Xtra rated worst ISP in user survey

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grant_k

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#10069 2-Nov-2006 16:41

This just in from the Herald:

Internet Service Provider Xtra says it is already making improvements to its broadband services following poor customer feedback.

The Consumers' Institute survey of more than 10,000 internet users found that ISPs made big promises but failed to deliver. Broadband speed and pricing were the main concerns.

The survey found that only 55 per cent of Xtra's customers rate the company's service satisfactory or very satisfactory, compared with 78 per cent last year. Xtra was rated worst in every category.

Full article here:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10408830

Like I said: It's time to Vote with your Feet, people...

riahon

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#50826 2-Nov-2006 17:14

Cant argue with those stats but despite all of these surveys and ratings one thing always remains the same: No one ever asks me! I remember some survey that came out about banks - mine rated worst of all the banks but for me personally my bank is fantastic, I am still there.

I have only had one outage with Xtra in the nearly 4 years with broadband with them - not to say there hasnt been others, I might have been out earning a living or having a life at the time.

My speed is 1.8Mb/s on a 3.5 plan - it is what it is, do I really care, nope, webpages load, email comes and goes - this interweb thing is cool.

If we were to follow every survey and listen to every piece of advice or new research that comes out then we would all live very isolated and uneventful lives. The latest one made me laugh about coffee affecting male sperm - at least 4 coffee's a day and 4 kids later I dont think it affected me.

I look at any rating/survey/news story with skepticism - If I am happy with what I have got why would I want to change on the basis of a survey or others opinions.

juha

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#50837 2-Nov-2006 20:14

riahon: My speed is 1.8Mb/s on a 3.5 plan - it is what it is, do I really care, nope, webpages load, email comes and goes - this interweb thing is cool.

Why not get a 2Mbit/s plan instead and save some money?

Juha

juha

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#50838 2-Nov-2006 20:16

Summary of survey here on Consumer's site.

Disclosure: I am a current Inspire Net customer and a past Xtra customer. Have had no complaints with either, unless you count the micro-outages issue some years ago on Jetstream.

Juha

riahon

946 posts

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#50840 2-Nov-2006 20:31

juha:
riahon: My speed is 1.8Mb/s on a 3.5 plan - it is what it is, do I really care, nope, webpages load, email comes and goes - this interweb thing is cool.

Why not get a 2Mbit/s plan instead and save some money?

Considered - but need about 2 - 3 GB per month plus the main reason we went to broadband way back in the Jetstart days (128k unlimited I think) was so not to tie up the phone line. Since then the price has gone down, speed up - but my girls talk longer on the phone - such is life.

allan

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#50853 2-Nov-2006 23:04

The primary problem I have with Xtra is the appalling job they do of communication - their "Network Status" link is there for PR spin only, it never says anything other than "No known problems". If there really is an error with the set up of "Go Large" users at present, why doesn't say so? Because it's not good for the image? Don't worry about communicating with the end customer. I took them to task on a previous occasion when it did not change during an extended email outage and actually got an acknowledgment that they could do better. I'm afraid I have to say I haven't seen any evidence.

Why is the "Contact us" link on their Help page so hard to find and in such a small type face? To discourage people from contacting them?

Why does the 0800 CALL XTRA number, when choosing the option for Broadband issues, inevitably have the real person you finally end up with, tell you to ring 0800 116 110 for anything other than the simplest of issues and how confusing is it for an end consumer to ring that number and be greeted by a recording that says "Welcome to Xtra Business"?

My change-over to "Go Large" happened at 2:45pm on Sunday afternoon when my connection simply stopped working for approx two hours. The ADSL connection was still there, but nothing would persuade PPoA to accept my log in. A call was logged with Xtra, who could not diagnose the problem, arranged to do some test and ring me back later. Eventually it came back on it's own, I discovered via the Usage page that I was now on "Go Large" and this pretty much coincided with the Help Desk person phoning me back to tell me he could still find nothing wrong. On telling him what I had discovered, his response was "Oh yeah, that sometimes happens". An excellent piece of communication!

Allan

Jama

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#50869 3-Nov-2006 08:33

According to the article and the Consumers Institute - 51% of survey respondents use Xtra which dragged down the average.

It would be interesting to know what the sample size was for inspire.net as 97% of its users rated its performance as good.

TinyTim

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#50883 3-Nov-2006 10:05

Jama: According to the article and the Consumers Institute - 51% of survey respondentsuse Xtra which dragged down the average.

It would be interesting to know what the sample size was for inspire.net as 97% of its users ratedits performance as good.

I have the report (I've signed up to Consumer).

Without breaching their T&C:

• There more than 10,000 responses.
• For the overall rating: Xtra had >4500 responses, Inspire <100. (I guess not everyone gave them an overall rating, hence it doesn't make up 51%)
• For the broadband rating: Xtra had >3200, Inspire <50.
• The number of responses was fairly well spread - Inspire wasn't the lowest.
• The only other ISP with more than 1000 responses was Paradise (just over 1000).