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buckleb
02-04-2006, 18:39
After a number of years with Sky, I decided to jump ship and sign up for Telewest cable TV (I already have Internet and phone services from them).

The install date was set for April 1st... a date that should have prepared me for what was to follow.

The installer turned up with 2 TVDrive boxes, which surprised me somewhat. I had expected to get a 'normal' box upstairs, but i wasn't going to refuse 2 TVDrives.

The cabling part of the install was done pretty quickly, but the installer got stuck on the activation part. Apparently the Telewest Authorisation servers (or something similar) were down. He told me that my cable box(es) would burst into life in no more than 40 minutes. He then left pretty sharpish.

I decided to go and get the weekly shop done, and then to play with my new toy on my return. However, 2 hours later, the TV was still showing the diagnostic 1 of 12 screen.

I called customer services, who informed me that their servers were down, but they should be up and working in about an hour. One and a half hours later they still weren't.

I called customer service again, and I was told that a technician would call me before 7pm, but if they hadn't called by 7:15pm I should call Customer service again and they would put me straight through. No call was forthcoming.

At 7:15pm I rang customer services to be told that the technicians finish at 7pm and anyway, there was no record of me even calling, or a return call being requested. I was informed that they would try to get someone out to me in 3 - 5 days!

Both cable boxes are still showing the diag 1 of 12 screen, or rather they were as I've now switched them both off (after 28 hours). I now have the rather depressing task of calling customer service again on Monday to find out exactly what is going on.

My first (rather belated) thought was that the installer did a runner after realising that this install was not going to happen. I'm not sure if that's the case, but his departure was rather hasty.

Can anyone who's already had theirs installed advise me if their guy had to enter something into the pre-hit page, or did it all happen automatically?

I'd also like to know where I stand in regards to cancelling the (non) service if it is not up and running this week.

The depressing thing about this all is the fact that I moved from Eurobell (pre-Telewest) because it took over 4 weeks to even get someone out to look at a fault. It seems that history has a habit of repeating itself.

Sorry my first post on Cable Forums is a whinge :)

Cheers

Cadire

MovedGoalPosts
02-04-2006, 18:50
:welcome: to Cable Forum :D

Don't worry about first post being a whinge, they often are ;)

An installer should normally be able to get the system up and running failry quickly although once connected it can take a while for the STB to get all it's settings downloaded and the installers wouldn't always wait for that bit, once they know the connection works. They should ensure the proper settings are in place though.

Chances are the wrong kit has been installed if you wern't wanting the TV drive, and that is going to create aggravation as teh TW servers may detect an error and refuse to speak.

Telewest should be able to check who the installer was, and it should be noted that it was incomplete. I'd be on the phone straight away on monday wanting some anwsers, waiting another few days is no good. Somebody at TW needs to escalate matters to ensure everything gets escalated.

Bottom line the service needs to be operational. If they can't get it going in a reasonable timescale, you have the absolute right to say breach of contract by TW and cancel. As a minimum you shouldn't be paying for the service for any period that it has been only partly installed and unuseable.

buckleb
02-04-2006, 18:58
Thanks for the quick reply!

Just to clarify, I had ordered a TVDrive + a second unit for upstairs. I wasn't explicitely told it would be a normal box upstairs, I just assumed it would be.

I will certainly be on the phone Monday to get this resolved, and for a credit to be applied to my bill at the very least.

The most annoying part is the fact I feel I was fobbed off by customer services; being told to call back at a time when there would be nobody there (and the fact these instructions were not even recorded).

All my communication with TW call centre staff done in a polite manner, and the last lady I spoke to was extremely apologetic (does the call centre location switch to India after 7pm?)... but this just seems to have marked me as an easy one to brush-off.

Cheers

Cadire

buckleb
05-04-2006, 10:13
An update on this.

I received an email from a customer service manager who agreed that the service I had received was very poor. He also informed me that I had 30 days to cancel the service if I wished, but to make amends he was prepared to refund my first months fee in full. This is the kind of customer service I would have expected to receive from the frontline desks, but it has restored my faith in TW somewhat.

An engineer is calling tomorrow to (hopefully) sort it out. We'll see how we go from there.

Cheers

homealone
05-04-2006, 10:23
An update on this.

I received an email from a customer service manager who agreed that the service I had received was very poor. He also informed me that I had 30 days to cancel the service if I wished, but to make amends he was prepared to refund my first months fee in full. This is the kind of customer service I would have expected to receive from the frontline desks, but it has restored my faith in TW somewhat.

An engineer is calling tomorrow to (hopefully) sort it out. We'll see how we go from there.

Cheers

sounds better - let us know how it goes :tu:

buckleb
06-04-2006, 13:23
I'm pleased to report that everything is now up and running! There seemed to be a problem with pairing the cards with my account (or something like that).

The few HD programs available look terrific too.

Cheers

Cadire

homealone
06-04-2006, 13:25
I'm pleased to report that everything is now up and running! There seemed to be a problem with pairing the cards with my account (or something like that).

The few HD programs available look terrific too.

Cheers

Cadire

good news, thanks for the feedback :tu: