NTHell

[Inforfun]

Mainly posting this for people who are doubting which isp to sign up with.

I ve been with NTL since february 2005 and till december 2006 i did not have a single complaint about them. Speedtests showed always a 5.9 mb dl and a 512 kb ul. In other words, getting what iu was paying for.
1 little issue about downloading too much but that was due to their user policy stating "download over 1 gb a day bla bla bla" causing me to think that the 40gb cap is for downloading only.

Now.. after NTL was taken over by UPC and started their promotion for broadband and digital tv for 6 months for 10 euro a month my connection went belly up. Only times i could get the "old" 5,9mb/512kb with speedtest was during daytime or at night. Times i am either sleeping or at work (also sleeping).

After 1 week i thought calling their customer support and ask what was going on could be an idea. Well... worst idea ever. Tried to get some kind of support by calling them for 3 months. Every time being promised a call back from bb support and later on managers to call me.
i must have been calling them at least 50 times. About 5 calls back on those 50....
2x bb support telling me to reboot the modem (*sigh*) and once telling me straight that people like myself are causing the problems because i supposedly used way more than the 40 gb a month.
When i asked how much i had used i got this perfect example of what kind of brainless twats are working there: you used 25 gb down and 17 gb up so you used 47 gb this month.......... nuff said i guess.
After 3 months i canceled my direct debit but they keep sending bills, the poor sods.
4x an engineer was supposed to drop by, saw only 1 who left after 4 minutes saying they will contact me for a line check. You guessed right... still waiting (3 weeks now)

At the moment i just send emails every day to which they don't reply either of course (apart from the auto responder)

For me it is quiet obvious what is going on, NTL is taking many more subscriptions than their infrastructure can handle. As soon as the clock hits 5/5.30 my upload speed is basically nil. Which makes online gaming, browsing the web and everything else to do with the internet a very retro experience. It behaves like a 9600 baud modem.

I read comments here from people who pay for the 6mb package, get 2 or 3 mb dl and then say " i guess i cant complain when i see the other stories here"
Damn right you can and should complain, you are not getting what you are paying for. When you pay for a Ferrari you will not get yourself send home in a Fiat Punto either, do you?

So, if you think about getting an bb connection with NTL/UPC.... DONT!!! Stay away from them unless you are a masochist.
You will not get what you pay for as it comes to speed and their customer support is non existent, a bunch of Muppets.

[.:iE/Dixy]

Nice review mate and although i am not with NTL it is a common theme running through almost all isp's these days they are so intend on signing up new customers that they seem to ignore the fact that it takes infastructural improvements and additional support staff to get it right. But it seems the old irish attitude still prevails, ah sure i would only be annoying them if i phoned and complained. If we continue to let them away with poor QOS and useless support they will just continue to do it

[toloko]

Well I can confirm every word and even add more.

In shortcut I can say NTL is the worst company I was ever dealing with in my life.

So I had there service for about year and it was fine, I mean never was 6 mibs but 2 was constantly, till they merge.

After they merge my signal SNR dropped to 21, where around 30 is down norm limit and to service work normally you need at least 38. I had 43 % of loss on ping to NTL gateway, internet stop to work it was February. So I called them and they asked me if blue wire is connected to modem, well in my case RJ-45 are grey and I am network professional so it was.

After some time of calling them around 12- 15 times they said they will send tech to my home. Well tech came and said what I already knew quality of signal is too low. He said that he will inform L2 tech and in week or two it will be fixed. After 2 weeks it was very same or maybe worst so I called again and they told me they need to send tech to my home. I said but tech was in my home problem is not in my home problem is signal you deliver to me. They said they can’t say they need to send tech to my home I said ok. So again tech come and he said your signal is no good I will inform L2 tech I said OK. After to weeks no improvement, so sent them emails with screenshots of beautiful ping with 40 % of loss. No answer. I started to call again and they told me that they can send tech to my home.

Lol do you remember “Brasil”.

So I realised that they don’t have CRM system they don’t know what I am talking about and communication with them is waste of time. Because my contract was year contract and was due to finish I said to myself well I hate to admit it but its time to take Eircom. So I did.

My contract was finished with them in April so I paid last bill and ordered Eircom. In May they sent me next bill saying if you don’t pay we will disconnect you. I was like there is noting to disconnect you disconnected me already on the beginning of February so I ignored it. Then in June they sent me next bill saying if you will not pay we will disconnect you, at this time Eircom was working in my home second month. In meantime few people from them call me saying that I am eligible to something I told all of them please disconnect all I don’t want it. I never realised it was their heavy marketing action and this people are just temporarily employed students with no contact with accounts.

So when they sent me 3th bill saying if u wont pay we will disconnect you, I realised that it might take them next year or two to realise that my contract with them was finished in April.

So I called them, during waiting nice voice was informing me that their product is so popular that they can’t answer my call now.

I said that I want disconnect their service on the beginning they ware not sure what I am talking about again and was asking me if I want connect I said no I want disconnect.

Lady told me ok I will transfer you to cancellation and she hung up.(sic)

So I call again and said please transfer me to cancellation lady said I am transferring U and she hung up.(sic)

After 3 attempts like that I called and said you don’t transfer me nowhere and I want talk to cancellations they finally transferred me. Guy from cancellations asked what I want to do I said I want cancel my account he said “Wait a second” and he hung up.(sic)

***sic***

Well I guess I need to send them official registered letter.

Any way If u want to have problems choose NTL.

[sound]

As long as they get you up and running they don't care after that
It's you ringing them allways getting those stupid time wasting robots.
I've othen spent a half hour or more aiting to talk to someone at ntl
And knowing that they'll probably fill me up with crap again.
I'm not an it personal, maybe i could be..
But ntl have plenty money to porvide a better after support service,
even the service they have is thrown together, what's it like for business
users? i'm a home user, do business users have a clue other than know they're
connected to the web?

I was doin a speed test again for the seventeen houndred time this year
Found this site siad id ask for some advice.. on me ntl post..

[sound]

Has anybody started a voting group for ntl to improve their services?
Not just the quality of their support, but their actual services.

[Inforfun]

Personally i am more for a tooled up mob and pay NTL a visit.
Baseball bats would be the preferred tool.

[sound]

That's one vote anybody else,
must a few thousand of us out there

[markhitman06]

This is why I love this site, I was with clearwire for nearly two years and they were a joke, if you check the clearwire forums it will give you a laugh. This is what this site is about, people giving advice and helping each other by making sure we dont buy from a bad ISP. I have been trying to find ISP to sign up with but there doesn't seem to be any good ones out there. But ill keep going through the reviews to see if a good ISP comes around. Keep the reviews coming.

[sound]

Hey been a while wow

I'm still with ntl and it's not all that bad
My main issues now is that they make soo many millions every years
I mean irish broadband companies in general,
But none of them can offer unlimited bandwidth like other companies
around europe and in the us, i think that's kind of hungry.
I'm on their broadband max extra and 40gigs a month is crap
The week after xmass i read a letter they sent me before xmass
about going over my monthly allowance and could be suspended.

If you watched 2 movies per night, my guess is that's at least 2gig or more
That's 14 gigs a week not a lot at all?
That's 56gigs a month and you've gone over by 16 gigs
How crap is that, time for some proper company that cares about the people
and can offer their customer what they want not what the company wants.
Paying for anything less is just a joke but a need service for most.

[markhitman06]

Why is there a limit, you pay to use the internet and whatever else is on it, and yet they think they can tell you how much you can take from the net...its a joke

[sound]

I dunno it's pritty stupid
When i rang about my exceding my monthly limit
The guy sugested i download du meter, it's handy to
see what i'm doin, last mont i was 40.1 gigs
But it's not gonna stop me doin what i should be able to
40gig! i don't think even 100gigs is asking for much
What if you wanted to run a personal server and stream
a broadcast from your own system, well you won't be for long.
I just can't get around the fact that these companies are allowed
offer different amounts of bandwidth, when we should be able to
have one unlimited package like any professional company offer.

Should be some serious changes
Rip off ireland