NTL:Hell

[DaveW]

NTL. I hate them with a passion. I spent half an hour talking to some guy in India who couldn't find my account only to be passed through to Customer Services in England. When the guy picked up, he said "All our systems are down, we can only take general enquiries." Not exactly sure even what department i was through to, i said "Sorry what was that?" to which he replied "Obviously you weren't listening. Our systems are down. We can only do general enquiries."

Shocked at his rudeness, i paused for a few second: then i heard a click, like he had hung up. Not certain if he had, i said "Hello?" to which he replied "Yes, i'm waiting for you to speak."

I told him i needed an engineer, and he put me back through to a different department back in india which handles television faults.

Goodbye NTL, you were the worst ISP i've ever had. 75% data loss and hidden caps on an 'unlimited' connection is not what i expect in this day and age, so screw you.

Guess what? I'm not the only one who's sick of their ****. (http://forums.ntlhell.co.uk/)

Bah. [/rant]

-Dave

[AJ@PR]

Damn man... that sucks.

I hate freaking never-ending phone hoops and people that just don't get it.
I'm amazed that you kept your cool...
When I make such calls, I always start up Notepad and jot down date, time, phone number called, menu options picked (REAL time saver when you re-make the call), and, at the start of the conversation, I politely ask:
Hello. May I please have your full name.

They usually don't expect that, and realize that you're not one of the 'regular callers'.

Just yesterday, I went through phone hell with Best Buy.
Quick re-cap::: I have to send back a video camera that's not working.
The video camera has the Best Buy 4 years replacement program.
I call them, and they tell me I have to take it into a store personally.
I explain to them, that I live in Puerto Rico... There are no Best Buy stores in this small beautiful island.
(( camera was bought in Virginia ))
They tell me, that I have to take it in personally.
Hello?!?! I'm telling you, there's isn't a Best Buy here...
yadda yadda yadda...

So, my 'special' situation went more special, when they pass me over to "International" or something.
"International" is going great, until they ask me for my country code.
I tell them I have no ""country code"".
They ask what do I have.
I've got a ZIP code woman, just like the rest of the USA.
They're baffled.
They're out of their usual script.
They're thinking for the first time in two weeks.

So they transfer me over to Best Buy "USA or normal inquiries".
I explain my situation.
Check this out::: They tell me to send the camera to Samsung, have it repaired, then send them (Best Buy) a letter explaining the situation, and asking for a refund of the Samsung repair costs.
HAHAHhahaha.
Wait, one more time....
HAAHAHAHAHAAHAhaahahaha AHAHAHAHAHAAA

Yeah. A-Ha. And THAT's going to happen.
I say no-way, I'm going to get stuck in company bureaucratic hell.
They say that's the only option.
I say I know the Better Business Bureau contact information.
They're preparing a letter for me to send them asking for the Samsung refund.
Let's see where this goes.


DaveW, sorry for the hi-jack.
I guess, I felt compelled to join in on the bashing of corporate stupidity.
Sorry for the crappy service your ISP gave you.

Side-question::: What speed do you guys run 'normally'?
We run (DSL) at 1MB download and 0.5 up... or at least, we should.

Peace DaveW
AJ

[DaveW]

DaveW, sorry for the hi-jack.
I guess, I felt compelled to join in on the bashing of corporate stupidity.
Sorry for the crappy service your ISP gave you.

Don't worry about it man...everyone needs to vent. This is just another in a long string of British piss-takes. For example, as i'm chucking NTL i might lose the cable TV. But who cares, as i can't watch it as the HD TV i've ordered for christmas isn't anywhere to be found. Neither is the Wii that i should by all right have, but Play.com f*cked up. They were, on the other hand, nice enough to send me my copy of Zelda. Great. I get the feeling some poor kid out there has a Wii and no games.

I'm now going down to the post office to pick up my mail. They ALWAYS lose my mail. And i'm in a bad mood so they bloody better not have, not today.



Side-question::: What speed do you guys run 'normally'?
We run (DSL) at 1MB download and 0.5 up... or at least, we should.

I don't even know, about the same but with a much lower upload i think.

-Dave

[Airbozo]

Jeez, I feel lucky with my connection experience. I have cable with an upload of 512, dl of 8meg and I have only once had an issue with them. They were installing extra lines (I _was_ at the end of the line for a couple years), and disconnected my line. They were back on the scene within an hour and had it fixed (I knew they disconnected me because I could see the cable dangling from the pole). I only had to make one call _and_ got a local (within 15 miles) person who dispatched the tech while I was listening.

Dave, I understand the mail thing too. We have some real winners working in our local P.O. and every once in a while (once a month at most) they seem to be off 2 houses with mail. It happens to every house in my hood at the same time (25 of us), so we just swap mail. Because of all the junkmail we get I know if my box is empty, they screwed up.

[DaveW]

Dave, I understand the mail thing too. We have some real winners working in our local P.O. and every once in a while (once a month at most) they seem to be off 2 houses with mail. It happens to every house in my hood at the same time (25 of us), so we just swap mail. Because of all the junkmail we get I know if my box is empty, they screwed up.

Yup, they have lost my mail. I can't believe this. Some of you might remember when XmasTree sent me a touchpad from an ibook. I found that one in a puddle in my back garden.

I'm in such a bad mood right now. My brother has suggested some game playing, so i'm going to play Perfect Dark on his 360 for a while to try and relax.

-Dave

[chedabob]

NTL is fine for me. OK, the DNS responses are quite slow, but it works great for me. The tv is also good aswell.

Maybe its just your area.


Anyway, how come you have to go collect your mail?

[nil8]

Hidden caps is what would bug me the most. ISP's need to lay their **** down honestly or lose business and fall apart.

I hate to sound like a super nerd, but I am. Before I join an ISP I find out as much as I can about them, the services they provide and their rate of customer satisfaction. A reverse interview if you will. 'Customer service representatives' hate me because I ask for actual data, not just a line of tripe.

I currently have a 3mb/512k line. It's only failed once, for 10 hours, and it was due to this wonderful storm we had recently.

As for your PO problems, you have every right to be super pissed about that. There is no reason for a postal service to be that bad.

[DaveW]

If i'm not in, it gets returned to the depot. Assuming it makes it back there, which it hasn't in this case.

It's my dad's present, so it had better turn up sometime soon. I'll go back tomorrow and have a fight with them.


As for your PO problems, you have every right to be super pissed about that. There is no reason for a postal service to be that bad.

An old law in the UK says that any Royally Endorsed company, i.e. the Royal Mail, can't have competition. It's being overturned next year, allowing the market to open up. I'm looking forward to that. :)

-Dave

[Airbozo]

...
I'm in such a bad mood right now. My brother has suggested some game playing, so i'm going to play Perfect Dark on his 360 for a while to try and relax.

-Dave

Given the circumstances, shouldn't you be playing this game;
http://www.gopostal.com/

[AJ@PR]

An old law in the UK says that any Royally Endorsed company, i.e. the Royal Mail, can't have competition. It's being overturned next year, allowing the market to open up. I'm looking forward to that. :)
The UK is going to be Royally Pissed about that.


Given the circumstances, shouldn't you be playing this game;
http://www.gopostal.com/
There goes AJ's afternoon...

[DaveW]

Given the circumstances, shouldn't you be playing this game;
http://www.gopostal.com/

I've made some Chicken soup and shot some guys in the head. I feel a little better now, so i'm getting back to work on the new and improved TBCS. Whoops, did i let a little teaser slip? :think:

-Dave

[chedabob]

Lemme guess, its gonna be all web 2.0, with reflections and buzzwords?

[DaveW]

Lemme guess, its gonna be all web 2.0, with reflections and buzzwords?

No. We're adding in a little button that makes a bell noise when you click on it. You're going to love it.

-Dave

[AJ@PR]

No. We're adding in a little button that makes a bell noise when you click on it. You're going to love it.

-Dave
OoO OooO OO!!!
Can I press it?!
Can I???

Pleeeasseee!....

..........

Seriously:::
A new look for TBCS?
Wow... I like the present one, so I'm sure this new one will be even better.
Interesting...

Totally Side-Question:::
Is there any way to display 25 posts per page?
I realize that 10 is the standard, and the servers would go crazy if some clown loaded 500 posts in one page.
Just a question. :)

[tybrenis]

An old law in the UK says that any Royally Endorsed company, i.e. the Royal Mail, can't have competition.

Ahh, socialism at it's finest.

.... I've never heard that before, thank god their changing it, I can't believe that is still true in this day and age.

[chedabob]

OoO OooO OO!!!
Totally Side-Question:::
Is there any way to display 25 posts per page?
I realize that 10 is the standard, and the servers would go crazy if some clown loaded 500 posts in one page.
Just a question. :)

Its in your personal preferences somewhere. I have it at 50, makes worklogs much easier to read.

[DaveW]

I have it at 50, makes worklogs much easier to read.

I also had it at 50 for a while, but the page kept jumping when images were loading, so i switched it back.


OoO OooO OO!!!
Can I press it?!
Can I???

Pleeeasseee!....

Hmm...no. Oh, all right then. But only once.

-Dave

[Airbozo]

OoO OooO OO!!!
Can I press it?!
Can I???

Pleeeasseee!....

..........

...

I will only use it if it is a big shiny red button that says: "Do Not Press".