NTL on and off all night?

Marcais

Before I send another message to NTL only to get a "we'll have a technician come out and look at your box" :eek: reply. Anyone have trouble with NTL tonight? 2nd May.

Angel

A little, towards the end of the match the screen froze but plugging it out & back in again did the trick.

loyatemu

yeah I was trying to watch the snooker last night and the picture kept freezing a breaking up. Was happening on all channels, though some worse than others. Unwatchable, I gave up in the end.

Marcais

loyatemu wrote:

yeah I was trying to watch the snooker last night and the picture kept freezing a breaking up. Was happening on all channels, though some worse than others. Unwatchable, I gave up in the end.

Same here, and as I had a wee wager on the game, I was not happy.

Almost had to suffer through watching Man U being beaten

matt-dublin

yeah the majority of the channells were really messed up last night.

scrambled and freezing and no sound/audio sync

eleMental

yeah mine was the same too. i left the video recording a program and when i went to watch it today half was missing cos the screen had just frozen and then gone black.

no point ringing them though, they'll just tell you its because of the sunny weather (im not kidding, ive been told that at least 4 times by them over the last few years).

Hammiepeters

When you get problems. press Help on remote. Then yellow button. wait while it resets. Normal service will then resume.

Marcais

Hammiepeters wrote:

When you get problems. press Help on remote. Then yellow button. wait while it resets. Normal service will then resume.

Thanks Hammie, I'm aware of that function. Do you work for NTL

Tried it a few times, reset and then it went again. The MMDS system is rubbish.

Hammiepeters

No, I dont work for them, thank God. In fact I wonder who does. Have had it out with them so many times. They have refunded service for the last two months because I told them I was disconnecting. Sky was an option until the technician came along and told us we needed this and that to connect, extra cost, told them to go away.

fishdog

I do not work for any satallite and never will
I do not work for any cable company and never will

I worked as an electrical contractor in the area for sevral years, not anymore, so this is not an add just free advice.

Every time I installed wiring for satellite TV the customer was happy with picture quality, sound, price and reliability.

Every time a house was wired for cable TV the customer was disappointed. The reasons were generally, picture quality and reliability.

However Sky can be most unhelpfull at times. Once you are set up you normally do not have to deal with them again.

There are also many good free to air satellite systems that you can get quality stations on for free, such as BBC1,2,3,4 Channel4 ITV1,2,3,4 and many more.

Cable TV is on the way out in my opinion. NTL and similar are not investing properly in the network. Picture quality at best is OK never fantastic. With so many large LCD and plasma screens in use unless signal quality is perfect the picture will be bad.

Get a dish!!!

fishdog

Hammiepeters wrote:

Sky was an option until the technician came along and told us we needed this and that to connect, extra cost, told them to go away.

What do you mean by this? Maybe I can help

eleMental

ARGH!!!! - anyone elses NTL been really acting up (moreso than usual) recently.

on friday nite i left the video to record 2 things on sat night as i was away and came home late on saturday night to 2 hours of a recorded frozen screen with "you have not subscribed to this channel" where the box had frozen at some point while i was away - this is the third time this's happened in the last month. and tonight (in the middle of Lost!!!) the screen kept going all pixellated and freezing and was completley unwatchable.

its getting beyond a joke now. is there some kind of "residential area/development" group complaint we can make through the res. assoc. or something? i simply psychologically cannot go through the "we'll send an engineer out to you" rigmarole with NTL's customer service again for something thats clearly a much bigger issue...

Marcais

eleMental wrote:

ARGH!!!! - anyone elses NTL been really acting up (moreso than usual) recently.

on friday nite i left the video to record 2 things on sat night as i was away and came home late on saturday night to 2 hours of a recorded frozen screen with "you have not subscribed to this channel" where the box had frozen at some point while i was away - this is the third time this's happened in the last month. and tonight (in the middle of Lost!!!) the screen kept going all pixellated and freezing and was completley unwatchable.

its getting beyond a joke now. is there some kind of "residential area/development" group complaint we can make through the res. assoc. or something? i simply psychologically cannot go through the "we'll send an engineer out to you" rigmarole with NTL's customer service again for something thats clearly a much bigger issue...

Good to hear that I'm not alone......trying to watch Duddy's fight last night, except with NTL it was like there was a standing eight count every 10 seconds....FUMING.

Let's organise an e-mail to NTL with as many names and account numbers aspossible so they can't give us this standard Bullsh!t reply anymore and consider a letter to local papers.

Charlie-Bravo

Yep, was watching lost last night...got mega p!ssed off...I'll back you guys up but something needs to be sorted immedaitely or else the won't entertain you as much.

MuffinsDa

IMO the thing that needs to be sorted is for the management company to lift the ban on Satellite dishes so people can have real choice. It's absolutely rdiciulous to impore a self-restrictive measure like that on ourselves based on something that is a)subjective (aesthetics) and b)outdated (new dishes being very small etc.) .

In other words if NTL is not good we should be able to leave them but we are left with no other choice. So best thing is to get on to residents comittee and management company is relation to removal of the satellite dish ban.

Lumbarda

Same thing happened to us watching "Lost" last night - REALLY annoying! If it happens next week during the season finale I will go mad altogether!!!

I'm all for sending a joint email, they should be concerned at the prosepct of losing so many potential customers in Charlesland. I also agree that we should lift the ban on satellite dishes (keeping restrictions on where they can be placed and size) Sky is actually cheaper for a lot more channels at the moment!

fishdog

MuffinsDa wrote:

IMO the thing that needs to be sorted is for the management company to lift the ban on Satellite dishes so people can have real choice.

Ban? F*$K the ban!! Look around you, anyone that wants a dish has put one up and after all the threats nothing has happened!!!

You have been so ripped off with the price you have paid for a house/appartment you deserve to be able to watch TV.

NTL do not care have you not noticed???

Cable TV = Reasnoble recpetion at BEST, but generally moderate to crap reception

Satellite TV = Quality reception all the time

Cost satellite TV = Cost fo cable TV

Simple!!!

eleMental

afaik the only piece of the ban on the dishes that the mgmnt company are enforcing is people who have them up at the front of the houses. i dont think they're enforcing an overall ban so you're free to put one up at the back if you want (for the houses).

thats not the point im making though. i have ntl in, i dont particularly want to move to sky and i feel that NTL need to address the issue and fix it, rather than me just moving to another company. this thread isnt about the alternatives i can consider, its about fixing the one im already paying for.

marcais - the group email/letter sounds like a really good idea - happy to include my address/account number...

matti

I hope I'm not jinxing it but my tv was perfect last night and I have NTL too. In fact I very rarely have any problems at all! Saying that though you really should try to get NTL to fix it. There was one time I had a problem and they were having problems with their phones too. I spent about 4 hours on the phone waiting (just left the phone on speaker and went about my evening). In the end the person was actually very helpful and refunded me for the month for my 2 tv's even though one was working) and they had it fixed by the next evening. I guess I was just lucky...

fishdog

eleMental wrote:

afaik the only piece of the ban on the dishes that the mgmnt company are enforcing is people who have them up at the front of the houses. i dont think they're enforcing an overall ban so you're free to put one up at the back if you want

The problem is the dish has to poin south east. This may not be the back of your house.

Anyway open your eyes!!! I am in Charlesland everyday. There are many, many houses with dishes on the front of them! It is your property!! Dont take any sh!t!

eleMental wrote:

its about fixing the one im already paying for.

marcais - the group email/letter sounds like a really good idea - happy to include my address/account number...

I can see from reading this that you have not hear the "Joe Duffy show" about NTL. I wish you the best of luck!!!!

Charlie-Bravo

eleMental wrote:

thats not the point im making though. i have ntl in, i dont particularly want to move to sky and i feel that NTL need to address the issue and fix it, rather than me just moving to another company. this thread isnt about the alternatives i can consider, its about fixing the one im already paying for.

I agree eleMental...NTL have an underground system in Charlesland all wired up to every single house and apartment...I have the option of putting a satellite dish on the back of me gaff but I signed a lease agreeing to those terms which don't allow it...ok, if there was no other option I would go ahead and stick a dish up (which wouldn't be seen from the front). The point here is that NTL have the so called monopoly...the service doesn't work great, its very limited, it costs a fair bit just to get some decent channels...some complaints may make them think about making it better.

Anyone here good with the laws on competition? As the leases are very restrictive on this issue...shouldn't there be something in 'Law' that would allow us have another service provider use the underground cabled system?!

Eoin

Do NTL have an agreement with the management company that they are the only service provider in Charlesland, or is it just a case that by not allowing dishes that they are the only provider by default?

I only ask because I brought this up at the CGP AGM last year, and the rep said that the rule about satellite dishes was there as a standard clause rather than something that they specifically included. She also seemed to give the impression that if enough people contacted the committee about this, then there was a chance that this clause could be taken out.

I'm just wondering if people have actually contacted their management committee about this, or if they are just complaining about not being allowed have a dish without actually seeing if this could be changed.

dubsgirl

I wrote a letter to the management company stating reasons why I went ahead and put a satellite dish up at the back of my house, they replied back that they would pass my letter on to the directors??

heard nothing since - this is about 4/5 months ago.

Eoin

I think it may make more sense for enough people to contact the committee first, and then they can contact the company on your (group) behalf.

fishdog

dubsgirl wrote:

I wrote a letter to the management company stating reasons why I went ahead and put a satellite dish up at the back of my house, they replied back that they would pass my letter on to the directors??

heard nothing since - this is about 4/5 months ago.

You will hear nothing either. They have not managed to get one dish removed!

eleMental wrote:

afaik the only piece of the ban on the dishes that the mgmnt company are enforcing is people who have them up at the front of the houses. i dont think they're enforcing an overall ban so you're free to put one up at the back if you want (for the houses).

Er, no! Look around!! The proof is all around you!

astrofluffl wrote:

The point here is that NTL have the so called monopoly...the service doesn't work great, its very limited, it costs a fair bit just to get some decent channels...some complaints may make them think about making it better.

Try complaining. You will end up getting credits on your bill, so it will save you money. But you will never have a decent reliable TV reception with them. Cable TV went out with the indians! You have to move with the times. NTL are simply not investing in their network, it is in an terrible state. This has been alot of publicity about this. Even NTL are putting arials on roofs now! Look around.

You can jump up and down with NTL until you are blue in the face, demand your rights, do as the management company says etc. etc. but the best you can hope fo is a crap service at a reduced rate!!


I have seen this through work so many times! Always the same result!

Marcais

Alright, this is ridiculous, only in the door an hour, and this fcekin NTL has shut down 4 times for 2-3 minutes each time :mad:

Marcais

OK!! it's unbelievably bad now, at least ten times tonight.

How about this? I'll go first. Click on the following e-mail link:

customer.support@upc.ie

I'll send an e-mail titled "Please upgrade Charlesland NTL service MMDS is not acceptable - NUMBER ONE]

And begin:

Dear sir,

This is NUMBER X of many similar titled messages you will receive from Charlesland with regards to the NTL "service" you provide to Charlesland via your MMDS system. I would appreciate it therefore if you would first of all, acknowledge that an overall problem does exist (i.e as opposed to with my individual set-top box) and provide me with an acceptable response as to what steps you will take to rectify the issue. ...........provide your name, address, account no. etc. and details about freezing etc.

Next, post a reply to say you have e-mailed and take a number!

Worth a try!

Marcais

Marcais wrote:

OK!! it's unbelievably bad now, at least ten times tonight.

How about this? I'll go first. Click on the following e-mail link:

customer.support@upc.ie

I'll send an e-mail titled "Please upgrade Charlesland NTL service MMDS is not acceptable - NUMBER ONE]

And begin:

Dear sir,

This is NUMBER X of many similar titled messages you will receive from Charlesland with regards to the NTL "service" you provide to Charlesland via your MMDS system. I would appreciate it therefore if you would first of all, acknowledge that an overall problem does exist (i.e as opposed to with my individual set-top box) and provide me with an acceptable response as to what steps you will take to rectify the issue. ...........provide your name, address, account no. etc. and details about freezing etc.

Next, post a reply to say you have e-mailed and take a number!

Worth a try!

NUMBER 1 SENT - marcais

woodser

Shouldn't our great ad-hoc management committee make representations to Ntl.Theyare very good on Bins and wind Direction and superb on supporting individual residents in their refund campaign:)

fishdog

As an electrician I have seen this a thousand times! You are wasting your time, NTL DO NOT CARE!!! As long as you are with cable TV you will constantly have issues with picture and sound quality. This is why people are installing satellite dishes. Write all the letters and emails you like, but you are wasting your time. This is a problem with cable TV nationwide. The best you can expect is to get a reasnoble picture most of the time. If you want a DVD quality pictue all of the time get a dish! Large plasma and LCD screens only enhance the problem. Letters and emails may get you a small refund at best. This issue was highlighted on the Joe Duffy show this week for the second time recently.

Charlie-Bravo

Marcais, fair play for starting it off...I'll do imy letter over the weekend.

Fishdog, you say the service is poor..I find the picture quality to be just as good as satellite. Now when HD on the cable service is mentioned by NTL it'll be interesting to see how long it takes for them to install it.

Woodser, as we know with issues like this, the management companies don't pay for the NTL service; the customers do. I don't see any management company jumping to the rescue here as they would have no interest (unless they further the threats about having satellite dishes removed)

For those other people who have NTL...follow in Marcais's footsteps please. I'll post back later when done.

fishdog

Fishdog, you say the service is poor..I find the picture quality to be just as good as satellite.

I have never seen it as good as satellite. In theory this is possible, I admit. But lets assume you are correct, you must admit reliability is a huge issue with NTL. This is a huge issue with people. As an electrician, it is less wok for me to install cables for NTL, but I always seem to end up with an unhappy customer!

feelthegrease

Hammiepeters wrote:

When you get problems. press Help on remote. Then yellow button. wait while it resets. Normal service will then resume.

no point, just goes out again....grrr

i only watch tv for an hour or two each week, if even at all, but even so, EVERY SINGLE TIME i'm watching something ntl just goes off several times while im watching something.

screw ntl, just go to alluc.org or tv-links.co.uk

LMC

:mad: Just rang AGAIN! They have to send an engineer out......the next app is the 23rd june anytime between 9-6pm!! Joke. Told her the problem is with the charlesland area - at least she didnt argue that point, this time! She said they will refund my bill IF & WHEN the service is back running.....If we all keep emailing and ringing they just MIGHT get the hint

ash760

I was just on to NTL. They have had a lot of calls this morning. They said that if enough people complained, they would be out straight away. Unfortunately to do this, although its not a problem with your own box, you need to make an appointment for them to come out. I explained I had no intention of sitting in for a day waiting for them to come when it was not my box and would not solve the problem. I took a saturday appointment which I can ring and get an estimated time of arrival for on the day. She reckoned they would have it solved before then because of all the calls they received. If they haven't i might cancel it on the day if it doesn't suit. its not until 23rd june. People should call...

Hammiepeters

Yes. seems to be ridiculous now. Needs to be reset all the time. message on screen saying that we have not subscribed to RTE1,etc. Pathethic. However everytime I get a Sky techo out, he gives me bull about extra coax cable and extra costs etc. So I'm stuck with them. But complain and dont pay for such service.

eleMental

i rang last week aswell and tried the same approach "its not my ntl box its the charlesland area" but the girl just didnt want to know and harped on as per usual about having to send an engineer out to me first. so im gonna do that and try explaining to the enginner in the hope that HE feeds something back.

it also may interest you to know the girl told me that they upgraded their customer services system in NTL and that she has no log/record of any calls i've made to NTL prior to 10th january 2007 - its extraordinary. i have about an 8-year history with those guys and now seemingly any record of any call ive made to them prior to this year has been erased.

Charlie-Bravo

Marcais wrote:

NUMBER 1 SENT - marcais

Sorry, I was a bit slow out of the traps....

I've sent my email to NTL in relation to this inferior service. I tweaked my email a little...lets just say they won't like it but have to act because I'm a customer!

Now, I urge others to make themselves heard.

MegFi

i have had no NTL at all since yestderay - all screens blank. I just tried thet help and yellow button now and it worked - thanks for that

Lumbarda

I emailed NTL last week as well but just got a standard email back telling me about rebooting etc. - I know how to reboot, the point is that I shouldn't HAVE to reboot every darned night!! Especially as it always seems to go off at a crucial point in whatever we're watching and the time lost waiting for it to reboot is frustrating to say the least!

They also said that they sent a "d-hiit" to my set top box to strengthen the signal and have logged my complaints about ongoing problems in the area. I'm not holding my breath that it'll improve.... I think at this stage we residents, as the management company, should lift the ban on satellite dishes to the rear of houses - something for the AGM, I guess?

LMC

Is it true that some of us cannot put the Sky dish on the rear of the house, due to signal!?

future_plans

I suppose it depends what direction your house faces...

Eoin

future_plans wrote:

I suppose it depends what direction your house faces...

I've seen some dishes on the back of the house, but pointing towards the front, so you may be able to put it on the back no matter what direction you face? I guess it depends on the angle of the roof...

MuffinsDa

fishdog would be the man to answer that question!

mikedragon32

If the installation of a dish at the back means that the dish needs to face the front of the house, the dish has to go on a pole attached to the back wall. The dish will be put high enough to "peek" over the angle of the roof in order to get a signal.

One of my neighbours did this and on even breezy days you could see that there was movement by the dish, which would make for a patchy signal. For those of you who have/had Sky, on very windy days, when the dish moves a bit, the signal can break up intermittently.

Still better than having NTL mind you.

eleMental

i called NTL again today because yesterday all my channels had the "you have not subscribed to this service" even when i rebooted 2 or 3 times.

had my usual rant about how its not just me and how everyone has the same problem etc etc - and lo and behold she went off, came back and said shed escalated to her supervisor who acknowledged there is definately an issue with the charlesland MMDS as there are a number of engineers call-outs booked and they raised a technical service call to have an engineer come out to the charlesland area and check the overall transmitter etc etc!!!! it wont be for 10 working days she said, but hey, at least they are admitting theres a problem and are sending someone out to look at the greater issue!! wooohooo!!

fishdog

The dish dish must be able to point aprox. south east, with line of sight to the satellite.

If the installation of a dish at the back means that the dish needs to face the front of the house, the dish has to go on a pole attached to the back wall. The dish will be put high enough to "peek" over the angle of the roof in order to get a signal.

One of my neighbours did this and on even breezy days you could see that there was movement by the dish, which would make for a patchy signal. For those of you who have/had Sky, on very windy days, when the dish moves a bit, the signal can break up intermittently.

Correct, this is one option. However with my house I have mounted it on my chimney. This means that it is not on a pole ore bracket that is long enough to flex even in a strong wind. Perforated dishes are the norm to reduce movement from strong wind. Also it is more discreet on the chimney.

I think that it is inportant to note that several houses can be fed from just one dish without any loss in signal quality. If you could get sevral neighbours with terraced townhouses to agree on the location of one dish they could all be fed from the same dish.

Charlie-Bravo

fishdog wrote:

I think that it is inportant to note that several houses can be fed from just one dish without any loss in signal quality. If you could get sevral neighbours with terraced townhouses to agree on the location of one dish they could all be fed from the same dish.

Well, if you just replace the NTL dish pointing at Windgates with a sky dish pointing at the satellite then all issues would be sorted!

fishdog

Well, if you just replace the NTL dish pointing at Windgates with a sky dish pointing at the satellite then all issues would be sorted!

Something similar to this has been done with many modern appartment blocks. In hotels for example one large dish can do many TV's in many rooms. These systems are very high quality and relitively cheap now. They provide high quality digital reception with stereo sound, and in some cases the sound is 5.1 dolby digital!

Charlie-Bravo

astrofluff wrote:

Sorry, I was a bit slow out of the traps....

I've sent my email to NTL in relation to this inferior service. I tweaked my email a little...lets just say they won't like it but have to act because I'm a customer!

Now, I urge others to make themselves heard.

Now I'm quoting myself...not a good sign!

Anyways, I got a reply from NTL...they offered to send out a technician to have a look at the set top box! Wow, they do not listen at all. I reiterated that this was more an issue with the overall system in the development and this system needs looking at. We'll see how they deal with this.......

Marcais, have you had any word back yourself?

Has anyone made a complaint/observation!?

fishdog

astro, do you really think they are going to redesign and replace the overall system just for you???? That system simply does not work!! It is much easier just to fob you off with a new top box!!

They will never fix the problem properly for you! The best you can hope for is a few months "service" free of charge.

Many people are happy having reception that is ood to crappy, they simply do not know how much better satellite reception is.

At what stage do you say enough is enough, I will go for a dish now??? A yaer from now, two...?

I wish you the best of luck, I have seen this so many times now. Always the same result.