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Paul
07-01-2004, 20:54
Anyone fancy a job ?

NTL:Home are advertising full & part time Customer Service jobs (in Nottingham) in our local paper tonight.

Mr.Moony
07-01-2004, 21:10
Il take 3

zendawn
08-01-2004, 00:32
Anyone fancy a job ?

NTL:Home are advertising full & part time Customer Service jobs (in Nottingham) in our local paper tonight.


How much are they paying fulltimers??

Julian
08-01-2004, 00:35
Will they pay for your relocation to India?

Paul
08-01-2004, 01:17
Will they pay for your relocation to India?Erm, eh ?


How much are they paying fulltimers??Starting at £12,000 'plus bebefits' (pro rata for p/t) "with the opportunity to rise to £14,000". The jobs are located in Nottingham (at the ex Diamond Cable HQ, Daleside Road I would guess).

Pointman
08-01-2004, 03:21
Thats how I started, customer care in a call centre.
Best career move I ever made.
Took a drop in salary at the time to go to ntl...and it paid off.

I suggest you apply.

Frank
08-01-2004, 14:37
Will they pay for your relocation to India?lol good question.

GazzaB
08-01-2004, 14:42
Come join us! We are a happy bunch (most of the time) :wavey: :wavey:

DrAwesome
08-01-2004, 14:45
Come join us! We are a happy bunch (most of the time) :wavey: :wavey:

Even happyier on pay day i bet

Marge
08-01-2004, 14:45
Come join us! We are a happy bunch (most of the time) :wavey: :wavey:

Well I'm not very happy today :cry: :cry: think it's the weather

asdf
08-01-2004, 14:48
Will they pay for your relocation to India?

Nottigham is in the midlands, which is in the UK. :rolleyes:

John Doe
08-01-2004, 14:55
or England.

Obviously a stressfull job... (while dossin on the internet)

Marge
08-01-2004, 15:02
or England.

Obviously a stressfull job... (while dossin on the internet)

Cos I'm a girly I can multi-task ;)

Russ
08-01-2004, 15:33
Tech Support is the way to go - £14k pa, which is incredible for what they do :)

GazzaB
08-01-2004, 16:08
£14k incredible, is that meant as too much for what they do or too little?
For following a script thats pretty good to me!

Mr.Moony
08-01-2004, 16:17
£14k incredible, is that meant as too much for what they do or too little?
For following a script thats pretty good to me!

Get the hell off this site

Russ
08-01-2004, 16:18
£14k incredible, is that meant as too much for what they do or too little?
For following a script thats pretty good to me!

£14k is VERY good for what they do. I'm not trying to put down the good guys in Tech Support but 2 years ago the pay was £11k and no-one really complained it was too low then. We came in one morning to be told we were getting a minimum annual increase of £3000 and would be working an hour and a half less per week so it was gratefully recieved but we couldn't understand why we were awarded this.

Frank
08-01-2004, 17:12
Get the hell off this siteThat's not really appropriate. May I refer you to our Terms & Conditions (http://www.nthellworld.co.uk/?page=terms), Forum Use section (i)

Mr.Moony
08-01-2004, 17:58
We try and help people and they say we read of scripts. Curse Him I say, some people dont deserve help

Escapee
08-01-2004, 18:03
£14k is VERY good for what they do. I'm not trying to put down the good guys in Tech Support but 2 years ago the pay was £11k and no-one really complained it was too low then. We came in one morning to be told we were getting a minimum annual increase of £3000 and would be working an hour and a half less per week so it was gratefully recieved but we couldn't understand why we were awarded this.

But can someone really live on £14K, can they get a mortgage to buy a house?
As mentioned before 3 times that salary and you will just about get a house in Merthyr or the top end of the Rhonda valleys.
Not many people would buy a house and have their monthly mortgage payments less than £400 a month, then there is heating, electricity, council tax, and possibly a car to finance and run as well. I guess the £14K after tax comes to around £800 a month, remember half of that has just dissapeared on the mortgage/household insurance and repayment insurance for a moderate house costing about £60K.

I would guess figures would generally look like £400 mortgage, £200 car loan, £40 Gas, £15 electric, £80 fuel, £100 food plus all the other expenditure on top, it's no wonder the government is paying so much out in Tax credits, as people can't afford to live on these wages.

It's not a dig at anyone, but I just cant see how people can be expected to have a reasonable standard of life these days on callcentre/support wages.
£14k might sound great to someone just out of school/college but it's not something to look at as a long term position if you have a bit of get up and go.

Russ
08-01-2004, 18:11
But can someone really live on £14K, can they get a mortgage to buy a house?
As mentioned before 3 times that salary and you will just about get a house in Merthyr or the top end of the Rhonda valleys.

Erm...there are plenty of places in South wales where you can get a decent house for that.

We try and help people and they say we read of scripts. Curse Him I say, some people dont deserve help

Come on Mr Moony, you know full well there are a lot of people in Matrix Court who tech that way! Granted a lot of people use their own knowledge and training and that that works very well, but I remember there being LOTS who'd work as if they're reading off a checklist.

Escapee
08-01-2004, 18:29
Erm...there are plenty of places in South wales where you can get a decent house for that.



Come on Mr Moony, you know full well there are a lot of people in Matrix Court who tech that way! Granted a lot of people use their own knowledge and training and that that works very well, but I remember there being LOTS who'd work as if they're reading off a checklist.

Agreed you may find a property up the valleys from Neath/Port Talbot, but the jobs were not advertised in Wales. What would be the chances of finding a property for £42K (3x£14k ) in Nottingham?

I live in Pontypool, not the most luxurious place on earth I know. A 2 bedroom terraced house opposite my place just sold and was on the market for £82K, and the cheapest that I have just found now by looking in this weeks paper is a 2 bedroom terrace house in a bad location about a mile from me and it's advertised at £77K. I should imagine houses would be a fair bit dearer than this in Nottingham, although I know they are cheaper in Mansfield.

As I said someone can not buy a house in a reasonable area and live on call centre/support wages, it just cant be done.

Russ
08-01-2004, 18:32
Um...Tech Support jobs not advertised in Wales??

Where's Tech Support based then???

Escapee
08-01-2004, 18:38
Um...Tech Support jobs not advertised in Wales??

Where's Tech Support based then???

I thought the thread started about CS jobs in Nottingham located at the old Diamond building.

The only reference I could find to Tech Support was your post saying "tech Support £14K thats the way to go"

Thats the only reason I used the £14K as an example, if I had used the £12K CS figure thigs would of been much worse. :eek:

etccarmageddon
08-01-2004, 18:40
does anyone know what the poverty line is these days? I think an 11k wage is close to the line.

Russ
08-01-2004, 18:40
Yep! I was talking about Tech Support... :)

Escapee
08-01-2004, 18:56
does anyone know what the poverty line is these days? I think an 11k wage is close to the line.

I guess it's a hard thing to define because like all government figures they are manipulated to suit. When I was made redundant and had to attend to sign on the dotted, they had Telco system X switch Engineers jobs advertised at £12K in Bristol. At that time ntl were paying about £26K for that type of job whaich was a bit low as most companies were paying £30K and above.

You would probably think like myself that the jobs wouldn't be filled, but the government help these companies by providing them with people out of work with families and living in rented accomodation etc, the government make the wages up with tax/family credits etc to enable these companies to fill these positions with cheap labour and take people off the unemployment figures at the same time. I was sick about it and refused similar highly skilled lowly paid jobs, these companies are being subsidised by the people and companies they work for who are paying tax in the 40% bracket.

Callcentres are one industry full of people claiming tax/family credit because the wages are just not enough to live on, unfortunately there is an endless supply of people willing to work for these wages. I guess the final kick in the teeth is when the job is lost and goes to India because it's much cheaper to employ there.

This country makes me sick. :mad:

Russ
08-01-2004, 18:57
Some people around here live quite well on £11k - but the cost (NOT the standard!) of living in the South Wales area is usually a lot lower so a lot of people here are quite happy.

etccarmageddon
08-01-2004, 19:06
yes Escapee, it's madness, the welfare state is now proping up jobs (in your example) and is in need of reform so more resources can be spent on those in genuine need.

Escapee
08-01-2004, 19:13
Some people around here live quite well on £11k - but the cost (NOT the standard!) of living in the South Wales area is usually a lot lower so a lot of people here are quite happy.

I can agree with some of that, around 8-9 years ago I was working for a company that wasn't the best payer by far, but it was a friendly atmosphere and a pleasure to get up and go to work in the morning. (honest)
We were taken over by another company that instantly increased the wages, but were the worst employers that I have ever worked for. (cabletel/ntl)

The people I feel sorry for are the ones who have worked hard in university to get a degree and then end up in some lowly paid job, it's very hard to make the progression from a poorly paid job into a well paid job. I have found that it's almost impossible to get big pay rises whilst staying loyal for the same company, but another company can see your value and will be prepared to pay you the going rate. The company that I am presently work for (16 months) took about 6 months to find me, then about 8 months ago they spent another 5-6 months finding 2 more guys. now I hear that they could be looking for upto another ten people over the next 12 months for our department due to rapid expansion, the trouble is skills appear to be lacking these days as people are only interested in software and computers. That does form a part of our job but to find people with experience of Computers, Software, telemetry, microwave, repair to component level, power amplifiers, video and satellite communications is a daunting task.

It may be an employers market for some industries such as callcentres now, but we are finding that out of a hundered applications only one or two are even worth interviewing. The company is also concerned that people will possibly be on the move as things are starting to pick up, Hi-tech industry in certain sectors are having a very rough time filling vacant positions.

Paul
08-01-2004, 19:19
I live in Pontypool, not the most luxurious place on earth I know. A 2 bedroom terraced house opposite my place just sold and was on the market for £82K, and the cheapest that I have just found now by looking in this weeks paper is a 2 bedroom terrace house in a bad location about a mile from me and it's advertised at £77K. I should imagine houses would be a fair bit dearer than this in Nottingham, although I know they are cheaper in Mansfield.

While Nottingham does have some expensive areas, most are very reasonable - my (largish) 3 bed semi was valued at £75 last year.

Mick
08-01-2004, 19:24
While Nottingham does have some expensive areas, most are very reasonable - my (largish) 3 bed semi was valued at £75 last year.

Quick, everyone move to Nottingham, £75 for a house.... just up my street that. :rofl: ;)

threadbare
08-01-2004, 19:26
£14k incredible, is that meant as too much for what they do or too little?
For following a script thats pretty good to me!i have friends who work in TS - they most certainly do not follow scripts

threadbare
08-01-2004, 19:29
That's not really appropriate. May I refer you to our Terms & Conditions (http://www.nthellworld.co.uk/?page=terms), Forum Use section (i)i dont condone mr moony's reaction but GazzaB remarks are bang out of order. there are lots of tech on here who help out that will be offended by those remarks.

Paul
08-01-2004, 19:29
Quick, everyone move to Nottingham, £75 for a house.... just up my street that. :rofl: ;)
DOH ! :blush: <smacks the faulty "K" key ;) .......>

I'm not going to edit it - as it made me laugh as well :D

Russ
08-01-2004, 19:33
i have friends who work in TS - they most certainly do not follow scripts

From my experience of working there - yes, many do work in a way that could be called 'scripted' but it has to be said that the majority don't.

i dont condone mr moony's reaction but GazzaB remarks are bang out of order. there are lots of tech on here who help out that will be offended by those remarks.

I agree, to say they all use 'scripts' is incorrect. But as I said, a lot of them do.

Paul
08-01-2004, 19:35
i dont condone mr moony's reaction but GazzaB remarks are bang out of order. there are lots of tech on here who help out that will be offended by those remarks.
It was a very poor choice of words on his part but I don't think it was his intention to insult or upset any of you - as I have mentioned many times, I have always found NTL TS to be very helpful. :)

Mr.Moony
08-01-2004, 19:39
He is off my Xmas List

Russ
08-01-2004, 19:43
He is off my Xmas List

You know he didn't mean all of you - there are loads of good techs who don't need scripts - if I mention the name 'techie tim' then you'll know who I'm talking about :)

Mr.Moony
08-01-2004, 19:53
/Crosses off Russ D

Russ
08-01-2004, 19:57
/Crosses off Russ D

Aww come on, you're not really going to tell me you honestly believe that some techs in Matrix Court never use a scripted approach??

John Doe
08-01-2004, 23:43
I find this all very amusing.

Some techs do seem to follow a script. After doing the job for awhile you will beable to diagnose the fault in the first few seconds and then follow a fairly generic process to resolve faults. So to the untrained eye it may seem that there are scripts scattered all over the place. They are not.

Anyway, this has all been taken out of proportion and very off topic :D

I think you should all :luv: and make up.

John
:angel:

asdf
08-01-2004, 23:47
You may be moaning that £14,000 seems crÃÃâ€*’¡p. But if you look around for jobs in call centres that is a pretty average wage to be honest.

You also get a lot of perks with an ntl job remember ;)

Foo Fighter
09-01-2004, 00:24
Any jobs going in lancashire? finishing college soon and fancy something in the telecoms market. Don't fancy working asda for ever :E

not bothered about pay, aslong as their are prospects.

Only gonna have a HND in Telecoms, cant be bothered doing anymore as the sylabus is rubish. Its way outdated stuff they teach, IDSN, Pascal, Analogue Comms etc. Did a module on digital coms (QAM, QPSK etc) and digital networks but would have prefered to have been taught all the latest technologies really.

What kind of knowledge would i need to get a basic job as some sort of tech for ntl?

Pritch
09-01-2004, 00:30
Any jobs going in lancashire? finishing college soon and fancy something in the telecoms market. Don't fancy working asda for ever :E

not bothered about pay, aslong as their are prospects.

Only gonna have a HND in Telecoms, cant be bothered doing anymore as the sylabus is rubish. Its way outdated stuff they teach, IDSN, Pascal, Analogue Comms etc. Did a module on digital coms (QAM, QPSK etc) and digital networks but would have prefered to have been taught all the latest technologies really.

What kind of knowledge would i need to get a basic job as some sort of tech for ntl?

To be honest mate, I think if you're looking for a job with NTL with that sort of stuff under your belt, you're more likely to get work in the NMC, which is in the South East, unless you want to go in via the call centre route.

zovat
09-01-2004, 00:33
You may be moaning that £14,000 seems crÃÃâ€*’¡p. But if you look around for jobs in call centres that is a pretty average wage to be honest.

You also get a lot of perks with an ntl job remember ;)


14k is not a bad starting salary - when I got into this game, I started on 6k, and thought I was loaded....

As to the "discussion" about scripting....

:notopic:

It has been suggested in the past the both NTL CS and TS use scripts to troubleshoot faults.
I personally feel that some - NOT ALL - of the TS personnel do use a script to diagnose faults, as I use linux on my laptop I find that their scripts assume windows.

I am not saying that all TS/CS use the scripts, but I have worked in TS for a long time (not for NTL mind you) and I personally think that scripts are a great way to get new TS people to gain confidence and learn about the products...

Please don't take any of this personally Mr Moony (or any of the other TS people who post here) but lets be honest - SOME TS use them....

I cannot speak for NTL TS, but given my experiences with them (both good and bad) lead me to believe that some of them (I would guess the new/inexperienced ones) do follow some form of script.

I repeat - I have no problem with CS/TS using scripts - in fact I think it is a good way to learn in a job like this...

ok - :notopic: over , sorry if I rambled, but I wanted to make my opinions clear..

etccarmageddon
09-01-2004, 09:08
14k is not a bad starting salary - when I got into this game, I started on 6k, and thought I was loaded....


yes but which year was that? if it was years ago, then 6k back then (after allowing for inflation) might be a lot more in today's money.

zovat
09-01-2004, 11:46
yes but which year was that? if it was years ago, then 6k back then (after allowing for inflation) might be a lot more in today's money.

It was a long time ago (late 1980s) but my wife works as an office admin person and earns less than 14k :( (she is more qualified than me, but has a degree <sociology> that is no real use in todays employment marketplace.)

etccarmageddon
09-01-2004, 12:38
nursery assistants advertised in the local paper at 9-14k

Escapee
09-01-2004, 16:09
nursery assistants advertised in the local paper at 9-14k

I got made redundant in December 2001, I had made my mind up that I was taking at least 6 months off work as I decided I needed a break after 20 years. I was tempted by a local job packing food products on a production line, they were paying £300+ a week. It was very tempting to take that sort of job for a few months to delay my 6 months off, but it's not something I would of put on my CV.

I started off earning £42 a week in 1983 (£2184) , I was earning approx £11k a year by 1989 and I would add that I was not very well paid, I had friends working in factories doing jobs that required zero skill but were being paid a little bit more than I was. Even the neighbour who worked as a refuse collector for the council was earning more than I was, so surely a £11K salary 14 years on must be considered to be below the poverty line.

etccarmageddon
09-01-2004, 16:19
how bizarre matey - I started my first IT job in 1984 on ...... £42 a week!

(part of this £42 was via some kind of government grant which I wasnt aware of until I was offered the job... the git passed me some forms to sign and casually told me this was to get a g/ment subsidy)

and in 1989 I was also on around 11k! which was indeed poorly paid.

I wouldnt wish that kind of salary level on the current workforce with todays cost of living.

Stuartbe
09-01-2004, 16:25
14k is not a bad starting salary - when I got into this game, I started on 6k, and thought I was loaded....

As to the "discussion" about scripting....

:notopic:

It has been suggested in the past the both NTL CS and TS use scripts to troubleshoot faults.
I personally feel that some - NOT ALL - of the TS personnel do use a script to diagnose faults, as I use linux on my laptop I find that their scripts assume windows.

I am not saying that all TS/CS use the scripts, but I have worked in TS for a long time (not for NTL mind you) and I personally think that scripts are a great way to get new TS people to gain confidence and learn about the products...

Please don't take any of this personally Mr Moony (or any of the other TS people who post here) but lets be honest - SOME TS use them....

I cannot speak for NTL TS, but given my experiences with them (both good and bad) lead me to believe that some of them (I would guess the new/inexperienced ones) do follow some form of script.

I repeat - I have no problem with CS/TS using scripts - in fact I think it is a good way to learn in a job like this...

ok - :notopic: over , sorry if I rambled, but I wanted to make my opinions clear..

I have spoken to someone who does not use a script - its that or he needs some early learning centre vouchers sent to him :p

Escapee
09-01-2004, 16:34
how bizarre matey - I started my first IT job in 1984 on ...... £42 a week!

(part of this £42 was via some kind of government grant which I wasnt aware of until I was offered the job... the git passed me some forms to sign and casually told me this was to get a g/ment subsidy)

and in 1989 I was also on around 11k! which was indeed poorly paid.

I wouldnt wish that kind of salary level on the current workforce with todays cost of living.

Yes, mine was some government grant as well. (MSC scheme or something)

I had a big pay rise the following year to £64, those were the days I went to the pub every night of the week on my £64. :D

etccarmageddon
09-01-2004, 16:56
I'm beginning to wonder if Escapee worked at the same place as me.... as my pay rise was to around £60 as well!

asdf
10-01-2004, 00:51
so surely a £11K salary 14 years on must be considered to be below the poverty line.

Depends where you live and what you do.

CSA jobs around here (Nottingham/Leicester area) tend to be around £12-£15 thousand p.a.

In London and the south it's obviously a lot more due to the higher cost of living.

John Doe
10-01-2004, 01:16
the average wage in the UK is £24k

zendawn
10-01-2004, 04:07
Come join us! We are a happy bunch (most of the time) :wavey: :wavey:

I was trying to remember why this sounded so spooky, then I remembered Stephen Kings book IT. When the clown calls from the drains to the young lad, 'Come join us, we all floats down here.'

Wonder why it reminded me of NTL? Hum

:)

asdf
10-01-2004, 18:06
the average wage in the UK is £24k

Is it?! Bloody hell.

Mr.Moony
10-01-2004, 18:08
Is it?! Bloody hell.

Im demanding a pay increase

/ten minutes later

Well im jobless

asdf
10-01-2004, 18:09
Me too... ;)

Escapee
10-01-2004, 20:06
the average wage in the UK is £24k

The big problem with the average wage figure is that it covers everything and everyone. I am not saying it's a bad thing to use as a benchmark, but it should be broken down into unskilled, skilled, management and director level.

This would give a better representation of the true average UK wage.

I thought it would of been higher than £24K myself, I guess the average wage has possibly taken a dive in recent years due to the number of people in low paid industries. In South Wales the electronic manufacturing companies were always noted for being the low paid jobs, but in reality with inflation it would work out higher than what most of the callcentres pay.

I always used to curse those Japs for cheap labour in the valleys, as I felt they were lowering the wages in other areas of electronics.

Don't get me started on those Korean rip off merchants in Newport. :mad: