Woosh ORBIT UNLIMITED customers

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disgruntled

31 posts

Geek

#17598 3-Dec-2007 18:54

I think I am going to be taking up Woosh on thier dare to take this whole thing further by laying a small claims tribunal complaint. I hope all the other disgruntled customers can help me out.
Please consider taking a few moments to:

1. Lay a complaint with the commerce commission. The more people who complain the more likely they are to wade in. All you need to do is outline your experiences in an online form:
http://www.comcom.govt.nz/Inquiries/contactus.aspx

2. Please consider writing up a testimonial for me that outlines your experience oer the past few months. I am particularly interested in anyone who has been directly told(as I was) that Woosh limited the dataflow for orbit customers. You can send it to me at rob@gumption.co.nz or post it here(public forum may be better).

My claim will be based around the consumers gaurantees act and the requirement a good or service be 'suitable for the intended purpose' - which clearly a throttled service is not.

Thank you to anyone who can help out.

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178 posts

Master Geek

#98127 3-Dec-2007 22:39

disgruntled: I think I am going to be taking up Woosh on thier dare to take this whole thing further by laying a small claims tribunal complaint. I hope all the other disgruntled customers can help me out.
Please consider taking a few moments to:

off to look at those two sites.

regards,   Bruce.

    ps: boss took staff to Japanese restaraunt for xmas. Was an enjoyable experience.

disgruntled

31 posts

Geek

#98189 4-Dec-2007 12:15

Thanks Brucie,

Just to keep everyone updated I picked up my disputes tribunal forms today, and once again tried to get to talk to a manager at the call center. Beginning to suspect there are none. I asked the customer service rep to send me a final account so I know how much I am disputing.

I have been through the contract from top to bottom today. It states that "Your use of our website or services shows your unconditional agreement to our terms and policies. If we review our terms and services, and you continue to use our web sties or services after the date on which any updates are effective, this will also show your unconditional agreement to any change in our terms and services."

Does that strike anyone else as harsh? So it seems that not only anyone who uses thier broadband is automatically signed up to a 12 month term, but also anyone who visits the website? More than that - the only way of viewing the terms is to visit the website. So if you view the terms you agree to them...

exportgoldman

1202 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#98195 4-Dec-2007 13:03

As per your private e-mail, Disputes Tribunal rulings are really quite easy.

You simply lay out in plain english your case, and the steps you have taken so far to resolve it with the company, and then explain why this has not been successful and what you want (in a ideal world) the disputes tribunal to do about it.

I usually take the name of the person I am speaking to, ask her how I would get a physical letter to her, and advise her on the phone you are unhappy and are filing in disputes tribunal. Call centre staff hate this and protest that they are just doing their job (which they are) and it's nothing to do with them etc.

The fact of the matter is, if that person is the most senior person you can get hold of, and is your point of contact at a company (which it is since it's a call centre) then their name is going on the form.

This is usually enough to get a call back from someone in the company with the ability to make you go away :-)

If not, they have to send their smartest person which isn't a lawyer (lawyers arn't allowed in disputes tribunal) to waste half a day sitting around and then debating their case. They also have to get this person to go over the case before hand and learn your case history otherwise they look like a idiot in disputes.

Now, the trick with disputes is to make yourself look like the victim, don't yell, let the other side finish speaking, calmly lay out your case, the list of calls (and how long you have spend) trying to resolve this. Explain that this contract is binding on both parties, and the service is not fit for it's intended use.

Show your payment history, and outline what you expect is a fair outcome (eg be moved onto a 50GB/Month plan for the remainder of your contract, or they fix the current plan (not likely))or simply a refund for the previous months.

Hope this helps. I simply turned up at Woosh in Newmarket and refused to leave until they sorted it out, and started telling people waiting to join about my experiences :-)

Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

exportgoldman

1202 posts

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Trusted

#98206 4-Dec-2007 14:23

disgruntled: Thanks Brucie,

I have been through the contract from top to bottom today. It states that "Your use of our website or services shows your unconditional agreement to our terms and policies. If we review our terms and services, and you continue to use our web sties or services after the date on which any updates are effective, this will also show your unconditional agreement to any change in our terms and services."

Does that strike anyone else as harsh? So it seems that not only anyone who uses thier broadband is automatically signed up to a 12 month term, but also anyone who visits the website? More than that - the only way of viewing the terms is to visit the website. So if you view the terms you agree to them...

Good luck seeing them try to enforce it, how can they PROVE that YOU were sitting in front of that screen when that webpage came up, and not your dog, aunty, 3 year old or the gardener.

I just spent just over a hour dealing with the useless call centre drones at ihug, they sent me to collection agencies as I queried a bill in July, they promised to get right back to me, I told them I wouldn't pay until they did, 5 months roll past, I end up starting to pay again but still waiting for them to call.

They instead send me to a debt collection agency. Idiots.

Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

psychnurse

329 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#98207 4-Dec-2007 14:40

I'm sure their small print covers this issues like this.

disgruntled

31 posts

Geek

#98218 4-Dec-2007 15:11

So are they - hence theit blatant dsiregard of customer service in the belief that thier contract covers them from everything. It does not however grant them immunity to the consumer gaurantees act, and thier service was advertised and sold on the basis of being an unlimited speed, unlimited data download. The CGA requires a good or service to be suitable for the intended purpose, and clearly providing dialup speeds and slower and selling it as a broadband plan is not.

Rob

Satyr

64 posts

Master Geek

#99167 10-Dec-2007 04:21

just leave woosh and get all your friends to, it will hurt them more

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disgruntled

31 posts

Geek

#99174 10-Dec-2007 07:17

Satyr,

That's exactly what I did a month ago and considered the matter closed - until the next bill arrived for a months service I never received.

Rob

Yahn

57 posts

Master Geek

#99776 13-Dec-2007 15:45

Well now they have seriously upset me. After me speaking to a CSR on 3rd December and him agreeing that I will be kept on the Orbit Flat Rate plan til the end of December , I received an email today saying that I had my plan changed on the 12th December and i have used 100% of my now 10 gig plan this month and they have reduced me to dialup. I have just rang Woosh and they have offered me 5 gig top up in compensation for the lack of communication , which probably costs them what $10 ? I said I am not happy with that and now have to wait for the team leader to call back. We will see what progresses.

disgruntled

31 posts

Geek

#99777 13-Dec-2007 16:05

"lack of communication"? That's an interesting euphimism for a lie.

exportgoldman

1202 posts

Uber Geek

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#99780 13-Dec-2007 16:43

disgruntled: "lack of communication"? That's an interesting euphimism for a lie.

So, when Woosh said yes, they meant no.

Go in and waste their time as much as they are wasting yours, refuse to leave until they do. :-)

Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

Yahn

57 posts

Master Geek

#99789 13-Dec-2007 17:26

Ok i have now been spoken to by a Team Leader and then a retention specialist (The team leader did not tell me she was escalating it to him) I have just had it confirmed by the retention specialist Chee that they will give me 15 gigs in compensation, but he said that i will still be moving plan because the Orbit flat rate plan no longer exists , even though they charged me for it on my invoice on 1 December (which i paid) I have accepted the 15 gigs for now. Have I done a deal with the Devil ? We'll see . Of course he did get me to try to sign up for another year , even offered me a free month on Orbit 20 , but I want to judge them on performance for now. I'll give him his due, he was the first Woosh person who was reasonable.

euanandrews

1528 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#99813 13-Dec-2007 19:05

Since I changed ISP, I have reguarly checked my old Woosh account to see if it had yet closed, and check the bill etc...
It was still operating, and when I checked it the other day, sure enough there was a charge for the following month...

So I called them up, and explained I had disconnected amost 1 month ago, I hardly used my last months quota as I had already been switched over, and my last month when I changed was my 12th month, hence the end of my contract...so there should be no issue or disconnection charges...

The good news is it worked out for me, the guy looked through the records and saw the DSL service had been disconnected when I changed as said, just they had not closed the account, so he proceeded to do so, and reversed the charges and closed the account properly...no issues.

I does seem pathetic that they knew I had cancelled my service as advised from WxC, and had disconnected the DSL service....yet they did not at the same time close my account...instead attempting to continue to charge me for a service they had already disconnected!

In the end, they reversed the charges and closed my account, so thats the end of this sorry saga.

Yahn

57 posts

Master Geek

#99977 14-Dec-2007 17:51

Haha, seems that Woosh giveth and Woosh taketh away. Because of their poor customer service, Woosh gave me my first chunk of 10 gigs as compensation at around 4pm last evening (13th) . But I can do maths fairly well, and it seems that although I have only used less than 1.2 gigs since then my total data usage is showing as 6.7 gigs used (over my new 10 gig limit). So ok I ring them up last night and try to speak to Chee, and he isn't there. So i say to get him to call back today when he gets in. I then reply to the email he sent me and let him know the problem. He calls me next day and really lets me have it. How dare I get a CSR to call him at home at 6pm at night. (which i certainly didn't) then says about 3 or 4 times that I shouldn't have emailed him at his personal email address. Everything has to be emailed to the support address. Hang on a minute I say to him. So what about accountability for the problem? He says "Well I don't know how you even got my email address". Well it's on the email you sent from Woosh Support mate (This guy is a genious) . So anyway to cut a long story short, I let him know that although he gave me 10 gigs yesterday (plus another $10 on my account to buy 5 gigs more) they have actually taken at least 5 of that straight away to compensate for bandwidth I used while I was on Flat rate (up until midnight on the 12/12). So (assuming that the data block I was given as compensation has a dollar value) they have in effect chargeg against my data block 5 gigs of bandwidth that I have already paid for in my Flat rate $49.95 fee i paid at 1 december (for the month). Anyway after hiom saying that I had used that 5 gigs since yesterday and then me asking him to prove it, when their own system was only showing I had used 1.2 gigs, he rang the engineer who said that there might be a glitch in the Data usage page and they would get back to me. It seems a bit naughty charging me for data I have already paid for. And as for the accountability?

disgruntled

31 posts

Geek

#100048 14-Dec-2007 23:37

I've also noticed not one of the CSR's I have hit this month is the same as last month. We knoe they have lost a lot of customers, but I wonder how many employees are sick of the crap.

If any of you that quit are lurking - we'd love an inside scoop.

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