NTL - The Psychology of being on hold

spockety

"Our current products are proving to be so popular, that we've had more calls than anticipated. Please hold the line and a representative will be with you as soon as possible".

You have got to be kidding... 35 minutes and counting.

connundrum

Hang up. Walk down to the headquarters. Open whupass can. Serve out as needed.

Nevyn

Where they won't let you in unless you have an appointment.

c - 13

My personal best is 1Hr 45Min on the phone to sky, no one had answered at tha tstage so I gave up.

Sad Professor

spockety wrote:

"Our current products are proving to be so popular, that we've had more calls than anticipated.

lol. Does it really say that?

mike65

Its thier way of grinding you down, when finally you get to talk to a human you are just so grateful you become soft putty for them to mould to thier satisfaction.

Mike.

Mossy Monk

c - 13 wrote:

My personal best is 1Hr 45Min on the phone to sky, no one had answered at tha tstage so I gave up.

surprised anyone could wait that long. with Sky i found it was always best to call early in the morning

r3nu4l

mike65 wrote:

Its thier way of grinding you down, when finally you get to talk to a human you are just so grateful you become soft putty for them to mould to thier satisfaction.

Mike.

I suspect this is true. You are on hold for a long time then all of a sudden a voice speaks to you and asks you for a customer number, which you give them, they then ask you more questions, thereby taking control of and leading the conversation when you should be the one leading it.

Unless you are on the ball and ready to take control you may find yourself hanging up with very little resolved or no compensation.

c - 13

Mossy Monk wrote:

surprised anyone could wait that long. with Sky i found it was always best to call early in the morning

Just put the phone on loudspeaker and kept working away. After that length of time I just couldnt handle listening to the whale noises or some woman telling me to try changing the batteries in the remote.

arseagon

Personally i like to sing along to the on hold music. When the operator eventually answers the call, i just keep singing for a bit. Let them see how it feels. It's particularly effective because I can't sing to save my life.

subway

what there really saying is
"we got rid of a ton of staff when we merged with chorus, please be patient while we realise that wasnt very clever. so many things go wrong in the first few weeks of setting up new stuff its unbeleivable and were only copping on now"

cozmik

If you get no answer after 10 minutes just hang up and try again.

Seth Brundle

They disconnected me recently (despite paying!) and I had the displeasure of calling them a number of times over a few days.
The one that got me most was when I rang them and an hour later at 5:45 I got cut off. When I rang back straight away, I was told that their office hours are from 9 until 6 - customer care my arsé!

subway

cozmik wrote:

If you get no answer after 10 minutes just hang up and try again.

then you go to the back of the queue.
youll neve get through like that.

cozmik

subway wrote:

then you go to the back of the queue.
youll neve get through like that.

Well, It's worked for me in the past with Dell and the esb ,I don't know about NTL ,but I would've thought they are all pretty much the same.

ferdi

i ring them and put them on hold, my phone playes a crappy midi file of some mozart piece, really irritating.

subway

cozmik wrote:

Well, It's worked for me in the past with Dell and the esb ,I don't know about NTL ,but I would've thought they are all pretty much the same.

it shouldnt.
they all use queues.
unless your put into a different queue - sales or tech support for example.

ntl used to have a few different places but now they take all calls in limerick so id say theres one queue down there,
especialy considering ther faults and billing and sales team are the same people

JungleBunny

Hehehe, I do that too.
Was on the phone to the bank a while back... well i was trying to et through to them. I was waiting and waiting. Then i did some more waiting. Getting a bit frustrated at this point... And some more waiting.

THEN... someone answered, and I said that I was minding the phone for a colleague that was trying to get though to the bank. Told them that my colleague had just stepped out to the tiolet and would be back in a minute. The guy on the other end was not too happy. So I told him that I would put him on hold and Mrs. X (me) would be right with him and "that his call was very important to us".

*click* he hung up :mad:


Can't believe we have to listen to Greensleves (or Mozart) over and over again while being told how important we are, but these guys do not have that patience themselves.

kizzyr

r3nu4l wrote:

I suspect this is true. You are on hold for a long time then all of a sudden a voice speaks to you and asks you for a customer number, which you give them, they then ask you more questions, thereby taking control of and leading the conversation when you should be the one leading it.

Unless you are on the ball and ready to take control you may find yourself hanging up with very little resolved or no compensation.

I had the "pleasure" of having to call them recently. Their digital service was dreadful for weeks on end and mid programme it would cut out and there was the whole take the card out put it in again saga over and over and over. It was happening so much I resorted to calling them and insisted that they send someone out. Rather pleasent man came checked it all out but couldn't find a problem but assured me he'd report it to the powers that be. Problem kept happening and NTL kept sending their bills.
Then it happened one night when I had raging PMT so I called and held on for 70 minutes until I eventually got to talk to someone. The more unhelpful she was the crankier I got (and it really wasn't a good idea to mess with me that night:o ) and in the end insisted on speaking to her supervisor. Apparently they don't take calls from the general public :rolleyes: but to be fair the woman did call me back within 20 mintues and I told her of my woes, bills paid on time, broadband with NTL, crappy service, on hold forever, cost of call etc etc. She gave me 6 months service FOC. Turns out the signal wasn't being transmitted strongly enough and that was why it kept cutting out. It was sorted and I've had no problems since.

Kipperhell

I heard they are in the middle of moving call centres so the delay is longer than normal. In saying that they have always been really bad.

Mossy Monk

JungleBunny wrote:

Can't believe we have to listen to Greensleves (or Mozart) over and over again while being told how important we are, but these guys do not have that patience themselves.

why are you blaming the call center staff for the long wait? wouldnt blame him for hanging up on you tbh

Karoma

Moved to Consumer Issues from AH with redirect. Mods, please feel free to bounce it back.

AdMMM

The Waterford Call Centre is remaining open until mid-December. Their primary function at the moment is to handle the overflow from the Limerick call centre. The trouble with keeping a call centre open whose staff have been told that their jobs are going is that the staff aren't likely to break their back trying to fix problems or answer as many calls. This would be especially true in the case of the technical support staff who don't get paid by commission. The sales staff on the other hand would still be fairly efficent as they will be paid commission until the day the call centre closes

Capt'n Midnight

Thaedydal wrote:

Where they won't let you in unless you have an appointment.

So phone now to arrange one.

Sponge Bob

Jeez, Chorus are in charge of everthing from mid December then :eek: , I though that NTL Waterford would exist until Feb or March.

The key contact information you need to get that callback and arrange that technicians call is in this link below.

http://www.connectcork.ie/sponsors/chorus.shtml

Metacortex

I work in a call centre (not NTL) , and the amount of time i've been screamed byt people who are angry at being on hold is unreal.
so i just need to say one thing - ITS NOT THE FAULT OF THE PERSON ON THE OTHER END YOU WERE ON HOLD.
Try being a bit polite instead of screaming at people who are just doing their jobs.

The funniest thing of course, is that people rining up and shouting never seem to grasp the fact, that if we could help you we would. Our hands are just tied most of the time by company policy. Do you think we enjoy being screamed at all day?

Please try to bear this in mind, next time you feel the urge to shout at the person who had the misfortune to answer the phone to you.

miju

ferdi wrote:

i ring them and put them on hold, my phone playes a crappy midi file of some mozart piece, really irritating.

and then they answer and just hang up or at least thats what i always do

longest i've been waiting for NTL to answer their phone in 15 seconds (seriously) , simple thing to do is ring at 1pm and "off-peak" times when others think they'll be off

dont work in NTL but do work in a call centre , i personally love screamers on the phone in work , i find it hilarious that people think they can shout and be insulting and still expect to have things their way , i'm in the fortunate position of being able to resolve most of our customers issues IF i want but my own policy is you scream you can go to the back of the cue and i'll deal with you when i get the chance as i've no inclination to be shouted at a second time

though naturally enough the people with a bit of cop on who are courtious etc get sorted straight away , it's something i've always done myself when ringing call centres and have never had one issue with any of them

JungleBunny wrote:

Hehehe, I do that too.

Was on the phone to the bank a while back... well i was trying to et through to them. I was waiting and waiting. Then i did some more waiting. Getting a bit frustrated at this point... And some more waiting.



THEN... someone answered, and I said that I was minding the phone for a colleague that was trying to get though to the bank. Told them that my colleague had just stepped out to the tiolet and would be back in a minute. The guy on the other end was not too happy. So I told him that I would put him on hold and Mrs. X (me) would be right with him and "that his call was very important to us".



*click* he hung up





Can't believe we have to listen to Greensleves (or Mozart) over and over again while being told how important we are, but these guys do not have that patience themselves.

in fairness , it's fairly easy to tell when someones trying to take the mick and when theres 50 people in a call cue most would do the same

mikemac

I've read this thread and noone has mentioned the oldest trick in the book.

Ring the sales line and naturally enough you'll speak to someone quickly. Then explain you actually wanted to speak to someone in Technical Support.
They'll transfer you straight away

Works with Irish Broadband anyway......now there's a shower of gangsters

Seth Brundle

tried that - you can still wait for ages!

daywalker

micmclo wrote:

I've read this thread and noone has mentioned the oldest trick in the book.

Ring the sales line and naturally enough you'll speak to someone quickly. Then explain you actually wanted to speak to someone in Technical Support.
They'll transfer you straight away

Works with Irish Broadband anyway......now there's a shower of gangsters

with something like that you'd then be put at the back of the queue that you really wanted and be on hold even longer

stevejazzx

I've even tried ringing the reception desk today...nope, 45 mins on hold to customers services after that listening to bizarre midi files trudging out some overplayed classical nonsnese...went a trifle insane...hung up.

Can't believe we accept this....

Please file complaints here

http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/

I dunno if there gonna do anything but you never know!