NTL Broadband installation questions

maxheadroom

After months of arguing with NTL sales, it turns out that I am in an upgraded area, and I can get their broadband package. I've ordered it, and they're coming around to install it tomorrow (hopefully, they were suppossed to be around on Tuesday but they called in the morning to tell me "a server in england" was down and they couldn't do the install).

So, is there anything that you would like me to ask the install people, or is there anything that I should know about the install process?

And, do any of you know if they have to run an independent cable from the front of your house, or do they use the pre-existing cable TV cable?

crawler

The install process is very simple to be honest once you have a network card in the PC.

You will get a motorola CM and the guys will install a new cable inside with splitter/filter ( you dont need a second cable drop outside ). It all very "clean" as they are used to running multiple points in homes.

Sometimes they replace the drop lead if the Co-Ax looks a bit shoddy though.

Horsefumbler

I heard that ntls broadband service is only available in areas of West Dublin does that include Leixlip does anyone know? It's the same general area. Also about the modems do u have to hav a usb modem and an internal card or something or can u get an internal modem. I know from experience of isdn that an internal modem is a better option.

crawler

Only West Dublin at the moment I'm afraid ( i.e. not Leixlip yet)

You can use any recommended CM from ntl but I think the Motorola is the best one for performance etc - not 100% on this though.

Lots of posts on this stuff already if you do a search.

maxheadroom

After spending months arguing over whether or not the service was actually available, I should have expected this. The instructions for my installation never got sent to whatever crew Iw as assigned to. So I'm getting no install today. You'd think that they'd be able to get a *rebooked* install right, given that they made the mistake in the 1st place...

<rant>
And it only took me 3 phone calls, 3 different service reps and 6 hours to find this out! They are apparentely arranging a "priority install" and I'm waiting on a call back to tell me when but to be honest, I'm not holding my breath...

Only in this country would it be so difficult to convince a company to take your money from you...
</rant>

Washout

I heard on the grapevine that some parts of Dublin 6 can have also had liens upgraded...i rememebr NTL had roads dug up around my area a while back?

anyone know if this is true?

MDR

Only in this country would it be so difficult to convince a company to take your money from you...

NTL have a very different internal agenda .... I amn't suprised they are delaying you, in fact I am suprised they are going to give you broadband at all ... me thinks they are gonna put they permenant skids on their Irish cable modem rollout ... even in areas they have alreay upgraded.

maxheadroom

Originally posted by Washout
I heard on the grapevine that some parts of Dublin 6 can have also had liens upgraded...i rememebr NTL had roads dug up around my area a while back?

anyone know if this is true?

I'm in D 16 so I'm not entirely sure, but it's worth giving them a ring to find out. If they say no, ask why not? If it is "you have 1 way cable" point out that the roads were dug up and fibre laid, and ask why it is still 1 way. (this is assuming they replaced cable on your house, as well as digging up the roads)


MDR - maybe - they've been complaining that a "server in england" is down, but there's no mention of it on the NTL UK service website...

crawler

Stuff in here might help?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63964&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

theciscokid

Originally posted by Washout
I heard on the grapevine that some parts of Dublin 6 can have also had liens upgraded...i rememebr NTL had roads dug up around my area a while back?

anyone know if this is true?

me too, in the rath of the mines..

please be true

i can hope can't i?

edit: do'h i presume you mean 6w as in walkinstown :rolleyes:

maxheadroom

It now turns out that they've converted me to monthly billing without telling me. And that it had already started, even give that we have not had our installation, and that we currently have no date for installation. So were paying more for exactly the same lack of service...

Does anybody have the names / email addresses of NTL's CEO, Broadband Product Manager and Customer Services Manager? I've written a nice long letter to complain, but don't know where to send it. I'm going to post it (recorded delivery) but I'd also like to email it if possible.

---

Dear Sir or Madam,

On Tuesday the 3rd of December (to the best of my recollection) I received a phone call from an NTL technician confirming that I could receive the NTL Broadband service. This was after several months of arguing with your sales staff over whether or not I was in a 2-Way upgraded area. Apparently, our records in your computer system were incorrect, which had lead to the delay.

On Thursday the 5th of December, at 12:40 I called to place an order for the service. I ordered the Always-On 512 service, with the cable modem rental. I was given an installation date of Tuesday 17th December, between 9am and 1pm. I confirmed that the monthly cost would be €40. The sales representative was unsure as to the billing arrangements, and said something along the lines of “it will show up on your next bill”. As we were being billed annually, I assumed a monthly bill for the cable modem rental alone would be issued.

On Tuesday the 17th of December at approximately 11am, I received a telephone call from an NTL technician apologising for the fact that they would be unable to install the service due to a problem with “a server in England”. He re-arranged the installation for Thursday the 19th of December, between 9am and 1pm. He also mentioned that it should be “quite early” as there were not that many installations to do that day.

On Thursday the 19th of December, at 11:50 am I got through to a customer service agent at NTL. I queried whether or not the installation crew would be coming as arranged. I was told that a crew had gone out to install my service, and that I should expect them before 13:30.

On Thursday the 19th of December, at 13:50, I got through to your customer service department for the second time. I was told that, yes, a crew was on its way out and that they must have been delayed. I was told by your customer service representative that she would investigate and call me back. I am still waiting for this call.

On Thursday the 19th of December, at 15:00, I got through to ***** in your billing department (despite having asked for customer service). I explained the whole situation to her. She put me on hold and called the installations department. Apparently, the server problem had still not been rectified, and no cable modem installations sere to take place that day. Also, it transpired that no instructions for my installation had been handed to the crew supposedly carrying out the work. She agreed to arrange a priority installation for me and promised to call me back with the details. She also mentioned that the inconvenience I had suffered would be taken into account on my next bill.

On Thursday the 19th of December, at approximately 18:30, I got through to ***** in your billing department again. She explained that the installation department had advised her that the server was still down and that there was no estimated time for service to be restored. She apologised, and promised to arrange the priority installation as soon as she received word from the installations department.

At this point I must say that ***** was the only person in I have dealt with in your organisation who made me feel like I was dealing with a professional company interested in my continued custom. She was able to identify the problem within 5 minutes, something which two other agents had been completely unable to do.

This morning, the 20th of December, we received a new bill from NTL showing a credit of €143.93. I called your billing enquiries line to find out what was going on. The invoice reference is ********-*** and the Invoice date was December 14th, 2002. Having spoken to the first customer service agent, I was informed that my billing for my Basic TV Pack had been changed from annual to monthly billing automatically because I had ordered an additional service. At no point was I advised of this by your company, something which your service representative agreed should have happened. In effect, this switch to monthly billing on my basic TV pack will cost me an additional €2.50 per month until November (€27.50) and €1.58 per month (€18.96) after that, assuming your prices remain unchanged.

As I have ordered a non-TV service from your company, this additional charge has the effect of being a surcharge on top of the agreed €40 per month for my cable modem internet service. I was informed by your representative that the only way I could retain annual billing on the basic TV pack is to cancel the broadband package.

Being unhappy with this, I asked to speak to a manager. I was told by your representative that he would transfer me to “head office”. After waiting on hold for approximately 5 minutes the phone was answered by a lady in “NTL reception”. I explained what had just happened, and was then transferred into another call queue. After 20 minutes of waiting, I hung up.

At €42.50 per month, your actual cost for broadband is not that far off Irishbroadband’s €40 ex vat (approximately €48.40 inc vat) per month for their residential 512 package. However, they also provide a symmetric connection, static IP address and a guaranteed 8:1 contention ratio.

I am very unhappy with the manner in which I have been treated by your company, and would like to know which steps you will take to rectify the situation, especially with regards to billing. I see no reason why you cannot bill for the TV annually and the internet monthly.

Yours,


ME

MagicBusDriver

Anyone know If the "server in England" is working yet. I got it installed today but it is not working yet

spongebob

Originally posted by maxheadroom
As I have ordered a non-TV service from your company, this additional charge has the effect of being a surcharge on top of the agreed €40 per month for my cable modem internet service. I was informed by your representative that the only way I could retain annual billing on the basic TV pack is to cancel the broadband package.

Damn fine complaint, up with the best of them, shame to waste it on customer service droids in Ireland.

1. Send the complaint to COMREG and cc it to the key NTL contact names as well. Comreg take a very VERY dim view of Cable companies who do not issue ticket numbers to events such as these...thereby leaving people in a situation where they have to explain the same thing again and again to different staff members.

2. The list of names and contact details are in this Thread...towards the end ISTR

3. Send the lot to the Sunday Tribune Business section, they Luuurrrve NTL

M

maxheadroom

MagicBusDriver:
Well, they haven't called me so I'd guess not...although, I'm not really expecting that call any time soon.

Can you PM me telling me when you booked the installation, and what part of Dublin you're in - I'm gonna give the useful lady a ring...


Cheers

maxheadroom

I sent that email on Friday evening to a whole load of NTL senior management types as well as to ComReg.


ComReg were, as expected, useless, merely informing me of NTL's policy on monthly billing (they obviously didn't read the whole mail). NTL, however, is a completely different story.


On Friday evening I got an email from their broadband product manager (one of the original recipients) apologising for the mess-up and offering an explanation on the main points raised. He has proposed a solution which I am happy with, and promised to sort out the installation mess.


I replied, confirming that I accepted his offer.


This morning, I received a call from their installations co-ordinator, and we talked things out. It is (finally) going to be installed on the 3rd of January.

MagicBusDriver: The "server in England" problem is actually:

The NTL England CRM system was migrated to a new system and the old system switched off. NTL IRL use an interface with the UK system to register new Cable Modem customers. Nobody in the UK told NTL IRL that this was happening. They are working on a fix (to allow their systems to access the new UK system), and should have everything back to normal by the 2nd of Jan.

Boco

Just a quick tip:

Dont let their "engineer" leave without first sitting down at your computer and trying out the connection.

We had awful trouble with signal power when we got it installed, had to wait for an engineer to come out twice before it was sorted out.

Apart from that its well worth it, havent had any problems since.

MagicBusDriver

I got it working today when I finally got in contact with tech support. Seem to work ok.

If NTL were able to expand their network, It would solve consumer Internet access in Dublin.

maxheadroom

Finally, it is installed. And, all I can say is WOW


Gonna go test this thing out

crawler

Max - which speed did you go for ? Let us ( me ) know how it works out - in particular Ping speeds downloads....thanks.

maxheadroom

Originally posted by crawler
Max - which speed did you go for ? Let us ( me ) know how it works out - in particular Ping speeds downloads....thanks.

Went for Always-On 512


The install crew ran a new cable drop from the tap on the front of my house, through the attic, down the back wall, and into the back room where the PC is. They put a standard NTL point on the wall.


The modem is an NTL branded (ntl:home 100) ambit model.

I had a look in the diagnostics for the modem, and it gave me these values as the transfer rate caps:

Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 600000 bps
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 128000 bps

Downloads are coming through at about 75 k/sec, depending on the server.

C:\>ping www.jolt.co.uk

Pinging clarity.jolt.co.uk [195.149.21.11] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=243
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=243
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=243
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 195.149.21.11:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 38ms, Maximum = 50ms, Average = 41ms

Pings to that server average between 30 and 60 ms

C:\>tracert www.jolt.co.uk

Tracing route to clarity.jolt.co.uk [195.149.21.11]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 8 ms 7 ms 7 ms 10.135.23.254
2 10 ms 8 ms 31 ms dub-cam1-a-fa10.inet.ntl.com [62.254.98.17]
3 15 ms 198 ms 231 ms dub-core-a-pos1100.inet.ntl.com [62.254.96.137]

4 70 ms 18 ms 17 ms man-bb-a-atm010-224.inet.ntl.com [62.253.187.50]

5 45 ms 25 ms 24 ms ren-bb-b-so-000-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.169]

6 41 ms 34 ms 34 ms lng-bb-a-so-500-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.174]

7 75 ms 35 ms 40 ms telc-ic-1-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.122]

8 38 ms 39 ms 36 ms ldn-b1-geth14-1.telia.net [195.66.224.97]
9 35 ms 41 ms 60 ms ldn-th-i1-srp1-0.telia.net [193.45.0.132]
10 31 ms 52 ms 30 ms nildram-01131-ldn-th-i3.c.telia.net [213.248.75.
66]
11 32 ms 36 ms 53 ms jolt-gw.nildram.net [195.149.20.214]
12 38 ms 90 ms 82 ms clarity.jolt.co.uk [195.149.21.11]

Trace complete.

Any more info needed?

crawler

Thanks Max!

Depressing for me and the old 56k dial up!