Moving House Woes

[wonder_lander]

Moving from BN2 0xx
and to ST15 0xx
Customer since about 1992
(approx 200 miles)

I called NTL on the 6th September to say that I would be moving on Saturday 17th Septmber. The guy on the phone said that the soonest they could get my services installed at the new property would be the 19th September and that I could have a morning or afternoon installation. I plumbed for the pm installation and was told that I would be contacted nearer the time by the moving house team. I hadn't heard anything by the 16th September so I called NTL again only to be told that this would be with the regional transfer team and so they couldn't help me

Move was a nightmare on the 17th but I was looking forward to the 19th and getting my internet and phone service back up and running. Needless to say nobody turned up and so I called NTL to see what the score was. The operator informed me that although I had indeed made the call on the 6th September no order was actually raised. I was told to call the following day and that CS would put me through to moving house team.

I called on the 20th and was initially told that NTL services weren't available on my street. I explained that the website allowed me to pick the postcode but that the house numbers that it offered weren't mine. The lady tried "another system" to set me up a new billing account and this worked so the earliest that they could get someone out was the following Tuesday, the 27th, yesterday. The lady said that she would apply a £20 credit to my account for the problems I have had. This time I got an SMS during the week confirming the details and so I had every confidence that there wouldn't be a problem.

The NTL crew true to their words turned up yesterday at about 4.20pm to do the install only to find that they where unable to route the cable from the cabinet to the pit which would then route it onto the point on the pavement. They pointed out to me that the pavements had fresh looking tarmac and so it sounded as though the ducting had collapsed. He said that he would then need to report back to his supervisior who would arrange for the construction team to come out. He took my mobile number and said that I would receive a call for when this could be scheduled in. Needless to say I haven't had a call all day.

I called today to see what was happening but it appears that they don't have any updated actions and again my mobile number was checked and I was told I would get a call back. As of now I've heard nothing!

Anyone have any experiences of the length of time I can expect to be waiting for a construction visit and then a rescheduled engineers visit.

Am I best off just calling BT and using them as there is already a BT line in the property?

Is there a complaints proceedure that I can use to log my issues?

[Chris T]

to Cable Forum. I've obscured part of your postcode for your own safety - there are all kinds of freaks and wierdos on the 'net (most of them seem to be members here actually )

There are some knowledgeable NTL staff on this forum, hopefully one of them has experience of the construction side of things and will be able to post about it soon!

[wonder_lander]

Originally Posted by Chris T

to Cable Forum. I've obscured part of your postcode for your own safety - there are all kinds of freaks and wierdos on the 'net (most of them seem to be members here actually )

There are some knowledgeable NTL staff on this forum, hopefully one of them has experience of the construction side of things and will be able to post about it soon!

Thanks for the reply Chris, I wait with anticipation!

[Angua]

Hi and
There is a form here http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/ntl.php
where you should get some feedback.

A friend had a similar problem when she moved (took nearly 4 weeks to get fully installed, BB taking the longest). She did get a great deal on price as a result of being messed about.

There are some very helpful bods on here who may look into your situation. it gets sorted quickly

[Rob]

to Cable Forum

Sorry to hear of your problems.

Personal experience, when a cable repull was required recently at my house, and the pavement T point had been covered over, is the construction crews are a law unto themselves as to when they turn up. When I was given a date, it was for about 6 weeks away. In fact a fortnight later, I had a card stuck through my door saying they had been and done it. The repull then got scheduled a coupe of weeks later, but I arrived one day to find it had been done ahead of time. Issue is getting the dates as these teams are not customer facing.

Of course the defect in the ducting isn't really something that ntl could have predicted, but it is frustrating for you

Try entering feedback into Responsetek. This is system is monitored by ntl senior management who do take it seriously.

[Mick]

Hi Wonder Lander,

If you want to send me some details via private message - I will forward this on to our ntl contact - to send me a private message - click on my name on this post and a drop down menu should appear, select the option to send me a private message. Thanks.

[wonder_lander]

Just had a couple of calls from Gill or is it Jill and she has investigated this for me. Apparently a supervisor has been to inspect the ducting and said that there is no problem and I have an appointment for tomorrow am to install.....will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for everyone who's assisted!

[wonder_lander]

Well just before 1pm the original installation crew returned and asked if the construction team had been. I explained that apparently a supervisor had been out and said that all was ok. They didn't look particularly confident with this reply but set about trying to install again.

This time things looked a lot better and when the chap came to ask me where I wanted to have the phone and BB point installed I knew we where on! Tea lads?!

About 30 mins later they where done and I was told:

Have you had broadband before? I said yes and I was told to run the cd.
We'll call the telephone and if it rings all is ok...they then drove off!

Got a follow up call from Gill to see if I was all up and running but I explained that they had just left to test the phone. Gill said she'd call an hour later to check I was up and running.

About 30 mins later the installation team came back and said, I'm guessing the phone didn't ring then....I said er.....no.....and he pulled out his diagnostics box...then it struck me.....erm...I wonder if the ringer is turned off on the phone! :o Sure enough it was and once picked up I had a working phone! I apologised to the installer and off he went on his merry way.!

Next thing was to try and install broadband again. I got the CD, bunged it in and realised it said that I needed a pin which I didn't have. I called CS and was given my PIN but depsite several attempts to get it authenitcate me the installation kept returning an internal error. I tried all afternoon and evening before finally giving up the following morning and calling broadband technical help. I know that there can be problems with the registration server so thought it may have just been that.

Once I got through to tech support he told me I didn't need to use the installer cd and instead gave me a url to a movinghouse web address. Followed this through and all up and running. Shame the original installer didn't know this.

The installation guys took their shoes off as they entered the house but left all the mess from drilling the hole and from the wires that they had chopped off in the living room.

Gill called back as promised and I told her that all was back up and running. Gill said that she'd arrange for a credit for my phone and broadband.

So thanks to everyone that helped get this resolved. A big thumbs up for NTL getting there in the end...after 11 years of being an NTL customer I was dreading the thought of having to go back to BT and get ADSL!

[Angua]

Delighted everything was all right in the end. Does seem to be a problem with long standing customers. I hope you got a worthwhile credit off your bill?