PDA

View Full Version : Praise for NTL for a change.


4romseyavenue
11-11-2006, 08:50
I regularly read the threads and most paint NTL as a pretty awful company. I have been with NTL for 2 years now and I think they are excellent.

I have had to phone the helplines twice and the latest may have been in India but both times they solved my problem.

I have called out NTL 3 times once becuase the TV was missing frames, they came out at time agreed, within a few days and fixed the problem no charge. Also friendly & helpful.

Second time my builders moved cable to wrong position and a call to NTL confirmed a call out within 7 days to fix and at a charge of only £25. Great job done and again on time and very helpful.

Third visit yesterday as I had not been upgraded to 2MB due to old set top box.

Arrived again on time, new modem installed, new set up disc and in 30 minutes broadband up and running.

I know some of you have had problems, so it is not all doom and gloom with NTL from my perspective.

And no I do not work for NTL.

Regards Bill

RXP
11-11-2006, 09:07
I'd like to add some praise, getting 1.5mega bytes a sec from NH now. I know it's morning and that's why though :-/ But good job in the mornings!

Bill C
11-11-2006, 09:13
I regularly read the threads and most paint NTL as a pretty awful company. I have been with NTL for 2 years now and I think they are excellent.

I have had to phone the helplines twice and the latest may have been in India but both times they solved my problem.

I have called out NTL 3 times once becuase the TV was missing frames, they came out at time agreed, within a few days and fixed the problem no charge. Also friendly & helpful.

Second time my builders moved cable to wrong position and a call to NTL confirmed a call out within 7 days to fix and at a charge of only £25. Great job done and again on time and very helpful.

Third visit yesterday as I had not been upgraded to 2MB due to old set top box.

Arrived again on time, new modem installed, new set up disc and in 30 minutes broadband up and running.

I know some of you have had problems, so it is not all doom and gloom with NTL from my perspective.

And no I do not work for NTL.

Regards Bill

Indeed it is nice for both sides of the story to be told on this forum.

Glad you are enjoying your service. :tu:

I will now sit back and wait for this thread to be hijacked by the doom and gloom boys. :)

---------- Post added at 09:13 ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 ----------

I'd like to add some praise, getting 1.5mega bytes a sec from NH now. I know it's morning and that's why though :-/ But good job in the mornings!

Indeed just evaluated my speed with a short download of vista rtm at 19.8meg off giganews :) sweet and with only 4 slots

samsungdude
12-11-2006, 01:01
LOL glad to be the first, this is why i say ntl blow, here goes:

iv had broadband with ntl (and tv and phone) for about 3ish years (maybe 4 not sure) iv always been on the middle tier, iv never had a problem, until about 9months ago, from then every couple of weeks the net would be un-usable for a couple of days, maybe a week, then would be fine for a few weeks then back to it. the last month 1/2 or 2 months its been diar, i liked to play online games, which i havnt been able to do for about 2months, and every day, i would say at least 3 times in the day, the net will go down for about 30-60mins, iv had 3 engineers out, all nice people (apart from the 1st dude, who didnt really like it when i didnt agree with what he was saying to me, didnt get nasty, but you could tell he wasnt happy), the 2nd dude replaced the set top box, and the 3rd told me that its because theres so many customers in the area and that the problem had already been noted, and that there would be updates soon that will help the problem, that was 3 weeks ago, here i am, still terrible net. my dad rung ntl and spoke to CS, i dont quite know what was said as i wasnt even home at the time, but the outcome is ntl are now coming out to fit a SACM instead of the bb coming thru the STB, the CS dude said that it should help the problem, but in my opinion i dont wreckon it will, i cant see why it would sort the problem, but if this doesnt sort the problem, i think my dad is changing ISP.

Thats my story, hope you enjoyed lol

Bill C
12-11-2006, 08:25
Thats my story, hope you enjoyed lol

I did

Rik
12-11-2006, 10:57
NTL are Excellent!

Ive been with them for 3yrs now, always been on the highest speed broadband service, and ive been very very impressed, I had one blip when the BB was upgraded to 10meg, but one very helpful chap on here sorted it out for me, thanks Peter ;)

I get full speed ALL THE TIME on my giganews Usenet Account, excellent.

Im very impressed with my TV (Family Pack), VOD is excellent.

I would recommend NTL to anyone, based on my personal experiences, Customer Care are always very helpful and answer my question quickly and efficiently, the only downside is the information is not always detailed enough for me, and when its all on the NTL Intranet, people should read it, but tbh how many people actually take timeout to read their company intranet :D :D

Overall 8.5/10 NTL :)

Once 20/50Meg and TVDrive are rolled out they may even get a 10!! ;)

Bill C
12-11-2006, 11:17
Once 20/50Meg and TVDrive are rolled out they may even get a 10!! ;)

Those are the 2 items on my wish list for next year :)

Sherlock614
12-11-2006, 11:30
Those are the 2 items on my wish list for next year :)

Ditto! :)

CycoSymz
12-11-2006, 21:25
I've been with NTL for years, even back when it was Diamond Cable and i've not had any major problems that couldn't be sorted with a quick 5 minute phone call

Toto
12-11-2006, 22:09
I've been with NTL for years, even back when it was Diamond Cable and i've not had any major problems that couldn't be sorted with a quick 5 minute phone call

Love your sig, one of my favourite films of all time. :)

mart44
13-11-2006, 10:01
I will now sit back and wait for this thread to be hijacked by the doom and gloom boys. :)
There'll be a weepin' and a wailin' so there will! :)

I'm always full of praise for the technicians that come around our house. They couldn't be more helpful. Putting bags on over the shoes to protect the carpet is a nice touch too. I never had a broken appointment either.

I had to modify that opinion a while ago when our road lost the broadband connection completely for 11 days. We were also all experiencing a flashing light on the TV STB and we had an outage of TV for 24 hours or so.

India told me that there wasn't an area fault that they were aware of and offered to send an engineer. However, my neighbour was told there was an area fault and they would be charged for a call if it was found nothing in the home was found to be faulty. A couple of us duly cancelled our booked calls. I cancelled mine partly because there was little point in having anyone call to the house if NTL was aware of an area fault.

In the course of conversations with Support, it turns out that our address hadn't been changed with that department from when we moved here 5 years ago. This must have accounted for the reason why they thought there was no area fault. The bills all come here though. However, others in the road were also being told sometimes that there wasn't an area fault, or that there was one that had been now fixed. We still had no broadband though.

Lots of uncertainty and some anger about the situation. One of our neighbours took a poll of how many were affected. All with NTL were. A few booked calls and I booked another one. It seemed it was the only way the situation was going to be resolved.

In the end nobody called to our houses. I learned that a technician had made a visit to the box at the end of the road and fixed whatever the problem was and drove away. No explanation to those who'd stayed in for appointments.

I have got another glitch at present. The modem takes up to 4 minutes to boot up in the mornings. In fairness, I haven't phoned up about that yet but I expect a call will be made to our house at an appointed time when I do.

So, my good praises have suffered a hiccup lately but then we've been with NTL since 1998 and this is the first time things have gone badly wrong. Got to take all the other times into account when everything has been OK.

Womble
13-11-2006, 10:14
I will now sit back and wait for this thread to be hijacked by the doom and gloom boys. :)



LOL, didn't take long for them to start posting did it!!!!!!

The end is nye, all repent now

mart44
13-11-2006, 11:03
LOL, didn't take long for them to start posting did it!!!!!!

The end is nye, all repent now

Ah well, I suppose you're right. The thread could have stayed a dedicated 'praise' one. Such a thread did bring out a 'yes but' reaction in me but I suppose the 11 day problem could have been mentioned another time. Praise as well though wasn't there? Nine years-worth of it in fact. So not entirely doom and gloom perhaps.

Hugh
13-11-2006, 11:36
I have been an NTL (as was Jones Cable, Bell Cablemedia, C&W Comms) customer since the mid-90's, and been on Broadband since March 2002.

There have been a few small issues, but they are usually resolved quite quickly, and the ones that aren't, I get credit for the loss of service.

Score - 8/10

Womble
14-11-2006, 08:22
I've had cable since Nynex/C&W/NTL. And, apart from the odd glitch (installer disconnect, power outages), thats 12 years of good service. The broadband is fantastic, anyone with complaints should go and use a 56k modem for a day :-)
Saying that, I still have a 2nd line from BT (wifes Business) and thats never failed eiither

Tiger33
14-11-2006, 12:25
good idea for a thread,

I've never had a major problem with my ntl broadband service (small issues usually get sorted by them quickly anyway)


they are the best ISP i've been with and i wouldnt ever think of moving to a new one even if ntl is a little bit more expensive than most.

My wish list

1. HIGHER UPLOAD SPEEDS (4MB would be great!)

bean999
14-11-2006, 14:37
Not had any problems with my basic connection. Consistent speeds, no downtime.

As above, would like to see reasonable upload speeds.

Also think it's a bit pricey, but the UK market is expensive... :Yikes:

...that's not entirely ntl's fault tho

pigpen
14-11-2006, 16:11
Its the case of the vocal minority... I've never had a real issue with ntl, and any technical issues i've had have been sorted quickly to my satisfaction. TV, phone and internet have all worked fine. I had a dodgy Pace STB that was replaced within a day or two and thats about it.

Only real complaint is that you have to wait far too long on the phone if you want to speak to someone, but for the amout of times I have phoned up its not really an issue, and besides that's what handsfree is for :)

4romseyavenue
14-11-2006, 20:04
I only started the thread to give a balanced point of view as there are so many negative people out there.

Glad the silent majority are finally speaking out.

Bill

jaycee
15-11-2006, 22:11
I've never really had a problem with NTL broadband or telephone, except for a small billing hickup when I was first connected to the service.

Their TV service, on the other hand, blows goats and we are looking at cancelling this and moving to Sky+ as we have a friend who works for Sky who can get us a free install+box.

Nedkelly
15-11-2006, 22:20
Mines been good for some time now :tu:

checker
16-11-2006, 09:47
Well I've had NTL TV and phone for 6 years, and the BB since it came to Derby. Both installations went well the eng turned up on time very polite ( fed him with coffee). The BB signal was low after self install, again the eng came on time and fixed it ( more coffee ). I managed to cut the phone cable some time ago Doh!! again fixed at no charge you've guessed it (more coffee). That's my total dealings with NTL in 6 years. Excellent service.
:blush:
Copied from previous post.
Ex team manager clientlogic ( BT BB helpdesk ).

h69
16-11-2006, 14:58
I've been on NTL for 5-6 years now and always had nothing but praise for their customer service and quality of service.
It makes me laugh how people can knock a company that provide a 10mb cable service piped to your house, how many other ISPs can do this on a scale of NTL nationwide. Not so long ago I was amazed at my friends 128k ISDN line he had, and it cost him £100 per month for the privilage.
ISPs are 2 a penny and in my opinion NTL cable is the future of broadband and home TV for the UK, I hope you give them the credit they thoroughly deserve.

c1rcle
20-11-2006, 18:47
Just the other day the entire area (Peterborough) was without service for about 20 minutes, in the time it took me to notice it & phone up they had an engineer out to fix it, I was actually listening to the recorded message about the problem while watching him fiddling with the big green box of wires outside. I've been with NTL since they were C&W & apart from niggling little problems now & then I'm happy with the service they've provided me over the years & plan to stay with them for many more to come.

gavin pullen
20-11-2006, 19:01
I regularly read the threads and most paint NTL as a pretty awful company. I have been with NTL for 2 years now and I think they are excellent.

I have had to phone the helplines twice and the latest may have been in India but both times they solved my problem.

I have called out NTL 3 times once becuase the TV was missing frames, they came out at time agreed, within a few days and fixed the problem no charge. Also friendly & helpful.

Second time my builders moved cable to wrong position and a call to NTL confirmed a call out within 7 days to fix and at a charge of only £25. Great job done and again on time and very helpful.

Third visit yesterday as I had not been upgraded to 2MB due to old set top box.

Arrived again on time, new modem installed, new set up disc and in 30 minutes broadband up and running.

I know some of you have had problems, so it is not all doom and gloom with NTL from my perspective.

And no I do not work for NTL.

Regards Bill

yeah i agree

DerekRothwell
20-11-2006, 20:23
I`ve been with NTL for years and years now - problems are always sorted quickly and efficiently.

Do I win a major prize?

bean999
22-11-2006, 16:00
I'm going to give ntl marks for flexibility (and friendly scottish girls in their call centre).

Called up last week to ask about their 5p phone package, which I found on uswitch. Was told it's not really available any more but (as it's you) we can let you have it.

Called up today to drop my BB from 4Mb to 2Mb (24.99 to 17.99). Not for performance issues, just wanted to save the pennies. The ntl girl wondered aloud if there were any discounts I might be benefiting from, spent a few seconds rummaging through her drawer of Special Offers, and then offered me 2Mb at 9.99 for 6 months.

I've seen others on here get similar deals and people have pointed out the downside, that ntl should be more consistent, but just thought I'd highlight the upside. :)