[Merged] BB Speed Upgrades

[Chris W]

Very poor service indeed, I'm not one of those that calls for compensation at the drop of a hat, but I feel that STB owners are being excessively penalised by bad management of what *should* have been a simple job

Is it really an easy job to persuade thousands of customers that they need a new set top box, and then arrange a time that when they can have this swapped out....?

[daxx]

Is it that easy for NTL to send out a .cm file for the appropriate STB?

STB users had the letter (April/May) along with CM users, those of us with STB's who 'want' to be upgraded will have by now been 'swapped' out, either by the 'rolling program' or indeed by help from this forum or CS. Those that haven't to my mind can't be bothered. So let em go down to 750, they'll soon be on the phone worrying about the swap out.

We are now told 'November for your update', can anybody tell since when has November been classed as 'late summer'.

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

Is it really an easy job to persuade thousands of customers that they need a new set top box, and then arrange a time that when they can have this swapped out....?

NTL have changed their tack, yeah right, just carry on as normal NTL and do what you usually do, do the rollout and 'sod the punters' then expect your staff take the flack afterwards.

My ADSL is already in and working and I managed to blag a free three months trial, come November 4th if the upgraded .cm file is not in and working I'm off, full whack to the tune of over £100 a month and there may well be a few others following me.

As an aside and still on topic. Does anybody know how many 1meg STB users there are in total and maybe how many are still waiting for a 'swapout'

[IanUK]

Is it really an easy job to persuade thousands of customers that they need a new set top box, and then arrange a time that when they can have this swapped out....?

Maybe not, but to continually lie to your cutomers about when it will happen can surely be avoided ?

My ADSL is already in and working and I managed to blag a free three months trial, come November 4th if the upgraded .cm file is not in and working I'm off, full whack to the tune of over £100 a month and there may well be a few others following me.

Mine is just short of £100 a month, and I'll be off next year too (I doubt my STB will have been upgraded by next March either !)

Ian

[scrotnig]

Originally Posted by daxx

Is it that easy for NTL to send out a .cm file for the appropriate STB?

STB users had the letter (April/May) along with CM users, those of us with STB's who 'want' to be upgraded will have by now been 'swapped' out, either by the 'rolling program' or indeed by help from this forum or CS. Those that haven't to my mind can't be bothered. So let em go down to 750, they'll soon be on the phone worrying about the swap out.

We are now told 'November for your update', can anybody tell since when has November been classed as 'late summer'.

NTL have changed their tack, yeah right, just carry on as normal NTL and do what you usually do, do the rollout and 'sod the punters' then expect your staff take the flack afterwards.

My ADSL is already in and working and I managed to blag a free three months trial, come November 4th if the upgraded .cm file is not in and working I'm off, full whack to the tune of over £100 a month and there may well be a few others following me.

As an aside and still on topic. Does anybody know how many 1meg STB users there are in total and maybe how many are still waiting for a 'swapout'

Not everyone has been swapped. Would you rather the company just ploughed on regardless and left people with no service?

You would not believe how stubborn some customers are. "Well, you can swap it, but I work seven days a week 12 hours a day so you'll have to come next sunday evening between 7 and 8" is not uncommon.

My view personally is that there will come a point where ntl simply write to existing customers advising that if they have not arranged a swap by a certain date, their 1mb broadband will be force-downgraded to 600k so that the upgrade can go ahead unfettered. Then they will have 750k, and if they want 1.5mb back they will HAVE to arrange a box swap, or else stay where they are.

That'd be my solution, but I don't know if the company wants to risk upsetting people like that. It's a rock/hard place situation.

I am used to the same situation with customers who are cancelling and need their set top box collected. None of the appointments are EVER suitable for some people who seem to work 24/7 and they refuse to agree to a collection. This is then sorted by explaining that as they are refusing to hand over the box, a £150 charge will be added to their account immediately. This seems to focus the mind and a convenient appointment is suddenly agreed!

[daxx]

Originally Posted by Mark B

Not everyone has been swapped. Would you rather the company just ploughed on regardless and left people with no service?

Isn't this what NTL normally do?? Judging from the amount of ongoing problems just on this site all the NTL top brass seem to care about is the £ÃÆ ’‚£Ãà¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚£ and certainly not customer satisfaction

<snipped>

Originally Posted by Mark B

My view personally is that there will come a point where ntl simply write to existing customers advising that if they have not arranged a swap by a certain date, their 1mb broadband will be force-downgraded to 600k so that the upgrade can go ahead unfettered. Then they will have 750k, and if they want 1.5mb back they will HAVE to arrange a box swap, or else stay where they are.

It has been around six months since the first letters went out, how much longer do they need? or is the 1.5 for STB users going to join the realms of NTL's famous 'coming soon' legends

would NTL like it if I 'promised' to pay my bills and then 6 months later still had not paid, I doubt it.

Originally Posted by Mark B

That'd be my solution, but I don't know if the company wants to risk upsetting people like that. It's a rock/hard place situation.

Agreed but unless there is any viable technical reason (not idle STB users) for delaying this particular phase of the rollout, then NTL just go ahead and do it or at least break the mold and tell the truth for once instead of feeble excuses

[scrotnig]

They *are* telling the truth. The swapping of set top boxes has not yet been completed.

[daxx]

Originally Posted by Mark B

They *are* telling the truth. The swapping of set top boxes has not yet been completed.

Agreed Mark, the NTL version


So the other 99.9999% of STB users are going to be dependant on the one individual who 'works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week' before we get our upgrade.

I think not ! !

I'll be off long before that day arrives and joining the ranks of other users who have got totally miffed with the NTL machine and it's feeble attempts to carry on feeding customers what should be fed to mushrooms

[highlandlassie]

supposed to be happening in November for me

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Mark B

<snip>
My view personally is that there will come a point where ntl simply write to existing customers advising that if they have not arranged a swap by a certain date, their 1mb broadband will be force-downgraded to 600k so that the upgrade can go ahead unfettered. Then they will have 750k, and if they want 1.5mb back they will HAVE to arrange a box swap, or else stay where they are.

That'd be my solution, but I don't know if the company wants to risk upsetting people like that. It's a rock/hard place situation.
<snip>

This is *exactly* what NTL said they would do in the letter I got.

[Terry]

Does anyone know when the BT36 postcode area is due for upgrade. The upgrade link says October but my neighbours just a short distance away in BT15 were upgraded in August. Dont understand why there should be a 3 month gap for 100 yds distance between the postcode areas. Surely the greater Belfast area could have all been done at or about the same time. Getting real impatient with 150 and paying the same as my son who is getting 300 just because he lives just inside the Belfast boundary and I live just outside it

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Terry

Does anyone know when the BT36 postcode area is due for upgrade. The upgrade link says October but my neighbours just a short distance away in BT15 were upgraded in August. Dont understand why there should be a 3 month gap for 100 yds distance between the postcode areas. Surely the greater Belfast area could have all been done at or about the same time. Getting real impatient with 150 and paying the same as my son who is getting 300 just because he lives just inside the Belfast boundary and I live just outside it

I know how you feel.. However, it may be that they haven't upgraded anyone on your UBR yet. Just because you live near each other, doesn't necessarily mean you are on the same UBR or even on the same network - a friend of mine couldn't have broadband at all as he lives on the border of Lewisham and Bromley and although everyone else on his street was attached to the Bromley network (which is enabled for broadband), he was attached to the Lewisham one, which had no broadband at the time he left).

The areas that each UBR serves don't necessarily co-incide with the physical area (one UBR may serve one town and half the next for instace).

I've got a slightly different problem.. I am getting 1Meg through a STB, and although I had my STB changed before the beginning of August, and all Cable modem users in my area were upgraded in August, I have to wait 'till some time in November because NTL can only upgrade the STBs nationally.

[IanUK]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned (unless I missed it in this huuuuge thread) is will the same thing happen should NTL ever wish to increase speed to say 3 meg one day ? will cable modem users get done first and then STBer's will need to be done much later, or is this upgrade somewhat future proofed to prevent this much delay happening again ?

Would be interesting to know...

Ian

[Ignition]

Originally Posted by IanUK

One thing I haven't seen mentioned (unless I missed it in this huuuuge thread) is will the same thing happen should NTL ever wish to increase speed to say 3 meg one day ? will cable modem users get done first and then STBer's will need to be done much later, or is this upgrade somewhat future proofed to prevent this much delay happening again ?

Would be interesting to know...

Ian

Samsungs will be more than happy at 3Mbit, no need to upgrade them.

[nmcog]

My STB box was upgraded a few weeks ago, but still havn't been upgraded to 1.5Mbit

Location: Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire

[daxx]

we have to wait till 4th November (which year still remians uncertain), put back AGAIN, see this link for the postcode checker and latest (from NTL) news

http://www.ntlworld.com/data-feeds/e...de/checker.php