Watchdog Slaps NTL For Complaints
Posted: 14th Jan, 2006 By: MarkJ
UK-Bug has spotted an interesting report on the BBC's Watchdog (consumer affairs) website, which digs its heels into NTL after having received roughly 1,700 complaints. The report also includes a statement from NTL, which tries to put things into perspective:
It's been a busy few months since NTL was last featured on Watchdog in February 2005. It's set to become the UK's largest cable operator when it merges with main rival Telewest in a deal worth more than £6 billion, and it's currently planning to buy Virgin Mobile for over £800 million. However, despite telling Watchdog last year that NTL would invest £100 million in customer service, we have received a further 1,700 complaints about the company.
Since its inception, NTL has expanded massively, and its move to acquire Virgin Mobile shows that it remains ambitious. However, it would seem that it still has major problems with the service it provides to its existing customers. Will further expansion simply mean further frustration for those who sign up to join NTL in the future?
NTL's Statement:
We agree that the standard of service experienced by the customers featured on your programme is unacceptable and we apologise to them and to any other customers who have experienced similar problems. We have investigated each of the cases, and have taken action to resolve the matters and to learn from them to help avoid future repetition.
However, to put the cases into perspective: today, NTL has 3.3 million residential customers using over 6 million services. In the past 12 months we managed the process of moving home for over 350,000 customers and received 24 million calls about a wide variety of matters. Yet, the number of complaints reduced to 0.31 per cent and customer recommendation has improved by two per cent over the past four months. While any complaint is one too many, we have seen real progress through 2005 with the number of complaints received directly by NTL falling by over ten per cent.
Those of you that fancy reading the whole piece may do so here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/reports/consumer/consumer_20060111.shtml
It's been a busy few months since NTL was last featured on Watchdog in February 2005. It's set to become the UK's largest cable operator when it merges with main rival Telewest in a deal worth more than £6 billion, and it's currently planning to buy Virgin Mobile for over £800 million. However, despite telling Watchdog last year that NTL would invest £100 million in customer service, we have received a further 1,700 complaints about the company.
Since its inception, NTL has expanded massively, and its move to acquire Virgin Mobile shows that it remains ambitious. However, it would seem that it still has major problems with the service it provides to its existing customers. Will further expansion simply mean further frustration for those who sign up to join NTL in the future?
NTL's Statement:
We agree that the standard of service experienced by the customers featured on your programme is unacceptable and we apologise to them and to any other customers who have experienced similar problems. We have investigated each of the cases, and have taken action to resolve the matters and to learn from them to help avoid future repetition.
However, to put the cases into perspective: today, NTL has 3.3 million residential customers using over 6 million services. In the past 12 months we managed the process of moving home for over 350,000 customers and received 24 million calls about a wide variety of matters. Yet, the number of complaints reduced to 0.31 per cent and customer recommendation has improved by two per cent over the past four months. While any complaint is one too many, we have seen real progress through 2005 with the number of complaints received directly by NTL falling by over ten per cent.
Those of you that fancy reading the whole piece may do so here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/reports/consumer/consumer_20060111.shtml
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