Where do I stand?

[AlanYork]

Some advice please. I've been having a few PC problems but have taken care of it at my end by reloading Windows and all was right in the world again. Until.....

Last week the RDY light on my SACM started flashing and I couldn't get online. I phoned a nice Indian chap at NTL who told me he had fixed it and quote "no way can this reoccur sir".

Tuesday comes and it happens again, so at my insistence after being fobbed off when it righted itself for 30 seconds whilst I was on the phone to tech support (India again), out comes the engineer who tells me its the power levels that are wrong and adjusts them.

I get 4 days on the web and it is now happening again intermittently, so tomorrow I get to stay in and await another engineer. Except when it righted itself temporarily last time, they didn't want to send one out as there was quote "nothing he can do" !!!!!!!

If they do come tomorrow, this will be my 5th call to them about this. How many times do I have to ask before they get it right? All I want is to browse the web, jeeez I'm paying £25 a month for it, it's not too much to ask for is it?!!!

Combine this with other NTL customer service "gems", including their connecting me to someone elses phone number and I've had enough, life's too short for this. If I was to turn around and say "right I'm cancelling my contract because of your abysmal service", even though I still have 3 months till the years up, where would I stand legally do you think?

Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware of my deficiencies when it comes to knowledge of computers, but the engineer made it quite clear to me...."if your modem lights are flashing etc, the problem is at NTLs end, it isnt your computer"....fair enough but a contract is a 2 way thing and they have continually failed to provide what I pay them for. I don't do 12 hour night shifts to earn money to pay them for an internet service that may or may not work when I get up tomorrow.

Yours...really, really utterly hacked off with it now.....
Alan

[grandmaster]

Sorry to hear of your problems..

But as you have a contract i very much doubt they would budge with regards to canceling your service.

Cant hurt to ask though

[MovedGoalPosts]

ntl do not guarantee a fault free service, however that doesn't mean that it can break frequently. The service still has to be fit for purpose otherwise ntl will be in breach of their contract to supply.

If as you say, in a short period of time, say a month, you have had this fault such that you've called for assitance 5 times, many would argue ntl have failed to provide an adequate service. Thus they are in breach and you should be entitled to terminate the contract for that breach.

However you need to make it very clear to them that you are going to take this action. Give them one final opportunity to resolve it properly. I suggest you put this in writing. State simply that they have 7 days from receipt of yor letter to provide a reasonably stable service, or you will hold them to be in breach of contract and consider it terminated without further notice. I'd send that Recorded delivery.

If you do need to cancel, make sure you kill off any standing orders/ direct debits. Also I hope you have alternative services available.

Oh by the way, flag this up using the Responsetek service. the more of that they get the more ntl should take note of customers.

[AlanYork]

Well I really don't know who I'll replace NTL with. As I've said before, the key thing for me is reliability. I only require my internet to do 4 basic things.

1. Let me browse the web at a reasonable speed. Doesn't have to be super quick, just "reasonable". Problem is I can't rely on it working at present. It works now, tomorrow...who knows?

2. Let me send e mails. Problem here is I have to use a non NTL proxy to get trash cleared from hotmail and for inbox to update e mails as "read." I shouldn't have to do that.

3. Use Instant Messaging. Problem on this one is same as number 1. If the internet don't work, that sure won't.

4. Play music. OK, fair enough, I don't need an internet connection to access my iTunes library but I cant get their online radio unless I get online.

So, even discounting their failures when I first had cable installed, even disregarding their cable TV with it's freezing pictures, which to be fair, they have now fixed.....even ignoring the mis-selling they did....it's not good is it!!! Not one of my 4 requirements, which are pretty basic, can be provided on a regular, reliable basis by NTL. Now it's a shame because they came recommended by a friend who lives in Glasgow who was aghast that I was with AOL with all their spyware, junk etc.

I'd be the first to admit some of my PC woes have been of my own making...getting AOL at first was a big mistake and I've been a bit unlucky in that a corrupt download from ZoneAlarms meant I had to reinstall Windows. But that's done now, I have a PC that's virus free, Trojan free, no adware etc, etc so I should be able to trot downstairs tomorrow, turn on my pc and collect my e mails without wondering if I'll be able to get online at all.

I had such high hopes of NTL, I really thought they were a reputable company with high standards of customer service. The truth is though that all this has left me disillusioned, and when I look back over the last 9 months, they really have got very little right, hardly anything has gone smoothly, even my upgrade to 2 Mb caused my modem problems and that was AFTER my windows reload.

A shame, a real pity. If they had even done half of what they promised when they signed me up I'd be happy to stay with them, I don't want perfection, just things to go smoothly most of the time and a reasonably quick resolution when they do go wrong. I'm really disappointed, I would probably have been a really loyal customer too.

I wonder if my experience is common or have I just had bad luck?:(

Alan

[jaycee]

Problems with your modem are absolutely nothing to do with your PC. If either the SYNC or RDY lights are going off on your modem, then it's signal level issues and absolutely nothing on your PC will change that. I have noticed the Indian tech support people like to blame people's PC's for connection problems and even insist upon pointless rebooting.

"Nothing they can do" is rubbish. This is just laziness. They could at least try re-pulling your cable and moving you onto a different tap in the cabinet. If they used better modems, such as the Motorola Surfboard 4100, they would have good logs to read which are very useful for diagnostics. I say this from experience.

Rob C's advice is very good re. informing NTL if they don't buck up you will be cancelling. If you have not had good solid stable service out of your broadband then NTL are in breach as "goods are unfit for the purpose sold" and you have the right to terminate the contract.

[AlanYork]

I called NTL today and was told that as the problem was not occuring now, nothing could be done but if it happened again an engineer would come and if required he would fit a new modem.

I also got a month's free internet as compensation.

Am I happy? Not really but it was the best I could get and the women I spoke to were polite and tried to be helpful. So nice to speak to someone in the UK, it makes such a difference, it really does.

Just as an aside, now my PC is running better and is clutter free, how often should one clear temporary internet files and cookies? I run MS antispyware every 5 days as recommended (and AV every Friday) so is every 5 days enough for files/cookies?

I'm trying my best to keep everything up to the mark at my end, many of my PC ills are cured now, thanks to a complete reinstall of windows, I just hope that for the next 3 months until my contract renews, NTL can hold up their side of it, then I'll maybe reconsider. If they want my business, it's up to them. I don't want to be unreasonable, I just want them to play fair.

Any advice on optimum time for clearance of files/cookies gratefully accepted, like I said, I want to do my bit to keep things shipshape.

[Raistlin]

I very rarely (sorry, I mean very rarely) clear out my cookies/temporary internet files.

Normally only bother when I'm running a spyware sweep or if I've got problems that deleting things might solve.

Maybe once every couple of months or so.....maybe.....

[jaycee]

I would suggest not using IE or Outlook (Express) for web/email. It's the single biggest problem leading to customers getting infected with spyware and/or viruses. I now migrate most of my clients to Firefox/Thunderbird, rarely recieve any complaints about loss of functionality, and it reduces the virus/spyware count to near nil.

[__spc__]

I would suggest not using IE or Outlook (Express) for web/email. It's the single biggest problem leading to customers getting infected with spyware and/or viruses. I now migrate most of my clients to Firefox/Thunderbird, rarely recieve any complaints about loss of functionality, and it reduces the virus/spyware count to near nil.

Sit behind a router!

Does the SACM have a filter on the back? Mine did on initial install, then our signal kept dropping out. The engineer turned up, removed the filter, and so far so good (touch wood)....