Call Centre Changes

[Trevellion]

I signed up to NowTV broadband primarily because they had UK call centres.  Until recently, on the rare occasions I did have to contact the call centre due to technical or billing issues, I was always connected to a Northern Ireland call centre.  Their service was excellent; any issues were dealt with promptly and usually only took one call to resolve.  

It seems NowTV have switched to Indian call centres as that is all I have been able to contact regarding my latest problem.  They have been a disaster and reminded me why I wanted to sign up to a provider with UK call centres.

I have tried contacting them about a billing issue half a dozen times now.  Each time, they say I need to speak to a manager and they will arrange for one to call me.  I never get a call back so have to chase them again.  I'm just being fobbed off continually.  It feels like Groundhog Day as I'm stuck in a loop making no headway.  I did receive an email indicating that they sent me an earlier email about my issue which explained what to do if I still needed help and telling me to reply to that earlier email.  Of course, no earlier email had been sent.  

I sent a complaint to NowTV but have not received a response or even an acknowledgement.  Customer service is dreadful now.  I want to switch to another provider at the earliest opportunity and would caution anyone considering joining NowTV.

[gizz · Accepted solution]

Good Luck getting them to follow their own complaints code of practice as well - i have also been stuck in a loop with a complaint i raised in August which they keep closing without resolving.  They always say someone from complaints will call me back but they never do. They don't want to escalate to the complaints team at all but just keep repeating the same stock answers to me that they can do nothing about. So i say ok, i appreciate you can't resolve it so put me through to complaints team - tell me they will do and someone will call me back - NOTHING.  Even if you raise a complaint directly on the website - it says you will hear back in 24 hours - but NOTHING - and then after a while they just close it.  Happened to me 3 times. 

[Jpllll]

Hi, afraid I can’t offer any help but I’m also experiencing the same issues.

I’ve been a NowTV broadband customer for over 5 years, and have always loved their customer service - quick, friendly, helpful and always immediately connected to a UK call centre (usually NI as you say). Just tried calling to renew my contract and not only do you now have to jump through several irritating and confusing security hoops, I was connected to a non-UK call centre with a really unfriendly and unhelpful guy on the phone.

such a shame and think it may be time to leave Now for me

[Frustrated]

@Trevellion I agree. For moving home, I had contacted them at-least 4 times and every time there was a lot of background noise which made it difficult to hear. At 15th minute, the agent said she is not able to hear me and was about to disconnect the phone; till I literally shouted, post which she was able to listen. The HOLD time was extremely high.

[ownwonnow]

Probably split between legit NOW/Sky stuff and scam call centre stuff.

[gavs82008]

@ownwonnow 

Depends where you are getting the number to call. Many people have googled it in the paid to complain about being charged for it, despite that it is a 0800 number and findable albeit it not easily on the NOW website. 

[RoyB]

@ownwonnow 

How’s that tinfoil helmet coming along? 😛

[chilli2]

I've never had to call the call centre, although i know that Sky closed one of their centres in Derby in the midlands down.

As mentioned ive been lucky in the no problems side of things, and on the odd time something has gone wrong i have been usually been able to sort it myself.

I'm often puzzled why people need to contact call centres so much ,if they are calling due to  issues refelcted on whats posted on the Now forums then these are down to ignorance/lack of basic knowledge .

 My last contact with Now was a your deal is almost over.... do nothing and keep what youve got at the same price, the second one of those i have had ptting me into the third year on Now - no need to do anything just sit back and it all works ( so far)

 As for foreign call centres, my personal concern is that of data security - a lot of scams do seem to come from India and Cusotmer support will need to have access to lots of personal data that can be used to cause difficulties should there be a breach.

 As for UK based call centres, I can name two ISPs that still have them, one being plusnet and the other Zen

[STEVEMC64]

@Trevellion I’m currently experiencing the very same issues.. I’ve only had it for a week.. big mistake changing to NOW TV and would warn against anyone else who is considering changing their BB.

DONT DO IT!!

[RoyB]

@STEVEMC64 

You have a 14-day cooling-off period. Act quickly if you want to change your mind,