NTL (indian support centre) causing loads of grief

[Bifta]

My partners sister (her husband called me about it), is having real trouble trying to get something fixed by NTL, he called me last night as he had no connection to the internet. I went over and took a look, he connects using USB but there was no USB light on the modem and nothing listed for the modem in the device manager (had to unhide to show them), tried the USB cable on his scanner and it works fine, as does the USB ports on the PC. He's phoned NTL a few times now about it but get's a severely irritating indian woman who keeps feeding him some crap about network wide problems. I can't see how a network fault would cause the USB light to go off. At the moment he's told them if they don't get it sorted then he's going to rip the whole lot out (phone/broadband AND TV) and go with someone else but they still haven't scheduled him an engineers visit to look at the modem. It's not the first time they've had trouble, they had bother a couple of weeks back and the engineers never bothered turning up on the day they said they would.

Is anyone able to get someone (who can preferably speak english) to give him a ring, he's given me all of his account details in case they're needed, it'd be much appreciated.

[Earwig]

Can he not DEMAND to speak to the management??

Whenever I have to phone them this is what I do and I usually get some sense and somebody who actually knows what they are talking about.


Failing that I reckon the problem is Norton Antivirus?? No?? Spyware then?? how do i know this without even looking?? This is what Indai Support line always tell me for ANY problem !!

[fatnose12]

When I had a problem recently, I was advised to ask for someone in the English call centre, was put through to someone who had a clue. Unfortunatly NTL like most other UK companies who outsource their customer services to India, only give their call centres a limited amout of autonomy, most of their Indian call centre staff can't think outside of the box in fact couldn't find their way out of a wet cardboard box. NTL proberbly us the same call centre as the TSB bank, National rail enquries, and one of the major insurers( I forget who.) The opperator gets a screen message tell him/her where the call is coming from and which company is involved. If its anything other than what is on the screen they have not got a clue.

[sheilablige]

Poor India they get all the grief (!) but are in fact given the same tools/equipment and info to work with as the UK techs at NTL - I think the diff being that possibly they can't go home and fiddle with pc and that they can understand us as well as we can understand them!!!!! They are totally useless in the main.

Does the USB in dev manager have any ! ? or X by/on it? If so you could try USB scrub and re-install - you will need the installer disc to make life easier. Make sure you do FULL reboot of both PC and STB when requested (not just restart computer)

Of course you can always check if enet card is installed (especially if it's a newer pc) and then just remove USB converter.

Has anyone actually checked for area fault?

Hope this is of SOME use

Regards Sheila (ex NTL)
__________________

PS - tech support managers will not be able to help with tech matters - can usually only deal with a/c probs!

[Russ]

Originally Posted by fatnose12

When I had a problem recently, I was advised to ask for someone in the English call centre, was put through to someone who had a clue.

As far as I'm aware, ntl don't have any English customer services callcentres - they're either in Wales or Scotland.

Bifta if you PM me her details I'll email ntl tomorrow although it's not likely to be actioned until monday.

[quadplay]

Yes they do Russ - there's a major customer service centre in Manchester, as well as Swansea and Glasgow! The only UK tech support centres are Swansea (for broadband) and Newport (just down the road, for narrowband).

With regard to the problem, as others have said try running the USB scrub ("uninstall.exe" in the Ambit folder, under the Drivers folder on the ntl installation CD), then reboot the PC and plug the USB cable back in. Otherwise, change to Ethernet. A NIC only costs £5 and is far less trouble than USB.

[nffc]

What OS is it?

[Chrysalis]

jimbo whats the number to hit swansea direct bypassing india?

[quadplay]

Don't know.

[sleepless]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

jimbo whats the number to hit swansea direct bypassing india?

There isn't one
__________________

This looks like the ntl:home modem firmware fault that started on Thursday. Does your friend have a solid SYNC/READY light straight after a hard (power) reboot? If so they will need a new modem as the modem firmware is fried. I suspect they rebooted the modem whilst the firmware was updating .

A call to Tech support should result in an engineer booking for a new modem

If not, apologies

[Bifta]

It does like the modem is fried, I did tell him that I suspected that. He's already demanded an engineer but he was told by the unhelpful CSR that it would just resolve itself.

Russ, I've forwarded on to you all the details I have, if you need anything else, let me know and I'll give him a ring. Thanks

[ForestJono]

Originally Posted by Bifta

My partners sister (her husband called me about it), is having real trouble trying to get something fixed by NTL, he called me last night as he had no connection to the internet. I went over and took a look, he connects using USB but there was no USB light on the modem and nothing listed for the modem in the device manager (had to unhide to show them), tried the USB cable on his scanner and it works fine, as does the USB ports on the PC. He's phoned NTL a few times now about it but get's a severely irritating indian woman who keeps feeding him some crap about network wide problems. I can't see how a network fault would cause the USB light to go off. At the moment he's told them if they don't get it sorted then he's going to rip the whole lot out (phone/broadband AND TV) and go with someone else but they still haven't scheduled him an engineers visit to look at the modem. It's not the first time they've had trouble, they had bother a couple of weeks back and the engineers never bothered turning up on the day they said they would.

Is anyone able to get someone (who can preferably speak english) to give him a ring, he's given me all of his account details in case they're needed, it'd be much appreciated.

I'm having what seems like exactly the same problem since Saturday. Just 3 lights constantly on the modem (Power, RDY and SNCY (something like that, going from memory). No amount of rebooting will make any difference. Got through to the so called support centre this morning, after the Indian guy talked me through a "logical reboot" that didn't work (which involved unplugging the modem for 30 seconds, like I hadn't tried that myself several times!!), he ran out of ideas and said that a lot of customers in my area are experiencing the same problem and someone will call me in the next 72 hours. Sounds like a fob-off, will wait and see.

[sheilablige]

Normally if there is an area issue or modem faults the RDY and SYNC will not stay constant - ie they will flash on constant for a few sec then start flashing or ranging. No USB or enet light will prob be driver issue. Hope this helps:

If USB go to start/control panel/network connections - check devices - if have ? ! or x there is your prob. Try also right click USB icon to look for options ..... if you only see enable as a viable option do it. There is so much more

Enet - again try the above - if red x appears on sys tray bottom right that will also indicate prob. Again check for enable option and altho this sounds obv be sure to check connections from pc to modem - the port in the CM may be broken etc

The CM lights are quite an important problem indicator normally

As i say hope this helps
Regards
Sheila - ex ntl

[BarFly]

Originally Posted by ForestJono

I'm having what seems like exactly the same problem since Saturday. Just 3 lights constantly on the modem (Power, RDY and SNCY (something like that, going from memory). No amount of rebooting will make any difference. Got through to the so called support centre this morning, after the Indian guy talked me through a "logical reboot" that didn't work (which involved unplugging the modem for 30 seconds, like I hadn't tried that myself several times!!), he ran out of ideas and said that a lot of customers in my area are experiencing the same problem and someone will call me in the next 72 hours. Sounds like a fob-off, will wait and see.

sounds like a "small" issue NTL are having at the moment, at the time that info was probably the correct info. there are some issues with Cm's not locking on properly & the light sequence you have mentioned is the one of the symptons, so you may very well get your call back in 72hrs....

[Bifta]

Unfortunately he's still no further forward, they've had no broadband now since last Thursday night and was told when he tried to call again tonight that he was "Number 129 in the queue" .. very disheartening