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 Review by Cuchulainn 
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 7.6 years, 606 visits, last login: 15 days ago
 Chevy Chase,Montgomery,MD
 $61 per month (12 month contract)
 about 28 days
 "cable install ok; connection is pretty reliable"
 "random outages (especially e-mail); horrid Indian call centre support"
 "OK for the moment - but rubbish at the end"
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
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I moved house in late July from a blueyonder city to an NTL city. I spoke to NTL in June and they really were very good about taking the order and co-ordinating the install (more on this later as there was one non-internet related hiccup). Within 30 minutes I had a definite install date and all the user info I needed. I was able to arrange install the Monday after a three-week holiday - exactly on the date that suited me. I opted for the 1meg service plus digital cable for 2 TVs.
The install went well except for one minor hiccup - they were supposed to install 2 STBs but only had one on the order. They could not simply go back to the truck and get another box: the second box had to be installed another day..whatever. I wound up waiting almost three weeks for the second box to be installed.
On the morning of the install, the first set of techs arrived at 0930 to pull the cable from the street onto the property. At 10:30 I got a call saying that the second set of techs were on the way - they arrived at noon. Work went well and they had me (very neatly) installed by 1330. I was a bit surprised when the tech told me I'dhave to set up the cable modem myself - he left me with the modem and an install disk. I was able to get everything up and running, however I have a suspicion that the install disk may have corrupted my hard disk as I wound up having to reinstall XP the next day. Service is dynamic IP and noPPPoE or other junk.
Once I rebuilt the XP box, I stuck a router on the front end and things have been pretty trouble free ever since. Speeds are right on the money and fairly consistent, although ping times can go up considerably in the evenings. I have had one or two random, unexplained outages and about a week where they were having massive DNS server trouble but that's been pretty much it.
My chief gripes are related to e-mail and speed. NTL has random, unexplained e-mail difficulties. I have tried everything and have simply resolved myself to the fact that their mail is pants. On the speed front, I would gladly pay more for 2Mb but NTL does not offer it and as far as I know has no plans to.
Overall I am happy with my service.
UPDATE - August 2006 -
OK, it's been a while since I updated. My gripe about speed has gone away. In 2004 I got bumped to 3meg and now we are on 10 meg - and the price has gone down by a fiver from STG 39.99 to STG 34.99. The 10 meg upgrade was rocky - there was a two week period when the connection was very flaky but all seems well now. Overall I am satisfied but would be ecstatic if they would lift upload speeds to 1meg. Seems to hover somewhere around 500-750.
UPDATE - January 2007
I am leaving NTL in March and quite frankly it is not soon enough.
I have received a blizzard of emails and crap through the post describing how NTL is now going to rebrand itself as Virgin. Whoopee. How incredibly nice for you. I bet your mom is so proud. Why don't you take some of that money and try improving Customer Service?
NTL's basic attitude is "We don't care and you're stuck with it." One of many examples:I had to spend over an hour on the phone yesterday to make arrangements to disconnect my service. When I phoned back to the direct number the CSR had given me to provide some additional information, I got put through to Telewest; from there it was another half an hour to get transfered back to Newcastle only to be told that the CSR was unavailable and - get this- she couldn't put me on hold. No matter how I pleaded or begged, she simply wouldn't help me and could not care less.
There is no way to get any customer service without spending an hour on the phone to surly Geordie housewives or clueless call center staff in India. And even then, chances are you'll walk away disappointed. You'll be told that "you must be running peer to peer programs or you have a virus" or you will get no more information from them than the recorded drone at the start of the call.
They've built a careful fortress of delay and dissembling that makes sure their support is crap. And the most galling thing is that they're constantly moaning about how they are working to improve customer service. Utter nonsense....
Service has grown increasingly flaky over the last couple of months. Who wants to bet that Sir Richard gets fed up with this shower of w***ers in about six months and gets out?
I cannot wait to go back to Verizon/Comcast - they've got to be better than this mess!
NTL: as Eric Cartman says "you suck b*lls!"
UPDATE Feb 06 2007:
WOO HOO! Just placed an order for 15/2 FiOS at my new crib for 25 quid a month. Suck my b*lls NTL!!!
WOO HOO Update! FIOS Rocks! and NTLVirginBlueYonder still sucks! I can't even get these pestilent crapheads to send me my final bill.
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