Telecom and Orcon, a Plague on Both their Houses

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Telecom and Orcon, a Plague on Both their Houses

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cokemaster

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#86751 15-Sep-2007 10:28

I think that a few things are being missed here:

When you switch ISP's, you pay that ISP for support.
When you switch ISP's, you no longer pay Telecom retail for support.
Because you no longer are a 'Telecom' customer, Telecom retail channels such as 123, 120, 126, MCC, Xtra BB etc cannot be used - unless you want to bring the line back to Telecom and become a Telecom customer again.
Calling Telecom retail will result in nothing as they cannot touch wholesale connections. Better to go to your wholesale provider and get them to raise it with their wholesale provider (Telecom Wholesale). They (people in telecom retail) are not trying to be uncooperative (I have a few friends who work in various groups who get the odd wholesale customer come through), they really cannot touch the connection.
Your Wholesale provider should be your point of contact for issues. If there are problems with them, complain and get it raised as a priority escalation.

This of course does not defend issues with broadband etc, however calling Telecom retail channels and then labelling them uncooperative or 'passing the buck' is really a bit unfair as they cannot touch or change those connections, unless you want to switch back.

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Zimsar10

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#86760 15-Sep-2007 11:29

cokemaster: I think that a few things are being missed here:
When you switch ISP's, you pay that ISP for support.
When you switch ISP's, you no longer pay Telecom retail for support.
Because you no longer are a 'Telecom' customer, Telecom retail channels such as 123, 120, 126, MCC, Xtra BB etc cannot be used - unless you want to bring the line back to Telecom and become a Telecom customer again.
Calling Telecom retail will result in nothing as they cannot touch wholesale connections. Better to go to your wholesale provider and get them to raise it with their wholesale provider (Telecom Wholesale). They are not trying to be uncooperative (I have a few friends who work in various groups who get the odd wholesale customer come through), they really cannot touch the connection.
Your Wholesale provider should be your point of contact for issues. If there are problems with them, complain and get it raised as a priority escalation.
This of course does not defend issues with broadband etc, however calling Telecom retail channels and then labelling them uncooperative or 'passing the buck' is really a bit unfair as they cannot touch or change those connections, unless you want to switch back.

I'm not quite sure who exactly you are directing this post at, but it sounds like you are directing it at me & if so, you have got it all wrong so far as your interpretation goes.

Let me explain, I was continually told by my Wholesale ISP to contact Telecom, who of course wouldn't do anything & told me to go back to my ISP, this happened tit for tat for several weeks, 72 days to be precise, instead of 20 days, get my drift here?

Trying to defend Telecom for their inaction on activating my ADSL connection is inexcusable, even more so that there was no clear process in place for this very scenario, of which should have been setup by Telecom in the first place. The whole issue was a complete systemic failure on Telecom's behalf.

Finally, do you have to use bold type as much as you do? There is nothing wrong with my eyes & I can read what you write, without it being in bold type, it's really no different to typing in caps & you come across as being so demeaning of which I find rather offensive.

cokemaster

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#86761 15-Sep-2007 11:41

ZIMsar10:
I'm not quite sure who exactly you are directing this post at, but it sounds like you are directing it at me & if so, you have got it all wrong so far as your interpretation goes.

Let me explain, I was continually told by my Wholesale ISP to contact Telecom, who of course wouldn't do anything & told me to go back to my ISP, this happened tit for tat for several weeks, 72 days to be precise, instead of 20 days, get my drift here?

Trying to defend Telecom for their inaction on activating my ADSL connection is inexcusable, even more so that there was no clear process in place for this very scenario, of which should have been setup by Telecom in the first place.

Finally, do you have to use bold type as much as you do? There is nothing wrong with my eyes & I can read what you write, without it being in bold type, it's really no different to typing in caps & you come across as being so demeaning & you think you know all about the situation, when you don't. /end rant

As you didn't seem to read my post.
However here are some more points:

If your ISP directed you to Telecom retail, thats their own problem.Clearly they should be taking ownership of your issues and raising them with Telecom wholesale if needed.
I'm not defending Telecom. Nor I am defending the time it takes to get connected or to isolate issues. All I'm saying is that calling Telecom retail and then railroading them for not being able to touch your line is counterproductive, both for yourself and the person on the other end. However you should be contacting your ISP that you pay for support.
I use bold to add emphasis to my posts. Its not the same as typing my entire post in bold or capitals.
[edit] I feel that the demeaning remark is a bit uncalled for[/edit] (Self edit by request)

I can read what you write, without it being in bold type

On my previous post:

This of course does not defend issues with broadband etc...

That kinda makes remarks like the one below a moot point:

Trying to defend Telecom for their inaction on activating my ADSL connection is inexcusable,

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freitasm

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#86765 15-Sep-2007 11:54

ZIMsar10: I'm not quite sure who exactly you are directing this post at, but it sounds like you are directing it at me & if so, you have got it all wrong so far as your interpretation goes.

Let me explain, I was continually told by my Wholesale ISP to contact Telecom, who of course wouldn't do anything & told me to go back to my ISP, this happened tit for tat for several weeks, 72 days to be precise, instead of 20 days, get my drift here?

Trying to defend Telecom for their inaction on activating my ADSL connection is inexcusable, even more so that there was no clear process in place for this very scenario, of which should have been setup by Telecom in the first place. The whole issue was a complete systemic failure on Telecom's behalf.

I am surprised with this. I read the whole thing before ZIMsar10 response and was even going to reply, but Cokemaster's post was clear on which comnpany has responsibility on this so I decided to keep it quiet.

But I don't see a direct attack from cokemaster. His whole post was about which company should be receiving the blame - and should be actually responsible for this problem.

I know people don't like Telecom, and I also have problems with them - as I have with Vodafone from time to time. But I keep it all balanced, and I don't see why Orcon's fault should be blamed on Telecom.

As Cokemaster wrote, blame it on Orcon's processes for not doing the right thing.

The way I see it, some have a problem with Telecom and will distort anything to get a go on the company. I would like to see this gone.

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Zimsar10

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#86770 15-Sep-2007 12:06

freitasm:
ZIMsar10: I'm not quite sure who exactly you are directing this post at, but it sounds like you are directing it at me & if so, you have got it all wrong so far as your interpretation goes.

Let me explain, I was continually told by my Wholesale ISP to contact Telecom, who of course wouldn't do anything & told me to go back to my ISP, this happened tit for tat for several weeks, 72 days to be precise, instead of 20 days, get my drift here?

Trying to defend Telecom for their inaction on activating my ADSL connection is inexcusable, even more so that there was no clear process in place for this very scenario, of which should have been setup by Telecom in the first place. The whole issue was a complete systemic failure on Telecom's behalf.

I am surprised with this. I read the whole thing before ZIMsar10 response and was even going to reply, but Cokemaster's post was clear on which comnpany has responsibility on this so I decided to keep it quiet.

But I don't see a direct attack from cokemaster. His whole post was about which company should be receiving the blame - and should be actually responsible for this problem.

I know people don't like Telecom, and I also have problems with them - as I have with Vodafone from time to time. But I keep it all balanced, and I don't see why Orcon's fault should be blamed on Telecom.

As Cokemaster wrote, blame it on Orcon's processes for not doing the right thing.

The way I see it, some have a problem with Telecom and will distort anything to get a go on the company. I would like to see this gone.

I agree with what you have written, but the article I posted & the further information I provided does indicate that it was indeed Telecom's fault with this particular issue of mine. I am not trying to say that Telecom are always to blame, far from it in fact, I have had problems with Orcon in the past, likewise with TelstraClear.

The thing is in my case, I was getting desperate to have a resolution found for my problem, I had no broadband for weeks & I had to use a dialup connection (supplied free of charge by TelstraClear). TelstraClear contacted Telecom numerous times & they advised me to do so also, which I done.

I agree with what Cokemaster has said to a point, it is the responsibility of the ISP to deal with Telecom & I pay for that support, but having to wait several weeks for an ADSL connection was no fun at all & both TelstraClear & Telecom passed the buck throughout the whole process, until finally a supervisor at TelstraClear got to the bottom of the issue.

Thanks for hearing me out with this, writing about it now, just brings back bad memories.

KiwiOverseas66

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#86810 15-Sep-2007 20:26

ZIMsar10:

The thing is in my case, I was getting desperate to have a resolution found for my problem, I had no broadband for weeks & I had to use a dialup connection (supplied free of charge by TelstraClear). TelstraClear contacted Telecom numerous times & they advised me to do so also, which I done.

Thanks for hearing me out with this, writing about it now, just brings back bad memories.

Now there's the problem right there. Being advised by Telstra to get in touch with Telecom (who is contracted to Telstra and not you) is the biggest buck pass of all. My sympathies for the extreme run around you got - but as someone who has had to look after large corporate customers with multiple IT and Network services, running a team of engineers, coordinators, techies, etc - if this was one of my guys I would fire them on the spot. When you take on the provision of a service and manage the deliver of the solution then you take responsibility for providing that. You do not pass the buck - and certainly never leave it up to the customer to fix their own problem by ringing a third party contractor that's contracted to you! That was my message in reply to the original post re Orcon - but it applies here as well.

I suspect that for some providers the "point the finger at a contractor" is partly an explanation and partly a stall tactic. Personally - when I get that on the phone my reply is usually along the lines of thanks for the description of the problem, now tell me what you're going to do to solve it since that's what I pay you for. I also agree completely with Cokemaster and Frietasm as to where the reponsibility lies. If someone uses a weapon to harm someone - you arrest the perpatrator, not the shopkeeper who sold it. I can certainly understand why you are so frustrated - and I guess if this forum helps to let off steam then so be it.

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SteveC

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#86846 16-Sep-2007 15:12

This topic really shows the value of community - a lot of people have put a lot of effort into telling the rest of us how they are going, (... and I for one, would have not read the initial post if it had not been in paragraphs - thanks - and I like the adapted Ro and Jo quote too). Personally, I'm just so pleased to have access to Telstra Cable. Support lines are no better, on average, than Telecom, but I only feel a need to ring them a few times a year (usually because I've forgotten my Webmail password that I seldom use). Recently changed my home phone to VFX - all going well - first bill was a pleasant as WxC's website says it will be. (I'd better put in a new paragraph about now

)

Recently set up a client with WxC broadband. Had some issues, but WxC support was excellent. Getting new ADSL only took a day or so, and happened exactly as WxC said it would. No Telecom issues, as far as I am aware. Am looking at getting two more WxC ADSL lines soon - will report how they go. The benefit of having two accounts was mentioned above. This is important for me - the buildings I'm moving in to already have Telecom fax lines, belonging to different (friendly) organisations, so we can add ADSL to them, and I get Broadband and phone at a fraction of the cost of new lines, and on a separate bill.

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#87187 19-Sep-2007 16:48

I'm very happy to report that our broadband saga appears to be at an end!

Following my escalation of the issue with Orcon on Friday, and/or my post to this Forum, I have had superb, all be it belated, service from Orcon. I've received a call daily, checking on progress and telling me exactly what they were doing on my parents' behalf.

Today, the broad band simply started working, and after this, a Telecom technician visited to verify that all was well.

Since I posted this message, people have recounted similar experiences to me where they feel that they've fallen through the cracks. In the case of my parents, they weren't dependent on this for their livelihood or for the bulk of their telecommunications requirements. Others, however, have suffered real losses because of this buck passing.

Brand loyalty is not won by technology and price alone. One only needs to read the consistently positive messages here about Xnet to know that an investment in helpful, quality staff certainly repays itself.

It's nice to have this behind us and I thank everyone here for their thoughts and encouragement.

Jonathan

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