An ISP or a practical joke? (Telewest)

Member Name: Miro05

Product:	Telewest
Date:	07/01/06 (376 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, and thats about it...

Disadvantages: Lost for words...

With so many different companies nowadays offering you single price packages for your TV, Telephone and Internet service, it becomes harder and harder to choose the best deal. After spending over a month trying to find the deal of my dreams, I stumbled across Telewest Broadband… and what a mistake it was…

When people say that "you should learn from your mistakes", I never listened. Within the first week of purchase, I realised what they meant.

My troubles and Telewest's struggle for survival, begun even before my digital box and broadband were installed. When Telewest say that they would handle everything, from installing the service, to switching over your telephone line from BT, they usually mean just installing it… 3 weeks after the acknowledged date… And even then, they couldn't get it right, as their technician had no idea what to do! After the installation, another week was waited "patiently" for them to dispatch another technician to actually connect us up to the network, as the previous "forgot".

By the end of the first month, I have not only paid Telewest for their so called "services", but doubled the cost as they "forgot" to switch my telephone line from BT. Another "patient" week went past…without a telephone connection.

By now I thought that Telewest seemed to be very… "Forgetful". Little did I know that things were just about to do my "patience"…

The next couple of months went without a hitch, or at least until they decided that they would cut off my internet. That was the end of my "patience", and I would have hated to have been on the receiving end of the late evening telephone call.

The bright side of this story is that Telewest at least had the decency to offer compensation for the time and hassle they wasted me. However, speaking in a financial point of view, I am happy to be getting 204 channels, 1Meg broadband and a Telephone line for only £44 a month. But the question I ask myself is…"Is £44 a month worth the hassle and stress?". There are many different packages that Telewest offers, starting from different prices, which include different features, and for a fact I know that with each one, you receive the same customer care and respect as I have described to you. Many of my friends are very disappointed with the service, so this is not only my opinion.

To criticise further, their customer support needs serious work, which will take a long time to get it to at least a good standard. The waiting time of 40min, and then the continuous switching between departments, and more waiting time, and then to find out that after been transferred to god knows how many people, you find yourself where you started, gets on your nerves…And by the time you talk to someone who CAN actually help you, you've forgotten why you've called!

Telewest in my point of view can be named as the Law of SOD… with a difference: When you think "Why does it always happen to me", next time consider that when you use a Telewest service, it's way more people than just you… Telewest… you HAVE let yourselves down!

Summary: Telwest have let themselves down...And to treat customers this may...? It makes you sick!