How to get follow-up info?

Banshee · 01-03-2004, 14:32

I'm a newbie and I can't find anything specific to my prob'. My broadband connections been down since early Saturday morning (some of the local tearaways vandalised the 'distribution' box outside where I live - in Woking, Surrey). I've spent hours on the phone over the weekend and I'm getting nowhere. Is there any mechanism / phone no I can use to either a). find out what's going on (a call update) or more importantly b). escalate the problem. Any help gratefully received. Tks.

Neil · 01-03-2004, 14:34

Hi, & Welcome to nthw.

What number have you rung?

You need to report the damage to ntl on 0800 052 2000. Make sure you make a note of the person's name/extention number that you speak to.

01-03-2004, 14:36

Ring them up and tell them that someone has run their own cable to the box and that they are getting free BB.....

That will get them round quick

the formum BTW

Marge · 01-03-2004, 14:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartbe

Ring them up and tell them that someone has run their own cable to the box and that they are getting free BB.....

That will get them round quick

the formum BTW

should be actioned more or less straight away when faults get to know about it

threadbare · 01-03-2004, 15:09

if the fault has been reported then you will have to wait untill it is fixed. its all about resources at the end of the day. imagine this you are a large ISP with faults that affect <10,000 ppl < 1000 ppl or a local postode outage <50 ppl which one do you fix first?

seaneeboy · 01-03-2004, 15:14

Thread> I don't think priorotising is the problem here, it's feeding back the results... This fella has no broadband service at all, and i'm sure the engineers have booked in a time to fix it, so what's so secret about passing that information back, to give him some kind of hope about when it'll be fixed?

threadbare · 01-03-2004, 15:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by seaneeboy

Thread> I don't think priorotising is the problem here, it's feeding back the results... This fella has no broadband service at all, and i'm sure the engineers have booked in a time to fix it, so what's so secret about passing that information back, to give him some kind of hope about when it'll be fixed?

i see what your saying, unfortunately with ntl the departments that hold that information aren't customer facing and that kind of information just isn't available to the front line ppl - that goes for supervisors etc. Unless one of the mods can produce a number, for a head of dept, for banshee to call then it is unlikely he will get the information he wants.

Neil · 01-03-2004, 15:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by seaneeboy

Thread> I don't think priorotising is the problem here, it's feeding back the results... This fella has no broadband service at all, and i'm sure the engineers have booked in a time to fix it, so what's so secret about passing that information back, to give him some kind of hope about when it'll be fixed?

It's all about communicating with your customers-something that ntl are ****** poor at I'm afraid.

Neil · 01-03-2004, 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by threadbare

i see what your saying, unfortunately with ntl the departments that hold that information aren't customer facing and that kind of information just isn't available to the front line ppl - that goes for supervisors etc.

Then ntl need to change that.

Quote:

Unless one of the mods can produce a number, for a head of dept, for banshee to call then it is unlikely he will get the information he wants.

I can if needs be, produce a number for the MD for the region.

threadbare · 01-03-2004, 15:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil

Then ntl need to change that.

I can if needs be, produce a number for the MD for the region.

yep they certainly do

edit: of course the only problem with fix times is that they sometimes slip - causing grief for all involved

seaneeboy · 01-03-2004, 15:25

That's a shame though...

"Hello, my broadband's broken cos the box has been trashed"
"Thanks for telling me"
"Um, can it be fixed?"
"Yes"
"Great! When can I get back on the net then?"
"Um... It can be fixed. That's all I can tell you"
"So I'm paying Ã‚Â£25/month to hope that I can get online sometime?"
"Er..."

Banshee · 01-03-2004, 15:42

Quote:

What number have you rung?

Well on Saturday it was the Broadband Support people who were able to tell me that the fault had been reported @09:19 this morning (I reported it @ 10:30). At 21:00 the Broadband support desk guy, was able to tell me that it was a vandalised piece of kit.
Today on the 0800 052 2000 - they didn't seem aware of the problem??

Quote:

if the fault has been reported then you will have to wait untill it is fixed.

Curiously enough that's what one of the people on the help-desk said.

Neil · 01-03-2004, 15:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Banshee

Well on Saturday it was the Broadband Support people who were able to tell me that the fault had been reported @09:19 this morning (I reported it @ 10:30). At 21:00 the Broadband support desk guy, was able to tell me that it was a vandalised piece of kit.
Today on the 0800 052 2000 - they didn't seem aware of the problem??

Yet more non communication.

Quote:

Curiously enough that's what one of the people on the help-desk said.

What a surprise (not)

threadbare · 01-03-2004, 15:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Banshee

Well on Saturday it was the Broadband Support people who were able to tell me that the fault had been reported @09:19 this morning (I reported it @ 10:30). At 21:00 the Broadband support desk guy, was able to tell me that it was a vandalised piece of kit.
Today on the 0800 052 2000 - they didn't seem aware of the problem??

Curiously enough that's what one of the people on the help-desk said.

if its a local fault, that has been reported, then there is no point talking to tech support at all. they fix PC problems. If customer services are not aware of any fault then there is a high probability that it has been fixed (they will have a list of current faults not past ones), in which case, you have an unrelated problems. they should then put you thru to tech support to fix any possible PC problem or request an engineer as appropriate,

Banshee · 02-03-2004, 05:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by threadbare

If customer services are not aware of any fault then there is a high probability that it has been fixed (they will have a list of current faults not past ones).

Well, finally talked to someone this evening on the call-centre who although she initially tried to fob me off to broadband support stuck with the call. 22 minutes later after many tries she got through to faults. 2 hours later an NTL engineer arrives. 10 minute fix and it's down to a busted connection. (But nearly 3 days for anyone to take me seriously?)
If I've learned anything from this it's that you constantly have to chase people and hope that you get someone who's tenacious.
My NTL service is usually fine. However, I always say that you find out how good a company is when problems happen. I'll be conveying thanks and appropriate praise / positive feedback to NTL.
Thanks for the assistance. Looks like I've found another useful forum.