View Full Version : broadband support are bad
I have contacted broadband a few times via the phone and local rates to be kept on hold for lengthy periods, to be then passed back to the freephone number (which i am still paying local rates for) to be passed back to broadband support. None of them know what the other one is doing and quite frankly i doubt any of them actually know anything about networking or TCP/IP protocols etc etc, yet rather read from a script. I know the score i used to provide tech support for a gaming portal covering games, firewalls etc and their obligatory reaction was its your firewall, we were versed to say that even though you knew otherwise you couldnt say, NTL are the same except their obligatory answer is it's your pc.
NTL could do a lot better by offering online 'workshops' for users to go to instead of plugging their products. has anyone been on the NTL homepage and tried get support you just get on the NTL merry-go-round and go round and around in circles its nauseating to say the least.
NTL should employ me hehehehe I come equippied with skills, I can preach sermons from prewritten scripts, and give obligatory answers and even smile sweetly and say have a great day afterall i have 2 years experience at IGN/Gamespy for that so could even get you a reference if needs be.
In general a large number of faults are cured by a reboot of PC & hardware, or updating drivers.
In general a large number of faults are cured by a reboot of PC & hardware, or updating drivers.
Yes, in the same way most "faults" with PCs are caused by dodgy software, software conflicts or undetected malware.
To the OP - I would have thought having a grounding in support you'd know not to overlook the obvious.
ty for your concern guys but i am not an idiot unfortunately - i just help them out when they are busy, but suffice to say not all problems are cured with the magic reboot your modem sequence as i can leave mine off all night long with no coax in it and no ethernet in it then set it all up after its had plenty of time to reset for the same problem to be there.
i had a wonderful guy from NTL call me on friday and he tested my modem and 9000 times in 3 days it has gone offline and he totally concurs its is NOT my pc so excuse me if i ignore your sterotypical well versed 'its your pc' 'rebooting your modem' cures all replies as it doesnt always.
Yes, and if the engineer's diagnosed the modem (which could have been done over the phone) then the visit should be logged (as well as your calls) on ntl's system and so they'd be able to send a new one.
And? They have to negate the obvious, then they can check the hardware. TS people are not psychic, issues need to be diagnosed. If a new modem didn't solve your problem because your PC's shagged then you'd be equally ****ed off.
nahhh nffc you aint ******** as you say there are other ISP's you know, NTL are not the be all and end all and sure dont hold the monopoly, but why should you have to take months on phonecalls to them for them to not know what is what not even test your modem on the phone which you rightly pointed out they can do and like the guy on the phone on friday said why has no one noticed the amount of times this modem goes offline, so good question - why has no one else noticed that fact? because they lied and did not 'test' the modem at all is all i can think of.
You should hear some of the great responces i have had though like its spyware, its my firewall, its my USB even though i am on ethernet and best one yet - they are routing me to the wrong place.
I don't work for ntl so I don't see what your point is?
the point is the support they offer should be tip top and pristine not following suit of places like IGN/Gamespy that fob you off with any old junk.
companies can thrive and flourish by listening to the people that matter - the paying customers instead of ignoring them. NTL support is very very lacking too much time has been invested into plugging their products on their webpage that webmaster needs to add a few real tech support pages and concentrate less on the great deals NTL has.
I could sit here all day about where the support is needed / would be appreciated but would NTL take notice? probably not which is a shame for you, me, every other paying user and NTL themselves.
TW_BUS_DATA_TECH
05-02-2006, 08:36
the point is the support they offer should be tip top and pristine not following suit of places like IGN/Gamespy that fob you off with any old junk.
If you felt that badly about the way IGN/Gamespy were treating their customers did you try to change the way you looked at the faults or did you just follow the company line? and if you just followed the company line "it's your firewall" why can't NTL support techs follow the line "it's your PC"?
What I suppose i'm trying to say is if you were not open enough to look at it from a different angle why should NTL techs be any different?
i had a wonderful guy from NTL call me on Friday and he tested my modem and 9000 times in 3 days it has gone offline
I take it you never exaggerate anything. :LOL:
9000 times offline in 3 days is NOT an exaggeration that is the actual figure i was quoted by NTL themselves.
9000 times offline in 3 days is NOT an exaggeration that is the actual figure i was quoted by NTL themselves.
well someone is exaggerating
bill c i dont care what you think at all :) afterall you dont have my modem nor are you the person i spoke to at NTL that said about the 9000 drops in 3 days. so to be fair its unfair for you to judge.
but if it helps it has been far worse since i went 10mb i mean afterall the poor ambit 120 cant even cope with this modem despite 2 firmware updates which in some cases have NOT cured any issues but infact made them worse so possibly i am one of the unlucky ones who knows.
anyways all going well i should be getting a new modem tomorrow as well as new coax and hopefully this connection will cook on gas like its supposed to and quit dropping.
---------- Post added at 22:48 ---------- Previous post was at 22:41 ----------
newsflash check my pings :P
1st 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
4th 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
now anyone that wishes to tell me its my pc now is free to go ahead 0ms ummm dont take einstein to see thats not right
Cerberus
05-02-2006, 23:15
newsflash check my pings :P
1st 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
4th 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
now anyone that wishes to tell me its my pc now is free to go ahead 0ms ummm dont take einstein to see thats not right
Not hard to edit it, is it? We can all copy and paste and edit posts.
I also doubt the fact that the modem has rebooted 9000 times in 3 days. Someone has been telling pork pies there!
With regards to support, if you're pretty much clued up about these things then why didn't you just call NTL tech support and say look I have done ABC and still no improvement. I did that and they agreed there was a fault and decided to replace my modem. I may get a couple of issues here and there but nothing too major.
In all fairness a lot of the blame for bad support comes because people get through to India (Mumbai) and there is a language barrier there. Because of this barrier people automatically assume its crap support which is not always the case.
I have been with NTL for 4 years and I have never had to bother them up until the 10mb roll out. It seems that I am not the only one suffering these issues. As frustrating as it is I am just grinning it and bearing it. OK I shouldn't have to put up with it and neither should any other customer for that matter, we all want a service that reflects what we pay for. I have no doubt though that these issues will be resolved and sooner rather than later.
Furthermore I would also like to point out that all companies have in place business rules and policies which employees have to adhere to. Just because the customer doesn't always get what they want, doesn't mean it's crap support/service.
I have worked and currently work in a CS/Support environment. The amount of people that throw their toys out of the pram becuase they dont get what Joe Bloggs got the other day is unbelievable. Until these companies change their ways there is nothing we can do other than complain and then they may listen and change.
This is the wonderful merry go round that is customer service/tech support.
Everyone: Can we keep things calm please?
JavaFox, .:welcome: to the forum. While I sincerely doubt your modem has lost the connection 9000 times in three days (that's once every 29 seconds, and the modem takes a few seconds to re-acquire the connection), it sounds like NTL need to do something. If Customer Services don't help, can I suggest you try the Responsetek system (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=81), as NTL DO read this and act on it.
BTW, regarding the "scripts", and the NTL support section, bear in mind that there is almost nothing that the normal users can do to their modems, apart from rebooting them, as there are no user controls, and, from what I have been told by NTL support techs, nine times out of ten, the simple solution solves the problem.
If you've had experience of tech support, then you know that the people that are on the 1st line have to deal with all sorts of muppets calling them for various reasons... and because of this, NTL aren't going to put their most experienced (ie higher paid) support employees in that role.
If you're not getting far with the 1st line people, then ask to have your call escalated to 2nd line.
why ty stuart :) great to be here and as i stated earlier hopefully with a new modem and new coax in situ tomorrow my problems might well be resolved we can but hope :) lets all hug a tree and be happy hehehe
---------- Post added at 01:27 ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 ----------
oh excuse me again this one i dedicate to the believer that accuses me of faking results
here is the web link to the site i used http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/speedtest.html?1139179439468
and here are my results again
Mon, 6 Feb 2006 01:22:22 UTC
1st 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 15 ms = 8738133 Bytes/sec = approx 72701 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
4th 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
now i could sit and do this all day to you non believers and you know i am so genuinely happy for you that your cable modems work A ok but mine you see doesnt right now so hopefully i will get it resolved once and for all tomorrow
thankyou for you belief in me and you know god help NTL if you non believers were support it would be mayhem wouldnt it as no user ever gets issues instead they fake test results and invent problems as they thoroughly enjoy calling local rate numbers just to talk to a fellow human being hehehehe
yeah right - have a great day :)
ian@huth
06-02-2006, 10:31
why ty stuart :) great to be here and as i stated earlier hopefully with a new modem and new coax in situ tomorrow my problems might well be resolved we can but hope :) lets all hug a tree and be happy hehehe
---------- Post added at 01:27 ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 ----------
oh excuse me again this one i dedicate to the believer that accuses me of faking results
here is the web link to the site i used http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/speedtest.html?1139179439468
and here are my results again
Mon, 6 Feb 2006 01:22:22 UTC
1st 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 15 ms = 8738133 Bytes/sec = approx 72701 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
4th 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
now i could sit and do this all day to you non believers and you know i am so genuinely happy for you that your cable modems work A ok but mine you see doesnt right now so hopefully i will get it resolved once and for all tomorrow
thankyou for you belief in me and you know god help NTL if you non believers were support it would be mayhem wouldnt it as no user ever gets issues instead they fake test results and invent problems as they thoroughly enjoy calling local rate numbers just to talk to a fellow human being hehehehe
yeah right - have a great day :)It sounds like you are running Robin's speed test from your local cache rather than the source server.
why ty stuart :) great to be here and as i stated earlier hopefully with a new modem and new coax in situ tomorrow my problems might well be resolved we can but hope :) lets all hug a tree and be happy hehehe
---------- Post added at 01:27 ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 ----------
oh excuse me again this one i dedicate to the believer that accuses me of faking results
here is the web link to the site i used http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/speedtest.html?1139179439468
and here are my results again
Mon, 6 Feb 2006 01:22:22 UTC
1st 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 15 ms = 8738133 Bytes/sec = approx 72701 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
4th 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
now i could sit and do this all day to you non believers and you know i am so genuinely happy for you that your cable modems work A ok but mine you see doesnt right now so hopefully i will get it resolved once and for all tomorrow
thankyou for you belief in me and you know god help NTL if you non believers were support it would be mayhem wouldnt it as no user ever gets issues instead they fake test results and invent problems as they thoroughly enjoy calling local rate numbers just to talk to a fellow human being hehehehe
yeah right - have a great day :)
128 k in 0 ms - gosh I wish I had that connection :)
update:
well kiddies i got a new modem i now have the 250 and a new connector on my coax.
for all the non believers that stated it was my pc, my fault, etc etc i thought i would let you know ye of little faith that it was
A the modem itself - the NTL engineer asked what speed i pay for i said 10mb he instantly stated new modem and gave reasons that the 120 has been a problem NTL were supposed to have some update in november before the 10mb softlaunch and they didnt but the 10mb still went ahead, and as pointed out on other parts of this site the 2 firmware updates have caused more problems than they have fixed for some people and i was one of the unlucky ones. also the 120 modem is apparently also known to have a dodgy ethernet on it and a it happens i use ethernet but it would not have been so much a problem if i were on USB but given the choice ethernet v USB i prefer USB and NTL advise you to use that if you have it.
B the coax - my coax at the join was off at a tangent thus also causing the issues i had as the engineer touched the coax the modem went off and regarding the 120 modem requirinf X amount of time to reboot apparently the SYNCH and RDY lights can be ON but you cant connect ie error 404 again a known fault on the 120 modem.
so thankyou for your faith - some people have nothing better to do than go on forums and call everyone else a liar as they happen to have perfectly running connections themselves but remember you non believers what goes around comes around :)
anyways i am happy now my net is now stable and cooking on gas
THE END
handyman
06-02-2006, 14:19
. also the 120 modem is apparently also known to have a dodgy ethernet on it and a it happens i use ethernet but it would not have been so much a problem if i were on USB but given the choice ethernet v USB i prefer USB and NTL advise you to use that if you have it.
The ntl 100 modem had issues with the ethernet port this was fixed with the introduction of the 120 modem.
Ntl advise USB because its easier to set up so they say. If you prefer USB then you have just explained that you know little about computers.
Ethernet is a method of networking. Usb is for connecting cameras and printers etc.
To run the modem over the USB your computer has to create a virtual ethernet connection this increases the resources your computer is using.
And......
newsflash check my pings :P
1st 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
4th 128K took 0 ms = Infinity Bytes/sec = approx Infinity kbits/sec
This is the result you get from running the test twice , the 2nd time gives you the test from your web cache.
if you care to read my post correctly i am actually on ethernet care to borrow my glasses?
if you care to read my post correctly i am actually on ethernet care to borrow my glasses?
but you would prefer to be on USB.....
.... why??
handyman
06-02-2006, 15:15
given the choice ethernet v USB i prefer USB
Don't need glasses :erm:
if you care to read my post correctly i am actually on ethernet care to borrow my glasses?
you sir are not worth a reply .
---------- Post added at 16:02 ---------- Previous post was at 15:58 ----------
but you would prefer to be on USB.....
.... why??
Because he dont have a clue why you should not have a cable modem on usb.
ok ok lets clarify something
1 i meant to say i prefer ETHERNET i do apologise
and 2 and most important he is not a he
thanks
Cerberus
06-02-2006, 19:30
ok ok lets clarify something
1 i meant to say i prefer ETHERNET i do apologise
and 2 and most important he is not a he
thanks
I would just like to clarify that I did not suggest you faked the results, I merely pointed out how easy it was to edit txt files and posts an so on. If you have the same attitude with tech support that you do on here, then it's no wonder you weren't getting anywhere.
Anyway I am glad to hear you got your problem sorted out and hopefuly it will remain this way.
For future reference though please don't come accross as having a holier than thou attitude, it will get you nowhere.
I am not a lover of NTL for a couple of reasons, but tend to agree with what Stuart C has said. Out of the million plus BB users that they have, probably less than 1% could be classified as having sufficient technical knowledge not to be dangerous. I would like to think that I am more technically savvy than most and my home network is probably as secure as they come, but I still get caught out with a dodgy bit of software from time to time that kills my connection. At least I can fix it myself without having to call NTL support. Lots cannot and have to call support probably unaware that they inadvertently hosed their own system. How many users have Microsoft Antispyware installed, more to the point how many actually know it exists. How many have their AV software updated with the latest definitions and lastly, how many have a firewall.
NTL have made a lot of progress over the last 12 months, but still need to keep on improving. Raising the bar as the Americans would say. If they keep up the good work over the next 8 months, I may go back to their Digital TV.
Setch
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