Another irate NTL Customer being forced to deal with morons

10000maniacs

It all started when my NTL Pace Digital box went faulty in March.
I called up the service help line in March(Took me 22 minutes to get through)
to get somebody out to fix it.
This meant that I had to take a half day off work to accommodate this as the
only window they could give me was a Wednesday between 13:00 and 18:00.
Guess what. He didn't turn up the bastardo.
As I still had the analogue NTL service, and I have very little time for this s**t,
I put it on the long finger till last Friday.
I arranged for another service engineer to call out last Friday (After waiting 30, yes THIRTY minutes on the phone).
They gave me the same window as the March non call-out, ie between (13:00 and 18:00). Nobody turned up.
Pattern emerging here I think.
While all this bull$hit was going on somebody in NTL switched off my automatic Direct debit mandate from my bank,
(suspiciously around the time of the first non service-call)
So I got a letter from NTL demanding immediate payment of 150 euro or cut off.
I called up my bank and they confirmed that my direct debit with NTL was still in place.
I placed a call with NTL Finance (Another 30, yes THIRTY minutes of Motzart and Grieg before I got somebody) and I asked them could they take the outstanding 150 euro out of my mandated account. The idiot on the other end of the phone stated that because the account is in the red, I would have to go to the post office and manually pay by giro. This is the very situation people try to avoid by choosing Direct Debit. Fools.

Suggestions for NTL:
1: Don't hire idiots. The customers deserve better.
2: Get more phone help. (Train them first in how to treat the customer)
3: Get more field service engineers. (Teach them good manners as part of the training)

Suggestions for the customer:
1: Get a Sky Dish if your property management company allows it.
2: Ditch NTL.
3: Piss on the Pace box before you hand it back.

Mr Velo

10000maniacs wrote:

It all started when my NTL Pace Digital box went faulty in March.
I called up the service help line in March(Took me 22 minutes to get through)
to get somebody out to fix it.
This meant that I had to take a half day off work to accommodate this as the
only window they could give me was a Wednesday between 13:00 and 18:00.
Guess what. He didn't turn up the bastardo.
As I still had the analogue NTL service, and I have very little time for this s**t,
I put it on the long finger till last Friday.
I arranged for another service engineer to call out last Friday (After waiting 30, yes THIRTY minutes on the phone).
They gave me the same window as the March non call-out, ie between (13:00 and 18:00). Nobody turned up.
Pattern emerging here I think.
While all this bull$hit was going on somebody in NTL switched off my automatic Direct debit mandate from my bank,
(suspiciously around the time of the first non service-call)
So I got a letter from NTL demanding immediate payment of 150 euro or cut off.
I called up my bank and they confirmed that my direct debit with NTL was still in place.
I placed a call with NTL Finance (Another 30, yes THIRTY minutes of Motzart and Grieg before I got somebody) and I asked them could they take the outstanding 150 euro out of my mandated account. The idiot on the other end of the phone stated that because the account is in the red, I would have to go to the post office and manually pay by giro. This is the very situation people try to avoid by choosing Direct Debit. Fools.

Suggestions for NTL:
1: Don't hire idiots. The customers deserve better.
2: Get more phone help. (Train them first in how to treat the customer)
3: Get more field service engineers. (Teach them good manners as part of the training)

Suggestions for the customer:
1: Get a Sky Dish if your property management company allows it.
2: Ditch NTL.
3: Piss on the Pace box before you hand it back.

AMEN brother.... AMEN.

Mossy Monk

10000maniacs wrote:

Suggestions for NTL:
1: Don't hire idiots. The customers deserve better.
2: Get more phone help. (Train them first in how to treat the customer)
3: Get more field service engineers. (Teach them good manners as part of the training)

Suggestions for the customer:
1: Get a Sky Dish if your property management company allows it.
2: Ditch NTL.
3: Piss on the Pace box before you hand it back.

At a guess I would say that you call NTL with all guns blazing and dismiss every person to talk to as an idiot. Treat people like idiots and they will respond in kind imo.

Mr Velo

"At a guess I would say that you call NTL with all guns blazing and dismiss every person to talk to as an idiot. Treat people like idiots and they will respond in kind imo."


Sorry Mossy, doesn't sound like the guy was being any way unreasonable or had all guns blazing etc... NTL just let him down twice.

TBH, i have had experience of crappy NTL customer service also, particularly in the evening (i don't like to use the gentlemans name whom i was dealing with on 3 seperate occasions). It took 5 phone calls to have my "extra" channels switched on - and i was lied to on 4 of those calls.
The 5th call on a Saturday morning to a lady who sounded like she was a "boss figure" - had it sorted out in a few minutes.

I know that the same can be said for Eircom and other CS departments in large companies, however having dealt with some of these, i have to say that NTL are just the worst!!

MartMax

from my own experience... a call out on a week day, the guy never turned up... customer service reply something alone this line - "sometime our technicians missed appointments".. is that even on their chat "manual"?...

the other day was a saturday appointment - another no turn up, the girl on NTL line gave a reason that weekend appointment is not guaranteed.. well i gave up..

oh yeah.. the only occasion NTL would ring me quickly and effectively was for sales call... over the last few weeks they already rang me 4 times about their phone service.. every time i politely quickly refused...

except one time i was so annoyed to answer that call.. we chatted along... the guy asked if i use my land line a lot - i said i don't hv a physical line and he got confused as we were talking on my Blueface line... as he told abt NTL product i began to "promote" him with Blueface and its features, etc... told him Blueface is grand unless NTL f**k the broadband... asked him if NTL could beat that and cheap Blueface rates, he said unfortunately no... he can't do that... then he got it by saying goodbye... a few day later.. another lad rang me in again... lol

Jumpy

Mossy Monk wrote:

At a guess I would say that you call NTL with all guns blazing and dismiss every person to talk to as an idiot. Treat people like idiots and they will respond in kind imo.

Thats the first thing that comes to my mind as well.
The person on the end of the phone is a person who is most likely in their first job and could very well be more intelligent than you.

NoToLies(NTL)

My ‘customer service experience’ with NTL started when I tried to order the DVR that is the talk of boards at the moment.

Aug 20th: Ordered Online and got a prompt confirmation of installation date of 30th August

Aug21st: Discovered I wouldn’t be around on the 30th and called to re-schedule – was offered a slot on the 23rd Aug in the morning (09.00 – 13.00) which I happily accepted. Was told I would get a call half an hour before installation guy arrives...sweet, plenty of time to get out of bed.

Aug 23rd: Took a days holiday and sat around waiting for my new toy to arrive
12.45…..Expecting a call half an hour before arrival, I called NTL to ask where the installer was…they confirmed that he was running a bit late (yada,yada) but that the installation had been allocated and the guy would be over shortly
15.50…...Clearly NTL have a different understanding of the term shortly…called again to see what was happening….now it seems that the system was saying that my installation was not due until the 30th Aug…try again guys…..actually is due today but not due until this afternoon….r u sure, Yep that’s what’s on the system....None too happy I explained that I had already been told it was on the system and that mine would be installed that morning….seeing as I had to go out at the stage (having waited from 09.00 until 16.00 at that stage) I was told that someone would get back to me by 19.00 that evening and organise an express/urgent installaion

Aug 27th: Still waiting for that call-back ….decide to call them again…bounced around again sales to customer support until put my foot down and say I don’t want to be returned to sales which has just bounced me to customer services. Explain my problem to customer services …. Same problem with identifying when the installation time was supposed to be (what kind of CRM system do they have??). No resolution possible then but promised a call-back by 20.00….no call-back.

Aug 28th: Eventually do get call back, no explanation of how I got overlooked and lied to … but kind enough to offer me a new installation date…first available date 30th Aug….the same day that I had explained to them at the very start of this process that I wouldn’t be there ……seeing as installation don’t deal with customers, I am still awaiting a call-back with a date and time that I can make….but am I willing to risk another day’s holiday??

I don’t suppose my experience can possibly be representative of what the typical customer has to go through but can NTL not understand how much worse it is to screw a customer around like this rather than provide them with a realistic installation time even if this is at a later date.

Instead of spending the last while telling everyone I know how great the DVR is, I have spent the last five days bitching and moaning about how bad their customer service is and how they stole one of my holidays…..have they never heard of the maxim under-promise and over-deliver.

I don’t usually waste my entire lunch-time writing up complaints but my mental health required it in this instance. If you like spending your holidays with friends/family and not waiting for NTL I would suggest thinking twice about going with NTL.

DanSolo

Another horror story here. After maybe a year of trouble free NTL digital and braodband, my neighbour had some problem and had a technician out to "repair" (i.e. no repair) some problems they had. An hour later I turn on the box and I get the upgrading message of death.
As an aside, couldn't whoever programmed the upgrading software put in a routine to spot when the thing is f&^ked? It could put on the screen "Failed to upgrade due to NTL incompetence"
Rang up the service line and, after a suprisingly short wait to be honest, I told my story. Their first suggestion was for me to go next door and ask them to call out the technician again! "Are you for real?" was my answer. You f&^ked MY connection up, you sort it! Somehow I still have the analogue channels, so I guess the wire itself is still in place.
Still, looks like I've to take a half day tomorrow to wait for the guy to turn up. I just hope he's like the guy who installed it who was a wiz, but I doubt it.

steveon

Well the Chorus despatch department in Limerick whom I dealt with on a regular basis has been told their jobs(29 me thinks) are being relocated upto NTL...so dont be expecting anything better as I have been told that NTL are lucky if there staff even turn up for work..let alone do anything..

A shame as if anyone in that company had the sense to actually setup and train people for use in a technical capacity and perhaps reward them for work achieved...they would win credentials with customers and save a lot of people from switching to other service providers such as Magnet and Sky..Instead they simply log the call and wait for you to either fix it yourself or then recall back in and threaten to cancel sub before anything is ever done...

Shame

10000maniacs

Jumpy wrote:

Thats the first thing that comes to my mind as well.
The person on the end of the phone is a person who is most likely in their first job and could very well be more intelligent than you.

Maybe I was a bit harsh (in the original post), but the final straw was having to go to the Post Office to manually pay the outstanding 150EUR when the direct debit was still in place, and the problem was due to NTL in the first instance. I REALLY don't have time for this $hit and thats why I chose direct debit in the first place.
Also I wasn't rude on the phone, even though I was waiting 30 minutes and all of the other problems.
I have arranged another call out for Thursday morning (08:00 - 13:00)
What are the odds of somebody arriving to fix my box?:rolleyes:

steveon

I think its about time the regulatory body took action against companies that dont take direct debits when there requested to, especially as some force you to do so....

They never want to accept the responsibility of blame on this issue, best thing to do regarding the service call, is to ring NTL on the morning of ur booked call and ask to get a confirmation call of when he is calling as u have taken time off work and cannot take anymore off....that makes the despatcher contact the service tech to get an eta.....

Simon201

Well my latest experience is very similar to 'NoToLies' above. Quick summary below.
Phoned NTL around 9/10 Aug. Ordered DVR. Date arranged for p.m. 17 Aug "between 1-6"
(doh! can these installation engineers who have say 5 or 6 calls to do in an afternoon not ring everyone in the morning who they've got to go to, to give a little more accurate arrival time!! grrr!)
17 Aug - took afternoon off work
17 Aug - 3pm rang NTL 'where is DVR?' told engineer might be behind... he should be there... "they work till 6 pm"
Rang again at 5 pm. Was told virtually the same.
Rang again at 6 pm. Starting to get agitated. They said it was unlikely he was going to come now. Told them I wanted delivery Sat cos I'd taken afternoon off work. Asked to speak to supervisor. "supervisors dont take calls" "We'll get them to ring you back"
Rang again 7.30 pm.... press 1.. press 2 classical music bla bla. Told them no one had rang back.
Rang again 9 pm - ditto as 6 pm call. Pace box nearly effed out me front window at this stage!
Sat 18 p.m. - rang 4 times. Each time asking why it wasn't delivered, when it was going to be delivered. Each time being told that someone would call me back. 5th time ringing, told it was rescheduled for Wed 22nd a.m.
Wed 22nd - organised my shift to be at home in the morning. Nothing. Rang NTL at 11 am, 12 am & 1 pm where was the DVR?! Could I speak to a supervisor? I'VE TAKEN ANOTHER MORNING OFF WORK! "no our supervisors dont take calls bla bla" Ok I said can I have the no of the supervisor's supervisor? not a hope!
And each time I rang I seemed to be talking to people from differnent parts of Ireland who all had to keep passing me on to someone else!
Eventually on Thurs 23 someone rang me back (the first time!). Installation rescheduled for Sat 25 p.m.
NTL ring me on Fri afternoon. "Are you ok for delivery tomorrow afternoon?" yes says me.
Sat 25th. 9.30 a.m.!!! me hungover and asleep. Engineer says he'll be there in 10 mins! DVR finally delivered. Rang them and requested they waive the €50 installation fee because of all my time out of work etc.

In summary, I feel that they are providing an abysmal service to the public who really only have 2 choices, and they know it. I was really on the verge of cancelling everything and going with Sky plus etc but I didn't really want a dish and seems like the Sky + box works out a bit more expensive over the year. The only aspect at this point that has slightly improved with them is the telephone wait times which were probably 5 mins at the most as opposed to 30 mins or so which was the case 3 or 4 years ago.

Mikey23

My experience was v similar to Simon201's above with a neat twist.

In short, NTL cable digital customer in Galway, rang sales, booked appointment, no show, "damaged case" apparently, 2nd appointment, 2nd half day off, no show, "systems don't talk to each other" so couldn't let me know.

All half-arsed "he should have said..." & "she shouldn't have told you that..."

Then the kicker. After talking to half a dozen sales guys at various points, a dozen customer service reps & god knows who else, one girl says, "I've actually noticed that we're getting a lot of cancelled appointments without explanation in Galway". Took it upon herself to find out why. Bless. Rings back, "The PVR isn't actually available in Galway, not for a few weeks yet."

Never mind the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, this is a deranged octopus at work.

paulm17781

Simon201 wrote:

"supervisors dont take calls" "We'll get them to ring you back"

This is the line that really gets me. I would be amazed if the supervisor even hears about you call let alone calls you back. Odds are the supervisor is someone else who worked in the same customer contempt centre and got promoted, they know ignoring customers makes their day easier. :mad:

altered121

Mikey23 wrote:

My experience was v similar to Simon201's above with a neat twist.

cancelled appointments without explanation in Galway". Took it upon herself to find out why. Bless. Rings back, "The PVR isn't actually available in Galway, not for a few weeks yet."

Never mind the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, this is a deranged octopus at work.

Dvr is available in cabled parts of Galway but not mmds parts
ntl office in eyre square said so and since they are in Galway and not a call centre I would tend to believe them.

Mr Velo

altered121 wrote:

Dvr is available in cabled parts of Galway but not mmds parts
ntl office in eyre square said so and since they are in Galway and not a call centre I would tend to believe them.

Another downright lie by NTL then. A few weeks ago i phoned up to cancel my subscription as i was getting Sky+. I was put through to the retentions department who promised me sun moon and stars - including the NTL DVR box with free installation. I explained that i was an MMDS customer and she "checked it out" and "confirmed" that i could indeed get the DVR box as of 7th August!

Now that this turns out to be guff.... i'm glad that i chose to leave NTL behind!!

Mikey23

altered121 wrote:

Dvr is available in cabled parts of Galway but not mmds parts
ntl office in eyre square said so and since they are in Galway and not a call centre I would tend to believe them.

I'd like to believe them too, but I've outlined my experience above. I'm in Galway city with regular cable.

As I said, I'm probably not the only one who had orders taken by eager sales folk then appointments made and broken without explanation. Until I reached the call centre girl who bothered her arse finding out why some many people in Galway had appointments fall through.

Until I read of someone on Boards who has had it installed - not booked, promised, or shown a picture of - I'm not buying it.

paulm17781

Mikey23 wrote:

Until I read of someone on Boards who has had it installed - not booked, promised, or shown a picture of - I'm not buying it.

I assume you mean someone in Galway? There are pictures of it all over this forum.

Mikey23

Sorry, precisely that. I'm happy for you Dubs though.

altered121

Paddy_Fowler wrote:

Another downright lie by NTL then. A few weeks ago i phoned up to cancel my subscription as i was getting Sky+. I was put through to the retentions department who promised me sun moon and stars - including the NTL DVR box with free installation. I explained that i was an MMDS customer and she "checked it out" and "confirmed" that i could indeed get the DVR box as of 7th August!

Now that this turns out to be guff.... i'm glad that i chose to leave NTL behind!!

As I said CABLED PARTS OF GALWAY not MMDS!

NoToLies(NTL)

UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE

Aug 30th......there has been NO update, nothing, not a whisper....still waiting for a call-back in relation to a time when i can get a DVR....not that I expect them to actually turn-up at the time they give me ......but its the first stage in the whole hope, expectation, disappointment, anger cycle which i am stuck in.....so still waiting for that call back.....

In a way i actually would have preferred to have discovered that i have MMDS and cannot avail of the service....would have saved me a lot of time

At this stage I dunno if i'm ever going to get a call-back.....last time i talked with customer care i asked them not to call back with a new installation time unless they were also going to be able to explain to me how things had been screwed up the last time (reservation, no reservation, different time, different day, different planet) how the same mistakes would not be made this time and how i could be certain that if I take another day off work they will actually be there.......waiting....still waiting. What’s the use in answering you phones in 10 mins instead of 30 mins it if means that you never get back to customers???

From what’s been posted elsewhere it seems like it can take hours rather than minutes to set up the DVR half way properly ……the NTL sales team are probably dumping a huge number of installation appointments into the installer’s schedule every day – half of which they have no hope of ever making……guys you don’t capture qualified sales leads this way, you just create a huge pool of people who think you are incapable of running a business and you push people who were willing to give you a chance in the direction of Sky+

From today, I am going to scale back my efforts to get a DVR from NTL…..i am going to limit myself to one phone call a week and I am going to see just how long it takes for them to get their fingers out and organise an installation for me….i will post details of the more interesting and inane excuses that I am given.

Waiting, still waiting …….

rockal

Keep your hopes up. Got mine today at the fourth attempt and after many phone calls. Installer told me that the delays are due to 'not many installers know how to install these yet'. So, when a slot becomes available it's a lottery as to whether you get someone with the knowledge or not.

Mr Velo

altered121 wrote:

As I said CABLED PARTS OF GALWAY not MMDS!

Steady on there cowboy... i was only backing up what you said....
NTL lied to me promising that they could get me a DVR box (just to keep me onside), even though i'm an MMDS customer and they knew it.

altered121

sorry paddy,meant to say available in cabled areas Galway since monay of last week. had to stop my post as work got in the way.

Mikey23

altered121 wrote:

sorry paddy,meant to say available in cabled areas Galway since monay of last week. had to stop my post as work got in the way.

Really? Doubt that somehow. Had an email today (regarding the earlier complaint) confirming that it wasn't available in Galway but we'll be contacted, and it'd be advertised locally when it is.

As I said, I'm in cabled area. As are the other poor saps in Galway who took time off waiting for engineers to install a product that wasn't available here yet.

10000maniacs

I went to the post office on Wednesday to pay the outstanding 150 EUR bill. (NTL refused to use the Direct debit mandate to take the money)
A guy came out and replaced the digital box at 10:30 on Thursday.
On the same day I got the bill in the post for the 150 EUR. Scanning the bill I noticed a lateness charge of 7.68 EUR. This is robbery as my direct debit mandate was always in place, there was always more than enough in the account to cover all bills (these points can be verified by the bank). NTL decided in March not to take money from my account for some reason and now they are pinning this on me.
I'm going to dump NTL.

soundbyte

Mikey23 wrote:

Really? Doubt that somehow. Had an email today (regarding the earlier complaint) confirming that it wasn't available in Galway but we'll be contacted, and it'd be advertised locally when it is.

As I said, I'm in cabled area. As are the other poor saps in Galway who took time off waiting for engineers to install a product that wasn't available here yet.

Im in Galway City and getting the PVR on Friday. Tech on the phone told me the sales team were misinformed. MMDS area is not served yet, and I think he said one or two parts of the city, I'll confirm that on Friday.

Mikey23

soundbyte wrote:

Im in Galway City and getting the PVR on Friday. Tech on the phone told me the sales team were misinformed. MMDS area is not served yet, and I think he said one or two parts of the city, I'll confirm that on Friday.

Good man, most appreciated. As I said, I'll turn into the Hulk if I have to jump through hoops pointlessly again.

Mikey23

Any joy with the PVR install soundbyte?