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Poor Customer Service Revenge
Man changes ISP outgoing message, wins in court
A frustrated customer of the UK broadband provider NTL was tired of being put on hold, so he found the right combination of keypad presses to change the company's outgoing message. That message became: "Hello, you are through to NTL customer services. We don't give a f*ck about you, basically, and we're not going to handle any of your complaints. Just f*ck off and leave us alone. Get a life." NTL called the cops, but a court ruled in his favor because the message was not deemed "grossly offensive".
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goldy5
join:2000-11-14
Augusta, GA

goldy5

Member

This Rates Three Stars!!

And Three Cheers for he Guy!

Plasticman
Will Work For Bandwidth
Premium Member
join:2002-09-06
Johnston, RI

Plasticman

Premium Member

Re: This Rates Three Stars!!

Maybe I will see if I can do it for my ISP

Plasticman
DonLibes

join:2003-01-19

DonLibes

Re: This Rates Three Stars!!

One question: How come the Guardian can use "fuck" and, here at dslreports.com, we have to get our news expurgated and see "f*ck"? Even the Washington Post will print "fuck" if it's in a direct quotation (cf Cheney).

Jerm
join:2000-04-10
Richland, WA

Jerm

Member

BBR stands for?

B*tch B*tch Repeat.

So its censord. Who the f*ck cares...

**** **** ****** ****

Doci
Toothless Fairy
join:2003-02-01

Doci to DonLibes

Member

to DonLibes

Re: This Rates Three Stars!!

They also show naked women in their newspapers. Here it would be bloody murder.

a
@204.113.x.x

a to DonLibes

Anon

to DonLibes
lol, careful, someone might come to your doorstep & say you are under arrest for using the word fuck...
whocares0
Premium Member
join:2003-07-26
..

whocares0 to goldy5

Premium Member

to goldy5

Poor Customer Service Revenge

PLZ, OH P L E A S E , someone show me how to do this to a lot of companies I call, sure wish i know this mans email addie i would be writing him for instruction ,even pay him for the information,"jazzy"

a
@qwest.net

a to goldy5

Anon

to goldy5

Re: This Rates Three Stars!!

do you not think they are laughing at him on the call center floor as well.

BIGMIKE
Q
Premium Member
join:2002-06-07
Gainesville, FL

BIGMIKE to goldy5

Premium Member

to goldy5
haha good one

a
@204.113.x.x

a to goldy5

Anon

to goldy5
lol, customers r a dime a dozen, who cares...

shadowshack
strange days
Premium Member
join:2000-09-04
Sewell, NJ

shadowshack

Premium Member

Serves them right

It's appalling to see so many customer service departments care not one iota about the people that keep them in business. Take our money for sure; but don't care about us once the money is in the bank.

XXXXXXXX
@infonet.com

XXXXXXXX

Anon

Re: Serves them right

The customer service departments are kept in business by the business themselves not by the customers.

If an ISP outsources their customer service then the people keeping the customer service in business are the ISP not its users.

The users are keeping the ISP in business but when you compare all the other ISP lousy customer service why switch? You just trade bad for the same kind of bad.
BullroarerT
join:2003-10-08
Phoenix, AZ

BullroarerT

Member

ROFLMAO

ROFLMAO:D

TechieZero
Tools Are Using Me
Premium Member
join:2002-01-25
Lithia, FL

1 recommendation

TechieZero

Premium Member

Hero!

This guys is my hero. If he did it with an indian accent, I think I would pee in my pants! ROFL!

Plasticman
Will Work For Bandwidth
Premium Member
join:2002-09-06
Johnston, RI

Plasticman

Premium Member

Re: Hero!

said by TechieZero:

This guys is my hero. If he did it with an indian accent, I think I would pee in my pants! ROFL!
Forgot to bring a change of cloths.... I just did it
joebear29
totesmcgoats
join:2003-07-20
Alabaster, AL

joebear29

Member

Was it NTL or the State that took him to court?

Was he sued by the company or criminally charged? The verbiage in the article seems to suggest criminal.
quote:
The taxi driver who replaced NTL's customer service helpline's automated hold message with a four-letter tirade has been acquitted from Teeside Magistrate's court.
quote:
According to the Teeside judge, the message was not 'grossly offensive' and therefore Gibbins could not be prosecuted.
But I am not familiar with the UK legal system so I don't know for sure.

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

Karl Bode

News Guy

Re: Was it NTL or the State that took him to court?

Changed the link to a better Guardian story with more detail. NTL called the cops, then a court cleared him.
joebear29
totesmcgoats
join:2003-07-20
Alabaster, AL

joebear29

Member

Re: Was it NTL or the State that took him to court

Excellent, much better story. The first one lacked much detail.

J D McDorce
Premium Member
join:2001-12-29
Westland, MI

J D McDorce

Premium Member

Re: Was it NTL or the State that took him to court

It have been more interesting if he were tried for slander versus making a grossly offensive message, although the ultimate outcome might not have changed

bylo
Premium Member
join:2004-05-04
Waterloo, ON

bylo

Premium Member

Dya think?

quote:
Magistrates in Teesside, however, may have had similar experience on corporate helplines themselves.
Now there's a classic example of Brit understatement

Derch
Premium Member
join:2004-10-16
Hanahan, SC

Derch

Premium Member

One heck of a story...

Great story to hear about. But it's sad that bad customer service is universal now.

wraith h
join:2003-06-27
Alvarado, TX

wraith h

Member

Re: One heck of a story...

this guy is my new Hero

WizardyFive
@147.134.x.x

WizardyFive to Derch

Anon

to Derch
Of course bad customer service is universal. The flaw is in the entire role of customer service itself. Everyone who would be the absolute best at customer service or tech support are able to get better jobs.
Spudge_Boy
join:2004-09-17
Orange, CA

Spudge_Boy

Member

Re: One heck of a story...

You hit it on the head right there. It is so simple, I am not sure why people don't understand.

Anybody in tech support is there, only until the have enough skill to go into product management or something like that. So, you have a bunch of people that are fresh out of school (read book knowledge) or just got certified (read test knowledge) trying to solve problems for people that don't know what they are doing. When that person finally does get enough real world knowledge, they go get a better job.

And so, the wheel keeps turning.

JammerMan79
Premium Member
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC

JammerMan79

Premium Member

Re: One heck of a story...

The reason that the turnover is so high is that most companies only pay change. If you're talking about the wait times on hold that has nothing to do with the people working in c/s that's the company not hiring enough people

Rickez
Goinginsane
join:2000-09-02
Three Rivers, MA

Rickez to Derch

Member

to Derch
haha, Great story!

hitthescumhard
@taylor01.mi.comcast.

hitthescumhard

Anon

Companies like this should be fined a MILLION Euro

...per day until they resolve their problems or go out of Biz. This policy should apply to all large businesses Worldwide. Then you'd put a big dent in Consumer Fraud which nets companies like MICROSUCKS, D-Link, Intel, Enron, Worldcom and countless others, hundreds of billions of dollars each and every year... It is literally a crime how these companies defraud consumers and they should be held accountable. The management of these companies should NOT be allowed to buy their way out of long prison sentences for a few million dollars in BRIBE MONEY.
bassnguitar
join:2003-09-11
Imperial, MO

bassnguitar

Member

Re: Companies like this should be fined a MILLION Euro

why not add the **AA's to that too

Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium Member
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX

Doctor Four

Premium Member

Re: Companies like this should be fined a MILLION Euro

said by bassnguitar:

why not add the **AA's to that too
Specifically, the big multinational record labels and
movie studios. Of which only Warner is US owned. I think
if enough digging were done, investigators would find
plenty of skeletons in their corporate closets to make
the Enron scandal pale by comparison.

guitarzan
Premium Member
join:2004-05-04
Skytop, PA

1 edit

guitarzan to hitthescumhard

Premium Member

to hitthescumhard

Re: Companies like this should be fined a MILLION

said by hitthescumhard:

...per day until they resolve their problems or go out of Biz. This policy should apply to all large businesses Worldwide. Then you'd put a big dent in Consumer Fraud which nets companies like MICROSUCKS, D-Link, Intel, Enron, Worldcom and countless others, hundreds of billions of dollars each and every year... It is literally a crime how these companies defraud consumers and they should be held accountable. The management of these companies should NOT be allowed to buy their way out of long prison sentences for a few million dollars in BRIBE MONEY.
Look who it is. taylor01.mi.comcast.! This IS the first,only and most likely last time.I agree with Taylor's post regarding any subject.

Edit: Will not last long
BTW Could it be possible a horse kicked him in the head?
Knocking a little bit of common sense into him And it actually being applied for once?

Primises
@12.111.x.x

Primises

Anon

Errrrr...

....I'm still pretty sure what he did counts as unauthorized entry into a system. Regardless of his reasonsing, he basically hacked into the system. How he did it is irrelevant because there *were* measures in place that he had to bypass to accomplish it, and he bypassed them in order to record his message.

That strikes me as a very, very bad precedent to set. It basically states that breaking through security systems into computers is not chargeable. And that's a baaadddd precedent to set.

•••
rx7freak
join:2004-09-21
Tulsa, OK

rx7freak

Member

I see this stuff every day

I work as a sprint trouble mgmt rep...you'd be SHOCKED to find out how often our customer service people plain and simply just dont care about the customers. Hangups, improper transfers, misinformation...its flippin terrible.

We get to go in behind all these DA's and do damage control for all the pissed off(rightfully) customers. Sad part is OUR stats suck because of it.

•••

TheMadSwede
Premium Member
join:2001-01-30
Holland, MI

1 recommendation

TheMadSwede

Premium Member

Prepare the flames

Customer Service is a place to cut costs. If you want better customer service, are you willing to pay more?

Listen, I'm not anyone's shill; however, if you want better things (generally) you have to pay for them. I'm not saying it's the best business plan, but it's obvious that businesses have determined that people care more about price than customer service.

Now, obviously I could go on the whole "please-the-shareholders-but-don't-make-wise-business-decisions" rant, or the "it-doesn't-matter-because-it's-a-localized-monopoly" rant, but I feel like oftentimes we want our cake and we want to eat it too.

••••••
lgkahn7
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Londonderry, NH

lgkahn7

Premium Member

yes

yes I would pay more a month for good cust. service

vonage
verizon come to mind..

although verizon bus. service is good in terms of getting through but they need to train techs better.

•••••

Phoenix2088
join:2002-12-04
Strongsville, OH

Phoenix2088

Member

Can we hire this guy?

I got about 5 companies I'd like him to call up
RogerSpark6
join:2005-06-08
Chicago, IL

RogerSpark6

Member

Lucky or What?

If the admin's mailbox uses a 4 digit password, that would be 10,000 possible combinations. Either this guy spent a very long time on hold or he is extremely lucky. Or could it be that no one changed the default admin password?

Vincent2
@ntl.com

Vincent2

Anon

Good on him

That customer deservs a credit, he may taught NTL a lesson, I loved that. Welldone to the customer.

Five cheers

I was pmsl when I read that on irc.

raydog1
Feel Secure
Premium Member
join:2003-07-10
La Vergne, TN

raydog1

Premium Member

Re: Good on him

said by Vincent2:

That customer deservs a credit, he may taught NTL a lesson, I loved that. Welldone to the customer.

Five cheers

I was pmsl when I read that on irc.
Sadly, the only lesson they probably learned was to secure their messaging system a little better. Oh yeah and higher better lawyers.

zoom3148
Superman
Premium Member
join:2001-04-30
Yermo, CA

zoom3148

Premium Member

Re: Good on him

said by raydog1:
said by Vincent2:

That customer deserves a credit, He may have taught NTL a lesson, I loved that. Well done to the customer.

Five cheers

I was pmsl when I read that on irc.
Sadly, The only lesson they probably learned was to secure their messaging system a little better. Oh yeah and hire better lawyers.
Yeah but It's still funny, After all He got away with It and It's really their fault for letting It happen in the first place.:D
T4K
join:2002-03-13
Fort Lauderdale, FL

T4K

Member

hehe

I would marry this guy. That is so bad ass lol.

cyberguru
@205.241.x.x

cyberguru

Anon

My new hero

This guy is My new hero. I work with virtually every big Internet provider, excluding dial up companies, and I would just love to do this to all of them. With the exception of Covad. Covad will bend over backwards for their customers, atleast they have for me. Somebody get this guys number to me....I'm gunna start punching in numbers when i get on hold and hopefully be able to accomplish this.

xillusionx
@lwrnce01.in.comcast.

xillusionx

Anon

Re: My new hero

I wont say which company that I do tech support for but let me give you little piece of advise.
This dsl company if you are a business customer and you have something that needs to be fixed on the line they will get it fixed in 24 hours with a tech coming out. If it is a residental customer 72 hours or 3 business days to check the line before they make an appointment with you if they think it is in your house. Business customers pay more for the same speed but with this dsl company they get faster responce time then a residental because they pay more for it. I was informed that business customers are what cover most of the costs for alot of the residental tech support but if they have a problem and you got 200 residental customers down and 1 business. They will fix the business customer first because they pay more for it.

-illusion
KyeU
join:2003-12-31
Canada

KyeU

Member

Hero

This guy rocks. We should all follow his example ^_^

Someone ought to do this for...you know who...starts with an "R".

anonymity
@verizon.com

anonymity

Anon

hacked? hardly

I doubt he "hacked" the voice mailbox. I was an engineer for a larger voice mail machine company. Most people leave their VM passwords as the default which is usually their extension number. Sometimes it is 00000 or 12345.

I'll bet his hacking consisted of this:
1. Call the company's 800 number
2. Press * to login
3. Enter your mailbox number - 1000
4. Enter your password - 1000
5. You have x new messages - press # for more options
6. Press 6 to modify your greeting
7. Enter greeting
8. Press # to save

The Octel A-line and V-Line are very simple once you guess the password. And the password is usually defaulted to something simple.

Senor Clyde
@eburwd2.vic.optusnet

Senor Clyde

Anon

??

What the fuck?
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