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View Full Version : Have NTL Lost it


th'engineer
22-06-2003, 10:12
With pricing changes, changes in tech support, NTHW.com, THE CAP do you think they have lost the plot again big time .

My view isa that the changes have come in sop fast they have overall lost it and people are better going for BT for phone and BB

Lord Nikon
22-06-2003, 10:21
well. if people go for BT then PLEASE supply your own equipment....

as for have NTL lost the plot... to lose something you must first have it to lose... I am not sure NTL ever had the plot really.

th'engineer
22-06-2003, 10:33
Originally posted by Lord Nikon
well. if people go for BT then PLEASE supply your own equipment....

as for have NTL lost the plot... to lose something you must first have it to lose... I am not sure NTL ever had the plot really.

Must agree there they seem to try to alien customers anyway they can

poolking
22-06-2003, 10:52
Originally posted by th'engineer
Must agree there they seem to try to alien customers anyway they can

They try to insert aliens into us? :eek: :)

Undisputedtruth
22-06-2003, 12:53
Originally posted by th'engineer
With pricing changes, changes in tech support, NTHW.com, THE CAP do you think they have lost the plot again big time .

My view isa that the changes have come in sop fast they have overall lost it and people are better going for BT for phone and BB

NTL has lost the plot big time. This has a familiar tone.

distortal
22-06-2003, 12:57
Originally posted by poolking
They try to insert aliens into us? :eek: :)

"Look behind you, Cartman!"
"Screw you guys!"

:D

poolking
22-06-2003, 13:00
Originally posted by distortal
"Look behind you, Cartman!"
"Screw you guys!"

:D

:D

Russ
22-06-2003, 13:00
From my experiences as an NTL employee and being part of NTHW.com, I have to say I've regularly been impressed at the grand scale of stupidity shown by some of the decisions made on a higher level. Maybe a lot of them were based on American business practises, but they just won't work here...

albone
22-06-2003, 16:30
yes and according to the Beds on Sunday newspaper, even their directory enquiries have staff that are... (shall we say) a little thick?? A reporter rang up for the number for Sotherby's and was asked wether it was spelt with a J? they do have real problems when they are portrayed in this manner!

Russ
22-06-2003, 16:31
Originally posted by albone
yes and according to the Beds on Sunday newspaper, even their directory enquiries have staff that are... (shall we say) a little thick?? A reporter rang up for the number for Sotherby's and was asked wether it was spelt with a J? they do have real problems when they are portrayed in this manner!

To be fair, isn't the full title for that place "J. Sotherby's"?

albone
22-06-2003, 16:37
Sorry got that one wrong :
Calling NTL directory enquiries is rarely a fruitfull task, more often than not operatives don't believe a place you asked for exists, give you the wrong number or tell you the number is ex-dorectory.....I asked for the number of Sotherby's auction house and am met with the response "Is that spelt with an "F"? my memory isn't what it used to be.:blush:

th'engineer
23-06-2003, 09:32
Well thats one example of trying to compete and losing it on directory enquires

Lord Nikon
23-06-2003, 09:37
Originally posted by albone
Sorry got that one wrong :
my memory isn't what it used to be.:blush:


Don't tell me.. it used to be your ears? :D

Just a little goon show humour...

albone
23-06-2003, 15:31
Yes well, a lot has happened to me the last few days!! not that thats a play for sympathy! But I was quoting from memory and as I say it's not the greatest at the best of times!! (Getting old ya see).:confused:

baldy
23-06-2003, 17:02
Originally posted by albone
Sorry got that one wrong :
my memory isn't what it used to be.:blush:

perhaps you should work for ntl, you appear to have the qualifications :D

albone
23-06-2003, 19:37
Thanks a bunch m8!! huh I'm off for a sulk now....sniff.:bigcry: :eeek:

th'engineer
24-06-2003, 21:20
Can still think of lots of ways they have lost the plot in the NW pricing service

Malsiluk
07-03-2004, 23:00
I don't know if NTL have 'lost it' but they are coming ever closer to losing me!

Today around 10.30 we lost all the NTL services apart from the phone. (that is my 2 TV boxes and the broadband modem) I suspected another problem with the 'green box' at the end of the road, so rang to report the fault.

NTL Customer Services no longer work on a Sunday!! Why? What happens if the service you are paying for goes down on Saturday evening and nobody from NTL can be bothered about it until Monday morning?:disturbd: I think this is a disgrace!! They should have some service available for loss of service reports. As it turned out, the problem was caused by a power-cut in another part of the village (we didn't have it) and when it came back on (about 2 1/2 hours later) back came the NTL services.

That was good, in that I now have the service back, but that is not the point. I have found in the past that the service does go down from time to time and if that is the case, they should be on-hand to deal with outages 7 days a week. When they get a perfect service, they can have a day off, but there is still come way to go!!:td:

MovedGoalPosts
08-03-2004, 00:30
:welcome: to Hell Malsiluk & congrats on bumping such an old thread :D

I have to agree though. Ntl purport to run a 24/7 telephony / TV / ISP service. Therefore for faults at least it should be possible to report a problem, and hopefully see some level of action.

Nikko
08-03-2004, 00:47
I don't know if NTL have 'lost it' but they are coming ever closer to losing me!

Today around 10.30 we lost all the NTL services apart from the phone. (that is my 2 TV boxes and the broadband modem) I suspected another problem with the 'green box' at the end of the road, so rang to report the fault.

NTL Customer Services no longer work on a Sunday!! Why? What happens if the service you are paying for goes down on Saturday evening and nobody from NTL can be bothered about it until Monday morning?:disturbd: I think this is a disgrace!! They should have some service available for loss of service reports. As it turned out, the problem was caused by a power-cut in another part of the village (we didn't have it) and when it came back on (about 2 1/2 hours later) back came the NTL services.

That was good, in that I now have the service back, but that is not the point. I have found in the past that the service does go down from time to time and if that is the case, they should be on-hand to deal with outages 7 days a week. When they get a perfect service, they can have a day off, but there is still come way to go!!:td:

Its quite disgusting that no-one from ntl CS was on hand to apologise for the electricity supply to the cabinet being cut off in common with the rest of the supply in that sector.

How dare they rely on the local electricity board to power their services and then have the temerity to ignore you when there is a grid failure at the weekend.

No doubt people in the other part of the village were totally in the dark too - (well unless they had candles) but at least the battery power to the phone lines held out long enough to power your abortive call to CS.

I assume you dialled 151 for faults, not 150 for CS?

Paul
08-03-2004, 03:30
Nikko - You got me a very odd look earlier when I read this - because I really did nearly fall of my chair laughing. :rofl:

swoop101
08-03-2004, 07:20
Malisuk, welcome to the site. :welcome:
Nikko, not a good welcome to a first post was it. :(
Malisuk was making a very good and valid point about the lack of service available at weekends.
Dialing 151 only lets you report emergency failure of telco, not TV or BB.
They were not blaming NTL for the power outage.

We are here to be friends and to help if we can. :Peaceman:

asdf
08-03-2004, 13:13
Because only telco is deemed an "essential service"

ian@huth
08-03-2004, 13:21
Because only telco is deemed an "essential service"

Maybe so, but TV and internet are essential services as far as generating profit for NTL goes. Without them they would just be a telco with very few cutomers because of their pricing on telephony. TV is a 24/7 service, internet is a 24/7 service and customer service and faults on these should be 24/7 too.

asdf
08-03-2004, 13:31
I agree, was just stating that is the reasoning of why there is telco.

andygrif
08-03-2004, 13:49
Today around 10.30 we lost all the NTL services apart from the phone. (that is my 2 TV boxes and the broadband modem) I suspected another problem with the 'green box' at the end of the road, so rang to report the fault.

NTL Customer Services no longer work on a Sunday!! Why? What happens if the service you are paying for goes down on Saturday evening and nobody from NTL can be bothered about it until Monday morning?:disturbd: I think this is a disgrace!! They should have some service available for loss of service reports. As it turned out, the problem was caused by a power-cut in another part of the village (we didn't have it) and when it came back on (about 2 1/2 hours later) back came the NTL services.

That was good, in that I now have the service back, but that is not the point. I have found in the past that the service does go down from time to time and if that is the case, they should be on-hand to deal with outages 7 days a week. When they get a perfect service, they can have a day off, but there is still come way to go!!:td:

You guys were lucky....every time we have a power outage that lasts more than an hour or so our phones are out too.

I've had protracted conversations with ntl's networks people about it, but they've done nothing to rectify the situation.

Frankly for a phone line to go down during a power outage is unacceptable. Not only do people need to contact the power company, but also there is greater risk to the vunerable (such as elderly and unwell) when there is no power to their house.

The reason being is that is finite UPS power, and once it's used then there is no more service. NTL's answer to is send out men in vans with generators, but there can only be so many cabinets covered by such a service.

It is a fundamental flaw on the ntl architecture, compared to BT who only require one generator in each exchange to keep the system operational.

Realistically, there is little ntl could do about it now, apart from have more men in vans with generators - which is not really a financially viable option.

I agree about your points regarding reporting faults - this should be a 24 hours service, not just daytime weekdays and Saturday mornings - but this is how ntl have dealt with managing their costs - keeping staffing to a minimum at off-peak hours.

asdf
08-03-2004, 13:56
The same problem occured with Ionica, although their batteries lasted about 8 hours, I think I tested at one point ;)

Gareth
08-03-2004, 18:04
Nikko, your comments are a bit out of order, IMHO.

What if an outage occurred on a Saturday evening that was not related to the national grid, but was (heaven forbid!) NTL's fault? Would it be acceptable to have to wait until Monday before being able to even report it?

Admittedly, a broadband connection or some missing TV channels may not necessarily be life threatening stuff, but the fact is that if NTL purport to offering a 24/7 service, then they should honour that promise. And, if NTL don't, you can bet their competitors do.

Just my 2¢, for what it's worth.

ps - welcome Malsiluk :)

asdf
08-03-2004, 18:27
I don't know myself, but can anyone tell us whether Telewest, Sky and the ADSL providers offer 24/7 support?

That way we can see whether ntl offer anything below the norm. :p

Chrysalis
08-03-2004, 18:33
to me ntl have got problems in these areas

1 - no customer services on sundays
2 - bad bad email service
3 - forced proxy servers
4 - poor dns performance

the other issues such as cap although bad are not a critical problem as of yet because it is not a hard limit.

ian@huth
08-03-2004, 18:44
I don't know myself, but can anyone tell us whether Telewest, Sky and the ADSL providers offer 24/7 support?

That way we can see whether ntl offer anything below the norm. :p

Telewest seem to have 24/7 support http://www.telewest.co.uk/html/internet/blueyonder1mb.htm

They also have a good sevice status page http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyonder/status/statuspage.html

testcard
08-03-2004, 18:52
I suspect cock up work both ways, I will post about the lousy service but never never about extra credits, arrival of movie channels...........

andygrif
08-03-2004, 19:00
Telewest seem to have 24/7 support http://www.telewest.co.uk/html/internet/blueyonder1mb.htm

They also have a good sevice status page http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyonder/status/statuspage.html

I've said this before at Telewest's status page. Whilst it may only be as internally efficient as ntls (I don't know) to a customer is it very comprehensive and professional, with each logged fault or issue given a priority, estimated time of resolution, name of the person assigned to it - all very good stuff.

I'm sure ntl have the same internal procedsure - it's all standard stuff, but they could learn a lot from TW about how to present it to the outside world from TW.

Neil
08-03-2004, 19:00
I don't know myself, but can anyone tell us whether Telewest, Sky and the ADSL providers offer 24/7 support?

That way we can see whether ntl offer anything below the norm. :p

Pipex. (http://www.pipex.net/contact/customersupport/)

PIPEX Technical Support Current Call Queue


Current Queue Status: Open

Current Wait: 15 minutes or more

Estimated Answer Time: around 5:53 PM

Best Times to Call: 1pm-2pm, 5pm-6pm

Known issues: Problems reported with Connectivity and News - more info

Telephone Statistics Last updated: Mon Mar 8 17:39:02 2004

PIPEX Technical Support Contact Details

Your PIPEX service is fully supported, you can contact the PIPEX Technical Support Team in the following ways:


Email - general / Dial enquiries: support@dial.pipex.com
Email - ADSL enquiries only: support@dsl.pipex.net
Within UK Local Rate Telephone: 0845 077 8324 / (0845 077 TECH)
Overseas Telephone: 44 1707 299 509
Fax: 08702 43 44 40
By Post: Customer Support Department
PIPEX House
4 Falcon Gate, Shire Park
Welwyn Garden City
Hertfordshire
AL7 1TW

The PIPEX Technical Support Department is open at the following times:


Monday - Friday: 09:00 - 20:00
Saturday: 09:00 - 18:00

Makes a mockery of ntl's Server Status page really doesn't it? :rolleyes:

BT (http://www.bt.com/faultplace/faultpage.jsp?obsOID=13938&obsPage=/faultplace/faultpage.jsp&vStore=1170&obsType=LINK&obsNoSee=true)

(From my BT phone book)

You can call to report a fault with any BT line or rented product 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I can even keep track of my fault with BT online: http://www.btwebworld.com/athome/repair/fpr/

Now-you were saying about comparisons ASDF? ;)

Chrysalis
08-03-2004, 19:23
that pipex page is awesome, obviously showing a known fault will reduce incoming calls considerably so it benefits the company and the customer, NTL have a lot of lessons to learn here.

Neil
08-03-2004, 19:26
that pipex page is awesome, obviously showing a known fault will reduce incoming calls considerably so it benefits the company and the customer, NTL have a lot of lessons to learn here.

The Pipex page is also kept up to date, & ntl have a lot of lessons to learn everywhere when it comes to decent customer service.

Malsiluk
09-03-2004, 00:31
Hi Guys and looks like I (re)opened a good and lively thread with my posting yesterday.

Cheers for the kind welcome Nikko. ;) Maybe my posting was a case of 'too much information' and I should have kept it short and simple for you. The fact that the outage was caused by a power cut in another part of the village (not our road and therefore not our 'green box') was in a way incidental. It was because I thought there was a fault that I rang to try and report it that i found I couldn't. Honestly, I am bright enough to know that if the power is off, the telly won't work! :dozey:

GDW1975 seemed to get the point though and thanks to him. Surely there should be some kind of fault reporting service open 7 days a week. I can accept it not being open at 11 o'clock at night, but why the hell not at 11 o'clock on a Sunday morning? :mad: I am almost certain that there was a 'Sunday service' about a year ago, when we last lost everything on a Sunday. I remember having to get a couple more neighbours to ring in to tell CS they had lost their service as well, as they won't believe there is an outage until 3 people report it. (One customer is likely to be too stupid to know if he's got his telly working or not, but maybe 3 might know! :dunce: ) I am sure it was on a Sunday, so when did they decide to save money on any form of Sunday service?

Anyway, I used to post a bit on the old nthellworld, so I am not brand new and can take the heat if I say something silly (Nikko) but honestly was trying to make the point about lack of Sunday service, not blaming NTL for power cuts. By the way, which part of NTL do you work for? :banghead:

(Only joking mate, no bad feelings either way I hope)

Nikko
09-03-2004, 01:13
Hi Guys and looks like I (re)opened a good and lively thread with my posting yesterday.

Cheers for the kind welcome Nikko. ;) Maybe my posting was a case of 'too much information' and I should have kept it short and simple for you. The fact that the outage was caused by a power cut in another part of the village (not our road and therefore not our 'green box') was in a way incidental. It was because I thought there was a fault that I rang to try and report it that i found I couldn't. Honestly, I am bright enough to know that if the power is off, the telly won't work! :dozey:

GDW1975 seemed to get the point though and thanks to him. Surely there should be some kind of fault reporting service open 7 days a week. I can accept it not being open at 11 o'clock at night, but why the hell not at 11 o'clock on a Sunday morning? :mad: I am almost certain that there was a 'Sunday service' about a year ago, when we last lost everything on a Sunday. I remember having to get a couple more neighbours to ring in to tell CS they had lost their service as well, as they won't believe there is an outage until 3 people report it. (One customer is likely to be too stupid to know if he's got his telly working or not, but maybe 3 might know! :dunce: ) I am sure it was on a Sunday, so when did they decide to save money on any form of Sunday service?

Anyway, I used to post a bit on the old nthellworld, so I am not brand new and can take the heat if I say something silly (Nikko) but honestly was trying to make the point about lack of Sunday service, not blaming NTL for power cuts. By the way, which part of NTL do you work for? :banghead:

(Only joking mate, no bad feelings either way I hope)

Hi and welcome to the forum, Malsiluk :) I should have said that last night in my usual fashion, rather than launch into a tirade of rather tongue in cheek sarcasm in an attempt to be funny. I overlooked it was your first post.

So after my poor initial welcome, I hope you settle in and enjoy the Forum - there are certainly no bad feelings on my part :)

asdf
09-03-2004, 14:31
Whilst I agree that Pipex's page does indeed rock muchly, they aren't open Sundays?

(Thank you to those that have looked around and found the info, though - seems ntl are in the dark ages!)

orangebird
09-03-2004, 14:39
Whilst I agree that Pipex's page does indeed rock muchly, they aren't open Sundays?

(Thank you to those that have looked around and found the info, though - seems ntl are in the dark ages!)


Yep, great stuff from pipex - although to be fair, they only have one 'region' and one service to deal with. keeping a status page like that will be at least 6 times the work.... :shrug:

Neil
09-03-2004, 18:05
Yep, great stuff from pipex - although to be fair, they only have one 'region' and one service to deal with. keeping a status page like that will be at least 6 times the work.... :shrug:

But they still have a shedload of BB customers to keep happy (just like ntl do), the difference is that Pipex know what customers want & expect from their BB supplier & strive to achieve it, ntl do not. :angel:

Let's not forget-ntl chose to regionalise, so let's not use that as the reason their customer care can suck, they were poor when they were CableTel IMHO too FWIW. ;)

asdf
09-03-2004, 23:28
I think she meant regions as in exCWC and orig-ntl. i.e. CSAs and tech support have to be trained in one of the areas, or both.

carlingman
10-03-2004, 00:58
Yep, great stuff from pipex - although to be fair, they only have one 'region' and one service to deal with. keeping a status page like that will be at least 6 times the work.... :shrug:

Hmm Pipex a much smaller organisation and others like Telewest seem to manage on their limited budget and they Pipex cover various areas of the country all be it smaller regions than NTL with a lesser budget.

How difficult can it be for NTL they seem to or used to manage their internal server status page quite well which was done by the NMC.

I suggest the rot starts at the top and NTL as ever have very little interest in their customer base.

:)

carlingman
10-03-2004, 01:00
Whilst I agree that Pipex's page does indeed rock muchly, they aren't open Sundays?

(Thank you to those that have looked around and found the info, though - seems ntl are in the dark ages!)

And of course all NTL Tech Support and Support areas are open Sundays.

:rolleyes:

Neil
10-03-2004, 07:48
I think she meant regions as in exCWC and orig-ntl. i.e. CSAs and tech support have to be trained in one of the areas, or both.

So why aren't they then? :rolleyes:

It all well & good giving us reasons why ntl can be pants at customer service-we all know the reason, but I'd like to know why ntl seem to do little or nothing about it, & nothing seems to improve, the problems I had when I had their service, & the problems I see people posting here about are no different to when I 1st got ntl some 'x' years ago.....

asdf
10-03-2004, 13:26
Am I an ntl manager? No.

Malsiluk
10-03-2004, 20:36
Am I an ntl manager? No.Looks like you can read and write, so I'd say that you are most certainly not an NTL Manager! :D

asdf
10-03-2004, 21:10
LOL! :p