Phone and internet services in New Zealand have always been a bit of a joke. We pay some of the highest prices in the world and receive, as most countries do, pretty terrible customer service.
Over the past two years, I have been trying to sort out my phone and internet problems. I’ve always had a crackle on the line and after calling pretty regularly it had still never been solved. I would call, stuff would happen, it would seem to fix itself for a week, then I’d have to reboot constantly for a couple of months until I got so annoyed again I would call, when it wouldn’t get fixed again. It has been a very frustrating 2 years. The problem, however, is that if I change to another company my lines are still maintained by the same company – Chorus, who are a subsidiary of Telecom New Zealand. So I am basically held to ransom, as it doesn’t really matter who you go with – firstly you will also have your lines serviced by the same company no matter what, and seeing how they are all about as bad as each other it feels like you have no choice.
I wrote the below letter to Orcon two weeks ago, and today got a voicemail saying they had decided to give me “a nice wee credit” of $45. Considering I pay about $110 per month, that is not even a 2% credit. I also work my time out to be worth at least $50 an hour, and if you add up all the hours I have wasted that I will never get back, it is hardly “a nice wee credit”. It’s an insult. When I called back to say I was unhappy with how small the credit was, I was informed in not so many words that it was my fault for not calling as often as I should have. (Apparently I let the problem go uncomplained about for 8-months the last time, which is also untrue. Therefore the fact that I had basically resigned the fact that they were never going to fix it meant the line fault was entirely my own.)
So now I am left feeling very angry, and defeated at the same time. I would suggest boycotting Orcon, but who else is there to go with?
RE: Call FNH452*** and all other calls related to account “******” (probably about 3,000)
To Whom It May Concern,
Firstly, let me start off by saying it is not easy to make a complaint to Orcon. If you search for “complaint” on your website you get a few links, one of which takes you to one of two terms and conditions pages that you have online, for some unknown reason, which then takes you to a 404 for “disputes resolution”.
http://www.orcon.net.nz/about/page/terms_and_conditions/
http://www.orcon.net.nz/disputes_resolution/
Now, on to my actual complaint. Where do I start? I guess from the start. The only problem is that the start is almost two years ago. Two years I hear you say? (I would hope.) Yes, that is how long I have been calling your call centre with the same issue. Over and over and over and over and over and over. It’s been so long I can hardly even remember all my communications.
When I first moved into my house, almost two years ago, I signed up to Orcon on your then-new unbundled plan. It took about 1 or 2 weeks to get installed past the expected install date, but hey, no problem – that’s how all telecos work, right? Ever since it was connected I have been calling to complain about crackling on the line. So often do I call that I know your number off by heart. 0800 thirteen fourteen fifteen! I think I might have been put through to Tier 2 maybe twice. I have had no more than three technicians come to my house and never actually fix the problem. A technician was sent out for the original crackly line issue, but I don’t believe he found the problem. I also called about problems with my connection dropping all the time, which I always said to your Tier 1 guys that I thought it was connected to the crackly line. Ever time I would call, I would have to go through the same palava – reboot, isolate, change cables, change modem, change filters, change socket – however I didn’t have another socket to test with. I was never offered to have a modem sent out for me to test with. Two years later I still have a crackly line and a connection that constantly drops.
About two weeks ago the problems started annoying me again. I was sick of rebooting my modem a few times a day and logged a new call. For some reason this time I decided I was going to rehunt in the house to find a spare phone jack and try connecting the modem there, because I could no longer get any connection at all, not even about 10 modem reboots. As luck would have it, I found one hidden behind a piece of furniture and with the handiness of an extension cable I was able to plug the modem in.
GUESS WHAT?!
It connected straight away, first time. So I called back to Tier 1 for complaint 2,999 to say I, as an experienced telephone technician, have isolated the problem and it is a faulty telephone jack and could they please send someone out to fix it. This was arranged and last week a technician came around and “fixed it”. I put this in quotes because not only is it not fixed but I don’t know what the technician did as the piece of paper he filled out he managed to not actually put in the letter box properly and it fell out, got rained on and fell to pieces. I was also not called to explain the resolution.
Getting back to my problem tonight. I come home and once again the modem won’t connect and the phone line is really crackly. I move it to the secret jack location and lo and behold it works! It’s almost like magic but not. In fact it is just that Orcon are so terribly inept that you:
a) can’t figure out what the problem is;
b) have to get your user, who pays you for support, to figure it out themselves;
c) have to be told what the problem is by your user;
d) don’t fix the problem when you send technicians around;
e) do not follow up complaints with resolutions or explanations;
f) continue to charge me full price for this amazing service.
Please remedy this IMMEDIATELY. I am sick of waiting and sick of paying for sub par service. To be honest, at this stage I’m on the verge of moving to your competitors but seeing how you got Telecom to “fix” my jack point that really wouldn’t solve my problem anyway, would it?
Yours sincerely,
Ani Moller
Sounding like a cracked record since 2008
I suppose at least after two years the issue finally appears to be resolved. However, that doesn’t really feel like much of a success.