Ireland Today: A case study in poor customer relations

I don't think I have ever heard a commercial company come in for more criticism from its customers than cable television company NTL did on Joe Duffy's Liveline programme. The company decided to increase its prices and apply a surcharge on those customers who failed to pay by direct debit. Both decisions annoyed many but it was NTL's customer service operation, or lack of it, which really irked people. Many had spent days trying to make contact by phone but without success. Some even found a Dublin address but it was always closed. The few who eventually got through to report faults were told that a repair engineer would call in three weeks. NTL refused to talk to RTÉ, claiming that it only dealt directly with its customers, causing hoots of derision from those who had failed to make contact. The Irish Times later suggested that, as the company would soon change its name to UPC, it wasn't too concerned about the bad publicity.