[TelstraClear] Can someone convince me to stick with TC?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] Can someone convince me to stick with TC?

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#751357 26-Jan-2013 23:49

SpidersWeb: Ahhh things were so much simpler once upon a time.

Thanks for the heads up.

For the post above that, yeah I don't feel like I'm using a "premier" service like I used to, but I wouldn't want to change ISP and find it's actually worse :S

I wish I could pay a little bit more, for speed (average international, not peak local) rather than just gigs. 60GB normally covers me in an average month - it's just when I need data - I don't want to wait overnight.

Would switching to WarpSpeed increase performance (in my situation)? e.g. different bandwidth pool, or some weird prioritisation?

It has been my experience that Warpspeed doesn't have any effect on performance of each individual connection. It does, however, allow a higher aggregate throughput. Although, I rarely see more than the 15mbps I was getting before I upgraded.

The only time I'm seeing more than 30mbps is to TCL's speedtest, and 30 is a rarity since summer vacation started.

Typical speeds are 10-15, with no socket going faster than 2-3.

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graemew

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#751375 27-Jan-2013 00:53

I'm starting to seriously dislike telstraclear.

Unless things improve when my contract is up I gone - here I come snap.

my tbox took 3 days to be replace during the Olympics - no viewing for me - lost the recordings of my toddlers programs - they offered no compensation - rang them up later they offered $5 - hang up on them.

Data costs are a joke Snap is $150 for a terabyte - slingshot $71 for AYCE ( have it for tenants elsewhere they get same speed as cable for most things - initially gave them TC but they were too expensive - so cancelled that after first year ( no cancellation fee ( tried to charge me 3 more months as engineer failed to pick up modem as required )

I'm still on contract - that TBox - they want to milk us like unloved cash cows - we get told costs coming down continuously for ISP for bandwidth - TC does noting for cable users - what will they say next - oh here's 20 more gb - on yay that will help my streaming & steam a/c - tried to get adsl from TC a few years back - no we don't do that for cable customers

maybe keep phone & TV - tbox was so unprofessional - it must of cost TC heaps in contractors to save money on cheap boxes - contractors came to my place 3 or 4 times to fix it - happy not to reboot 4 times in a roll- cut off recordings , recordings that do not stop - wrong channels recorded

changed their phone message service for the worst - need to remember phone numbers to hear a message - before *86

lost a lot of messages till it worked & calling them up. - let's make it harder to use a paid service

rang them up to find out when I come out of contract - their disconnection team said we ain't going to do nothing for you while you have 6 months to run - effectively we do not care

I use to get phoned often to say upgrade broadband to faster speed - it would be "better for me" - I kept telling their sales reps no I end up paying more for less data - oh no they say - then I'll go through the figures - & realized they were wrong .

Had to asked eventually not too get these phone calls - this was with their plans a few years ago

I get their phonecards cheap - I have them in my wallet as a backup - they say they expire to me ? really how does credit expire .

You go slightly over the 2 gb mark whack excess charge - their meter is not accurate time wise - so always must go under by say 500 mb to be sure

These incumbent telcos better wake up - why would anyone go with them for fibre if they just want to treat you as a profit centre

so if nothing changes between now & sept - no longer have my phone or broadband - if TV by itself isn't allowed then that is gone as well.

very unhappy TC customer

my adsl+ connection at other place has been rock solid I lost big d/l as telstra does is post midnight service updates

when the cable was down here in chch a few years ago for a few days they offered nothing - had to go elsewhere to do work emails

jermsie

302 posts

Ultimate Geek

#751895 28-Jan-2013 11:50

Low latency (for the most part) makes it almost worthwhile sticking with TelstraClear/Vodafone/Telefone.

Data: Obviously the data options are crusty, which is something I hope changes fast after the brand merge is complete. We're on an older 90gig plan and I don't think we're heavy users – we don't go out of our way to use the data, but when there's 3 iPhone's, an iPad and laptops doing backups, Spotify Premium most of the day, SoundCloud, Vimeo, YouTube and most other new media out there... It stacks up and an ISP shouldn't be restrictive. The internet is a rich place and all we're doing is making use of it.

Speed: Seems good enough (on 15/2mbit). Personally we don't need more than a few megabits for comfortable web browsing and streaming, though a faster upstream would be handy (on 100/10mbit but data is slim).

Overall: B+

-------------

2013 is a potentially exciting time for new products from TCL/VF. I'm particularly interested in how the brand transition translates to increased value for customers and what they plan on doing with cable. One of the Vodafone twitter reps directed me to the Vodafone forums for discussions about this in future. Might be worth checking it out.

If there isnt a significant improvement in data options I'm going to jump ship to Snap for VDSL. We've got a very strong line for it fortunately.

Side note: I wonder if TCL/VF will wire in new properties in cabled areas from now on?

– J

antoniosk

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#751938 28-Jan-2013 12:36

(snip)

Side note: I wonder if TCL/VF will wire in new properties in cabled areas from now on?

Well, this rather large project going on from central govt called UFB neatly takes care of that... no need for HFC or Copper anymore, and why would you spend money to put in your own, to compete with a taxpayer funded one.....?

________

Antoniosk

jermsie

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#751939 28-Jan-2013 12:38

antoniosk:
(snip)

Side note: I wonder if TCL/VF will wire in new properties in cabled areas from now on?

Well, this rather large project going on from central govt called UFB neatly takes care of that... no need for HFC or Copper anymore, and why would you spend money to put in your own, to compete with a taxpayer funded one.....?

Yeah my thoughts too. I guess the existing cable network can be maintained for the years it will take for UFB to adequately cover urban centres.

– J

timmmay

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#751948 28-Jan-2013 12:50

TC cable works very well for me. There's the odd hiccup, like facebook only working properly over https, but on the whole it's fine. If I change it'll be to have a communications line that works in emergencies (TC cable only works when mains power is on as their pole mounted repeaters have no battery backup) and to get a higher upload speed without paying $50/month more.

Shadbolt

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#752000 28-Jan-2013 14:10

I can only speak from my experience, with respect to the speed.

Kapiti
TCL cable
15Mbps plan
Ordinary Toshiba laptop with Win7
Ordinary Dick Smith wireless router
Laptop is far enough from the router to get a very low signal

I download fairly obscure BBC podcasts from the UK, using the application called Juice, and Saturday afternoon I had six downloading together. One of them downloaded at 750kBps, and in total, all six threads totalled just over 1.5MBps. (Yes - Bytes not bits.)

With my less than stellar setup, speeds are as fast as I've ever seen, since my plan got upgraded from 10 to 15Mbps.

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lchiu7

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#752033 28-Jan-2013 14:49

I have a different problem. I am regularly going over 150GB. I did call TCL about higher caps but they don't have them but did recommend I wait until April when the Vodafone purchase is fully completed when there might be some new plans offered.

Failing that in May (in order to avoid a disconnection penalty) I am heading off to possiblly Telecom and their 500GB plan. I can get VDSL2 in my area so the loss in speed over Warpspeed is not going to be that big of a deal given that nobody gets 100Mbs internationally.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

timmmay

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#752034 28-Jan-2013 14:52

How do you use 150GB of data in a month? I'm just curious. The TC per GB rate isn't too bad, but it's a lot higher than it needs to be I bet.

SpidersWeb

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#752044 28-Jan-2013 15:20

That's a lot of porn.

Although actually if you are a connoisseur of fine quality video, 150 wouldn't be too hard to hit.

Personally I want to pay for performance, not just gigs. I love the cached speeds on TCL, and the unmetered Steam server, it's just when I need junk from a private server overseas it seems to vary so much lately.

I have to make a call tonight, so going to have to decide this afternoon.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of complaints towards speeds compared to other ISPs, so I'm starting to lean towards staying with TCL.

Oh and cheers for all the posts

lchiu7

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#752088 28-Jan-2013 16:39

timmmay: How do you use 150GB of data in a month? I'm just curious. The TC per GB rate isn't too bad, but it's a lot higher than it needs to be I bet.

Continuous online viewing of movies via Youtube? I had no idea that they were so many old movies (many foreign) available on Youtube. Then to watch say one 44 minutes TV show on Netflix in HD DD 5.1 is about 1GB and so a couple of these can burn up data.

But to tell the truth I really don't know since TCL provides no tools for checking where you've been.

But when I look at the usage it's primarily downloads so there is no apparent Trojan uploading lots of content.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Lorenceo

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#752153 28-Jan-2013 18:08

lchiu7: Failing that in May (in order to avoid a disconnection penalty) I am heading off to possiblly Telecom and their 500GB plan. I can get VDSL2 in my area so the loss in speed over Warpspeed is not going to be that big of a deal given that nobody gets 100Mbs internationally.

Telecom do not offer any VDSL plans at this point in time. You should look into Snap - www.snap.net.nz if you're interested in VDSL.

SpidersWeb

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#752512 29-Jan-2013 11:32

$200 to move my TCL connection, and I had to spend time trying to understand the Customer Services Rep - didn't catch their name - might have been Apu from the Simpsons (in fairness, they were trying hard and were very friendly and polite but it should be easy talking to a rep, not a struggle - I also should not have to bring my bill up to $0.00 and call back with a reference number because their system can't process CC payments immediately) - and doing my bill payments is a fumbling process - who designed the CustomerZone??

With that in mind, and previous frustrations, I just couldn't be bothered. With all the good talk about Snap, I have just signed up for Snap VDSL 150GB using their friendly and easy to use website. Fingers crossed the install doesn't take too long because there is only so long I can survive with vodem power.

Edit: oh and apologies to those of you who work for TCL and are trying very hard, I don't mean to be a total dick, your efforts are appreciated but I need better service :/

chiefie

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#752517 29-Jan-2013 11:36

Quinny: ...

Overall I pay TCL $350 plus per month. Thats for phone, sky, extra boxes and channels, as well as the 100mbt. Its a hell of an amount of money and shopping around could save me about $100 per month with only minor loss over what have now.

I'd suggest you give TCL a call and see what offer they can give you... In my most recent deal review, I had a significant great deal...

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Baconeta

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#752537 29-Jan-2013 11:56

SpidersWeb: $200 to move my TCL connection, and I had to spend time trying to understand the Customer Services Rep - didn't catch their name - might have been Apu from the Simpsons (in fairness, they were trying hard and were very friendly and polite but it should be easy talking to a rep, not a struggle - I also should not have to bring my bill up to $0.00 and call back with a reference number because their system can't process CC payments immediately) - and doing my bill payments is a fumbling process - who designed the CustomerZone??

With that in mind, and previous frustrations, I just couldn't be bothered. With all the good talk about Snap, I have just signed up for Snap VDSL 150GB using their friendly and easy to use website. Fingers crossed the install doesn't take too long because there is only so long I can survive with vodem power.

Edit: oh and apologies to those of you who work for TCL and are trying very hard, I don't mean to be a total dick, your efforts are appreciated but I need better service :/

$200 doesn't sound right to me o.o But if that's what they said i guess there was a reason for it. Good on you anyway, as we can see you tried hard :). Hopefully all goes well for you and perhaps we'll see you back in the future - who knows.

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