NTL Customer Services: Your personal experience

[sollp]

Originally Posted by nate

CS and TS for me have been great.






It took a long time, a lot of frustration, but we got there, yet it seems CS staff STILL were not in the know about the product, even on the day of launch!

It leads me to believe that NTL's CS team are not informed very well of new products and upgrades. Some seem to know, others don't.

I think that some learn from customers that new products are available, enquire about it with their managers and the like, and learn from that experience.

Others, flat out deny any such product exist and do this all day, don't bother to ask anybody, despite that fact they may have been asked about the product dozens of times.

The fact remains however, NTL are not communicating, or not communicating properly, to front line staff.

This certainly was the case when I worked @ NTL Tech in Newport, 2002-2004.

There was a comment that was frequently heard around the call-centre;
NTL, The complete communications company; except when it comes to communicating anything to their staff.

Seems this still stands true.

This is still the case in most areas of NTL, information is scare, when projects or trials happen the info isn't given out to all staff who will be affected. The management has been tied up for years in saving money and getting the company ready for a merger with Telewest, consequently every few months the various departments are shuffled about as they try and fit departmens into varying roles or under the leadership of another director or new directors and management structures are made up and no department can get to grips with what is happening, processes are written up then ignored, departments fight to resist in paying for projects or new equipment or general day to day things as they are trying to avoid there department having the expense taken out of there budget so try and off load onto another department even though a process was written up stating who is responsible for what. Concequently everyone is looking after number one, too worried to question anything,(don't want to stand out) ect

I could go on!

[samidevils]

Never had Probelms with any of the services.
Bill now and again messed up but hey it happens.

---------- Post added at 22:58 ---------- Previous post was at 22:22 ----------

Have to agree. Seems like one department doesn't know the role or boundry of the other. Which causes unnecessary transfers/information given.
I think you do get this with a lot of bigger companies.

[White]

Customer support,dont realy know what there doing, but some do
tech Support,a big joke havent no idea what they are doing.
Tryed to get my modem upgraded 7/2/2006 took a hour and i spoke to 5 people here goes my little story.
1.Phoned customer support asked for a new modem as mine is old and can not take the full speed i am paying for, wrong department you need tech support heres the number.
2.phoned tech support, i think they are in india put me right if im wrong,talked to her about the new modem said we will send you one out ill put you back to customer support.
3.put back to customer support told here what tech support said she said hang on and could you hold the line which i did
4.put bck to tech support she said whats the problem told her the problem and i said that iv just spoken to one of your tech support which she said let me take a look in to your account.The tech said i was to be disconected and you want to come back i said no i wanted a new modem she said hold on put back to customer support.
4.hi can i have a modem upgrade, customer support can i have your post code,sorry wrong area ill tranfer you
5.the first thing i said can i have your name which he gave, i told him iv been messed around for 50 mins he said sorry i said dont transfer me he said i wouldnt do that so i told hm i need a new modem ungrade he said hang on a sec which i did he came back and said can i phone you back in 5 mins which i thought pass the buck never here from him again, ill cut it short he did ring back and sorted it all out.Well done BEN which was his name,some people at ntl are great at there job.Tech support is one big joke they cant understand me and i have trouble understanding them plus they are ..... had the same problem with bulldog customer support and they are in india and they ... and .... to me.has ntl tech moved to india it sounds like?

[Fedz]

NTLs attitude towards customers is the worst I have ever experienced in my life.

This ranges from deliberate total lack of understanding of the customers query to simply just either moving you from one department to another or simply hanging up because they can't be bothered to help.
You have to make several calls to find someone with some form of knowledge of ntl services and competence.

They appear to be under the mis-conception that we are a captive audience and as such treat too many customers like the above.

A popular 'fob-off' by ntl customer services is "I'll get someone to call you back ..."
This has happened to me several times and in all honesty not once have they called back.

The most offensive I find is the sheer times they have this cavalier rudeness when you call them regarding a query to be passed here, their and everywhere and then they have the gore to sound astounded that you're irate - amazing!

[Scott_Lee67]

No they don't like it if you get irate, in fact they may disconnect you if you get really abusive.

This is what happened to a rather hot headed friend of mine who although perfectly justified in his complaint was not in the colourful language that he used to the member of staff. Lord knows I have had to bite my tongue on a number of occasions!

On the subject of complaining, I wrote to NTL in December 2005 following a catalogue of unnecessary and idiotic errors not befitting of an organisation the size of NTL which affected me financially. To date I still haven't received a response!

I know that they received the complaint because I sent it recorded delivery yet it seems they may have binned it...

Does anybody reading this know of who or where I can send a complaint by post that will be read, taken seriously and dealt with within a reasonable amount of time? [img]Download Failed (1)[/img]


Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

[DrK]

Signed up only twice for new services, first in 2001 for Internet, and in 2005 to add a phone line and move house.
Both times resulted in several months worth of endless hassle, endless multi billing, accounts closed and re opened, till i was put in touch with someone who actually earns there wages.

Ive never had a major fault with any equipment, just a loose exterior cable once, and a new modem when i moved address cant fault them there, had the odd day were the INTERNET didn't work for most it, maybe a total of 10~14 times since 2001,

All in All i feel NTLs service is very good until you enter the world of customer services then it goes downhill, i would compare NTLs customers services right next to British Gas in quality.

[Anthony Al-Naqib]

I wont bother going into specifics unless anyone is desperate to know- but there seems to be a well hidden core of decent support people- and a front line of absolute bull****ters - general callcenter fodder. Been with NTL since the Nynex days- had enough- should have moved a couple of years ago, just too lazy...but it only took one MORE episode of really appaling service to give me the final nudge i needed.

does that answer the question?!

I phoned NTL today, as Mrs Gaz & I have decided to finally get digital TV, rather than the analogue service, which we have currently.

I phoned the default 0800 number, gave my phone no. & chose 'billing' - answered on the first ring, very nice chap called William told me no problem, to expect a wait of a week to ten days & he would transfer me to sales. Michael in sales took over the call, went through the options to make sure I was getting the package I wanted, didn't know about the bypass, but put it in the notes that one was required - and booked installation for this Friday afternoon.

All in all, minimal waiting, polite helpful people & a result within a timescale convenient to me, as I am off work, this week.

Course the fitting still has to go according to plan, and I know this was 'just' people doing their jobs properly, but it was nice to see it can be done.

[chrisjones]

Hi all..

Sorry to say it but its been nothing but hassle with regards to my NTL connections. I only signed up last December but so far have had to deal with:

1. Someone randomly changing my DDebit details without permission

2. Having to call CS THREE times to have the issue rectified, each time been told that the matter had been delt with only for not to be.

3. Billed for a 1mb line that doesnt exsist in my property.

4. Having to call THREE times to sort out the issue

5. Had CS lie to me claiming a Manager call back only never to bother doing so.

It may seem like im going out of my way to moan, but all this has happend within a 3 to 4 month window which simply isnt good enough by anyones standards. Ive had people tell me that 'Its well know that CS are crap' etc.. but really, is that reason enough for it being SO bad?

I would much preffer to sing NTL's praises and recomend them to mates/clients etc but right now theres not a chance in hell!

It seems that that they have a great system in place - its just the human element that is letting them down. I realise that this isnt the case for everyone in the UK .... is there anyone else here calling from the Harrogate area having such isses?

[simonm]

NTL customer service is non-existent. They are completely incompetent liars and don't give a damn about their customers. I am currently sitting in my flat with no television service over easter as NTL engineers came round yesterday and left without finishing a job. Despite me making several phone calls to customer services yesterday afternoon where I was promised someone would be round to complete the job by the end of the day I am sitting here listening to Heart FM instead. My broadband service has never worked properly since it was installed in January. I am completely sick of NTL. I hate them and I cant wait to be able to switch to an alternative cable company when my contract finishes. They have said they will be round tomorrow to fix it but I am sure I will be in for an exasperating day spent phoning the 0800 052 2000 number asking where the hell they are; being promised they will be round and they will not show up. I am considering legal action against them to recover the money I have been paying for a service that has never worked acceptably.

[Russ]

Sorry to hear about that - if you PM me your name, address and account number I'll ask my ntl contact to look into this debacle for you

[Teccie]

Originally Posted by simonm

NTL customer service is non-existent....... and the rest

I know exactly where ur commin from, had a number of problems when i had NTL tv/phone/cable. You ring customer services, you enter ur home phone number with dialing code so you can get thru to right area for support, then when someone eventually answers uve gone thru to the wrong area, so you get transferred or occasionally cut off. When you eventually get thru to right department you explain the problem, they always seem to want to pass you on or they just cut you off. Eventually i got so hacked off with them i got sky tv and a bt phone - costing me a fortune for installation and even more money per month than my NTL services - but well worth the extra expense in my view. I do currently have cable with NTL - am on the 10mb cable, but even that is crap. In the evening my m8 who has 1mb adsl can download the same file from the same site faster than me. I have been told its sommat to do with the high contention ratio, whateva that is - thats not my fault is it ? basically he pays £15 for a faster service than im gettin for my £35 - so am lookin at paying for 6mb adsl from BT which is now available in my area.

[simonm]

i phoned NTL first thing this morning to have them come round today and sort out the mess they left behind on Saturday. Was passed around several times and after 40 mins of this I was told that engineers aren't working today and they will have to cal round tomorrow instead. Why didn't the first person I spoke to just tell me that???!! They have taken my mobile number and said that they will have the installations manager call me first thing in the morning to sort the problem out... That makes me chuckle, if I had a million pounds, I would be prepared to bet a lot of it on them not calling me and that I will also not have any service until this Saturday at the earliest... I can feel myself slowly going insane because of them.

[Stuart]

simonm, did you PM Russ as he requested? Our contacts in NTL do sort out problems such as these, and have a lot more control than a customer services person.

[Badger2407]

This is my first post but I am so mad with NTL, to cut a long story short I had phone and internet with NTL until Jan last year I moved house and no longer needed their services, after some problems with them not disconnecting the line all was settled, I paid by DD each month and never defaulted.
2 weeks ago I receive a letter from a debt recovery co claiming I owe £102, I ring them they are useless, I ring NTL and a girl says she will look into it after first saying THEY owe ME money, then all sorts of rubbish which had no relation to my account. She promised to ring at 5 the next day. This doesnt happen so the next day I ring again, girl is really unhelpful and just says I will need to speak to customer relations the next day.

Next day I speak to a Michael in Swansea who says there are no notes about my previous calls or a debt, after an hour of him going off to speak to his manager, disconnections dept and credit control he says there appears to be a mistake and things should not have got this far. He promised a manager would ring the following tuesday as they had problems with their system, next tuesday no call at all. Then I receive a call and a threatening letter from the debt recovery co about taking legal proceedings.

So now I am in the position of not knowing why there`is a debt as NTL seem unable to tell me, the threat of court action and my credit rating affected as well as raised blood pressure.

Where the hell do I go now as I have no faith in getting an answer by ringing them again, I have drafted a letter to the CEO but have no faith this will do any good.

They have the worst CS i have ever come across and are a disgrace. Does anybody care who works for this excuse for an organisation