NTL / UPC Continuing problems

fi

I wrote some time ago about problems i was having for over 18 months with NTL/UPC, Where my modem box kept blowing up, some of you may remember. anyway an update is now instead of me loosing my connection each month it is now going on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.

I was given a new box a black one, which i was told was the bees knees lol it wasnt lol if anything it is worse then the white one. I have a sick Father in the UK whom cannot call me as i constantly have no working phone.

I wont repeat myself going into details of my continuing problems, but the latest one is me having to power down the box 6 and 7 times a day untill today when it died, all lights out, There is a guy in there who is fantastic, and a lady as well, not sure if it is right to name them but i can, they have been frustrated by the fact they cannot help me and it seems the service guys in Dublin are not even willing to try to work out what the problem is. they just come out replace it and move out as quick as possible.

Surley there must be someone in that company who can do one of two things

1. actually take teh time to come out and stay untill the problem is found
2. give me a second box so i do not loose services, but when it falls over i can use the second box until they come out again
or even thirdly, give me a meteor dongle that they pay for to bridge me at least untill the fix the issues.

has anyone had a problem for this long? or similar problems?

i am not sure how long i am with NTL, but i ahve Rung Eircome but they they want to charge me hundreds to get a line back in the house, so that is not an option, so NTL know they have me..... maybe that is why nothing is being done. they dont have to.... but surly they would fix it to jsut get rid of me lol... anyway one else know the names of every technician on the Dublin circuit?? as i do lol lol i can only laugh as if i dont ill have a heart attack ...

can anyone offer me some words of advice?
i know someone recommended i take legal action, but i dont think that is a good road to take, id rather they paid me some respect and just troubleshoot the problem, there is only so much a person in Limerick can do over the phone...

I requested a service history but as i thought they still havent sent it.....

any help? advice? things to do?

oh we have had Electricians, no problems there, power is perfect, i paid an electrician as the NTL one woudlnt come back as he called out at the wrong time, i was so scared i paid for my own but NTL later sent one of theres who told me it was a waste of his time as it was obvious to him there was no problem in the house.

sorry this is so long, but i am at the end of my tether....

dub45

Ah yes we must be getting near that time of year again when some of the UPC head honchos grant an interview to a favoured newspaper to tell us how wonderful they are and admit that the customer service is still not quite what they would like it to be but they are pouring loads of money into and one of these days....................

I would suggest contacting Comreg and setting a formal complaint in motion.

Also a letter to the Chief Executive is always good and from this blog here
which strangely also has lots to say about the wonders of UPC customer service
http://www.lczajkowski.com/2009/02/15/ntl-outdated-useless-customer-service/

the email you need seems to be rdunn@upc.ie

Good luck with them.

fi

Thank you, i will read that.. what do i say to com reg, just tell them the history i presume?

fi

I just got a letter from Chorus NTL, informing me that they will no longer be fixing my problems and I as the customer must "make an informed decision"

They also did not send me my service history as requested but rather a 14 lines of excel text which says nothing of any interest.

Thier records are also wrong as they say in the letter they have replaced 5 [FIVE] cable modem boxes... i suggest they check their records, as more like 5 a week! ok not quite, but seriously if your going to send a letter to someone telling them to politly f off at least have your fact correct in that letter.

so any ideas of what to do now?
do i jsut accept this?
i ahve my own ideas of what i will do, but will wait for a call tomorrow from someone who will call me in relation to this, [so i am led to believe anyway] we will see.

jimmycrackcorm

If they cannot fix your problem then your options are either DSL or mobile Broadband. You will have to make an informed decision about wireless vs ADSL.

If you want to go down the legal route then all you get to claim is the return or all or partial charges you paid for a service when you didn't get it. They cannot be forced to fix your broadband.

Dr Cockroach

dump it a go to sky

HattieMcDoogal

fi wrote: »

has anyone had a problem for this long? or similar problems?

I obvliously don't know the whole story and I know you had an electrician out but if the modems are going totally dead, no lights etc it sounds like maybe an electrics problem inside the house. If the power light is staying on and the ds/online light etc are flashing it's a network problem. It's very unlikely that you've have 4 or 5 (don't know the exact num) modems blow out on their own.

dub45

As I have pointed out here before UPC's terms and conditions absolve them of any responsibility whatsoever while obliging the customer to pay them irrespective of whether or not they are receiving the service:

2.2 In supplying the Services we will always use our reasonable skill and care but are
unable to guarantee fault free performance. The Services are provided on a best efforts
basis and we do not warrant that any connection to, transmission over, or results of the
Equipment or the Services will meet your requirements or will provide uninterrupted use
or will operate as required or at any minimum speed, or error free. We can not
guarantee minimum bandwidth delivered to you and we can not guarantee that all data
traffic can be transported complete and without delay. If a fault occurs you should notify
us by contacting our customer management centre. If you are unable to access the
Services, you remain liable to pay all Charges that would otherwise apply.

It is quite incredible that so a so unbalanced agreement is allowed to be put in place.

You could always try complaining to Comreg but I would guess that UPC feel that there is some fault in the house which is damaging the equipment.

Have you plugged anything else into the socked with had the modems plugged into it? ~Something you dont value too much obviously!

fi

Wow thank you for all the replies...
I cant get Sky AFAIK as i do not now have a phone line and it will cost quite a bit to get a phone line back i believe.

I am surprised that a letter like the one i got was sent to be honest, its like well we cant fix it go away.

The problems i have had in the house range.... from the power jsut going on the boxes, to the last problem was some s/w issue and the engineer had to reprogramme the box from the house, the tech guy said it couldnt of been fixed remotly.

No one has ever told me what was wrong, all i got was "well we have replaced the box" up until this time where they did this s/w what not.

IF this box works, and continues to work great, i will not complain as i am happy with the BB when it is working, also the TV and my phone of course is all bundled.

[I do have sky in my living room, it was cheaper to get NTL for my daughters room then sky multi room!]

The person who wrote the letter is due to call me with in 48 hours. another representive rang me to say they are sending me out my service history and legally they have 40 days to send it out, i felt from her tone there is a black mark on my name or something......

fi

sorry forgot to say there is nothing else plugged into the socket this is in as that was one of the things they said to try. we even disconnected my sons booster box as a possible cause some 6 months ago but we still have problems.

vibe666

this is totally guesswork, but it sounds like there could be some sort of electrical fault either in your home electricity supply where the box is plugged in or on the ntl cable possibly?

i can't think of anything that would keep affecting you like that, particularly using different hardware over the years. i'm pretty sure you could get a surge protector for the ntl cable (you can get them for any other sort of cable, so i don't see why not) and the power to the box and see if that helps?

there's a few of the better ntl guys that are members here, maybe one of them could offer some advice.

Gdep

As some of the guys have already said it is very unlikely that all these modems would have the exact same problem. Don't know if this has been mentioned, but why dont you get the modem installed in another point in the house. it will cost 50 euro i think but maybe its the particular socket that the modems are being plugged into.

Also have you tried any other appliances in that particular socket to see if they suffer the same faith as the modems? The d/s light flashing as we all know would be a networks issue but the modems completely dying, I would think it would not be NTLs issue.

fi

Thanks again, to go through your points..

• the ntl was moved twice, we have run out of places to move it!
• we have had 2 electricians in to test the house / plugs / surges etc, one of my own and one from NTL
• we have a surge protector plug on the socket, not sure if that is what you mean
• when we used the current area for other things we never had any problems

I agree 110% that all these modems cannot suffer the same fate when there is no record of anyone else with this problem. everyone else on the road is Eircom or 3 so i cant ask to compare.

All i really wanted was for someone to take an interest and "try" to fault find, to be honest, the only effort that i see that was done by engineers was 1 guy actually went around the house, like outside and he found a faulty wire, this was 6 months ago and i ahve to say since that the faults i have been getting i understand to be different. there is way too much history for me to go into here, but then when i got the letter yesterday dismissing me i felt let down that rather then someone from the top evening ringing me to say look we are out of ideas to be honest, we have no wehre else left to turn... but instead i got a very polite get lost letter.

thank you for all your help, as i said i am hoping the person who's name is typed at the bottom of this letter should ring me today i hope and maybe we can come up with soemthing.

i wonder if i bought my own modem, is this an option? fingers crossed for today. but i have no further avenue open to me as they seem to be closing the door on me.

Cabaal

Dr Cockroach wrote: »

dump it a go to sky

Helpful, and what internet access does Sky provide to its customers?
Oh yeah...nothing

Slutmonkey57b

I can tell you from experience writing to Richard Dunne is a total waste of time. Not only did I not get a response, the person who the problem was dumped on then blamed Richard Dunne for not dealing with the report when I complained a second time!!

fi

I seem to be finding the same Richard did not reply to or acknowledge my email.

still no call from the "Letter guy"

KamiKazi

Is it worth making a complaint to ComReg? I've been having intermittent connection drops since the end of November and even after four engineers have come out there is still no solution. I was told this morning that a network case had been logged this morning and that it may take up to ten days despite this issue starting over six weeks ago!

I lodged a compaint and was told I'd be contacted regarding it in a day or two but I'm not holding my breath...

fi

my problem started in November 2008 so please do not hold your breadth.

vibe666

Cabaal wrote: »

Helpful, and what internet access does Sky provide to its customers?
Oh yeah...nothing

i think what he meant to say was "move to england and get sky broadband"

fi

Good Morning, Well i got a call last night from my "letter Writer", the call lasted just over 40 minutes, and i am not sure where it will lead but he has promised to look into it.

I have a couple of things to say about the call but will hold off to see what happens first, if anything, the thing i find hard to deal with is that NTL write to me telling me they wont fix it the next time it falls over, yet the "letter writer" had no knowledge of this and said he didnt want to loose me as a customer, so therefore logic would ditictate if it falls over they have no option other hten to fix it?

i am hoping something good will come from last nights call.

fi

Thought it time for an update......

Since that phone call one of the head engineers in UPC called tot eh house and did extensive tests and was there hours, in the end he could find nothing staring him in the face, so we decided to move the box back into the living room.

This was done that day and the service has be okish.... the box i have now is the same one he put there so it has lasted some months, and until yesterday we have had no more technicians to the house, however there are still problems... The service is dropping and your connected then your not then you are, the phone goes off and web page wont load as it has dropped, so we have bee rebooting the box 2, 3 4 and 5 times a day as can be seen on our records.

The Tech who came yesterday has fond a problem YEAAAAAA ... you wont guess where..... nearly 3 years ago i asked "could this be a problem with the connections coming into the house?" i was told no.... yesterday i am told yes!! so they have called for some other people to come and replace the cable outside.

now to be fair... there is one person in UPC who has been so helpfull, she has given me her direct phone number, she is always polite, helpful and eager to assist, When i have called her she has got a tech to log in remotely and try to resolve some issues, I would agree that UPC help desk as a whole is disgraceful, as when i rang on Sunday as my box decided to cut off and do a reset so we couldnt get into it.... i got through to this guy who repeated for 40 minutes.... and i quote,[without the Indian accent] "you must go to PC world and buy an Ethernet cable because we cannot help you until you do" end quote. I tried explaining my problem to him and all he had to do was look up the info, but he kept repeating this over and over, it took me 40 minutes to persuade him to transfer me to someone who knew what they were doing, i did report his attitude and ignorance as he wouldn't even take 2 second to look up my account.

how ever there are some really lovely helpful people within UPC its just a shame they do not train the 1st level support to this degree, oh and the 1st level techs don't even work for UPC i was told, they are a third party.... typical, based in Waterford.

so lets see if the replacement cable ends my 3 years of problems....

CrazyRabbit

I've had problems for over 2 years with the service. I have their helpdesk on speed dial...no joke.

I've become friends with one of the 2nd level techs as he has visited so often.

I agree that the 1st level helpdesk in Limerick are beyond useless (I have 10 year experience working in & around a Helpdesk environment, so I'm qualified to make that statement).

The 2nd level are better, and actually know what they are talking about. However, they haven't yet fixed the problem even though they now know it's a 'problem in the area causing multiple users modems to disconnect at random periods'.

fi

LOL Know what you mean about speed dial lol i know most of their names! but today when i rang the girl said "hello Fidelma" ............ now its bad when they recognise your voice lol

I have to wait up to 2 weeks for the new cable and a cap connection to deal with in the mean time. But to be fair they have given me credit and they are doing something, so its better then doing nothing

karel51

I'd like an update please! Was the situation resolved?

fi

interesting question at this moment in time....

on the whole in my home yes the issue was resolved, in that we can fix it when it breaks, which is at least once a week. as to what the issue was i have no idea i was never told, they installed everything into my sons room and it is all running smoothly.... now that is to say...... on the whole every so often the box reboots for no apparent reason, this happens about once every.... 2 or 3 weeks at a guess... but we know so much about it now we can fix it our selves and we know how to reset it, so we do, we know how to change the channels and so on and so on, we connect the pc to it and fix it that way, we have no doubt it will go again, it is only a matter of time, but so far we are able to keep fixing it ourselves. its a bit of a pain, and last night it decided to reset its self again, and today it is gone again, which means we have to reprogramme it again.. as it will not work on the default settings, we do not know why it wont but we know it wont.

inside my home, however every weekend for the last 3 weeks and most evenings and today and last night we had no connection, due to a "fault" in the area, when you ring the message will alter to a fault in the carpenterstown area to a fault in the Clonsilla area to a fault in the Castleknock area, not bothering to call today ... but will send an email later... i cant finde more information as when you do call and they tell you there is a fault they tell you to call back later and hang up!! its all automated!

what is most annoying is that when this happens we also loose our phone line and i am trying to get a work around this as i cannot have my phone line down so often especially with my Father needing me. i have missed several urgent calls, even on the eve of my wedding... so this is your update... what do you think?? any ideas?

Fi

karel51

No ideas, been debating which broadband provider to pick. Thank you for your insights.

fi

as ironic as this may sound, i have found UPC to be helpful, and on the ball, the provided support to me and always fixed the issue quickly for me, they escalated my problems and were more then helpful, they are good value for money and for what they offer i think they are still the best, they do not restrict you like other providers, and offer you faster speeds. i was speaking to another server provider sales person the other day and he was telling me how they monitor what sites their customers visit and actively block as they go... i was shocked and glad i didn't go with them. his point was if you are not doing anything illegal why would it bother you, but to me that is not the point.. it is freedom of choice not a big brother mentality of 1994 fame