Unsolicited Parcels from Spark - time wasters

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Unsolicited Parcels from Spark - time wasters - get them redundant

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halper86

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#2729302 15-Jun-2021 19:19

I know things have deadlines but most elderly only have a very limited disposable income to give to these companies. These companies should be required by law to provide modern equipment as part of their service contracts between customers. The Government should be aware of this situation and have protections in place so no vulnerable customers are affected.
Monopolies at their finest. Law > Morality.

nztim

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#2729305 15-Jun-2021 19:22

SomeoneSomewhere:

NEAX is screwed. I would use stronger terms but they're not allowed here.

Rumours I heard is they were bidding on eBay for obsolete spares to keep the equipment going more than a decade ago, and the only reason they're still running is the reducing number of customers is letting them cannibalise the bits that are still working but no longer needed.

Remember that the NEAXs are 1980s computer equipment.

I also heard NEC New Zealand also has an in-house refurbishment programme to repair NEAX line cards

In all fairness though, it is amazing that a piece of 1980s technology well maintained, has lasted as long as it has, kind of like a Boeing 747, but also like a 747 its time has come to retire

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nztim

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#2729306 15-Jun-2021 19:23

halper86: Monopolies at their finest. Law > Morality.

No Monopolies, plenty of choice in provider out there

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halper86

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#2729309 15-Jun-2021 19:25

@someonesomewhere again, I understand. But try tell this to an elderly person when their phone is working great. The NEAX has served us well with billions of minutes running through the circuits over its life. Sad to see such a revolutionary piece of engineering die.
My main point I am trying to get across this whole time was that with so many options to chose from and a whole bunch of jargon, how do you think you would feel if you were in the shoes of the elderly with no idea in the world what any of it means?

halper86

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#2729311 15-Jun-2021 19:27

nztim:
halper86: Monopolies at their finest. Law > Morality.

No Monopolies, plenty of choice in provider out there

Tell this to someone who has known and trusted Spark for so long, majority of the elderly I know are all with Spark and never even heard of VF or 2D etc

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#2729312 15-Jun-2021 19:34

People not knowing choice is quite different to not having a choice.
There has been competition for telephony and Internet services for decades at this point.

Vodafone, 2 Degrees, Slingshot, Orcon are not new by any stretch of the imagination.

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nztim

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#2729313 15-Jun-2021 19:34

halper86:
nztim:

No Monopolies, plenty of choice in provider out there

Tell this to someone who has known and trusted Spark for so long, majority of the elderly I know are all with Spark and never even heard of VF or 2D etc

I will be moving my elderly relatives to NOWNZ Baseband IP when/if that letter comes - It's about choice and education is what needs to happen here

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#2729315 15-Jun-2021 19:40

halper86: @someonesomewhere again, I understand. But try tell this to an elderly person when their phone is working great. The NEAX has served us well with billions of minutes running through the circuits over its life. Sad to see such a revolutionary piece of engineering die.
My main point I am trying to get across this whole time was that with so many options to chose from and a whole bunch of jargon, how do you think you would feel if you were in the shoes of the elderly with no idea in the world what any of it means?

Oh, sure, Spark has totally failed in their communications. But expecting NEAX to keep running is never going to happen. You may as well demand telegraph service or leaded petrol.

I think this has fallen into a bit of a whole because as everyone says, there is no monopoly here. Spark are just being stupid about it. This is completely unlike the Copper switchoff where everyone is putting lots of effort into ensuring no-one is left behind. There are so many workable solutions but Spark can't be bothered to put together clear marketing information saying what is going to happen, when, and what each customer's options are, and sticking it in an envelope with the next bill.

sbiddle

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#2729324 15-Jun-2021 20:20

mattwnz:

I can see a Fair Go story coming up...

Considering the large numbers of customers already migrated in phase 1 and phase 2 shutdowns (remembering the first shutdowns were in Dec 2020) and the fact there hasn't been a single mainstream media story or Fair Go story so far about this topic I think there are a few people making a much bigger deal about this than what it really is.

halper86

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#2729380 15-Jun-2021 22:39

I totally agree there is not a monopoly here, just a perceived one by some people who just haven't been informed.

I have to give it to Spark though, being proactive about customers moving onto new access methods for telephony. Their communication (or lack thereof) however, has not been great. But hey - they managed like you said @sbiddle , to migrate the first mob of customers with no (major) problems involved. Let us hope the rest of the migration goes smoothly also.

sbiddle

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#2729409 16-Jun-2021 07:41

It's worth pointing out too that anybody who thinks they can be a holdout and simply not do anything about migrating their voice services because Spark won't disconnect them will be in for a shock when they wake up one morning to find their line is simply disconnected.

nztim

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#2729411 16-Jun-2021 08:01

sbiddle:
It's worth pointing out too that anybody who thinks they can be a holdout and simply not do anything about migrating their voice services because Spark won't disconnect them will be in for a shock when they wake up one morning to find their line is simply disconnected.

That will happened to the last remaining lines in Miramar when Spark eventually decide enough is enough

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sbiddle

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#2729412 16-Jun-2021 08:03

nztim:
sbiddle:

It's worth pointing out too that anybody who thinks they can be a holdout and simply not do anything about migrating their voice services because Spark won't disconnect them will be in for a shock when they wake up one morning to find their line is simply disconnected.

That will happened to the last remaining lines in Miramar when Spark eventually decide enough is enough

It already happened about a month or two ago.

nztim

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#2729419 16-Jun-2021 08:36

sbiddle:

nztim: That will happened to the last remaining lines in Miramar when Spark eventually decide enough is enough

It already happened about a month or two ago.

There are still a handful of lines on MIR4/MIR5 I suspect disconnections will come very shortly

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

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