sky or ntl

[rugeleyboy]

i have recently gone for the ntl all in one package, i really want to throw my telly through the window now.

ntl is a pain in the ar*e!!!!

anyone else agree or am i on my own?

[Gevs1966]

Right pain in the butt. At my old place I had sky and never had any problems with it. Now live somewhere where I can't have sky so have NTl and it is just rubbish, it freezes all the time, the box has been replaced four times due to problems and their customer services don't give a monkeys (when you eventually get through)

[Trojanfarce]

I used to work for ntl in their call centre in Swansea. I can honestly say, hand on heart that they are without doubt THE most incompetent, petty, aggravating, inept bunch of cretins that it was my misfortune to work for. Their management were all of the above and more and the contempt shown for customers was quite breathtaking. There were a few staff members who genuinely wanted to do well by the customers but I spent much of my days trying to find out why appointments hadn't been adhered to by the technicians who were far too eager to knock once, wait 5 seconds and then call in that no one was home. Whilst trying to do this I received no support from the bosses there and ultimately kept getting into trouble for spending too long on individual calls.

My advice? Get rid of everything and go to Sky. If you want to share like-minded grievances with others in your situation (and there are many) go to ntlhell.com (it's not owned by ntl, it's a forum-like site, like this one)

[rugeleyboy]

PS.... i forgot to say, i was with sky and boy do i miss it!!!

[asciwhite]

Cor!! thanks for the question rugeleyboy, I was thinking about ntl for us, looks like Sky are gonna get the money instead. Good answers folks.. :)

[Loosehead]

It's nickname is NTHell enough said!

[ronnie963]

and nobody there seems to be able to add up!!!

wrong bill each month

[Englishbird]

Haven't you seen this before, one of the funniest things I ever read .... sorry it's so long ....

This a copy of a complaint letter that was actually received by NTL.

Dear Cretins,

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone.

During this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional prerogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties - or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office.

My initial installation was cancelled without warning or notice, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your technician to arrive. When he did not arrive at all, I spent a further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful website.... how? I alleviated the boredom to some small degree by playing with my testi*les for a few minutes - an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept.

The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools - such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum.

cont ...

[Englishbird]

Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After several further telephone calls (actually 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks) my modem arrived ... a total of six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it. I estimate that the downtime of your internet servers is roughly 35%... these are usually the hours between about 6pm and midnight, Monday to Friday, and most of the useful periods over the weekend.

I am still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 telephone calls on my mobile to your no-help line this week, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled ******* jugglers.

I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back), that no telephone line is available (and someone will call me back), that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off), that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to an answer machine informing me that your office is closed), that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot woman.... and several other variations on this theme.

Doubtless you are no-longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important testicle-moments to attend to. Frankly I don't care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold music. Forgive me, therefore, if I continue.

cont ....

[Englishbird]

I thought BT were sh*t, that they had attained the holy ****-pot of god-awful customer relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't anyone else is there?

How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of ******** you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of distended rectum - incompetents of the highest order. British Telecom - ******* though they are - shine like brilliant beacons of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless inadequacy.

Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you do likewise, and cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver

- any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief - although these feelings will quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps a small measure of bemused rage.

cont ....

[Englishbird]

I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for both you, and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and it's worthless employees.

Have a nice day - may it be the last in you miserable short life, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of tw*ts,

Yours psychotically

John Doe [editor's note: name changed to protect the innocent]

[valsuey]

rugeleyboy - Whatever you do , don't press RED unless you don't want to watch TV of course! How I have cursed my hubby for doing that just as my favourite programme is about to start!

[Trojanfarce]

Nice one Englishbird!! Funnily enough I took that in with me when I first started work there, most of the staff hadn't seen it (with a staff turnover of around 40-50% p.a. I wasn't surprised) and the management that had,confirmed it to be true. There were several others just as good but I think one of the best was when someone hacked one of our cust services messages up in Newcastle (I think) and told all callers to f**k off!! They got the person responsible which I thought was a shame!!!

[Englishbird]

I think I heard about that! lol, he should have got a medal for a public service message. I've still got my ntl box, which despite staying in for two days, they never bothered to collect, anyone want to buy it? .... maybe not.

I've worked for a sh*t company before, does away with the will to live eh!

[zara 4]

My hubby used to work for NTL when they were still cobra/cable and wireless,he's now been working for sky the last 9 years installing,you'll be amazed how many ntl customers are switching over to sky each day,all of them with complaints on ntl's customer service and programme problems,and we were one of them complaints once.

[rugeleyboy]

forgive me for answering my own question here,but when NTL finally turned up to fit my system, they dug a trench in my front garden to fit the cable and connected me.

it was late so i just said thanks, the next day i went outside to go to work and they had not covered the cable up, there was still a trench in my garden and worse of all, the box at the front of the house was wide open with bare wires coming from it.

i rang NTL up and told them i was not happy at all pointing out i had got 2 kids under the age of 4, and thier response was....................................... we will get an engineer out within 14 DAYS!!!!!.

i dont no what i said or how i said it (my anger took over) but an engineer came that day and did everything like it should of been done.

please sky come back....... only 8 months of contract left!!!

[Postdog]

I have a slightly different gripe about NTL. Before I say that though, I too, used to have Sky (many years back) and then NTL. Sky was far better, even though then you didn't have Sky+ or lots of the features you do nowadays. I changed my phone to NTL, so I got a TV package as well, and after about 3 months changed back to BT because the phone service was so bad I couldn't actually call some of my friends. Anyway, I eventually got rid of the TV too, for the legitimate reason that I was watching less and less TV, and didn't need it, and they were so desperate to keep me, I got offered this that and the other.

Back to my gripe tho. I am a postman, and it seems that every two weeks we are either delivering mailshots or leaflets for NTL, and they just don't seem to get the message that people do not want to know. Aside from having to deliver them, the really annoying thing about the mailshots is that they never line up the addresses in the envelope windows, meaning you have to waste time tearing the envelope to see it.

[don1]

Trojanfarce, this just seems to be an NTL sales site.???

http://www.ntlhell.com/

[Trojanfarce]

Doh, I'm such a dunce. The site should be ntlhell.co.uk. Sorry Don1.

The site isn't just about gripes, there are a few ntl staff on there who try to help out in the own time (I did say there were a few).

[peanut42]

I've just heard that they are going to make customer services an 0845 number instead of freephone so from May 8th you will have to pay to phone up and complain................

[Fat Boy]

Not only that but if you want to report a fault with your broadband service it will be an 0871 number... Whats that, about 10p a minute? The last time I reported a fault with my broadband I was on hold for almost an hour before I got through to the numpty at the other end who told me it was an area problem they were already aware of!!!!!

Might be worth checking out http://www.saynoto0870.co.uk/ for free numbers?