[Merged] Tech Support to be charged at 0871 rate from 8 May

[quadplay]

Originally Posted by Shabba

0800 1830123 i'm all for ringing sales. They transfer you to were you want to be (or at least they used to).

Telesales staff have been told they are not to transfer calls to chargable departments. Customer Service reps will be told they can, for now, transfer to technical support (which is at the higher 0871 rate) - but this will be reviewed in the future if significant revenue is being lost this way.

---------- Post added at 00:12 ---------- Previous post was at 00:11 ----------

Originally Posted by Shaun

If it is an 0871 number for faults it'll be 10p at all times.

The 0871 number is for broadband technical support only. TV & telephone faults will continue to be handled via the main contact number, which is now 0845.

[etccarmageddon]

holy **** batman - this 0871 number is 10p at all times - I didn't realise that.

---------- Post added at 00:34 ---------- Previous post was at 00:33 ----------

even more of a rip off than 0870

[Chrysalis]

I wonder why broadband support is at a higher rate?

higher volume of people ringing up due to speed problems etc?
ntl realising not as cheap as they thought having it in india?
detterent for people to bitch about speeds?

I suspect number 3 might be a big one.

ntl:telewest those of you who thought a merger was to benefit customers have got an early answer to that although I never expected things to go downhill this fast. Generally larger companies are more disrespectful to customers.

[etccarmageddon]

and it's 10p a min now but may go up in the future.

---------- Post added at 08:10 ---------- Previous post was at 07:27 ----------

BT yahoo broadband tech support is an 0845 number:-

Customer Support:
0845 600 7030

Open 24 hours a day, calls are charged at local rate.


significantly cheaper than ntl

[Derek]

Originally Posted by quadplay

The 0871 number is for broadband technical support only. TV & telephone faults will continue to be handled via the main contact number, which is now 0845.

Will the IVR option for Broadband faults just give customers a recorded message with the new number then cut them off then?

[Invicta59]

Originally Posted by Paul M

So, in theory, no one should wait more than about 5 minutes. I wonder how long it takes to get called back though, given that many people have lives (!), and can't sit by their phone all day.So, in theory, no one should wait more than about 5 minutes. I wonder how long it takes to get called back though, given that many people have lives (!), and can't sit by their phone all day.

Excellent point. Personally, I'd rather hear one of those "There are 487 calls ahead of you", or "There are 5 calls ahead of you" messages so I could make the decision whether to hold or give up. Of course, hanging up within a minute wouldn't raise much revenue, but it wouldn't waste an entire day/evening/night hanging about for a phone call that may or may not happen either!

[DocDutch]

Think I'll be phoning NTL then from my mobile...at least I got free minutes there

[Lew]

Originally Posted by NTL press release

This change brings ntl into line with other communication companies who make a nominal charge for customer service calls.

So because "everyone else does it", ntl has to do the same? Why not try to be better than the other companies?

[etccarmageddon]

Originally Posted by DocDutch

Think I'll be phoning NTL then from my mobile...at least I got free minutes there

free mins to 0845 and 0871 numbers? better check mate if you're not 100% sure.

my orange payg phone charges 25p a min for these numbers.

I'm starting to wonder if I did the right thing by keeping my broadband at £34.99 a month with NTL!

(got rid of TV & Telco)

I'm very tempted to call up now and give 30 days notice on my broadband too, this amounts to the fith price increase in under a year since I joined them!

I would not mind so much if I new that when I called this number I would get an answer within three minutes and my problem solved first time. But my history with NTL tells me something very different!

[Chrysalis]

considering the problems people have with ntl, merry go round, waiting etc. If they needed to charge a fixed fee might have been more appropriate.

[Simply Gray]

Has the 10 meg fiasco been a trial run to see how many calls can be generated for NTL's new income stream? Maybe 1/2meg upgrades are scheduled for May 2006?

[etccarmageddon]

so why is one call centre 0845 and the other 0871? why is customer service a chargeable call? why is tech support a chargeable call at an even higher rate?

[Derek]

Originally Posted by etccarmageddon

so why is one call centre 0845 and the other 0871? why is customer service a chargeable call? why is tech support a chargeable call at an even higher rate?

Normally because the Technical Support calls are longer and cost Ntl more to handle than the Cust Service ones.

A normal call to customer services can be dealt with in about 3-4 minutes by a competent CSR.
Even the best training technical staff will struggle to get past the initial troubleshooting and diags in that time.

They could redeem themselves slightly by bringing the tech support back to the UK with the money saved/made out the chargeable calls and put a cap on the time limit so if a customer has been on the phone for say 25-30 minutes they get a call back.

Can't see that happening though

[etccarmageddon]

tech support jobs exported to Indian AND now they want 10p a min. a double pile of turd. so what they want is for us to pay money which effectively will be going out of the country - so it's not like we're paying this 10p a min and can say the money is being used to keep some uk staff off the dole.