gavi9876
24-08-2006, 13:57
I have had an NTL nightmare. I have sent a letter this morning but am doubtful I will get a response. If possible I would love some advice in order for the issue to be resolved as quickly as possible.
My letter below outlines the issues I have been having
Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to you today as an extremely unhappy customer.
I have been a customer of yours for over 7 years and can honestly say that the service and attitude I have received over the past 18 days has been nothing short of disgraceful.
Before I elaborate on the reasons for this letter of complaint, I think it’s important to advise you that I have spoken with both Trading Standards and Citizens Advice Bureau for some advice on reasonable steps to take and they both suggested that I send a letter, outlining the problems I have faced, following your companies complaints procedure before taking further action.
I would also like to add that I have sent a copy of this letter direct to your chairman (who I believe is Mr. **** *****) and one to the senior manager of the customer concerns department (who I have been informed is Mr. **** ********). I am hoping that by raising their awareness of such issues could help prevent myself and other customers having the same issues in the future.
The problems all began on Monday 7th August when I was at home waiting for one of your engineers to arrive and install telephone, internet and broadband services as agreed on Friday 28th July. The engineer arrived as scheduled as originally advised by ********* in the customer care department. The friendly engineer installed television services in both the lounge and bedroom. He then advised that he wouldn’t be able to complete work on installation of the telephone or internet. He explained we would receive a call on my mobile the following day with details of when another engineer would be able to come out and complete the job. At this stage we are now paying for all our services.
The following day passed and we had received no calls from NTL. I called on Wednesday 9th August to explain the situation and ask when the job would be completed. I was on this call for approximately 45 minutes due to hold times, transferring between departments and generally trying to explain to telephone staff what had happened (despite the fact I was under the impression that your systems would have been updated with the information already). Eventually I was told an engineer would be coming out on Monday 14th August. This meant that either myself or my partner would need to take an entire day off work to wait for an engineer to arrive as the woman in the installations department could not guarantee me an estimated time an engineer would call.
I received a call on Friday 11th August from a woman representing NTL saying that the appointment had been cancelled and rescheduled for Wednesday 16th August. Due to the short notice, my partner had to arrange an unpaid day off from her job as a nurse to wait in for an engineer to finish a job that had started 9 days ago. I was told to call the following day to be given an approximate time for arrival.
Wednesday arrived and by lunchtime I decided to call and find out when an engineer would be arriving. I was told that there were no notes on the system relating to an appointment. I was then transferred from customer services to moves/transfers to faults and back to customer services. This period of explanation and transferred took almost 75 minutes. I was calling from a mobile at work at approximately 10p per minute and lost productivity time. None of your staff were able to call me back so the cost of my call continued to rise. The call ended with me speaking to Mr. ****** ***** (customer services) advising that I need to speak with faults (the department I was transferred from!!). The issue was unresolved as I had to go back to work and I was receiving no help (one analyst even advised me I would have to pay for an engineer to come back out).
I called back early evening and spoke with installations again who logged my verbal complaint and promised me a call back from a manager within 48 hours. I accepted this as it was the most help anybody had given me.
48 hours passed and I had not received a call back.
I sent an e-mail to your company using your website option for logging a complaint. I received an automated message telling me to call customer care where reps will pass accounts onto to supervisors if they could not resolve the issue themselves.
I called back and was promised a call back in 10 minutes. 1 hour later Mr. ****** ***** (Local Installations Manager) called me back. He explained that his engineer was at fault for not explaining the reason the job could not be finished and that he would sort out our problems for us firstly by arranging for an engineer to come out and finish installation. He promised me a call back on Monday 21th August with further details.
Again, no call back was received.
I called Mr.******** back on Tuesday. He said that he would call me back with further information later in the day.
Once again, I heard nothing.
Yesterday evening I called Mr. ******** and left a voicemail for him to call me back although I am highly skeptical that this will not happen.
As well as the above calls I have mentioned I have called plenty of other times but not been able to speak to anybody who can help and had to end the call because of long hold times.
So at this stage, 17 days after your first engineer visited, we still have no telephone or internet services, have not been told when someone will next be coming out and wasted time and money on something that ultimately is not our fault.
Therefore, I would like to emphasize the following with the intention of receiving an official reply from somebody senior within the company via telephone along with a written apology letter.
I would suggest a reasonable timeframe for a response would be up to 10 days from the date of this letter. Failure to hear anything will result in taking the issue further both internally and externally.
I would also propose that as I have aimed to set-up a service with all good intentions I be compensated for the time, expense and inconvenience I have suffered as follows (failure to reply will result in further charges being added to this list as subsequent letters and calls will be required):
Partners day off work at £11.66 an hour (Wednesday 16th August) x 8 hours = £81.62
Cost of telephone calls to NTL (approximately 5 hours x 10p per minute from mobile) = £30
Loss of work time at £12.50 an hour making calls to NTL = £37.50
Cost of letter and time taken to produce letter of complaint during work time = £7
Inconvenience and gesture of goodwill charge by way of apology = £20
TOTAL = £176.12
I would also like to add that at no point have I been rude or insulted any members of your staff. I am not intending to cause offence by sending this letter and am mildly embarrassed at having to pen such a letter in the first place. I am simply very unhappy with the service received and above all else frustrated that nobody is able to resolve what should be a very simple issue.
I look forward to a speedy response and hope for a successful conclusion to this unnecessary drawn out saga.
Please call me at any opportunity on my mobile number at the top of this letter.
Regards
***** *****
My letter below outlines the issues I have been having
Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to you today as an extremely unhappy customer.
I have been a customer of yours for over 7 years and can honestly say that the service and attitude I have received over the past 18 days has been nothing short of disgraceful.
Before I elaborate on the reasons for this letter of complaint, I think it’s important to advise you that I have spoken with both Trading Standards and Citizens Advice Bureau for some advice on reasonable steps to take and they both suggested that I send a letter, outlining the problems I have faced, following your companies complaints procedure before taking further action.
I would also like to add that I have sent a copy of this letter direct to your chairman (who I believe is Mr. **** *****) and one to the senior manager of the customer concerns department (who I have been informed is Mr. **** ********). I am hoping that by raising their awareness of such issues could help prevent myself and other customers having the same issues in the future.
The problems all began on Monday 7th August when I was at home waiting for one of your engineers to arrive and install telephone, internet and broadband services as agreed on Friday 28th July. The engineer arrived as scheduled as originally advised by ********* in the customer care department. The friendly engineer installed television services in both the lounge and bedroom. He then advised that he wouldn’t be able to complete work on installation of the telephone or internet. He explained we would receive a call on my mobile the following day with details of when another engineer would be able to come out and complete the job. At this stage we are now paying for all our services.
The following day passed and we had received no calls from NTL. I called on Wednesday 9th August to explain the situation and ask when the job would be completed. I was on this call for approximately 45 minutes due to hold times, transferring between departments and generally trying to explain to telephone staff what had happened (despite the fact I was under the impression that your systems would have been updated with the information already). Eventually I was told an engineer would be coming out on Monday 14th August. This meant that either myself or my partner would need to take an entire day off work to wait for an engineer to arrive as the woman in the installations department could not guarantee me an estimated time an engineer would call.
I received a call on Friday 11th August from a woman representing NTL saying that the appointment had been cancelled and rescheduled for Wednesday 16th August. Due to the short notice, my partner had to arrange an unpaid day off from her job as a nurse to wait in for an engineer to finish a job that had started 9 days ago. I was told to call the following day to be given an approximate time for arrival.
Wednesday arrived and by lunchtime I decided to call and find out when an engineer would be arriving. I was told that there were no notes on the system relating to an appointment. I was then transferred from customer services to moves/transfers to faults and back to customer services. This period of explanation and transferred took almost 75 minutes. I was calling from a mobile at work at approximately 10p per minute and lost productivity time. None of your staff were able to call me back so the cost of my call continued to rise. The call ended with me speaking to Mr. ****** ***** (customer services) advising that I need to speak with faults (the department I was transferred from!!). The issue was unresolved as I had to go back to work and I was receiving no help (one analyst even advised me I would have to pay for an engineer to come back out).
I called back early evening and spoke with installations again who logged my verbal complaint and promised me a call back from a manager within 48 hours. I accepted this as it was the most help anybody had given me.
48 hours passed and I had not received a call back.
I sent an e-mail to your company using your website option for logging a complaint. I received an automated message telling me to call customer care where reps will pass accounts onto to supervisors if they could not resolve the issue themselves.
I called back and was promised a call back in 10 minutes. 1 hour later Mr. ****** ***** (Local Installations Manager) called me back. He explained that his engineer was at fault for not explaining the reason the job could not be finished and that he would sort out our problems for us firstly by arranging for an engineer to come out and finish installation. He promised me a call back on Monday 21th August with further details.
Again, no call back was received.
I called Mr.******** back on Tuesday. He said that he would call me back with further information later in the day.
Once again, I heard nothing.
Yesterday evening I called Mr. ******** and left a voicemail for him to call me back although I am highly skeptical that this will not happen.
As well as the above calls I have mentioned I have called plenty of other times but not been able to speak to anybody who can help and had to end the call because of long hold times.
So at this stage, 17 days after your first engineer visited, we still have no telephone or internet services, have not been told when someone will next be coming out and wasted time and money on something that ultimately is not our fault.
Therefore, I would like to emphasize the following with the intention of receiving an official reply from somebody senior within the company via telephone along with a written apology letter.
I would suggest a reasonable timeframe for a response would be up to 10 days from the date of this letter. Failure to hear anything will result in taking the issue further both internally and externally.
I would also propose that as I have aimed to set-up a service with all good intentions I be compensated for the time, expense and inconvenience I have suffered as follows (failure to reply will result in further charges being added to this list as subsequent letters and calls will be required):
Partners day off work at £11.66 an hour (Wednesday 16th August) x 8 hours = £81.62
Cost of telephone calls to NTL (approximately 5 hours x 10p per minute from mobile) = £30
Loss of work time at £12.50 an hour making calls to NTL = £37.50
Cost of letter and time taken to produce letter of complaint during work time = £7
Inconvenience and gesture of goodwill charge by way of apology = £20
TOTAL = £176.12
I would also like to add that at no point have I been rude or insulted any members of your staff. I am not intending to cause offence by sending this letter and am mildly embarrassed at having to pen such a letter in the first place. I am simply very unhappy with the service received and above all else frustrated that nobody is able to resolve what should be a very simple issue.
I look forward to a speedy response and hope for a successful conclusion to this unnecessary drawn out saga.
Please call me at any opportunity on my mobile number at the top of this letter.
Regards
***** *****