trying)
• 4th and 5th say the same thing -
• 6th rep - "The system is saying the area is oversubscribed - hang on a second - I'll see what I can do"
• 2 minutes later "There you go Mr.******** --I found you a space" After asking how he did it, "Oh the system doesn't keep up to date with cancallations and disconnections - you just have to hunt around for a space" Much thanks and praise go to this chap - I'll add his name as I said I would when I can find it!

After reviewing this thread this does seem to be the story - generally ok (polite etc), but with the occasional bright spark. I vote 50/50

[Ankhsunamun]

O.K..... I worked for NTL in the North East region, (Bellshill, Scotland) until March this year when I finally left and I am here to stick up for the CSA's who get nothing but abuse from morning til night from customers, who more often than not come on screaming right from the start and it is VERY difficult to get them to shut up for 2 minutes so you can find out what the problem is !! More often than not, the CSA can fix the so called 'problem' then and there and it is the customer who has been 'playing' around with the remote or their kids have and they have locked the system or have caused the stb to lose the channels altogether!! Granted there were times when it was NTL's fault, but I found from experience that all I had to do was contact the correct department and get it fixed. However, sometimes customers would call at ALL hours and expect all the depts to be working, ( We had to sleep sometime !!), then that would set them off again as we could do nothing to help until the following morning. The staff at ALL the call centres are always under pressure about the number of calls they take and length of time each call takes, also the amount of time you have customers on hold while you are sorting out a problem, so the pressure is intense and I want to stick up for them as I took this for 6 yrs and finally could take no more!!!!