NTL - Worst Broadband in Ireland?

speedy21

Hi there,

Am I the only person having an awful experience with NTL Broadband?
I signed up in the last month and have probably gotten 3 days usage out of it!!
It's always down and when it does connect its slower than a dial-up modem!!

Their phone support takes about 30 mins to get through to,
they promised me a technician would call out last Tuesday and again last Thursday, so I took TWO days off work to wait for them and neither time no one bothered to show up!

I just spent 30 mins trying to get through to support, the girl who answered took my details and said someone from support will call me back in roughly one or two days time. Two days?!?!?!?!!!!???

Am I really tied to a 12 month contract? Is there any way out?
I still have UTV internet for a few more days - after that I'm stuck with NTL and the thought is scaring me!!

Any advice/info/help is most welcome

Thanks

bringitdown

Nope, been rock solid for me ... only occasional problems usually resolved with a modem reboot. Consistent d/l speeds. Its been a pleasure so far. (Ringsend area!)

However NTL are known for atrocious technical support ... you just have to keep at them, ask for a supervisor etc etc.

Plug

Churos is also bollox!

Onyx_1

I have to agree, it has gone from a very reliable service to something really dreadful.

Im on the 6mb package since February this year.
After the first respeeds (3-6) around April of this year things were pretty flaky for a good couple of weeks. Id often go from 1mb/sec downloads to 50kbs... all over the place.

But over the last few weeks, since September probably, things have really gone downhill. I find browsing most difficult, with pages that should normally load immediately dragging really badly.

The test site @heanet.ie show my downloads as OK, ranging from 400-500, but even here sometimes things can go as low as 50-60.

I really dont know whats up! Im just glad im coming to the end of my first year contract - i really dont think i will carry on with the service. At this rate i would rather get a phone line installed and go with one of the DSL providers.

I live in Waterford by the way, in a new estate with not too many residents. I suspect they have either oversubscribed the service generally in my area, or the supply box to the estate is too low for the increasing amount of residents moving in.

Really frustrated.

markpb

I'm going to dive in here and defend them. I've been with them for almost a year now (D17) and I've never had any serious problems. I had a few days of increased latency during the switchover but it's been fine since then. I've never had to ring customer service so I've no idea if they're as bad as people say.

6th

D@4 and with them 5 years. BB has been really bad for nearly 4 months now. I am only on the 2MB connection and that suits me but after complaining 6 weeks ago I got bills credited and told that it would be sorted out within 3 weeks. Last night I finally got off my ass again and rang and they did a download test .... 64k download!

They took my details and said I would get a call today that there was definately somethign wrong.

Tabnabs

I know I'm jinxing it, but I have the 2mb connection (D24) and have had no great problems at all. But then I used to be with Irish Broadband, so it's all relative...

6th

Can I come live with you?

Anyway no phone call yet so I'll give them til 11.

Cabaal

Unhappy about situation with the caps, other then that experience intermittent service for a a few hours every few weeks I'm pretty happy

JoeyJJ

They switched off my point a few weeks ago and failed to turn up for an appointment, the person taking the call bucked up the appointment, If you don't get a text the evening before you expect a person to call out ring them first thing the next morning cause nobody will call.

My connection when they haven;t switched the point off point has been very good in the D12 area.

speedy21

Following on from my first post, I'm going to keep an NTL support diary detailing how I get on. Here goes...

(note I've already been promised 2 technician call-outs, none have showed)


NOVEMBER 14th
Was still UNABLE to connect to NTL after weeks without proper service - so I called support - waited 30 mins for an answer - a secretary? took my details and told me a technician would call me back, it could take 1 to 2 days before someone could call me back.

Around 5pm out of frustration of having no service for 1 month I called NTL billing and asked them if I could cancel my NTL - the girl (Siobhan) was very nice and apologetic - she assured me that she would arrange for a technician to call me before end of business today. She also said she would call me at 10am the following day to make sure a technician called.

Of course the technician didnt call before end of business as she promised.

NOVEMBER 15th
Still not able to connect..
Sat by my phone at 10am - sadly the girl from Billing didnt call back as she had promised.

Waited until 4am - no phone calls from NTL - called through to tech support again. Waited over 30 minutes to get through.
Spoke to a secretary? Who took my details and told me a technician would call me back.

I told her how long I've been waiting for a call-back and that it needs a technician to call out. She said she would look into arranging one for me but wouldn't be able to do so for 5 - 6 days.

So it looks like I'm going to be another 5 to 6 days without basic NTL access.
Watch this space!

speedy21

EXCITING UPDATE - NOVEMBER 15th

Woo Hoo
Out of the blue NTL connected by itself this evening - first connection in three days!!
This has happened before but it died soon after - so fingers crossed.

Hmmm it's very slow - a single website is taking forever.
Let me check the speeds on this 6MB connection

According to Irishisptest.com
I'm getting a possible download speed of 137kbps
Wow - thats twice the speed of a dial-up modem!!

but NTL say to test on heanet.ie ... so here goes
Wow - it's currently giving me a download speed of 14.9 KB/sec
thats 25% the speed of a dial-up modem - slow!!!!

so will I stay connected at the stunningly slow speed of 14.9 kb/s

Will it increase?
Will it decrease?
Will it cut off again?

Stay tuned for the next exciting adventure of
'My NTL Hell'

Frolk

i have big problems with ntl myself will change it soon....any sugestions what to go for?

speedy21

Hi Frolk,
Well I suggest using a dial-up modem and using one of the free dial-up services. It's more reliable and on average - faster than NTL!

although - I am getting better speeds today.
Though it went down at 11pm last night (Nov 16th)
and it stayed down for the whole night.

But this morning (around noon) I checked and NTL was back on... hurray!
I did a speed test on heanet and was getting speeds of around 325...
which isnt bad - it's around half what I should be getting...
But I can live with that!! So if it stays connected and my speed stays at half at what it should be - then this might be the last ever entry in my exciting NTL diary. (but I know it will die again within 24 hours - i'll put money on it)

speedy21

died again at 14.36...
Tho didnt stay down for long...

Current speed connection (at 2.52am) is a woeful 330kbps (one third of a megabyte)

mikemooney

Where do I start?

My NTL broadband stopped working on Wednesday the 1st of November. I logged a call and was informed that an engineer would call out the following Tuesday the 7th between 13:00 & 18:00.

On the Monday prior to the call out I asked if the issue could be looked at remotley as the last 4 or 5 times I had this same problem it was fixed without having to come near my home. I was told I would be called back that day with an update. Tuesday came and went with no engineer calling to fix the problem. Between the Monday the 6th and the Wednesday the 8th I placed a total of 12 calls (hold time of 15 mins approx each call) with NTL, each time looking for an update, each time I was told I would be called back, In total I recieved 1 call back which I happened to miss as I was in the shower. I spoke to 2 different supervisiors who assured me that my call was a priority and that it would be sorted soon.

On Thursday the 9th I managed to speak to one of the head technical guys who arranged a call out for Tuesday just gone, I informed them that I was away on business I said that I wouldnt be there. I was asked to call back again to book a call when I got home.

I did so yesterday and infomed the girl on the phone that I had done some testing and found that my cable modem locked on when it was plugged directly into the cable coming out of the wall. If I had the T.V hooked up and the cable modem it failed to lock on so it pointed to it being a signal strength issue. An engineer was booked to call out today, when I got up this morning I found that the internet is working again. I would still expect the engineer to call to look at the issue, surprise surprise, no one has called.

How can NTL get away with this appauling treatment of there customers?

I'm gonna call them after 13:00 to see what they have to say about the whole thing.

mike

po0k

Could people posting please state what package they're on (1,2,3 or 6Mbps) and where they're located?

mikemooney

I am on the 6 meg package and live in Dublin 7.

6th

2MB Tallaght, only getting 60-80k download for the last 3 months!

f1refox

In D11 myself on a 3meg line and service has been crap for the past month.:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

speedy21

MY NTL DIARY - 20/11/06

Dear Diary,
Well NTL has been up and down - fast and slow - but its definitely showing a vast improvement.

I'm at least getting half my speed today (tested on heanet) - so thats something!

A technician was due to call out today to examine the problem.
You might remember that in the past - NTL promised to call out twice - and I took two days off work - and they never showed up.
So this is the third promised call out - and the third day I've taken off work - its 4.00pm and no sign yet - I called NTL and the girl there was unable to tell me what time a technician will call out at.

She said she'll have someone check the times and call me back.
I asked if this would be today - and she said yes...

Fingers crossed!

Frolk

dublin 11 and its absolutley terrible speed my ping is jumpin from 30 up to 250 ..i dont know ...21 century

speedy21

NTL DIARY UPDATE 20/11/06

Third time a technician was due out and Third time no one showed up!
The girl from NTL also never phoned me back either....

I've taken three days off work now to sit in for a technician. Three days wasted!
What can I do?
I have no idea what more options I have

Sponge Bob

contact odca@entemp.ie ( the consumer affairs email address) and ask them how...short of the small claims court...you can get compensated for this farce.

also inform odca that you are not getting the service you paid for, let them lean on NTL for you and get compensation for that as well as the time off .

shame NTL are going downhill like this, they were pretty professional until UPC took them over early this year.

quazzy

Although my ntl (1Mb - D15) is working well I would agree with what Sponge Bob has to say on the matter.

Just another option:
- Ring the bank and cancel your Direct Debit service.

- Then when you get billed by ntl, only pay for what you are receiving ( ie nothing ; well unless you're getting ntl cable tv)

- Send them a letter of complaint (via registered post perhaps) explaining the reason for non-payment and examples of terrible support/customer services with the ntl diary details in this thread.

Best of luck and keep us posted.

Q

PixelTrawler

Was NTL out for everyone else all yesterday evening.

The modem was synched - most of the time - and connected but nothing could be downloaded.
It disconnected several times and the lights flickered like mad on and off

Also its been pretty slow lately as well.

Was going to ring them but you can't ring the support line from a mobile anymore... well the only one I could find last night 1800321321, since I couldnt get online to find the main support number! Yet another reduction in service...

bk

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

Was NTL out for everyone else all yesterday evening.

No, fine in D9.

dloob

Well NTL is still out in Galway.
The routing is screwed up some sites work, some don't.
DNS was also down this time.
So I could use ip addresses or sites in my DNS cache
Monday night no sites worked but the DNS was working.

Support doesn't know what's happening.

Sneetch

Yep, still screwed up in Galway (or was about an hour ago unless it miraculously healed itself I'm sure it still is out) as usual NTL are absolutely useless and clueless, you're as well off shouting your problems into the wind.

Pointing my DNS server to a German DNS server worked, sort-of, I could connect to and browse to some sites in the Ireland, the UK and Germany but nowhere else. I told the drone in NTLs Customer Disservice that their DNS server was down and eventually while talking to the "manager" the conversation went something like this:

Him: Well <Girl#1> has taken down the information about your DSL server being down.

Me: No, not my DSL server (?) your DNS server is down, your naming server.

Him: Don't worry, I'm pretty sure she wrote down DSN.

Me: *DNS*!!

Him: That's what I said.

Me: Oh God, I'm wasting my time here. *click*

Now, this exchange on top of the usual litany of casual lies and incompetence that I associate with all call centres, has brought me close to switching goals from "getting my broadband back" to "making life horrible for NTL and all who sail in her".

okcomputer

I have found the only way to deal with this sort of service is stoop to their level and try to bully the person at the end of the phone, sadly. If you absolutely demand action immediately and threaten to speak to managers etc you usually get results. it will make you feel like an asshole but you might get somewhere, sadly.

electro.ie

6meg in Dublin 9 not working since two days ago, apparently it's a problem with my modem and a technician has to call out to replace it.... next wednesday! wtf am I supposed to do til then, I offered to drop out and collect the modem myself but no.

Customer Service are appalling....
was waiting on the phone for exactly 1hr 40mins,
said this to the girl and she has the cheek to tell me I've only been waiting twenty minutes! Twent minutes, this call what about the other six times you dropped my calls, excuse me there missus don't be getting so cheeky, this modem you gave me may not be completely useless after all, I'll ram it down your throat. asked to speak to a supervisor but none available. NTL my hole. useless shower. ahhhhhhhh!