Broadband Comparison & Reviews Website NZ

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gza

47 posts

Geek

#115290 20-Mar-2013 14:41

Hi there GZ'ers.

I have recently launched and updated version of my site: http://broadband.t5.co.nz

There is now a reviews: http://broadband.t5.co.nz/reviews and comparison section: http://broadband.t5.co.nz/compare

I am in the process of adding more plans as we speak.

I would very much appreciate some more reviews on the site, so if you have time please feel free to submit one at: http://broadband.t5.co.nz/reviews

Any feedback would be appreciated too.

Thanks in advance.

plambrechtsen

1948 posts

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#784509 20-Mar-2013 14:50

Three major points I believe you're missing from a review.

1) What plan the customer was on. As that makes a difference in regards to speed etc.
2) When the review was written, as service goes up and down depending on when it was done.
3) What technology they are using for their broadband (ADSL, VDSL, UFB, Cable)

Plus you're missing some ISPs such as Snap.

gza

47 posts

Geek

#784543 20-Mar-2013 15:42

Thanks for the feedback, I will be sure to include these features in next version.

Cheers

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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#784545 20-Mar-2013 15:46

Reviews should have dates. Things change a lot over the years or even months. Reviews talking about prices without dates are not very useful.

sonyxperiageek

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#784568 20-Mar-2013 16:16

And also some info is wrong. Like in the Compares section, an Actrix plan (200GB) shows "phone and broadband" as being $85 but that price (on their website) states that it is only for broadband. No phone included.

Made be think, that's really cheap!

Sony

HowickDota

423 posts

Ultimate Geek

#784578 20-Mar-2013 16:29

For the sake of differences between bandwidth allocation and shaping that an isp might do with their unlimited plan, it may help to have reviews specify which plan they are on

sbiddle

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#784602 20-Mar-2013 17:10

IMHO any crowd sourced reviews encouraging people to comment on speed without any reference to DSL sync speed is a complete waste of time and does nothing but give a misleading representation of an ISP's performance.

SamF

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#786181 24-Mar-2013 09:10

Looking good! One essential feature which needs to be added is the ability to filter by connection technology ( eg; ADSL, VDSL, Fibre etc).

Quic Broadband

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freitasm

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#786182 24-Mar-2013 09:14

sbiddle: IMHO any crowd sourced reviews encouraging people to comment on speed without any reference to DSL sync speed is a complete waste of time and does nothing but give a misleading representation of an ISP's performance.

Correct. People complain about ISP and have idea their home wiring, type of connection to the router and other internal factors could be causing problems. Then there's the case of people connecting to LLU gear when there are cabinets in an area, causing midspan injection problems.

Some of these are not known to many users and not really an ISP problem, so a review where most users will complain will be heavily negative of those larger ISPs just because of the number of customers.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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#786184 24-Mar-2013 09:21

Yes. Maybe before anyone can submit a review critical of speed they should be required to have had a master filter installed.

NonprayingMantis

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#786188 24-Mar-2013 09:29

One problem that is likely to occur here is that in the normal course of actions,mmoset reveiws will be negative. people dont feel the need to 'vent' if they are gettign good service.
however, if any ISP decides they want to be 'the best' all they need to do is go on Facebook/twitter and ask their loyal customers to submit reviews. Most of their Facebook followers will have positive views of the company and so you will get a huge skew towards the positive for them.
Something similar happened on a minor scale with a thread on gpforums asking which was the best ISP. Snap posted it on their social media places and so got a large chunk of people to vote for them there
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/poll.php?s=93b4572cca7278f3b4e1d5366fa6f1a1&action=showresults&pollid=11262

You see the same effect whenever there is a public voting competition for anything. The winner isn't the one who is the best, but rather the one who can get their supporters to vote the most.

freitasm

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#786189 24-Mar-2013 09:34

Yep... Every year just before the Netguide awards we used to get an email from TelstraClear asking for votes. If other ISPs don't do the same, it's likely their users don't even know there's a Netguide awards going on...

plambrechtsen

1948 posts

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#786191 24-Mar-2013 09:34

freitasm:
sbiddle: IMHO any crowd sourced reviews encouraging people to comment on speed without any reference to DSL sync speed is a complete waste of time and does nothing but give a misleading representation of an ISP's performance.

Correct. People complain about ISP and have idea their home wiring, type of connection to the router and other internal factors could be causing problems. Then there's the case of people connecting to LLU gear when there are cabinets in an area, causing midspan injection problems.

Some of these are not known to many users and not really an ISP problem, so a review where most users will complain will be heavily negative of those larger ISPs just because of the number of customers.

I also agree with your Freitasm. A purely subjective site with the vast majority of folks disgruntled (since who posts when they are happy) with their current (or previous) ISP.. What could possibly go wrong.

Perhaps easier to link to their Facebook sites and/or ISP specific forums along with here on Geekzone with the relevant ongoing complaints from current customers. As that tends to be a far better barometer as to how well the ISP performs in all aspects in my view.

plambrechtsen

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#786193 24-Mar-2013 09:37

NonprayingMantis: One problem that is likely to occur here is that in the normal course of actions,mmoset reveiws will be negative. people dont feel the need to 'vent' if they are gettign good service.
however, if any ISP decides they want to be 'the best' all they need to do is go on Facebook/twitter and ask their loyal customers to submit reviews. Most of their Facebook followers will have positive views of the company and so you will get a huge skew towards the positive for them.
Something similar happened on a minor scale with a thread on gpforums asking which was the best ISP. Snap posted it on their social media places and so got a large chunk of people to vote for them there
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/poll.php?s=93b4572cca7278f3b4e1d5366fa6f1a1&action=showresults&pollid=11262

You see the same effect whenever there is a public voting competition for anything. The winner isn't the one who is the best, but rather the one who can get their supporters to vote the most.

I would also like to say that "we" at Telecom didn't elicit votes via our social media channels... So.. One could read something into that when looking at the poll

gza

47 posts

Geek

#786773 25-Mar-2013 16:45

Some great feedback and ideas here guys.
I have taken this on board and will do what I can to make the site better in the next update.

Thanks again.