NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience

[Loop]

customer suport is the best laught i had ever! they wanted to dig up my garden to repair the router lmao and they said on phone to me it will sort my problem lmao would you ever belive a rounter in my garden my problem was slow internet and lost packets and was not spyware or msn or norton i just went to a lower package and now seems to be ok now was on 3mb but on 1mb now with no probs so it not pay to get 3mb for me no packet los or internet conectiojn interupt slow or not any internet untill ntl get them selfs sorted i will not pay and go back to the 3mb no more 3 hours waiting on phone some times so i dont ring no more has cost me more then my internet if you need anything sorting ask for a tech not the monkey on the phone some of them on the phone dont know about web traffic when trying online speeds and hop's and packets loss and some dont know how to track and trace the problems or ping some do and some dont so any one got a problem ask for a tech they the guys that will help and they know if your router is over the quater and if it needs balanceing i have had an engineer check me computer out and he tryd his laptop to test and said they had an internal email saying the routers need re segmenting so them on phone dont tell you everthing dont waste your money on calls which you pay the phone bill they get richer you get bigger phone bills if they dont sort your internet out then drop your speeds and if still probs just go to an other ISP they will loss customers and will sort the issue one day no wounder they are doing so many offers to get new cutsomers they need to look after the one's they got 1st b4 they loos them all

[Raistlin]

The only problem with dropping to a lower tiered package is that you get a lower band width allowance, I've heard that many people are taking extreme steps to curtail their usage so that they don't go over the monthly limit.

In some cases people have been known to turn off all images in their browsers, only download video clips on odd days, I've even heard of some extreme examples of people who have stopped using punctuation in their emails and other communications - all to save on a few precious bytes.

[Nikko]

Originally Posted by Raistlin

The only problem with dropping to a lower tiered package is that you get a lower band width allowance, I've heard that many people are taking extreme steps to curtail their usage so that they don't go over the monthly limit.

In some cases people have been known to turn off all images in their browsers, only download video clips on odd days, I've even heard of some extreme examples of people who have stopped using punctuation in their emails and other communications - all to save on a few precious bytes.

This is worth trying over a period - but it may come to a full stop. Don't quote me on that.

[sleepless]

Originally Posted by Raistlin

The only problem with dropping to a lower tiered package is that you get a lower band width allowance, I've heard that many people are taking extreme steps to curtail their usage so that they don't go over the monthly limit.

In some cases people have been known to turn off all images in their browsers, only download video clips on odd days, I've even heard of some extreme examples of people who have stopped using punctuation in their emails and other communications - all to save on a few precious bytes.

I've even heard of some users not using their connection at all so they do not incur sanction from ntl

Originally Posted by sleepless

I've even heard of some users not using their connection at all so they do not incur sanction from ntl

members are warned that restricting use of colons may not be 'best advice'

[dexedrine]

I have recently had hell with ntl,im on the last straw,i called to cancel the lot last night,but they were closed.In the past six weeks,i decide to get a stb in my bedroom......i ended up with a cable going into the living room?? and one into the bedroom.We set the box up in the bedroom-no signal,nothing.Yet the living room cable was all tv,broadband you name it.The idiot then cut through my sky stb wire.Last month there was 3170.00 ON MY PHONE BILL-NOT MINE.tHIS BILL £50.00. They said its been checked out and i have to pay it.£50 quid is a lot to me.They wont even send another engineer out,and they say thats final.Well im afraid its not what if it happens again and again.I also sent a letter down south hook but not a reply nothing.i have had no componsation.I need people who this has happened to before,so i can fight them better....cheers cable doods steve manchester

[Angua]

Not sure if this is the right place (mods please move as you see fit).

Just contacted CS regarding a phone problem. Got through within a few minutes.

I was asked for security purposes for account number or telephone number, what services do you have with NTL and how do you pay your bill?

Just thought I would highlight things as many members put details of their NTL packages in their profile. Not such a good idea if CS are asking for these details.

[jkthorp]

Originally Posted by Angua

Not sure if this is the right place (mods please move as you see fit).

Just contacted CS regarding a phone problem. Got through within a few minutes.

I was asked for security purposes for account number or telephone number, what services do you have with NTL and how do you pay your bill?

Just thought I would highlight things as many members put details of their NTL packages in their profile. Not such a good idea if CS are asking for these details.

They do ask for a password too though!

[Angua]

Originally Posted by jkthorp

They do ask for a password too though!

Was not asked for a password

[SMHarman]

My recent experience...

Downstairs box not playing ball since the upgrade to VOD. Looking at the updnblue pages it looked like it was a return path problem.

Called CS at 7:30 on Tuesday night, a 20 min wait and then a good competent CS on the end of the line reboots etc, decided that NTL could not see the box from their end and that an engineer visit was in order. Could have been next day or 48 hrs but Saturday PM (1-5) was available.

Saturday PM turned into the doorbell ringing at about 11am. Thankfully was in.

Didn't bother looking at existing box, just did a straight swap, engineer spent a while on the phone to give new serial nos to someone. Still no VOD, but the box had registered with the network, obtained an IP etc.

He advised me the rest should be resolved by Monday, it was actually all working by about 5pm.

Happy customer.

[eric@]

Originally Posted by Chris T

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

Very, very, poor. The following may explain why:

Dec 2004 - Ordered 750K broadband. Paid a £75.00 Deposit.

During the following two months I made countless calls to CS trying to get the service installed. I repeated the same story maybe 20 times to various CS representatives; I wondered why none of my previous calls had been recorded? It normally took 30 †“ 60 minutes to get told the problem was that the person who took the original order had not set up an account. Promises that a supervisor would call back seems to be a standard method to get you off the line. The calls rarely materialise.

Early in February I was moaning to a friend about NTL and was overheard by an NTL sales person. He made a few phone calls and promised a quick connection if I paid a further £50.00 Deposit; which I duly paid.

05 February 05 †“ Service installedâ₠¬Â¦.(Thank you Mr Salesperson I thought)

Installed did I say? A modem on the floor connected to a cable hanging out of the wall. I kid you not, the cable sticks out of the wall and is terminated within 3â₠¬ÃƒÆ’‚ÂÂÂ� of the wall surface. There is then a 5â₠¬ÃƒÆ’‚ÂÂÂ� (yes 5 inch) extension connected to that!ââ‚ƚ¬Ã‚¦.just thrown in! I should take a photo. But I donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t care, I need any kind of connection; but at this point I didnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t realise wet string would have been as effective.

Of course no PIN number is entered on the Work Order (The †œinstallerà¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Ã⠀šÃ‚Â� was not interested in that omission and I understand why), so back to the CS to try and get the service switched on. After several hours of talking to various departments on my mobile phone I just gave in.

Here I am, having paid £125.00 up front with a useless connection, CS seemingly the same and some guy in India who was doubting my ability to do anything?

07 February 05 †“ Monday morning arrives and I try again thinking perhaps that the weekend staffs were part timers and I might find someone to help during regular hours. Stupid me! Later in the day I received two letters from NTL - Welcome to high speed Broadband Internet from ntl. Both had the same typo in my address, one addressed to some unknown person and one addressed to myself, each having a different pin number. Then I noticed that there was also a typo in the spelling of my nameââ‚ ¬Ã‚¦Ã¢â ‚¬Â¦ÃÆ ’¢â‚¬Ãâ €šÃ‚¦.Solved at lastââ‚ ¬Ã‚¦.after trying different PINââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s with my misspell name I am now connected.

Connected but only justââ‚ ¬Ã‚¦Ã¢â ‚¬Â¦ÃÆ ’¢â‚¬Ãâ €šÃ‚¦ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â₠¬Ã…¡Ã‚¬Ã‚¦..

After a few days I could no longer stand the Loss of Syncââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s and decided to spend some more money and contact NTL. I will not bore you further with the detail of the next two months. A guy would arrive and put a 6dB inline attenuator behind the modem. A subsequent visit by another †œengineerÃÂà ‚¢ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã‚ƚÂÂ� and it would be removed. Each time anyone came I offered tea and/or bacon sandwiches just hoping someone would stay for more than 5 minutes after their †ÂÂÂÂ�fixââà ƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…¡Ã‚¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ� and there would be a good chance they would see the connection drop or heavy packet loss at least. Sodââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s law stated that it wouldnââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t happen for 10 minutes! CS donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t seem to have an escalation procedure?

19 April 05 †“ At 1100hrs another engineer visits. By this time, over 4 months after originally ordering the service, I am embarrassed for some reason about the whole affair. Tea had been refused rather abruptly and I am thinking that perhaps they were as fed up as myself with the number of visits.

I sort of jokingly or perhaps defensively saidââ‚ ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ� I wish to God I had never seen that modemââ‚ƚ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ� and with that the guy disconnected it and headed for his van. I thought maybe he was bringing a replacement but it soon became plain that he had revved up and F***** O**.

I cannot go on with this any longer. Countless calls to CS followed; promises of getting called back by supervisors never happen. No one could explain why the guy had removed the modem. Apparently engineering do not control the issue of modems (or so I was told) so they couldnââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t tell me when I would get a replacement etc. etc. etc. There was a holiday coming up etc. etc. etc. So now I am not only paying up front for a poor service but paying up front for no chance of any service. I begged for a phone line to be installed at the same time because the whole saga had resulted in over £100.00 in mobile phone charges and £9.99 per month for a phone with which I could call NTL on a toll free number would seem a bargainââ‚à ‚¬Ã‚¦Ã¢Ãà ‚¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã‚¦..

However, there was a happy ending. After a week or so a new modem arrived and the service provides exactly what it says on the box. The phone was never installed but I have had no reason to call NTL again. It has taken four months but I am finally getting what I paid up front for. (Plus £2 per month because it is not being paid by direct debitââ‚ƚ¬Ã‚¦.that does seem cheeky considering an upfront payment!) Thank goodness I didnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t order the TV at the same time (and never will now) or I would have been more out of pocket.

I guess I could call to complain about incorrect billing but I do that by post, Of course the letters and emails get ignored but the overcharge is only a few quid per month and phone calls to try and correct the invoices would cost me more.

Needless to say I have requested in writing that my service is disconnected as soon as my contract runs out.

As a parting shot I would like to say that during my many conversations with NTL staff I have found individuals who genuinely tried to help and I wish I could thank those people. It would seem the system often prevents them.

From an outsider looking in it would appear that the help desk software just doesnââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t work (or some people are not trained to use it) otherwise problems would be escalated sooner and the retelling of events would become unnecessary. Perhaps the CS staff are rated on the number of calls handled and donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t document facts because it slows them down? Who knows?

Different departments appear to be using different databases because the left hand doesnââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t seem to knowââ‚ ¬Ã‚¦Ã¢â ‚¬Â¦..etc.

Judging by the speed at which the installers and engineers attempt to do their work they must be paid by quantity not quality or conversely they are seriously overworked.

Why am I writing this, you guys know what the problems are, the management must be able to see it, why donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t they fix it?

Originally Posted by eric@

<snip>

If you want to send me some details via private message, I will send this to our ntl contact for them to investigate your issues. To send me a private message, click on my name on this post and a drop down menu should appear. Click the option to send me a PM. Many thanks.

Well now..Upgraded from 300k to 1MB today.

Unfortunately the nice chappie disconnected my BB entirely and I had to sort of go round the houses to get sorted out.However that being said I never had to wait more than three rings to get through to anyone and I can't recall more than one bar of any MUZAK played.Much much better.But I didn't like the being passed from one wrong section to the next.This was because I was given two wrong numbers.

But overall a much more pleasant experience from everyone.and I'm sorted for now.

[rscott101]

Just my thoughts after being with NTL for 5 years (finally escaped to BT/Metronet/Freeview).

The same thoughts as many others here:-
1. Some CS people great, others just want you off the line ASAP.
2. Quite a few CS don't seem to know how to use their computer systems. They either don't bother to record the calls or record completely the wrong info.
3. Lack of training of CS staff - seems they simply don't have the knowledge to deal with problems. They often don't know which department should fix a problem and so I spent hours calling between them.
4. Managers not returning calls when promised.
5. Quite a few NTL departments are hard to contact (limited hours, no phone numbers,etc). For example, home moves, retentions, faults (at the weekends).

Since moving out of an NTL area (so now with BT & Metronet ADSL ), I've experienced decent customer care.

Metronet always reply to emails, usually within an hour or two. What's more, their replies make sense. Clear, accurate online billing.

BT - we've had 2 issues in the last 6 months. One was ADSL related (had a DACS on the line). Was amazed by BT's customer services - I was given a contact name (including surname) and direct number. This person took ownership of the problem from start to finish, even calling me to let me with regular updates.
The other problem was our line going dead 11pm on a saturday night. I called BT straightaway and had an engineer booked for 8am-12pm sunday. He came but couldn't fix it (overhead line fault). This was fixed by midday the next day. I was the only customer affected.

In contrast, a year or so ago we (and about 15-20 neighbours) lost all NTL services due to a fault in our green box (which was damaged when left unlocked for 2 months, despite being reported). NTL didn't even manage to get an engineer out to it for 2 days and it took another 2 days to repair!

I won't be going back to NTL again.

[neo123]

I have had to phone them about 4 times +, many of the times they would just pass me off as a kid that doesnt know what he is doing and tell me to reset my modem, when i have just said that i did. They constantly said it was an issue with my computer...even when i said i have tested it out on two different computers and have reformatted.

Eventually they managed to squirm out that it was indeed their fault and a glitch in my area was the problem.

But saying that, it was quite a while back. Recently i had to phone them about an issue where my connection kept dropping, which i also knew was on their side.

First time i called telling them all the information, saying how my signal level on the u/s shot up to 61db, and i was told by a nice asian man that there wasnt any faults on my line or in the area goodbye.

Second time i called i actually got somwhere kind of, they said they can see anything there, so call back when the problem is actually happening (which i couldnt because the fault was usually late at night).

Third time i said enough is enough, and they called an engineer out, 8.00 on the button the next day, my signal levels got cranked up and a forward path equalizer fitted to my modem. Not a single dropped connection since!

So mixed feelings here to be honest, most of the time i feel its not their fault because they have no idea of a customers techinical abilities so :/