has voyager's helpdesk changed?

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mcb

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#312597 30-Apr-2024 10:57

i've been a voyager customer for many years and on the couple of times i've needed help its been easy to contact and... helpful.

not today. the short verson is after 2 calls i have the impression they've outsorced it - the guy let slip he'd consulted his first domains colleagues. its was not a productive discussion and the problems remain.

not trying to bag anyone, but actual quation - has their helpdesk changed?

networkn

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#3224535 30-Apr-2024 11:14

Yes they have outsourced a portion of their team. The experience can be quite ... inconsistent. I've had some brilliant interactions, and some beyond unhelpful.

Ask for an escalation if you feel the help you need isn't being provided, it's how they know training is required.

mcb

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#3224539 30-Apr-2024 11:18

hmm. thats dissappointing. just cost me an hour or two of my life and 2 panadol. maybe their sun is setting?

dumb question but how does one ask for an escalation?

amanzi

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#3224544 30-Apr-2024 11:34

That is disappointing to hear. I haven't had to deal with the helpdesk much, but have always had good experiences, and that was one of the main reasons I've stayed with Voyager.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3224569 30-Apr-2024 13:07

I've been happy to pay extra for Voyager knowing that if I had an issue, I could immediately speak to someone with the knowledge to diagnose and fix the issue. Quic seems to be catering to more advanced users at a lower price and my main reason for staying with Voyager after moving us to direct debit off credit cards was to see what Hyperfibre offering they eventually came out with.

mcb

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#3224577 30-Apr-2024 13:46

as my tech skills are modest, i've stayed knowing i had the back up of actually helpful helpdesk people, not that i often needed it. so for me, voyager is now losing it's key point of difference. and with the credit card fees and the relatively pricey plans (for fibre max) they may have lost their mojo. maybe they are now spending their money on their new inspiraitonal marketing emails rather than techs 😒.

BTW the problem was (likely) a dying modem causing dropouts, which i replaced yesterday, but along the way got heldesk advice that MSS is the same as (asuswrt's) MRU, hence then set the MRU as 1452. (I've googled MSS vs MRU and still dont' understand the difference). wierdly, with mru=1452 (mtu=1492) i could connect to some sites but not others so thought it was a DNS problem... cue, more pointless helpdesk calls prior to me experimentally changing the MRU back to 1492 - now all appears well.

so if i'm right, the problem was initiated by the helpdesk advice. thanks voyager!

richms

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#3224593 30-Apr-2024 14:45

Hate to think what they're spending on twitter ads because I see so many on there and don't want to block them like I do all other advertisers since I may need to contact them on it again.

Richard rich.ms

CamH

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#3224596 30-Apr-2024 15:09

I was wondering if Voyager would outsource after they did it at 1stdomains.

Disappointing, won't be referring customers there anymore.

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michaelmurfy

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#3224627 30-Apr-2024 15:46

I actually personally found this last year when a friend tried contacting Voyager and just got frustrated. I don't know the full story personally but do know it was around a billing issue, but he did try a few times and is quite patient himself so I do believe him.

In his last call he gave up and said he is giving his 1 month notice and moved to Quic.

It is a shame, I've posted about great customer service from Voyager in the past (thread here) but even my father struggled at one point with them and moved on to Skinny. I think there is a real need for ISP's where you chat to an engineer where required.

Another ISP I can think of that takes this approach is Quic's parent, Vetta Online. When you call them you normally are speaking with somebody who can fix the problem but they also have the same control panel as Quic. They're more expensive because of the support element but you also get the tools to diagnose yourself before calling them if required or they can hold your hand, it's your choice.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

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richms

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#3224637 30-Apr-2024 16:14

I was this close to having to call them when my connection was being all weird but the ONT was showing nothing on the lights, but I couldn't be bothered that night and it was all back to good the next day. If I had called and encountered worse service than what I am paying a premium for (over other ISPs gig plans) then I would have been moving on. Guess I got lucky with the fault resolving.

Richard rich.ms

mcb

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#3224720 30-Apr-2024 17:26

Thanks for all your comments. it sounds like I’m not alone in my impression about where voyager is heading…. off a cliff.

I did get a call back this afternoon from a pleasant helpdesk guy who assured me he worked in NZ for voyager but also assured me they worked hard to train their outsourced staff – I think he said overseas staff. I expressed my many concerns (may have growled a bit much), especially having once been a voyager fanboy. He said to submit an email with his name on it should there be other issues but said there was no way to contact their actual staff directly. Sounds like there’s 2 NZ tech people left.

Maybe it’s what happens when a company gets in the delloite fast 50, the original guy steps back and the go-faster business types take over. But I doubt reducing core costs and maxxing the hype is going to make it long term, whatever they learned at business school. But maybe they just want the sugar hit?

I’ll be looking around for the next smaller startup, so would welcome suggestions.

cheers

Firebirdnz

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#3224932 1-May-2024 10:57

Hi Geekzone,

Appreciate the raising of concerns here. Feedback is valuable to improvement. This is a good opportunity to provide some insight and clarification as to how Voyager is operating in 2024 and how we got to this point. Voyager is currently engaged in offshoring some of our employees. I want to emphasis the offshoring keyword here. We are not outsourcing. Overseas staff members are essentially remote workers living and working in another country. They are Voyager employees and are and working part of our existing New Zealand based teams. During the border shutdowns of COVID we found it increasingly difficult to fulfill staffing requirements within New Zealand. This is something that isn't unique to Voyager and many organisations from many different sectors experienced this same problem. For example we attempted to fill some engineering roles locally and had job adverts, recruitment agencies engaged for well over 12 months with no solution to filling those roles. We had to devise a solution to this problem as we were at the mercy of border closures. We opted to begin recruitment in overseas markets and provide remote only roles. This has largely been very successful and we are happy with how these staff members have integrated into our New Zealand centric work environment. We are still majority local based with offices operating in Christchurch, Wellington, Central Auckland and the North Shore. As Network Practice Lead I personally have staff in Christchurch, Auckland as well as overseas. In regards to the perception of lowering support levels; there was one example in this thread which I know one of our senior support team reached out about. If there are others please feel free to DM me and I'll pass it on. Our support team recently has been needing to expand and when this happens training becomes a key and central factor in success. Our head of support has been diligently working to develop defined and repeatable training modules for each of our product sets. We also provide in person training with our off shore employees - Either they travel here or we have our subject matter experts visit them. Just in the last couple of weeks for example we have a a delegation of Voice and Networks travelling to provide training. We aren't a typical ISP where broadband is all we do. We operate in the Internet, Voice, Hosting and Domains markets. Our support desk manages all these streams and sometimes your queries may be better suited to someone else who has more familiarity with that product set. We still aim for calls to be answered in 60 seconds and to have resolution on the first call with the first person you speak with.

I'd also like to pick out a bit of feedback about our support and services from just yesterday about our recent IPoE enablement: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=190&topicid=312520&page_no=2#3224647 I understand that any company is going to have a bit of a mixed bag please do reach out if you have any feedback, good or bad and we would be happy to take that onboard.

Regards,

~H

Edit:
Support team mentioned to me that this is available too: https://voyager.nz/feedback Goes to the Helpdesk Team Lead

toejam316

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#3224980 1-May-2024 12:39

Firebirdnz:

...For example we attempted to fill some engineering roles locally and had job adverts, recruitment agencies engaged for well over 12 months with no solution to filling those roles...

Quite curious about this - was there ever a consideration of remote roles within the country? I ask because I tend to keep an eye on the job market, and never noticed anything outside of the major centres from Voyager, and have an extremely competent and qualified friend working in a SP role who I would happily refer and recommend into SP roles, if they were available in the area. I've long been of the opinion that companies overlook the regions in favour of the metro centres, and miss out on good candidates for it.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

Firebirdnz

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#3225010 1-May-2024 13:22

toejam316:

Firebirdnz:

...For example we attempted to fill some engineering roles locally and had job adverts, recruitment agencies engaged for well over 12 months with no solution to filling those roles...

Quite curious about this - was there ever a consideration of remote roles within the country? I ask because I tend to keep an eye on the job market, and never noticed anything outside of the major centres from Voyager, and have an extremely competent and qualified friend working in a SP role who I would happily refer and recommend into SP roles, if they were available in the area. I've long been of the opinion that companies overlook the regions in favour of the metro centres, and miss out on good candidates for it.

This specific example was back in 2021/22 and was for a Systems Engineering position. The off shore staff member we hired took less than 2 months to recruit and has been with us since. Most roles are advertised locally. For example in the last couple of months we have hired an additional three staff into our North Shore based NOC team. All our hiring opportunities are available at https://voyager.nz/careers

mcb

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#3225299 1-May-2024 22:31

‘H’ I hope it wasn’t you I was a bit grumpy with (sorry if it was), and I don’t want to drag this thread out. But I do want to note that voyager had a point of difference with consistently great tech help and now that apparently can’t be relied on. As you say, voyager now does much more than broadband so must be a lot to be expert in. but that’s my point. Get large and lose focus – not the first NZ ISP to travel that path. Covid knocked us all around but interesting you don’t mention cost as a motivator – I assume your overseas staff are in south east Asia and not for instance the USA. We all love cheap but not so much to buy on price alone, else I doubt I’d be with voyager.

Anyway, this is really about the grief (real or imagined) of losing a reliable trusted service. I hope things can get back to the standard that we once knew and appreciated.

The end.

Firebirdnz

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#3225415 2-May-2024 08:04

Hi @mcb,

Nope wasn't me you talked with, that was someone else who happens to share my name! I do appreciate your feedback. I think if I were to summarise what you have said, you feel we used to be on point but now we have let things slide. As the head of networks and an engineer through and through I do hope that the quality of the internet product itself is enough to keep you around. I have passed your feedback onto the relevant folks and I know they'll take it onboard. In the mean time, as mentioned before, you can always DM myself or @VygrNetworkMonkey if you have any issues. He, like I, is an engineer by trade and we can directly sort things out.

Regards,