NTL e-mail support

[Kipperman]

I was curious to see how many people using this forum have had a nil response to e-mails sent to ntl requesting support issues or customer services. I personally have sent about 10 such mails to them in three years and as far as I can recall only ever got 1 response. Why do they (and other companies come to that) offer a contact e-mail if no one takes any notice of it?

[Sociable]

Be fair those departments use NTL e-mail accounts so it could well be that they simply never received them. :rofl:

You are making a valid point though as it is completely unprofessional not to respond at all and far too many companies these days seem to forget that.

That said maybe my experience is lucky the few times I have sent email requests I have had a response so I have voted for that option.

[luci5]

Well I emailed them at the beginning of December and finally received a letter from them today saying they are investigating. No address or contact telephone number on it. Thought it would have been easier and quicker to reply by email........

[John Doe]

Well I emailed them at the beginning of December and finally received a letter from them today saying they are investigating. No address or contact telephone number on it. Thought it would have been easier and quicker to reply by email........

Servers were prob down :(

[Russ]

I was curious to see how many people using this forum have had a nil response to e-mails sent to ntl requesting support issues or customer services. I personally have sent about 10 such mails to them in three years and as far as I can recall only ever got 1 response. Why do they (and other companies come to that) offer a contact e-mail if no one takes any notice of it?

Email enquiries are not given priority at NTL. If a tech was answering one and a call came through, he'd stop with the email and give the call priority. Bear in mind that on NTL's intranet there is a site called Nexus which has about 30 or 40 standard replies with 'fill-in-the-spaces' bits for your details, so often it can be done quickly, but most of the time it'll be a copy and paste job which can be annoying if the tech hasn't read your email properly...

[Paul]

I have e-mailed them quite a few times over the last three years and always got a reply - my only gripe is that it often takes about a week to get the reply.

[luci5]

A week I could have lived with, although it should only take a couple of days at most, but I thought a month was a bit excessive. At least I got an acknowledgement though, but it should have been a proper reply and solution after all that time as Xmas and New Year only accounts for 3 days.

[ICICLE65]

A week I could have lived with, although it should only take a couple of days at most, but I thought a month was a bit excessive. At least I got an acknowledgement though, but it should have been a proper reply and solution after all that time as Xmas and New Year only accounts for 3 days.

My personal experience is one of trying get them to take on board my new address since I moved house in July 2002 ! Several e-mails and unanswered phone calls late , my e-bill still reads the wrong address !
Does anyone know of a good contact number to get them to change these details ??

Funny thing is , Ntl rang me tonight asking if I would like to "upgrade" to NTLFREEDOM from NTLWORLD !!!!!! Which is the package Ive had for the last 3months !!!!

Asked if they could change my address details,the answer was that they couldnt do that but they could give me a number to ring !!

Nth-ellish funny ! :rofl:

[Marge]

I am sometimes given email forms to respond to but as mentioned above if I have people waiting in a q they have to have the priority. Some emails are extremely vague, ie what is the problem, reply 'email'. Could be can't send/receive, password problem etc so can't always respond back by email but should be followed up at least by a call back.

[Mr.Moony]

One thing I agree is that they should have more people on emails. Like creative support, they email back the next day! However allot of the emails are things like 'my email isnt working, why dont you fix it?' or 'whats my username and password'. You know, the time waisting emails that waste time. However if it isnt that its Jim on the phone who's no connection story starts "well i got up, put the kettle on....i like tea. Put in 2 slices of toast and set the toaster to 3 - medium brown. After enjoying breakfast and chatting with the wife about our financial situation, I decided to use my broadband...."

Thats not funny Jim

[Marge]

One thing I agree is that they should have more people on emails. Like creative support, they email back the next day! However allot of the emails are things like 'my email isnt working, why dont you fix it?' or 'whats my username and password'. You know, the time waisting emails that waste time. However if it isnt that its Jim on the phone who's no connection story starts "well i got up, put the kettle on....i like tea. Put in 2 slices of toast and set the toaster to 3 - medium brown. After enjoying breakfast and chatting with the wife about our financial situation, I decided to use my broadband...."

Thats not funny Jim

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: So So True

[RamJet]

Email enquiries are not given priority at NTL. If a tech was answering one and a call came through, he'd stop with the email and give the call priority. Bear in mind that on NTL's intranet there is a site called Nexus which has about 30 or 40 standard replies with 'fill-in-the-spaces' bits for your details, so often it can be done quickly, but most of the time it'll be a copy and paste job which can be annoying if the tech hasn't read your email properly...
I know this is old but surely for all the £ÃÆ ’‚£Ãà¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚£ we pay NTL could employ a customer service e:mail (e@mail) clerk to issue soothing but meaningless responses to e:mail traffic

Most companies / politicians etc do this if for no other reason than it is excellant PR to have good e:mail response system

and vice versa ! !

Ramjet [:)]

[Kipperman]

I think that being as part of their core business is internet service they should at least been seen to use the internet constructively and efficiently. Mind you BT arn't keen on answering phones these days either so it's a across the board thing with large Comms companies.
They should take a leaf out of my web space hosting company customer services who reply to e-mail support within the hour normally.

[Maggy]

I was curious to see how many people using this forum have had a nil response to e-mails sent to ntl requesting support issues or customer services. I personally have sent about 10 such mails to them in three years and as far as I can recall only ever got 1 response. Why do they (and other companies come to that) offer a contact e-mail if no one takes any notice of it?

I think you should have included a
They replied....eventually,choice in your poll.

The responses(not that I've bothered for a very long time)can vary so enormously due as Russ said to the emails being dealt with on an ad hoc arrangement.

Incog. :)

[br3ach]

Im not saying its right, or trying to justify it at all, but in my opinion emailing for support is useless ... it is wrong, but no point moaning about it as calls are, and probably always will be their priority ...

Use the phones, it will be fixed much quicker (providing you speak to a tech who knows his stuff)

[MetaWraith]

Pure and simple. I Never got satisfactory replies from them,that's why i joined this forum.

[poolking]

I think I've only emailed them once and did eventually get a reply.

[zovat]

I have not Emailed NTL - but my wife has (I was away and Email was down - again :afire: ) and received no reply (9 months later and still no reply), so she called them and was told "our engineers are looking into it......

Ah well, it was fixed, and I can see that it is possible the mail got lost - this was when the Email system was down for a few days in the middle of last year :(

I have always tried to phone when I have a problem - a least I know that someone receives the call ;) (whether they fix the fault or not is another issue ..)

why don't NTL set up an automated response - that way we would at least know that the Email has been received.

[Mr.Moony]

There is an Automated response, because most the emails I get on there are "bouncers". Ones that are lost in an abyss of automated responses...

[br3ach]

auto reponse responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response which responds to auto response

You get the idea ....

Really anoying huh :/

[SOSAGES]

normally the reply i get is some copy and paste job telling me stuff i already know..

but ive noticed with ntl they normally fix it in the end..

i would also say ive used a lot of ISP's not just me but setting broadband up for various companies who asked me to help and for friends and family and NTL are just as rubbish as all the other ISP's :) ive used microwave, satellite systems and all flavours of dsl and pretty much all the isps were naff its just one of those things

[John Doe]

How about this:

Email requires someone to answer it. The person who answers it has to have enough information to understand where the fault lies then ends a pre-written response email back to the customer which fixes/identifies their fault. All the recipient does is identify what the words mean and apply them to the list of email templates and send the most appropiate one.

Whats the difference between this and a decent search engine????

I say nothing.

If a customer sends an email requesting help or advice it is reasonable to assume that they have a conection to the internet. Why not make a DECENT knowlage base??? The customer can find this information out for themselves - cut out the unnecessary middle man. They would also find the information a little more aproppriate to their requirements too! Isnt this what people do in this site when they have a technical fault - effectivly query the collective KB that is us geeks?

The help pages on ntl:world are CRAP. Everybody knows this and nobody seems to do anything about it. They did create ntl:community but that kinda died (I bet it was the lawyers!) but it seemed to be on the right track. I have NEVER felt the need to send an email to Micro$oft, their KB works, ok it takes a while to find the stuff you want to but in the end you find the exact fault and how to fix it.

The only advantage of email to the corporation in my eyes is a more personal interaction for the customer rather than a web page (instead of calling that is). By this personal interaction i mean a customer could register their thanks/complaint or make personal enquiries rather than generic babble that doesnt need a personal response. I dont think the current email system does ntl's corporate image any favours at all, I'd go so far as to say it has a negative effect on the company's image.

My 2 cents...

[Mr.Moony]

Whats the difference between this and a decent search engine????

Interaction between the customer and the ISP. Shows friendship and helps build trust! Many customers dont know how to use a search engine (its true)

[br3ach]

:notopic:

Many customers dont know how to restart their PC's ... (its true too!)

[SOSAGES]

many customers shouldnt be allowed on the internet without passing an exam (its true!)

[Sociable]

True but I doubt a standard reply along these lines will be seen as constructive either. :)

"Problem exisists between chair and keyboard. Please insert new user and try again".

[John Doe]

True but I doubt a standard reply along these lines will be seen as constructive either. :)

"Problem exisists between chair and keyboard. Please insert new user and try again".

That is exactly what i meant and why i included The only advantage of email to the corporation in my eyes is a more personal interaction for the customer rather than a web page

We are saying the same thing Mr Mooney.

If a customer cant identify their fault, write it down in an email and send it then they wont be able to act on the email response.

Likewise, if a customer CAN identify a fault, write it down in an email and sent it it would be a fair assumption to make that they would be able to do the same on a webpage and press "submit" and act on the information presented to them.

K?

[David25]

If a customer sends an email requesting help or advice it is reasonable to assume that they have a conection to the internet. Why not make a DECENT knowlage base...

I agree, it encorages self-help and makes NTL look good.

[eddie00001]

I think that we really need to list to the customers (as the majority have no idea about anything IT related) what is required in the e-mail so we don't get "e-mail not working". This means that we either have to send an e-mail back listing a whole series of questions , most of which the customer wouldn't understand, or take a guess as to what the problems is and send a response that is irrelevant to the user.

As for some customers having to sit exams before being allowed anywhere near a computer, I really wish it could be the case.

Overall, e-mail at times, can only be as effective as the initial contact made by the customer, so long as that customer knows what information to provide us, then in theory, the customer should have a fix on the reply e-mail.

[Frank]

what is required in the e-mail so we don't get "e-mail not working".I think that's rather irrelevant in light of the example problem you have provided :D :naughty:

[eddie00001]

You'd be surprised on the number of e-mails I've answered where the customer has simply put, 'email not working' and they have sent it from their ntlworld address. It's so tempting to reply with 'yes it is'. Its after the reply you find they can't open attachments, its on another account, or relaying etc.

[asdf]

Yup, sounds like another day in the life of tech support.

"The Internet isn't working"