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.
Was that a proper snail mail real life paper letter?
I feel your pain – you’ve had it worse than me, but telstra can be pretty bad as well. I had one guy telling me, in all seriousness, that I need to turn of my wireless in order to continue trouble shooting since the wireless signals can somehow cause interference that would stop the connection behind the cable modem (well, bridge) LOL
hilarious – having issues with orcon myself. found this.
hi ani!
It was terribly frustrating. I still have to reboot pretty regularly but it doesn’t drop all the time since they fixed the jack point. They gave me the grand sum refund of one month phone service and when I complained it wasn’t enough I was told that was all I could get.
I should have just sent them an invoice for my support services!
i wrote them a letter, that if i had received it – i would’ve thrown away.
got a call from a ‘tier 2′ guy, who was very polite and confirmed what i suspected the issue was – and suggested a route to a solution. so hopefully i’ll get my issue resolved.
i’m surprised that no one had suggested you try the above; years ago working on a helpdesk it would’ve been part of the first few things you try.
all in all though i was impressed i got the call, though somewhat less impressed that it took what it did to get a response – i won’t lie i say i didn’t enjoy writing my letter to them, but i didn’t enjoy sending it.
i’ll give them a few months and see if the solution suggested works. if not, bail with me to telstra man.
The problem with Orcon is that they are also difficult to leave. I thought that their slogan “No fixed term contracts” would mean I could cancel their services immediately. No, you still have to give 30 days notice – no matter where you are in the billing cycle. I think that this is quite misleading. “No fixed term” means immediate cancellation to me. Also make sure you get a receipt when you return your modem – I didn’t – and now they cannot tell me that I have returned it even though I personally took it to their Head Office in Northcote – there was no suggestion of the receptionist giving me a receipt then. Their customer services staff also appear to have the most basic training and to have extremely limited access to information. Yesterday in response to my request to cancel their services they sent me an email saying they couldn’t connect me. I am going to wait until Monday before ringing them in the hope that there are some experienced staff who can help me during normal business hours. All-in-all Orcon need more documented procedures and a web site that presents the facts rather than just telling you the good news in the hope of enticing you to become a customer.
I’m not disagreeing with your matters of complaint, but with a letter like that, no wonder you were ignored.
When it’s internal wiring/a phonejack/a filter/router i.e. anything inside your house, it’s your responsibility. Which means you should’ve rung up a private cable tech to install it for you. Minimum fuss, minimum delay. I’m surprised none of the staff there told you that’s how it is with most telcos. Unless you paid for wiring insurance, in which case the Chorus tech should’ve done his job.
I’ve worked for Vodafone and iinet in both tech support and provisioning and this is pretty standard stuff. Let it be known I would always get to the bottom of the problem, usually in the first call, and if not, I would ring them back when I said I would. Unfortunately, it comes down to personal responsibility with the person you were talking to. Some like to fix problems like I do and others are frankly there to eat lunch and go home.
If that was me I would’ve credited you 1-2 months worth as well, but you would’ve known what the problem was by the first call. A basic isolation test like that would’ve pinpointed it in 10 minutes max, if not the first 2 minutes.
Just a view coming from the other side.
But I’ll admit you experienced horrible, horrible service.
@Jason, I have always paid for wiring insurance, which makes it a bit more frustrating!
Just a tip for next time you have a crackly line: Chorus/Telecom get it fixed as part of their contract in regards to providing a stable voice line over their copper networks (this doesn’t apply to broadband as copper was never meant for this role originally). What happens is that a faults form gets filled out (by a capable CSR who should cut straight to it) which then gets sent straight to Telecom for a tech to come out.
Now, they’ll test up to your network boundary point/first point to your house. This will determine whether the line between the exchange to that point is affected or not, in which case they have to fix it. Internal wiring is another issue though – read the fine print as some wiring insurance doesn’t cover jackpoints, only the actual wiring itself. Tricky, I know, but that’s the way it is.
I used to be a fibre optics installer for homes, offices and schools as well. It’s a 30 min job at the max to identify the faulty jack, pull it out, strip back the wires and re-terminate the ends. If you’re renting get your landlord to cover it. It’s no big deal.
I guess, if you’d found that jackpoint that was working a lot quicker you would’ve saved yourself a buttload of time. The fact that one wasn’t working and another was is a pretty clear-cut isolation test which would’ve given the Chorus tech a lot more to work on. In the interim you could’ve plugged your router to that working jackpoint (the closer your router is, the better; you want a short a cable as possible from the jackpoint to your router so you eliminate as much line noise/attenuation dropoffs as much as possible).
Btw, I’ll be working for Orcon in Provisioning, starting this Monday. I hope to do a far better job. But be aware those teams are severely understaffed and they’re servicing all of Auckland, hence the delay. Doesn’t help that Telecom take their sweet time to respond, either.
I did not have phone and internet for three months. I called every day three times a day, got a different response every time to what the problem could be. even managed to get the personal phone number of the personal assistant to the ceo of orcon who i even hounded on her holiday to no avail. Three months later it is all magically fixed and after hounding for a refund I too got a $45 credit as there policy clearly states that no refund will be given so I should feel lucky. Any way tried to sort out my high bill yesterday and was told that was due to the fact I am renting four modems of them. Yes I only own one with one that I returned to them for a replacement. Turns out I have been paying for three since the beginning of the year and they just recently added on a fourth. They told me to pay and they will sort it out. That is what they said four months ago when I realised I was not just paying for one modem. No I am not dumb just thought my son my down loading over our limit.
I have been an orcon customer since August 2010 and just changed my platinum plan (yes I was paying a FORTUNE for the last 14 months to Orcon for supplying my internet use) now I am on the fabulous (not!) Orcon genius (wrong word here!) and still not working for the last 3 weeks, so haven’t got a working phone or internet and they are in no rush to rectify the matter. I have spend many hours on the phone (well holding the phone, waiting, waiting, waiting up to 2 hours, yep really no kidding!), I have been advice from them that I will have to wait another 5 days before they can do anything about it. Unfortunately got a representative on the phone much in need to polish his customer service and keeping on talking over me, and not really listening.
O M G what happen to the good old days when customers were valued and getting better treatment. This company is really appalling in regards of providing good service, solving complaints and trying to help their current customer. It feels like that all they are interested with is SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!
I am so disappointed about how they treat their customers and feeling very frustrated about how arrogant the organisation attitude is!
Why not change? Because they will charge me a fee of $190.00 if I do cancel my Orcon Genius, can you believe that? I just cannot afford that, we are all feeling the hard times and those guys are taking advantage of it!
I was with telecom before and never had to wait that long for service and were more pro-active with legitimate customer complaints. Shame that their services were getting too expensive for me. They didn’t take their sweet time to respond to their calls. Orcon, on the contrary are on a permanent cruise time, hope that they are enjoying the scenery because if they carry on that way, the Orcon ship is gonna go down big time (Gosh that is a nice thought! Picturing the Titanic here).
Well it is Friday afternoon the 11.11.11 and still no sign of that Orcon team leader supposedly calling me back since yesterday. I raise my case……
I was with Orcon after leaving slingshot. I thought they were great until problems occurred. I phoned and they told me my modem was faulty and sent me one of their’s which was fine but the issues of connectivity continued. I send in complaint after complaint and finally couldn’t connect at all. I left them and returned to slingshot who in the interim had a better plan than when I left. I was waiting for Orcon to contact me about getting their modem back but they did not. I got charged for the 30 days I was not with them the sneaky sods. I got an invoice the other month for the modem for about $236 and phoned them. They said they would send a courier bag which they did. They received the modem (I wrote to them and confirmed this) but failed to take the amount of the account. I was advised that it would be done at the end of the billing cycle, which was 7 days ago. At the end of the billing cycle they tried to access my credit card to get the cost of the modem. I informed them and they agreed that they had the modem and the amount would be removed. To date the amount is still on my account and being 30 days over due. I wrote to them and informed them that if they try to take money out of my credit card again that this would amount to attempted theft as they are well aware I do not owe them anything and in fact I was $11 in credit with them prior to the modem cost being added onto the account.
We use Orcon too. Thought it was a good deal, the Genius plan. Turns out it has the crappiest reception ever. Every time i pick up the phone to make or answer a call, something goes wrong. It’s either got static or crackly or sometimes it takes a minute to dial the number. It has even gone blank ( no noise what so ever ) mid conversation.
Sometimes i wake up in the morning and what do you know – the telephone symbol is flashing red. I think to my self ” It will fix itself while i’m at work” Not… Come home and its still flashing. Reboot it and what do you know? It works.
boy i certainly can feel for all these complaints, i worked for telecom for 25 years, ans there service was a million times better than orcon is, i have been through all of the above, and got so angry with the response from orcon, that i cancelled my phone line and internet service,,i would never recommend orcon to anyone, its amazes me how they can still survive with the constant problems, come on orcon, put more professional staff on to help people with there concerns, and become customer friendly, they pay for a service for you to provide, do it now before you lose more cutomers