I've just spend 45 minutes on hold to NTL to try and sort out a braodband connection for my house in Nottingham.

First I held for general enquiries to find out when my contract for my landline and dial up package expired, which is the middle of October. But I can't cancel it until tomorrow because the people I have to talk to are only open 9-5 so I have to call them tomorrow, then wait 30 days for it to happen.

Then I held for 20 mins to talk to the broadband people who told me that if I didn't want my current contract to be renewed for the next 12 months I have to wait until it's been cancelled to get it.

Now I have the NTL hold music in my head and, trust me here if you've never heard it, nobody deserves to be subjected to that for a second let alone 45 minutes...gah. My head feels like it might explode!

Anyway, hopefully I will be all broadbanded up before the end of November and even if it means I have to go a few weeks without the internet I think I can live with that. I should be getting a new mobile soon on contract which entitles me to 300 offpeak minutes and 500 texts a month for the basic £20 which sounds pretty good to me, especially seeing as I'm a text whore (is it ok for me to say that? )

So...basically I just wanted to rant a bit and also wanted to know if any of you have any suggestions for what I should do in the impending internet-free time, any good books you can recommend?

i never had problems with ntl, maybe they're better in wales, i wasn't on hold for more and a few minutes, they were helpful and seemed like nice enough people to talk to (as opposed to making you think they're only talking to you because they're getting paid to) plus everything was installed and up and running within a few days, plus they're a lot faster then the other ISP's for the price when you get into broadband terms

Yeah, the people are nice to talk to, until you confuse them by asking too many questions

Also they seem to have a "first 2 months free" deal with broadband which ends tomorrow or something so they said I would have to wait a few weeks to have it installed and it also explains the waiting time somewhat!

Maybe it'll have calmed down by October/November (here's hoping)

I've heard mixed anonymous reports about NTL, but all my friends who use them have been very pleased with their internet service. I used to use NTL just for a home phone, back where I used to live, and they did a satisfactory job with that.

Aside from that, I read recently in a newspaper re: telephone helplines, that NTL were usually pretty good. So I think maybe you might be an isolated case.

had trouble with NTL myself, I now reset the cable moden every 2 days regardless of if it needs it or not.

& the customer service is dreadful, long hold times and rude or just plain stupid people when you finally get to them.

This link sums up my experiance with NTL.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/27/nt...corded_message/

There broadband is worth it though, good speeds quiet cheap. And no download limits, so i can download all the porn i want to .

don't they say you shouldn't download more than a gig a day? having said that i didn't hear anything from them and i was a complete download junkie

I cannot believe that it is exceptable to have to wait 2 months for a broadband connection. There is something deeply wrong about that. I really would look around for another supplier. Doesnt mean you should, but hell I would. 2 months ... what a joke

Thing is pab their broadband doesn't come through the phone line but their fibre optic thing so you have to get a special plug thing installed or something.

*knows noting*

And it's currently free installation

indeed

Pab has 35 mins left to find me a better deal before I ring em up and tell them to remove my phone line!

Well he went to fix someone's network so I went and phoned NTL customer services.

I was on hold for about 10 mins which wasn't too bad althought the music had words "bang bang bang bang bang bang" and it kept ringing every few seconds and going to a message such as "your call is important to us, thank you for holding, we'll be with you as soon as possible blah blah blah" I DON'T CARE! I just want to get to the person not keep thinking I'm going to get put through then end up with another dodgy message...silly people!

When I did get to talk to him he said that it was pobbile for him to arrange for my landline to be disconnected the day after my broadband is installed which is great...although I think maybe he regretted that because the system seemed to be playing with him and he kept muttering things at it (some which other people may have been offended at rather than just giggled silently because he obviously didn't think I could hear).

So now I shall have broadband as of the 14th of October, which is only two weeks and not half as bad as the guy I was talking to yesterday made it out to be...so yay! I just hope he had the right account because he only asked for the number and not for my name/first line of the address and then he was muttering something about applevale drive or something I should stop being paranoid!

Oh, that does annoy me. There's nothing more annoying than the hope they build up in that tiny pause where it should ring through, but plays that message yet again
Hope they get it sorted though. We have NTL for dial-up, and we rarely have problems. Even then, it's viruses from my dad's dodgy downloading (wow, alliteration) which he blames on servers and things. In the hopes I don't understand computers well enough. Stupid fool

tehehe I dislike my dial-up, it has a tendancy to disconnect me every few seconds and also Broadband is better value really when you concider you pay £17.99 a month for broadband (and I'm getting the first 2 months free - yay) and dial-up with Ntl is something like £12.50 a month now (was a tenner last year) and you have to pay a minimum of £9.50 or something for line rental it makes sense for me to get broadband, I'm getting a new mobile so I can use that for talking people or "skype" to talk to other people who are online...simple really I think!

Currently online waiting for NTL to answer my call, so i transfer my cable/broadband to my NEW home

/Edit Yay only 25 mins and it's all sorted.

I didn't have too many problems with NTL generally. They were okay at doing what they said they would, and because I got chatting to the guy on the help line when I wanted to cease my contract he let me out of it six months early, saving me serveral hundred pounds with no benefit to NTL whatsoever.

In my experience with them it is often a case of finding the right person to talk to. When I have had troubles they were often astonished that I knew what I was doing and had already tried turn-off-turn-back-on and checking the cables. Usually I ended up talking to someone who I think might have been a supervisor.

Yes, their hold-music is bad. Their standard hold is worse than the broadband hold in my opinion. I think they've stopped the overlapping hold-message system (there was a message recorded on the hold music tape, and then there was an automated system at a slightly different interval that would play over the top of it), that was really annoying.

I'm waiting for my connection to be sorted out, i spoke the the nice man sitting in his little car (with ntl written on it) and he said it could sort it out to be installed by thrusday....i recived a text on thursday (sometime, i like my phone roam free when i'm at home so i miss these things) anyway it'll be installed on monday, which is still better than my house mate who ordered her phone line and tv ages ago and she doesn't get it til wednesday

anyway, lecture over now, i'm off to buy a router....and cut holes in my door frame >_>

Aargh! You frame mangling horror! Go on, treat yourself to a spot of wireless kit. It's luvverly, and means one less cable to get knotted up at the back of the machine.

And cute little antennae on the back , not to mention the ability to irradiate anyone who sleeps on your couch (though that's just the layout of my house).

I was worried about the speed of wireless (for streaming videos from my house fileserver to the media center) but after testing it works fine .

We're on NTL broadband - speed boost; huzzah! (Now download speed is 86.5 KB/s)

A few initial problems, but it was sorted out quickly. Since then, the service has been pretty solid, although a few email problems from time to time (However, I now try to use GMail, primarily)
We're also on a wireless setup, which was a pain to get configured, but it's a dream once it is. It just... works. Occasionally my wireless router doesn't get itself an address, so I have to replug it, but that's it.

Incidentally, it can't be irradiating people, because that would have to be waves shorter than visible light - meaning it would most likely pass through walls and people, meaning that it wouldn't be affected by people moving around/posistion of the router.

Well duh, you think they would allow people to sell wireless kit if it irradiated people.

ok, I have a dilemma...should I have the main socket put into my living room and get wireless so I can use my computer in my bedroom without any wires all over the place or should I just have the plug thing put into my room (on the 3rd floor).

It's more flexable if I have it in the living room but it's easier for me (because I know nothing) to just shove it in my room.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Depends if you want to spend 30 - 40 odd quid on a broadband router and a similar amount for a access point then 20 - 30 quid for a wireless card (going on ebay prices, because thats where I buy all my kit - yes, I'm cheap). Having said that most companies hideously overcharge for ethernet cables and there's not much way around it unless you crimp your own or know someone with crimping tools and a big reel of cable lying around (in which case a cable costing 20 quid in a shop will set you back less than a fiver).

Wireless would probably be the best option anyways when you get some housemates and such. Not sure about NTL but telewest require you to have the computer near to the socket when they install because they only support Windows PCs or Macs and need to use the PC to set it up, then you can move the PC and set up the router when they have gone.

You only need one main router, and then a small unit for each PC in the house. The broadband modem plugs straight into the main router, which broadcasts to the rest of the house.
Oh, make sure you use WEP - otherwise anyone can use your connection.

*smiles and nods as she slowly backs away from the techno babble*

Maybe I should have been more specific - I was quoting for an access point without a built in router and a seperate router, which in my opinion is more flexible. Alternatively, do what FishFace said and get a single access point/router combo - the cost will be the same overall but there is less flexibility.

ARGH!!!

They came and installed my broadband on Thursday but it doesn't work!! I spent ages on the phone to the tech support people on Friday night and they basically told me they didn't have a clue what was wrong and that someone would phone me to arrange for an engineer to come out - yay!
They haven't disconnected my phone though, which is nice seeing as it came in useful for calling tech support but they said it would be disconnected on Friday, it's Monday and I'm using my dial up...I should ring them on Wednesday and see what's happening if they don't ring me tomorrow to sort something out!

gah.

They mucked up my connection on Friday when i moved into my new place, the engineers came around and did there job. But the desk jockeys did not rearrange my connection to my new flat until i phoned them today!.

ntl engineer who installed my housemates phone and tv let me use his tools to take up a carpet rail and drill a hole in my wall, nice bloke HUGE drill

You're just rubbing it in now.

At least I don't need a huge drill to feel manly...oh wait

ARGH!
I just spent an hour and a half on hold to tech support after they diverted me there from customer services, then I dropped the phone and it hung up so I gave up.
Can I sue them for councelling bills do you think?

My account is apparently stuck in pending, I had to phone them up earlier and I asked the guy I spoke to if he could check on it's progress and he said it was still stuck in pending and the he was really sorry.

I nearly died of shock, someone from Ntl actually appologising

Uhm... I'm kinda worried now...

'cause you see, when we moved here we watned anything other than BT but BT was the only company that offered broadband in our area... and after living in Seattle with 1.5 we didn't think we'd be able to survive dial-up. BT was junk, they were a bunch of jerks that didn't want to take care of us (until a week of calling every day and holding for up to an hour), that didn't do what they said they would when they said they would, and just generally made me mad.

Now we're moving and BT doesn't offer broadband in our area which automatically gets us out of our contract which is exciting! We get NTL! Life is good until I find this thread... Hrmph

go ahead and pick up a few books, here are some that have kept me entertained:
Stranger in a Strange Land- Robert Heinlein
Another Roadside Attraction- Tom Robbins
The Brothers Karamazov- Fydor Dostoyevsky

Those are three of the great ones...go ahead and check 'em out

I don't need books, I need broadband!

*sobs*

My broadband disconnects itself all the time and you have to turn everything off and wait for 3 hours for it to sort itself out... and it always does it when I've got an important essay to research and I've spent the week procrastinating and it has to be in the next morning, that kind of thing...

I have been using it. outlook express email problems and outlook express recovery tool more stable and secure than other programs.

*

So, nearly a year later and this is all I have to say about NTL...

I would rather have all communication to the outside world cut off than deal with NTL.

Dog help you all if I get on a rant, I swear. The amount of hate mail I have sent this company might fill your chimney, if it's a fairly small chimney.

Last week, when the "Customer Service" representative picked up my call (after waiting 25 minutes) he asked for my 'password', which I have no recollection of, so he says okay, what's your date of birth, bank, and bill pay method? Which I supply to him, and he tells me that he can't discuss the details of the account with me because NONE of the information I have given him is correct. He says just hang on while I put you in the queue for this other department and I'm all 'NO, I have been waiting this long and I know my own date of birth and I refuse to stay on hold again and I'm calling because I've been promised twice in the last two days that a manager will call me back which they haven't. Check the account number, check this, check that!'

...

I will not discuss the details of this account with you, you have given me all the wrong information.

so I give the phone to jonman, so that I don't throw it and need NTL for some other repair, and he waits for the next person, tells them the exact information I told them "And how can I help you today?"

ARGH! Stupid company should track these calls so they know who answered what so *someone* can be held accountable for times when they see a customer has complained recently and they just don't want to deal with it so they lie and say that you don't know your own date of birth.

I would swear but it's matazone.

Grrrr

I just don't get it, NTL have always been nice and helpful to me. It's weird to see people having such agro from them. Maybe it's because I use NTL in Wales?