Unreasonable? (NTL)

wombat

I got the 3 meg NTL broadband thing installed on tuesday this week and it lasted two days until sometime in the week hours of friday morning before it broke down (the DS light flashes constantly, or sometimes it stays on and the US light flashes, either way there isn't any action on the web browsing front).

I've spoken to the NTL "support" people.. or rather I spoke to four people, only one of whom was actually in the broadband support dept and after the in depth technical diagnostic analysis we determined that turning it off and on again did nothing to fix the situation so he tells me that he can send out a technician in a week to fix the modem, which is apparantly the source of the problem.

Thing is, half an hour after I got off the phone, it started working again (after some resetting and power cycling) for a couple of hours before it died once more so I'm a teensy bit dubious about his claim. For that matter, no amount of further poking around has revived it a second time.

So, my question here is, would it be unreasonable of me to ring NTL tomorrow and tell them where they can shove their service on the basis that I have no intention of waiting a week for a fix every time something goes wrong that their woefully undertrained support staff are unequipped to resolve over the phone? Or is this par for the course and I've just been spoiled by three years of trouble free EsatBT?

Pines

My experience with NTL broadband, going on for about 3 years now, is that when it stops working it is invariably a problem at their end. Every time, absolutely every time, they suggest power cycling your modem, and when you assure them that this hasn't worked, they schedule an engineer visit.

Within anything from a few hours to a few days it's always fixed, whether I have rung them or not. I visualise this as someone (or a diagnostic program) at their end noticing that there's a red light flashing on the modem at their end which serves me and everyone else I share a line with, and rebooting that modem in NTL HQ.

So I've stopped calling them, because there's no point in arranging for an engineer to arrive 4 days after they've fixed their own fault internally, to look for a problem which I know does not exist at my end.

wombat

Wow, these guys are plumbing new depths for the quality of their support. I mean I've dealt with some really useless departments in the past but in the past hour they've hung up on me twice while going on "hold" and I got treated to five minutes of listening to someone planning their holidays before finding out that they don't do broadband technical support on saturdays.

sk1

it would be interesting if anyone else in dublin/tallagt area has speed problem at the moment, i have the 6m line but all i get is between 0 to 150kb/s download, upload speed is the same as before (60kb) - am i the only one with this?

Automan

In Dublin 15 on the 6m and only getting between 2m and 3m D/L speeds.

Edit: Getting between 1m and 4m now.

peteburnshndbag

sk1 wrote: »

it would be interesting if anyone else in dublin/tallagt area has speed problem at the moment, i have the 6m line but all i get is between 0 to 150kb/s download, upload speed is the same as before (60kb) - am i the only one with this?

i'm in tallaght, and i have the 2MB package, and i never get more than 50KB/s when downloading stuff. Its really annoying, and a pathethic download speed.

I'm really pissed off with NTL at this stage. All week i've been having trouble connecting to the internet, and sometimes it just loses the connection. I've tried "repairing" the connection and re-booting the modem, but it only comes back on when it feels like it.

Is anyone else having trouble this week?

I'm really very much thinking about changing over to BT or Perlico or Eircom, any provider is better than NTL at this stage..

Freddie59

peteburnshndbag wrote: »

i'm in tallaght, and i have the 2MB package, and i never get more than 50KB/s when downloading stuff.

What kind of 'stuff' are we talking about? Remember - other ISPs are also locking out torrents.:)

peteburnshndbag

Freddie59 wrote: »

What kind of 'stuff' are we talking about? Remember - other ISPs are also locking out torrents.:)

I dont even know how to find torrents, never mind download them. I dont even download much stuff. Just the odd few songs from legalsounds or freeware that looks good. But most days i dont download anything.

But when i do, my max speed is always 50kB/s, even though i have 2mb package.

And, is anyone else having trouble with their internet connection allthis week with NTL?? My connection keeps cutting off everyw mins and sometimes takes ages to come back on

bricks

My NTL went down for 2 days.
Someone had stolen the distrobutor for the whole road.
They cut the whole thing out of the box.
I spoke to the NTL guys who said people down the country buy them.
What sort of miserable gits would be into that.
The thing that gets me is that there is nothing stoping them doing it again.

wombat

Well, two and a half weeks later and it still hasn't been fixed.
For the curious, the timeline is:
tue 6th - the modem is installed

thu/fri 8/9 - the whole damned thing breaks down, mid halo game I might add.

thu 15th - the engineer was supposed to come out between 9am and 1pm. He called me at 2pm to say he was running late as I exited the lift into work. Luckily I was able to knock off early and let him in that evening. He determines it is an external fault and another engineer will need to check it. He says it'll be friday or monday before that happens but probably monday. I call the customer service people and they say it'll be monday.

mon 19th - call customer service, they say it'll be wednesday or thursday the 21st/22nd. Sensing a theme of crappy tech support that will stretch out for the minimum contractual duration of one year I decide to try and cancel. I figure that if they DO restore the service I can uncancel it but my experiences to date don't suggest a bunch I'm willing to do business with. It is entirely moot however since the cancellations department is "too busy" and will call me back on the 20th

tue 20th - they didn't call me back. Customer service assured me that they'd do it on the 21st.

wed 21st - they didn't call me back. Customer service didn't say squat this time because they never answered the phone during the entire hour I was on hold.

thu 22nd - call customer service, they say whoever told me the 21st/22nd shouldn't have given me those dates and that it takes ten working days as a rule so the 29th is a more realistic date. I ask them to ensure that cancellations call me back since I am unsure of the process for returning their modem and was going to run with "leaving it out in the rain for someone to pick up"

fri 23rd - they didn't call me back.

Tomorrow, just for laughs and an experiment in utter futility I'm going to ask to speak to a supervisor so I can have two people not calling me back. At this point though I'm pretty much resigned to being charged for two months of service I'm not going to get and a modem that was little to no use and the ensuing argument about consumer rights. I'm going back to esatBT to renew the loving five year old relationship we had....



Some fun facts from their contract:
You're still liable to pay for the service in the event that they can't provide it.
You can cancel in the first month but you have to give a month's notice.

thebman

wombat wrote: »

Well, two and a half weeks later and it still hasn't been fixed.
For the curious, the timeline is:
tue 6th - the modem is installed

thu/fri 8/9 - the whole damned thing breaks down, mid halo game I might add.

thu 15th - the engineer was supposed to come out between 9am and 1pm. He called me at 2pm to say he was running late as I exited the lift into work. Luckily I was able to knock off early and let him in that evening. He determines it is an external fault and another engineer will need to check it. He says it'll be friday or monday before that happens but probably monday. I call the customer service people and they say it'll be monday.

mon 19th - call customer service, they say it'll be wednesday or thursday the 21st/22nd. Sensing a theme of crappy tech support that will stretch out for the minimum contractual duration of one year I decide to try and cancel. I figure that if they DO restore the service I can uncancel it but my experiences to date don't suggest a bunch I'm willing to do business with. It is entirely moot however since the cancellations department is "too busy" and will call me back on the 20th

tue 20th - they didn't call me back. Customer service assured me that they'd do it on the 21st.

wed 21st - they didn't call me back. Customer service didn't say squat this time because they never answered the phone during the entire hour I was on hold.

thu 22nd - call customer service, they say whoever told me the 21st/22nd shouldn't have given me those dates and that it takes ten working days as a rule so the 29th is a more realistic date. I ask them to ensure that cancellations call me back since I am unsure of the process for returning their modem and was going to run with "leaving it out in the rain for someone to pick up"

fri 23rd - they didn't call me back.

Tomorrow, just for laughs and an experiment in utter futility I'm going to ask to speak to a supervisor so I can have two people not calling me back. At this point though I'm pretty much resigned to being charged for two months of service I'm not going to get and a modem that was little to no use and the ensuing argument about consumer rights. I'm going back to esatBT to renew the loving five year old relationship we had....



Some fun facts from their contract:
You're still liable to pay for the service in the event that they can't provide it.
You can cancel in the first month but you have to give a month's notice.

Just because its in the contract doesn't make it legal or mean that it is so.

They can't charge you for a service if they stop providing it. I'm pretty sure no court would rule in favor of NTL on that one.

Even Nintendo and Ms have rulse in their license agreements that they can't enforce because it would be violating laws. They just state them anyway in the hope that people will believe them.

AntiVirus

Pines wrote: »

My experience with NTL broadband, going on for about 3 years now, is that when it stops working it is invariably a problem at their end. Every time, absolutely every time, they suggest power cycling your modem, and when you assure them that this hasn't worked, they schedule an engineer visit.

Within anything from a few hours to a few days it's always fixed, whether I have rung them or not. I visualise this as someone (or a diagnostic program) at their end noticing that there's a red light flashing on the modem at their end which serves me and everyone else I share a line with, and rebooting that modem in NTL HQ.

So I've stopped calling them, because there's no point in arranging for an engineer to arrive 4 days after they've fixed their own fault internally, to look for a problem which I know does not exist at my end.

That is exactly the same for me! It always gets fixed at there end. Except I never cancel the Engineer because they never come anyway.

wombat

brim4brim wrote: »

Just because its in the contract doesn't make it legal or mean that it is so.

They can't charge you for a service if they stop providing it. I'm pretty sure no court would rule in favor of NTL on that one.

Even Nintendo and Ms have rulse in their license agreements that they can't enforce because it would be violating laws. They just state them anyway in the hope that people will believe them.

Oh absolutely but in my experience, theres bugger all chance that a customer service rep will admit that the contract is a load of crap so arguing the finer points of "best effort to ensure an ongoing service" stands a better chance.

okcomputer

wombat wrote: »

Well, two and a half weeks later and it still hasn't been fixed.
For the curious, the timeline is:
tue 6th - the modem is installed

thu/fri 8/9 - the whole damned thing breaks down, mid halo game I might add.

thu 15th - the engineer was supposed to come out between 9am and 1pm. He called me at 2pm to say he was running late as I exited the lift into work. Luckily I was able to knock off early and let him in that evening. He determines it is an external fault and another engineer will need to check it. He says it'll be friday or monday before that happens but probably monday. I call the customer service people and they say it'll be monday.

mon 19th - call customer service, they say it'll be wednesday or thursday the 21st/22nd. Sensing a theme of crappy tech support that will stretch out for the minimum contractual duration of one year I decide to try and cancel. I figure that if they DO restore the service I can uncancel it but my experiences to date don't suggest a bunch I'm willing to do business with. It is entirely moot however since the cancellations department is "too busy" and will call me back on the 20th

tue 20th - they didn't call me back. Customer service assured me that they'd do it on the 21st.

wed 21st - they didn't call me back. Customer service didn't say squat this time because they never answered the phone during the entire hour I was on hold.

thu 22nd - call customer service, they say whoever told me the 21st/22nd shouldn't have given me those dates and that it takes ten working days as a rule so the 29th is a more realistic date. I ask them to ensure that cancellations call me back since I am unsure of the process for returning their modem and was going to run with "leaving it out in the rain for someone to pick up"

fri 23rd - they didn't call me back.

Tomorrow, just for laughs and an experiment in utter futility I'm going to ask to speak to a supervisor so I can have two people not calling me back. At this point though I'm pretty much resigned to being charged for two months of service I'm not going to get and a modem that was little to no use and the ensuing argument about consumer rights. I'm going back to esatBT to renew the loving five year old relationship we had....



Some fun facts from their contract:
You're still liable to pay for the service in the event that they can't provide it.
You can cancel in the first month but you have to give a month's notice.

I feel your pain dude, I 've been there.