Technical Support, NTL style

I've made many calls to NTL's premium rate "technical support" about
getting my ADSL connection fixed. Several times they've raised a fault
with BT, saying there is a fault with my line (ie. voice calls) even
though it's broadband related. So BT of course do a check on the line,
report back to NTL to tell them the line is fine and NTL close the fault.

After 4 months NTL eventually told me they had found a fault at the
exchange and agreed to arrange for a BT engineer to come out and fix it.
Today he came out to my house, apparently expecting our line to be
completly down, seemed quite suprised that he was out to fix a broadband
fault. The engineer didn't seem to know much about broadband faults and
didn't stop long, I think I needed a special "broadband engineer".

Back to square one...

"Tommy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've made many calls to NTL's premium rate "technical support" about
> getting my ADSL connection fixed. Several times they've raised a fault
> with BT, saying there is a fault with my line (ie. voice calls) even
> though it's broadband related. So BT of course do a check on the line,
> report back to NTL to tell them the line is fine and NTL close the fault.
>
> After 4 months NTL eventually told me they had found a fault at the
> exchange and agreed to arrange for a BT engineer to come out and fix it.
> Today he came out to my house, apparently expecting our line to be
> completly down, seemed quite suprised that he was out to fix a broadband
> fault. The engineer didn't seem to know much about broadband faults and
> didn't stop long, I think I needed a special "broadband engineer".
>
> Back to square one...

I wouldnt expect much from NTLs indian call centre. I use to work for NTL
and they were very unco-operative even with NTLs own staff. It would be less
hassle to leave NTL, get the fault fixed & then go back to them.

>
>

On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 22:18:41 +0000, Capri-Sun wrote:
> "Tommy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> Back to square one...
>
> I wouldnt expect much from NTLs indian call centre. I use to work for NTL
> and they were very unco-operative even with NTLs own staff. It would be less
> hassle to leave NTL, get the fault fixed & then go back to them.

The ADSL/Freedom team seem to be based in the UK and still seem to be
calling themselves NTL rather than "Virgin Media". Although I was at first
phoning the Indian call centre who didn't seem to know what to do if I
didn't have a cable modem or set top box other than hang up on me.

Capri-Sun <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I wouldnt expect much from NTLs indian call centre. I use to work for NTL
> and they were very unco-operative even with NTLs own staff. It would be less
> hassle to leave NTL, get the fault fixed & then go back to them.

The last time I had a problem with my NTL cable modem I chose to get a
new BT line installed and switch to ADSL. It seemed the path of least
resistance. Still don't regret it.

When I ditched NTL they even offered me a line rental free telephone
line! I told them to pull the plug...

--
Stephen Chadfield

"Stephen Chadfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Capri-Sun <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> I wouldnt expect much from NTLs indian call centre. I use to work for NTL
>> and they were very unco-operative even with NTLs own staff. It would be
>> less
>> hassle to leave NTL, get the fault fixed & then go back to them.
>
> The last time I had a problem with my NTL cable modem I chose to get a
> new BT line installed and switch to ADSL. It seemed the path of least
> resistance. Still don't regret it.
>
> When I ditched NTL they even offered me a line rental free telephone
> line! I told them to pull the plug...

I was seriously considering connecting to the NTL cable buried just outside
my back gate but after reading the comments in here and elsewhere I'm very
relieved I didn't.

I thought cable was a) faster, b) more reliable? Neither seems to be the
case.

(kim)

kim wrote:

> "Stephen Chadfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > Capri-Sun <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >> I wouldnt expect much from NTLs indian call centre. I use to work for NTL
> >> and they were very unco-operative even with NTLs own staff. It would be
> >> less
> >> hassle to leave NTL, get the fault fixed & then go back to them.
> >
> > The last time I had a problem with my NTL cable modem I chose to get a
> > new BT line installed and switch to ADSL. It seemed the path of least
> > resistance. Still don't regret it.
> >
> > When I ditched NTL they even offered me a line rental free telephone
> > line! I told them to pull the plug...
>
> I was seriously considering connecting to the NTL cable buried just outside
> my back gate but after reading the comments in here and elsewhere I'm very
> relieved I didn't.
>
> I thought cable was a) faster, b) more reliable? Neither seems to be the
> case.

Neither of those things is to do with whether the physical connection to the net
is via cable of phone line.

Graham

"kim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Stephen Chadfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Capri-Sun <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >> I wouldnt expect much from NTLs indian call centre. I use to work for
NTL
> >> and they were very unco-operative even with NTLs own staff. It would be
> >> less
> >> hassle to leave NTL, get the fault fixed & then go back to them.
> >
> > The last time I had a problem with my NTL cable modem I chose to get a
> > new BT line installed and switch to ADSL. It seemed the path of least
> > resistance. Still don't regret it.
> >
> > When I ditched NTL they even offered me a line rental free telephone
> > line! I told them to pull the plug...
>
> I was seriously considering connecting to the NTL cable buried just
outside
> my back gate but after reading the comments in here and elsewhere I'm very
> relieved I didn't.

you need to remember most threads start because something went wrong.

the stories are more about how much hassle it is when a fix doesnt happen
"by the book"
>
> I thought cable was a) faster, b) more reliable? Neither seems to be the
> case.

i have a 4 Mbps NTL (now Virgin) cable feed and i have been pretty happy
with it.

i have had a couple of outages - maybe 3 or 4 in 5 years or so.
during a big download it runs at 3.5 to 4.5 Mbps all the time.

The high end speed is 10 Mbps - these are rumoured to be going to 20 Mbps
over the next few months.

the BT service tops out at 8 Mbps line rate, but AFAIR a lower data rate due
to ATM overheads, and you need to be close to an exchange to get that.

>
> (kim)
--
Regards

(E-Mail Removed) - replace xyz with ntl

"Stephen Chadfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Capri-Sun <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> I wouldnt expect much from NTLs indian call centre. I use to work for NTL
>> and they were very unco-operative even with NTLs own staff. It would be
>> less
>> hassle to leave NTL, get the fault fixed & then go back to them.
>
> The last time I had a problem with my NTL cable modem I chose to get a
> new BT line installed and switch to ADSL. It seemed the path of least
> resistance. Still don't regret it.
>
> When I ditched NTL they even offered me a line rental free telephone
> line! I told them to pull the plug...

haha yeah that was pretty much our only retention offer. Before I left they
even removed that.

>
> --
> Stephen Chadfield

stephen <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> you need to remember most threads start because something went wrong.
>
> the stories are more about how much hassle it is when a fix doesnt happen
> "by the book"
>
> i have a 4 Mbps NTL (now Virgin) cable feed and i have been pretty happy
> with it.

The first thing to remember is that Virgin cable is an amalgamation of
dozens of different cable franchises. Some installed decent kit, some
didn't. So it's best to compare with someone in the same area. For example
in South Cambridge we have few if any problems, while there are semi-regular
outages in North Cambridge. Both were installed by Cambridge Cable, but
obviously something's gone wrong in North Cambridge (which might be the
local 'wildlife')

The second thing is that NTL's billing system is atrocious. At the point of
the Virgin rebrand I read a newspaper article where they admitted this and
said they're working towards installing a new system... why they didn't sort
out the billing system before rebranding I don't know, because I and many
other customers suffer because of it. But technically there are very few
problems - far fewer than with Virgin ADSL back in 2003.

Personally I'd rather have a technically decent system even if the billing
is terrible, than one that bills efficiently but has a terrible connection.

Theo

Theo Markettos wrote:

> The second thing is that NTL's billing system is atrocious. At the point of
> the Virgin rebrand I read a newspaper article where they admitted this and
> said they're working towards installing a new system... why they didn't sort
> out the billing system before rebranding I don't know, because I and many
> other customers suffer because of it.

I recenly changed the bank account I pay my NTL bill from. I discovered I was
now paying £5 over the odds for 'not paying by direct debit' despite the fact
that I am indeed paying by direct debit ! How do they manage to do that ?

Also I recently had the digital TV installed and they double charged me for the
first month.

Graham