NTL- rather good for a change

[Woz]

Now historically NTL have been legendarily pants for their customer service. However I gave them a call this morning and the bloke on the other end answered the phone quickly, knew exactly what he was talking about and sorted out what we had to sort there and then.

Very impressed.

[wilbo]

something to do with Virgin taking over..

[Marky Mark]

The three times I've had dealings with ntl they've been pretty good. First time I got, unplug it and back in, it worked. Second time was bb which got solved in minutes (not 50p a minute minute either). Third time was a dodgy box following a bb installation, fixed in the week.

Of course, having said all of this I'll probably get home tonight and the whole thing has gone tu

ttfn MM

ps,. have loads of trouble with Orange though...

[aclivity]

Originally Posted by wilbo

something to do with Virgin taking over..

or "NTL buying Virgin and licensing the name", which doesn't sound quite so good!

[wilbo]

Originally Posted by aclivity

or "NTL buying Virgin and licensing the name", which doesn't sound quite so good!

Ooooo.. I thought Branson was actually getting involved.. I stand corrected then. So they are just buying the customer service and some vision on how to run a service..

[aclivity]

Originally Posted by wilbo

Ooooo.. I thought Branson was actually getting involved.. I stand corrected then. So they are just buying the customer service and some vision on how to run a service..

I think he is something like a 16% shareholder - don't know if that makes him the largest shareholder, but he doesn't get a place on the board AFAIK.

I think the Telewest merger last year also helped with customer service - Telewest was winning industry prizes for customer support at the same time as NTL were having disaster stories in the press.

Branson is a very clever man ... he's now seen as buying another company into his group, but in fact he's a notional figurehead who only has to count the dividend money coming in! That said, he puts retrictions on the Virgin brand, so if customer or staff treatment falls below par, he can remove the Virgin branding. I think (IIRC) that's what happened to the Virgin ONE account, which is now just the ONE account?

[JasonP]

I've just signed up for Virgin for ADSL, and they do actually phone you back when they say they will. I know this shouldn't be a surprise, but sadly it is these days.

However, they still sent me an email saying that I was all switched on. I phone them 3 times. They made me change filters and unscrew the socket from the wall before they bothered to check with BT. And they hadn't switched it on yet. Doesn't seem to be any tieup between getting the "you're connected email" and BT doing the work.

Jason

[ratcliffe]

If you get someone on the end of the phone who actually knows what they are talking about, then NTL's customer service is good.
On the other hand, if you get the series of chimps that I got, then it will take 30+ phone calls and 3 and a half months to get your television service turned on after they put the box on the table.

[Gavin Smith]

Same here. I've jsut gone to a TVDrive from Sky+ and I was amazed when I got through to customer services with less that a minutes wait.

In the past I've held for over 40 mins.

Gavin

[Conor]

Originally Posted by Woz

Now historically NTL have been legendarily pants for their customer service. However I gave them a call this morning and the bloke on the other end answered the phone quickly, knew exactly what he was talking about and sorted out what we had to sort there and then.

Very impressed.

Wrong number?

Is it possible you accidentally misdialled and got put through to a fellow customer who had the same problem? Slightly more likely.