Ntl

BrayHead

I have been trying to get through to NTL for the last 3 days to place an order for Ditigtal Cable TV.

Nobody is answering any phones, either in sales or customer service.

Anybody having similar difficulty in getting through to them?

Are they always like this?

Thanks

stipey

I've always found their sales dept quick to pick up and their support line fairly slow.

I guess it makes sense that they'll bust their balls to impress you with their service when you're not signed up - and subsequently be in less of a rush when you are tied to a fixed lenth contract.

That said I don't think I've ever waited more than 10 minutes for their support desk - which is pretty good compared to other companies. Like one that begins with an 'E' and ends with an 'ircom'.

To be honest I generally hit the key for sales and then when they immediately pick up ask them to put me through to their help desk

Obelisk29

About a month ago I had a problem installing ntl boradband on a new pc.

Rang Technical Support and was told that it would take a day or two before anyone would ring me back.

Finally got a call 10 days later - needless to say was not impressed (thankfully managed to solve the problem myself after a few hours).

I'm happy with the broadband service itself but ntl's idea of customer service is a complete joke.

FranknFurter

Had the same problem last week.
Eventually rang their corp head office and found out that there is a big move going on with their main call center, (who wants to bet their new customer service center will be in india or the uk?).

B

adebisi

Call centre worker here, but not coming to anyones defence either! Just the inside track...

You gotta remember, firstly, you're calling a call centre. There are others calling in too, so you're gonna be in a queue, no matter what.Sales calls generally take 3/4 mins to complete, so people are on and off the phone quite quickly. However customer support calls take longer. Trying to explain technical details and fixes to the elderly or people who dont have a strong grasp of English, or just the plain stupid who dont listen, can take a long, long, long time, therefore customer support calls take longer, therefore queues are longer. (As an aside to this, when everyone calling spends the 1st 3 mins of a call giving out about how long they were on hold, they are making everyone else who is queuing wait longer.)

So advice from someone who works in a call centre:

Be prepared to wait. Its not just you in the queue. Its a CALL centre.

People answering the calls are answering the calls, its not a case of us all sitting around our desks laughing at the size of the queue. The people answering the calls are doing their best.

When you are answered, the person you're talking to knows you've been on hold for ages, knows the queues are bad, knows the service they are offering is dodgy, is well aware that the back up and support available from higher up the chain is pants, so they dont need to be told again. They are just doing their job.

When you get through, get down to business, tell them the problem, they will help you.

Dont shout, no matter how long it took to get through. If you shout, or are rude, people wont help you. Would you assist someone if they were roraring and shouting at you for something thats completly out of your control (call centre queues, for example?)

And appreciation goes a long long way. If you're nice, people will be nice back and be more inclined to help you, rather than the option above.

So there you have it, from someone on the inside, how to call a call centre.

jaggeh

thats an ideal situation though. i work in a call center too and know all about Q's.

But ntl really do take the cake for ineptitude.

The account holder in my apartment moved out in may and it was supposed to be me taking over the account, by the end of may everything was supposedly done and dusted. i got a call at the end of june telling me NTL were still taking money from him. when i spoke to NTL they said they had no record of me, so i gave them my details AGAIN. then last week of august i got a letter from ntl in my name saying i hadnt paid my bills, which i never received, and they never attempted to take money from my bank account. which they claim they did. last week i got a final notice about going over the 40gig limit on the broadband max service..... i never received any warning.

so speaking to NTL again they said whoever signed me up just changed the names on the account and hadnt set me up as a new customer, the bill i apparently hadnt paid had gone out in the old tennants name to his new address....

sigh, aswell as all that all the correspondance from NTL has been copied and pasted badly, people arent putting their email address in and the letters arrive with 'Email: surname.forname@ntl.ie' or something similar.

im dying to find out what the next bit of stupidity i get from NTL is. keep up the good work!

tman

Your best bet is to apply via their website - you'll get a callback from an agent shortly after doing that

adebisi

To Jaggeh, re ntl...its gonna get a lot worse before it gets slightly better.

bmaxi

Worse again is Perlico, where the 'phone is answered immediately by people who can't help you.

Peter C

Try Sky, NTL broke my heart when I had them!

Tazz T

It' s not the call centre operator's problem. It's NTL's - they are responsible for managing customer servce and don't have the resources or systems in place to do that effectively.

I hate calling them because I'm on hold for ever. I came back from holiday to a disconnection notice for an unpaid amount that they told me to ignore when I called them about it. It was a mistake and they had my DD details and would take it from my account. Of course, they didn't and now I'll have to call them again and wait....

datk

Seems like there's still a problem or at least the problem has re-occurred. I tried ALL options to try get through to them today - finally choose the Pay Per View one and got through!! Luckily the girl who answered the phone dealt with my query which was as follows.

I got a phone call at the start of the month saying I could go to the next package for an extra €5 a month I wouldn't have to do anything it would all be upgraded withint 48 hours, but could return to my old package if I wanted so long as I rang by the end of the month.

I've been using my broadband for the last month and didn't notice one blind bit of difference so was trying to get through to get returned to my original package. I found out the reason I didn't notice a difference was because I hadn't been upgraded!!! The girl apologised saying it must have been contracted to an outside company but didn't know anything about the offer!!!

Strange - or as it's NTL maybe not so strange!

jimmycrackcorm

datk wrote:

I've been using my broadband for the last month and didn't notice one blind bit of difference so was trying to get through to get returned to my original package. I found out the reason I didn't notice a difference was because I hadn't been upgraded!!! The girl apologised saying it must have been contracted to an outside company but didn't know anything about the offer!!!

Strange - or as it's NTL maybe not so strange!

Even stranger is that NTL manage the broadband settings themselves - upgrading bandwith is not contracted out.

Sunny_Dublin

and here my two cents... moved into a new house a month ago, managed to get through to ntl to change details and get upgrade to digital tv.
first appointment i had to cancel due to work commitments, second and third appointment were communicated to me but on the day never found on their system so i basically took a full day off in total to wait for them... when they never planned to show up in the first place. apparently nobody in ntl knows why i was given a date twice when not one of these appointments were in their system.
also funny that one of the guys said "i might not be able to see it here but the date might be in another system". how many systems does ntl have and why can they not use any of them appropriately?
the details still have not been changed and i will now contact sky and not bother with the useless ntl lot... no point in taking another day off...
will send a complaint now and get on to small claims to get ntl to compensate me for taking a day off. chancing my arm there, i knowm but i at least will give it a try....