W
whipped
Guest
If anyone has had major problems with NTL please post your details here. I am trying to get a case together to send to Watchdog. I am also trying to assertain wether they are a bad company or wether my situation was a one off. Below is the letter I am about to send them and would like to send to watchdog.
<RANT>
Dear Sir/Madam,
Detailed below is an account of the dealings I have had with NTL between the 1st June and the 10th July, in order to resolve a fault with my cable modem.
1)
On the 1st June 2001 my cable modem went offline, only 1 week after receiving an install of two NTL digital boxes. After a call to cable modem tech support the operator was unable to find my cable modem on the local network and arranged for me to be called back by an engineer to arrange a suitable time for them to visit. After not receiving a call the next day, as promised, I phoned NTL customer care to enquire and the engineer was booked by the person who took my call. The cable modem engineer was booked to visit in about 5 days. I booked the afternoon off work for that day.
2)
The cable modem engineer arrived at 12:30, even though the appointment was between 13:00-18:00. Still he had arrived and I looked forward to my modem being fixed. After checking some levels and the street CAB, the engineer told me that he would have to refer the problem to the network department. He made a call to NTL and said I would be called in the next day or two to let me know the situation.
3)
Sure enough I was phoned the following day to tell me the network department had replaced a faulty amplifier in the outside CAB and that my services should have resumed. If not I should phone NTL.
With my CM still not working I phoned NTL back and after spending over an hour in the queue I finally got through to cable modem tech support. Again they tried to reach my CM from their end and after failed, organised for the engineers to call me back with an appointment date. After receiving no word in 2 days I phoned NTL, only to be told that I could not book the engineer with the person who took my call (Even though I had done this about a week and ½ ago) and that she would speak to the engineers and get them to phone me. I was phoned back around 3 hours later and after waiting 4 days for a call back was told that the engineer could not get out to me for another week. I accepted the date and booked the day off from work. (In case the engineer turned up early again). Whilst on the phone to NTL I raised some queries about my cable bill. It seemed I was still being charged for some analogue services as well as the new digital services and I was not being charged at all for my cable modem. (Which I wasn’t too worried about as it wasn’t working) I organised for the billing to be sorted and was told that I wouldn’t be charged for the cable modem and to call NTL once it was working again in order for the billing to recommence.
4) A week later the cable modem engineer arrived. (It was the same man as had come out last time). He again performed his checks and then told me that I would need a re-pull. The laying of a better cable. An RG-11 I believe. He made a phone call and organised for the engineers to arrive that Friday. I booked the Friday off work.
5) Friday came and after diligently waiting to 17:20 with no engineer I decided to give NTL a call. After phoning up my details were taken and I was placed on hold. 30 mins later another operator answered and asked my details again. (I had been put back in the queue and not on hold!) I explained that engineers were booked to lay a new cable and no-one had arrived yet. After looking at my records I was informed that no engineer was booked. After explaining the situation I was told an engineer would be out within the hour. Within an hour the engineers arrived and started work. The laid the RG-11 cable from the CAB to the front of the house. I was then told that the cabling around the side of the house did not need to be changed. They then left without giving me a work order to sign.
6)
Still my cable modem was not working. I phoned NTL again and asked to be put through to a customer care representative or supervisor to discuss my problem and was put on hold for 1 hour. After this very long time my call was answered by cable modem tech support. This person was not a supervisor. He was very helpful and explained that according to his software my cable modem connection was at –27 (It is supposed to be as near to 0 as possible.) He booked in a cable modem engineer for me (Something the other cable modem tech support people said they couldn’t do.) That weekend my set-top box ceased working for 3 days, I assume because of the poor power levels.
7)
On the 3rd July I received my 3rd cable modem engineer, for which I took another days annual leave. When he arrived he took some readings and instantly diagnosed the problem. Apparently I had an RG-11 running to the front of the house. This cable was then split between upstairs and downstairs. Downstairs had a digital cable box and upstairs was then split again to my CM and digital cable box. I was told that the other engineers should have spotted this as they are not supposed to split a cable more than once. He made a call to NTL and booked an engineer for the following Monday morning. I thanked him for being so helpful and then booked the Monday morning off from work. (Also I was quite surprised at the incompetence of the previous engineers, especially as the very first one had had a trainee with him!)
8)
On Monday 9th July I waited for the engineer to arrive. Around 11:30 I called NTL to confirm there was an engineer booked. I was told that it was booked for the afternoon between 13:00-18:00. I was not happy at this, as I had to get the afternoon off work at very short notice. At 17:00 I phoned again as no engineer had arrived. I was told that a mistake had been made and that the appointment was made for the morning but someone had written PM on the work order. I was told the engineers had been round at 12:30 that day and dropped a card. As I had been at the house all day I knew this wasn’t true. I was then told that the earliest an engineer could get out to me was 20th July. The lady took my details and said she would call back if they could arrange anything sooner. I was called back and a message was left on my answer phone informing me that engineers could come out the next day (10th July) and that I should phone back to confirm the appointment. After waiting a whole day for engineers that hadn’t shown up the last thing I wanted to do was spend another hour in an NTL phone queue. I didn’t phone back to confirm as there was no way I could get the next day’s afternoon off at such short notice especially as I had just taken that day’s afternoon off as a favour from my boss.
9)
At 14:00 on the 10th July I was called by my landlord to say that NTL had turned up. (Even though I had not confirmed the booking). He had to go out so he left them to it. As far as I can see they have run 2 RG-11’s from the street CAB. One goes upstairs and is split between the CM and the set-top box and the other goes downstairs. My cable modem now works and my TV has auto-updated itself.
The thing that has annoyed me is that this morning I received my cable bill and I have been back charged for the last 2 months of cable modem use. (Even though I was told I wouldn’t be) A service I was not receiving.
During these problems I have had to take 5 ½ days leave out of my annual entitlement. I see this as entirely unacceptable I have had engineers that didn’t turn up due to messed up or lost work orders. I have been put on hold and run through NTL’s phoned system like a rabbit. I have had no cable modem for 1-½ months. I lost my TV for around 3 days and even when it worked there were periodic breaks in the signal and any use of the interactive services would crash the box.
Due to this extreme inconvenience and the incompetence of your staff that led to it, I request that I receive my next 4 months cable bill free of charge.
I await your reply.
Yours sincerely,
Kevin Pascoe (Account No. *******)
</RANT>
btw, sorry for the length.
<RANT>
Dear Sir/Madam,
Detailed below is an account of the dealings I have had with NTL between the 1st June and the 10th July, in order to resolve a fault with my cable modem.
1)
On the 1st June 2001 my cable modem went offline, only 1 week after receiving an install of two NTL digital boxes. After a call to cable modem tech support the operator was unable to find my cable modem on the local network and arranged for me to be called back by an engineer to arrange a suitable time for them to visit. After not receiving a call the next day, as promised, I phoned NTL customer care to enquire and the engineer was booked by the person who took my call. The cable modem engineer was booked to visit in about 5 days. I booked the afternoon off work for that day.
2)
The cable modem engineer arrived at 12:30, even though the appointment was between 13:00-18:00. Still he had arrived and I looked forward to my modem being fixed. After checking some levels and the street CAB, the engineer told me that he would have to refer the problem to the network department. He made a call to NTL and said I would be called in the next day or two to let me know the situation.
3)
Sure enough I was phoned the following day to tell me the network department had replaced a faulty amplifier in the outside CAB and that my services should have resumed. If not I should phone NTL.
With my CM still not working I phoned NTL back and after spending over an hour in the queue I finally got through to cable modem tech support. Again they tried to reach my CM from their end and after failed, organised for the engineers to call me back with an appointment date. After receiving no word in 2 days I phoned NTL, only to be told that I could not book the engineer with the person who took my call (Even though I had done this about a week and ½ ago) and that she would speak to the engineers and get them to phone me. I was phoned back around 3 hours later and after waiting 4 days for a call back was told that the engineer could not get out to me for another week. I accepted the date and booked the day off from work. (In case the engineer turned up early again). Whilst on the phone to NTL I raised some queries about my cable bill. It seemed I was still being charged for some analogue services as well as the new digital services and I was not being charged at all for my cable modem. (Which I wasn’t too worried about as it wasn’t working) I organised for the billing to be sorted and was told that I wouldn’t be charged for the cable modem and to call NTL once it was working again in order for the billing to recommence.
4) A week later the cable modem engineer arrived. (It was the same man as had come out last time). He again performed his checks and then told me that I would need a re-pull. The laying of a better cable. An RG-11 I believe. He made a phone call and organised for the engineers to arrive that Friday. I booked the Friday off work.
5) Friday came and after diligently waiting to 17:20 with no engineer I decided to give NTL a call. After phoning up my details were taken and I was placed on hold. 30 mins later another operator answered and asked my details again. (I had been put back in the queue and not on hold!) I explained that engineers were booked to lay a new cable and no-one had arrived yet. After looking at my records I was informed that no engineer was booked. After explaining the situation I was told an engineer would be out within the hour. Within an hour the engineers arrived and started work. The laid the RG-11 cable from the CAB to the front of the house. I was then told that the cabling around the side of the house did not need to be changed. They then left without giving me a work order to sign.
6)
Still my cable modem was not working. I phoned NTL again and asked to be put through to a customer care representative or supervisor to discuss my problem and was put on hold for 1 hour. After this very long time my call was answered by cable modem tech support. This person was not a supervisor. He was very helpful and explained that according to his software my cable modem connection was at –27 (It is supposed to be as near to 0 as possible.) He booked in a cable modem engineer for me (Something the other cable modem tech support people said they couldn’t do.) That weekend my set-top box ceased working for 3 days, I assume because of the poor power levels.
7)
On the 3rd July I received my 3rd cable modem engineer, for which I took another days annual leave. When he arrived he took some readings and instantly diagnosed the problem. Apparently I had an RG-11 running to the front of the house. This cable was then split between upstairs and downstairs. Downstairs had a digital cable box and upstairs was then split again to my CM and digital cable box. I was told that the other engineers should have spotted this as they are not supposed to split a cable more than once. He made a call to NTL and booked an engineer for the following Monday morning. I thanked him for being so helpful and then booked the Monday morning off from work. (Also I was quite surprised at the incompetence of the previous engineers, especially as the very first one had had a trainee with him!)
8)
On Monday 9th July I waited for the engineer to arrive. Around 11:30 I called NTL to confirm there was an engineer booked. I was told that it was booked for the afternoon between 13:00-18:00. I was not happy at this, as I had to get the afternoon off work at very short notice. At 17:00 I phoned again as no engineer had arrived. I was told that a mistake had been made and that the appointment was made for the morning but someone had written PM on the work order. I was told the engineers had been round at 12:30 that day and dropped a card. As I had been at the house all day I knew this wasn’t true. I was then told that the earliest an engineer could get out to me was 20th July. The lady took my details and said she would call back if they could arrange anything sooner. I was called back and a message was left on my answer phone informing me that engineers could come out the next day (10th July) and that I should phone back to confirm the appointment. After waiting a whole day for engineers that hadn’t shown up the last thing I wanted to do was spend another hour in an NTL phone queue. I didn’t phone back to confirm as there was no way I could get the next day’s afternoon off at such short notice especially as I had just taken that day’s afternoon off as a favour from my boss.
9)
At 14:00 on the 10th July I was called by my landlord to say that NTL had turned up. (Even though I had not confirmed the booking). He had to go out so he left them to it. As far as I can see they have run 2 RG-11’s from the street CAB. One goes upstairs and is split between the CM and the set-top box and the other goes downstairs. My cable modem now works and my TV has auto-updated itself.
The thing that has annoyed me is that this morning I received my cable bill and I have been back charged for the last 2 months of cable modem use. (Even though I was told I wouldn’t be) A service I was not receiving.
During these problems I have had to take 5 ½ days leave out of my annual entitlement. I see this as entirely unacceptable I have had engineers that didn’t turn up due to messed up or lost work orders. I have been put on hold and run through NTL’s phoned system like a rabbit. I have had no cable modem for 1-½ months. I lost my TV for around 3 days and even when it worked there were periodic breaks in the signal and any use of the interactive services would crash the box.
Due to this extreme inconvenience and the incompetence of your staff that led to it, I request that I receive my next 4 months cable bill free of charge.
I await your reply.
Yours sincerely,
Kevin Pascoe (Account No. *******)
</RANT>
btw, sorry for the length.