ntl and keeping customers up to date

ntl customer · 07-03-2004, 00:33

Why are ntl never up front about their service problems unlike Telewest?

Having a browse around the Blueyonder site I was interested to find a monthly service status report that is produced by the employees and bosses of the relevant departments that details what went wrong, what has been done to correct it and improvements that are being made to the service - all in detail and without the use of vague ntl cliches such as "coming soon" or "this is due to a technical fault".

http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyond...ouncement.html

Why can't ntl ever bother to do such things? Surely it would help customers to understand the problems they have with their service and why and what caused them and what they are going to do to resolve them rather than spouting out the excuses every time that it's down to a "technical fault".

I get sick to death of hearing this crap on the server status page all the time ...

Quote:

This is due to a technical fault.

Our engineers are aware and are working towards a resolution as soon as possible.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

What is the fault?

What is the resolution? What are you doing to prevent it from happening in future?

I think that ntl should really get their finger out and start to keep their customers informed properly of what is going on with their services.

Perhaps if they started being more honest and up front to their customers about the problems, then we wouldn't be so peed off when we ring CS to complain!

**Rob** · 07-03-2004, 02:17

I could be cynical:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntl customer

What is the fault?

They don't know that yet, they just know it's stopped working

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntl customer

What is the resolution?

They don't know that yet 'cos they cant find out what went wrong

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntl customer

What are you doing to prevent it from happening in future?

Until they know what went wrong and how to fix it you surely cannot expect prevention?

imback · 07-03-2004, 02:22

At a guess, I'd say it's because 99%of customers wouldn't take a blind bit of notice of it. I mean I spoke to a customer yesterday as he was getting the virus addressed from "mangement@ntlworld.com" and asked why we hadn't warned him about this. So I pointed him towards the alert on the homepage, he then said well I never look at that page

poolking · 07-03-2004, 08:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

I could be cynical:

They don't know that yet, they just know it's stopped working

They don't know that yet 'cos they cant find out what went wrong

Until they know what went wrong and how to fix it you surely cannot expect prevention?

Even when they fix the fault, they still don't give details of the fault like Telewest do.

At least it would put our minds at rest, instead of putting the bare minimum on the status page and letting us all jump to conclusions.

I used to defend NTL, but after yesterdays email screw up, god knows why they're in the ISP business if they can't stop the their email servers from falling over at the slightest thing.

If only there were a time machine that could take NTL back to the 90s before they started their "little" spending spree and thought a lot more about the customers in the existing franchises and the technology issues, then just maybe today we wouldn't all be telling the whole country how crap NTL really is.

I don't blame the customer facing employees I never have, its the morons at the top of the ladder who call themselves senior management. Take a good look, they appear to subscribe to the same management techniques book as the rest of the biggest companies in the UK.

Its a case of thinking with their wallets instead of their heads.

**Russ B** · 07-03-2004, 10:04

Perhaps the people who decide what information is given to customers subscribe to the Bill Goodland theory of how to communicate information.

poolking · 07-03-2004, 10:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ D

Perhaps the people who decide what information is given to customers subscribe to the Bill Goodland theory of how to communicate information.

Is that the same as the mushroom theory?

**Rob** · 07-03-2004, 13:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by poolking

Is that the same as the mushroom theory?

I thought it was the ostrich theory

**Rob** · 07-03-2004, 13:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by imback

At a guess, I'd say it's because 99%of customers wouldn't take a blind bit of notice of it. I mean I spoke to a customer yesterday as he was getting the virus addressed from "mangement@ntlworld.com" and asked why we hadn't warned him about this. So I pointed him towards the alert on the homepage, he then said well I never look at that page

I can sympathise with you here. But to be fair, how many residential computer users do have more than a basis understanding of what and why things happen on thier computers, or even where to go to look for assistance when it goes belly up. Many users are too lazy to even look for a solution themselves, they just want the answer. At work, my job is not primarily IT support, yet everyone will come running to me at the slightest hint of a problem, since I'm regarded as the "font of all knwoledge".

I suspect it's a balancing act as to how much information is provided. Ntl probably do too little, for those who really want it. But, the more spent on providing information, is another cost incurred that might be better spent preventing the problems occuring in the first place.

If there was an easy way of educating users about the need for basic virus protection, and similar things, viruses wouldn't be the major problem they are today, as they wouldn't be able to spread anywhere as easily. In turn, that might release ISPs from some of their efforts to cope with the strain of vulnerabilities created by virus and Denial of service type traffic, reduce the overload of email servers (at one stage during the MYDoom virus a few weeks ago 1 in 5 mails were a virus if I recall correctly). This might leave ISPs (and it's not just ntl who suffer in this way) to concentrate on building more reliable systems, rather than chasing their backsides as they have to today.

poolking · 07-03-2004, 14:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

I thought it was the ostrich theory

Oh yes, sticking your head in the sand in the hope that the problems will correct themselves and disappear.

**Russ B** · 07-03-2004, 14:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by MovedGoalPosts

<snip>

So would you agree it's what I call the 'Goodland Theory'?

poolking · 07-03-2004, 14:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ D

So would you agree it's what I call the 'Goodland Theory'?

Aah, so thiat's the Goodland Theory, thanks for clearing that up.

**Rob** · 07-03-2004, 15:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ D

So would you agree it's what I call the 'Goodland Theory'?

Yep, so much for evolution.

**Frank** · 07-03-2004, 20:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntl customer

Having a browse around the Blueyonder site I was interested to find a monthly service status report that is produced by the employees and bosses of the relevant departments that details what went wrong, what has been done to correct it and improvements that are being made to the service - all in detail and without the use of vague ntl cliches such as "coming soon" or "this is due to a technical fault".

http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyond...ouncement.html

Why can't ntl ever bother to do such things?

This project was started over 12 months ago now while I still worked at ntl. I was directly involved with it too. The new site was designed and completed but certain narrow-minded people blocked it's implementation because they did not feel that it satisfied the tech support department's "criteria".

Of course these same people did not provide their criteria and the project floundered and never went live. It disappeared into an archive along with all the other projects which had money spent on them and never saw the light of day.