I will have to pay if the tech comes out and decides it's somehow my fault though. I know how stupid that sounds but I just don't feel like paying for it... I'd rather wait and see if it gets better and if not, switch providers. It's an odd mentality but for someone like me, the added stress of organising the tech, having to be home to let them in to the property (our property is inaccessible unless someones home to open the gate or you break in...), fretting about how much they'll charge if they decide I'm liable, etc etc... it's not worth it.
gingerman93: A tech-visit won't fix this problem as it actually sounds like what others have said in other threads recently. There's definitely something not right with one or more of Orcon's upstream providers. Bandwidth isn't the issue, but there's definitely something not right as I've been having the same problems with international sites for the past 6 or 7 days.
The message on the Orcon website regarding international latency says "resolved" but I think it broke again shortly afterwards. I've been off on leave but am back tomorrow and will check with some of the network dudes tomorrow to see if they can advise me of the problems.
You don't know a tech-visit 'won't' fix the problem. It may fix it. Call the orcon tech.
If there are no problems reaching national websites, but there are major problems reaching international websites, then a tech visit is going to do nothing but add a couple of hundred bucks to your bill (ie no fault found fee).
A tech will arrive onsite, check the physical cabling to the premises, check the premises wiring (if you've got W&M Insurance) and then run a speed-test to an Auckland or Wellington location. If he finds no problems, he will charge you the NFF fee. Simple as that.
This problem that is going on right now is between Orcon and the upstream providers. Nothing to do with the customer's connection, and nothing that is classified as a "fault" in the eyes of the Chorus tech who is being called out.
I just switched 2 days ago from a similar Slingshot plan to an Orcon plan. The guy that sold me the connection a month ago told me Orcon was the fastest. In the 2 days i've been using Orcon I would estimate the speed to be at least 50% slower! Speedtest.net going from downloads of 0.8mbs to 2mbs (Auckland Birkenhead), I can't even stream youtube like I could earlier this week. As far as I'm concerned I have paid for a service which they are not providing plus they got me to change based on the fact they were faster so they have mislead me. I have tried using there callback service last night, no one called, tonight I have already waited 2 hours and nothing.
@ jamoost would you have joined if the sales rep had said No our Internet is rubbish and currently over-subscribed to the point where 5pm to 12pm is basically unusable for anything other than checking your email
@ OP if it's the CPE provided by Orcon at fault then there's no cost to you and as your paying the wire/maintenance insurance and it's the house wiring there's still no cost to you and same goes for wiring outside on the street and if the tech is a checky buggar and finds nothing wrong but insists on charging you tell him to get stuffed
Sorry I haven't been checking back here regularly.
An update: Finally got a response about how the testing software they sent me doesn't work on a mac, they replied with some instructions for what to do for testing on the mac but it's over my head with jargon. I wonder what a grandma or some other person not from the technology era would think?
I basically ended up adjusting my habits around the fact the net was bad so I stopped noticing it as much, however the other day I managed to watch a tv show online on an international website so that's obviously an improvement. I've also been having less problems with facebook and youtube usually works.
Sooo in summary since it's recovered to a more usable level I'm basically gonna twiddle my thumbs and see what happens.
If it gets bad again I'll more seriously consider the switch to telecom (which really is a last resort, I swore I'd never do business with them again...)
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