NTL 2 month LIE!

rur

NTL Corus UPC misleading customers about Broadband availabity.

Around the end of 2008 I was looking for a new place to rent.

I viewed a number of properties and in each property I enquired as to the Broadband coverage, in each I was told that NTL would be providing their broadband service within two months (which is supposed to be excellent). At the time I assumed NTL were carrying out a wide ranging upgrade.

Once I moved into a place I rang them once a month for the next three months and was told two months each time!!

I finally rang them for the fourth month in a row and after a robust exchange they admitted that they have no current plans of installing broadband infrastructure in my area.

Also important to note that their website tells me that my area has broadband and I should contact them to set it up.

NTL are baiting customer using misinformation on their website and over the phone. They provide an inviting distant (but not so distant) promise of service to keep them waiting, or holding off on changing to a competitor.

I wonder if NTL are the only ones... keep this in the back of your mind next time your shopping for broadband.

Can anyone advice if this is worth bringing up with a regulator/ombudsman.

rur

Steviemak

The Regulator doesn't give a crap about UPC. They are so fixated on eircom nothing any other operator does concerns them. So I would try the Ombudsman instead.

Sleipnir

Advertising Standards doesn't cover online ads (I've checked)

They've been doing it for years, obviously because they know they can get away with it.

Jev/N

Found out the same today after being told in Jan that it would be available in March. The person on the phone had no clue of any plans to install broadband in the area and said it was mostly likely a guess by the previous person who had told me otherwise!!

Cabaal

Before you moved in who told you NTL would be available, NTL or the letting agency/landlord?

Unless you can show an advert that shows for a fact that it would be available in your area then nobody will be able to assist you.

Its minor imho as if they are not providing services what benefit is it to them to tell you its "coming soon" as they'll never get a penny from you, hardly a good selling practice, you could perhaps put it down to human error

helimachoptor

Same experience in my family home, 18 months the UPC website has been saying broadband is there yet everytime i ring its "our web guys havent changed the website yet" it's been 18 months you planks!

Cabaal

Is this any different to eircom saying they'll be upgrading an exchange to ADSL "soon"?

dub45

It has been well known for some time now that NTL staff on the phones did not have any access to plans for BB provision. It would certainly be more honourable (but then we are talking about UPC here! who have no problem wasting peoples time with installer appts that are not kept) on the part of companies if they were honest with people. In general customers appreciate honestly even if it is not the news that they are waiting for.

I personallly think there is a very big difference between Eircom stating that exchange will be upgraded soon and a UPC employee stating that bb will be available in two months. The definite time line would suggest to me that that person was privvy to information supplied by the company.

The NTL website has for a long time now stated that bb was available in my area and it isn't. Also it appears that quite often UPC/NTL do not know themselves whats going on. There was a post on here some time ago about NTL distributing leaflets telling people that bb was available in the area (I think it may have been Bolton St) and when the poster rang up to order he was told that it wasn't available! When he pointed out that the leaflets had been distributed he was told something like just because they say it is available doesnt mean that it is actually available!

Inquitus

Eircom are prone to the odd bare faced lie too, when i switched to UPC, I rang eircom to cancel and was put through to India where some eircom call center employee peddled me a bunch of lies about the broadband I was switching to, the pick of which was.

"It uses the same line as the TV, so when you are watching TV your internet will slow to a crawl"

LEIN

Inquitus wrote: »

"It uses the same line as the TV, so when you are watching TV your internet will slow to a crawl"

Lol. Quote of the century. :pac:

Sleipnir

Inquitus wrote: »

"It uses the same line as the TV, so when you are watching TV your internet will slow to a crawl"

Yeah but when I'm on the internet, my T.V. slows down?!?1?

DingDong

A rebuild schedule is openly available to customer support for 2009. If your in any of these areas, they should be able to give you a idea of when you can expect to avail of BB. Due to the fact a lot of the cabling is on private home this can slow up the process.
Dub45 parts of Bolton street has BB, it may be possible a flyer went it the wrong address either way the rebuild is due to be complete in that area the end of next month.
During the Ntl era network upgrades pretty much came to a halt after 2001 due to lack of funds. Its only the last two years that UPC have been aggressively upgrading.

vibe666

i was in an apartment in dublin with ntl tv and they were promising broadband there "in the next couple of months".

i was ther two years and i finally got the letter saying it was available a month before i moved to another apartment.

in the new apartment they said they would be doing broadband there "in the next couple of months".

i was there just over three years and guess what came through the letterbox a month before we moved?

we bought a house and chorus said that ntl were taking over and would be doing an upgrade "in the next few months" (not couple, granted, but still). we've been in the house 3 years this month and we finally got ntl in November last year.

i think it's safe to say that their guestimates have been known to be a tad off the mark from time to time. :rolleyes: