Spark New Connection Problems

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maxeon

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#153951 13-Oct-2014 19:03

New Connection Service from Spark ...

Signed up Online for a New Phone and Broadband connection on a 12 months contract with Spark on the 20th of September...
(Comes with free modem).

Clearly stated that I am moving in on the 8th October.
Modem was sent to the new address on the 4th October and sent back (because I didn't move in yet).
Plugged in my phone on the 8th evening and didn't work.
Called call centre and they said "oops, the previous guy's ISP didn't disconnect"
Called again on the 9th and 10th and the situation was the same, although they said it should be done by 13th mid-day.
Now - on the 13th, apparently the previous connection is now disconnected... BUT
The previous company has taken some equipment away from exchange and now Spark needs to send a technician out.. (via Chorus)
Asked for a time frame and they said "don't know, Chorus is closed after 5pm".
On further request of time frames in general, the lady on phone just said. I sent an email to chrous and I am hoping it will take few days for chorus to reply and action it.
What about my modem? will send it to you today (13th) again and it should arrive in about 3-5 working days...
Asked what can I do while this is happening, she said the world would much better place if everyone was with Spark. **Sigh**

Anyone had similar issues in the past for a new connection? what was the time frame it took for Chorus to fix whatever equipment that was taken by the old ISP?

Any help is appreciated.

michaelmurfy

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#1153090 13-Oct-2014 19:23

I'd say that is pretty good customer service. There is not much they're able to do if somebody doesn't disconnect, they have to put through an abandonment request through to Chorus etc.

Really, your issue would have happened no matter what ISP you went with. An ISP is not going to send you a modem if the connection is not 100% guaranteed but good job to them with sorting it pretty quickly.

sbiddle

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#1153123 13-Oct-2014 20:19

My pick would be the existing person probably had an existing connection on a ULL connection that wasn't disconnected. That would have had to have been disconnected, and now the connection needs to be rejumpered.

The process to cancel a connection that's still in use isn't straight forward - if it was anybody could simply cancel an existing connection for any other user. Any wait times now would fit in with BAU Chorus processes, which could be from 2-10 days depending on their workload.

Under the circumstances Spark seem to have done a pretty good job to far, it's not unheard of (based on prior posts from people on here) of this process sometimes taking in excess of a week.

maxeon

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#1153275 14-Oct-2014 08:04

I just thought when you signup well before you move to a house, you would expect the ISP to do the pre-check's on when the arrival date is, and what is the status of the line etc before the customer moves in.

In my case, the modem was sent to me well before I moved in, although I clearly stated the move in date.
However, the line was not checked.

Yet, I receive the emails from Spark saying. Hooray - we are all ready to roll and the connection will be ready when you move in.

Clearly there is a gap in the whole process.

sbiddle

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#1153282 14-Oct-2014 08:22

maxeon: I just thought when you signup well before you move to a house, you would expect the ISP to do the pre-check's on when the arrival date is, and what is the status of the line etc before the customer moves in.

I don't quite think you understand how the process works.

It's not possible for an ISP to lodge an install until any previous service orders (such as a cancellation of service) are complete. The situation of moving into a new home and expecting a new connection on X date will more often than not cause problems, and people can go around blaming whoever they like, but these sorts of problems do happen if existing tenants don't lodge disconnections until the day they're moving out, or at the end of their billing cycle which likely isn't until after this date.

michaelmurfy

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#1153303 14-Oct-2014 08:30

sbiddle:
maxeon: I just thought when you signup well before you move to a house, you would expect the ISP to do the pre-check's on when the arrival date is, and what is the status of the line etc before the customer moves in.

I don't quite think you understand how the process works.

It's not possible for an ISP to lodge an install until any previous service orders (such as a cancellation of service) are complete. The situation of moving into a new home and expecting a new connection on X date will more often than not cause problems, and people can go around blaming whoever they like, but these sorts of problems do happen if existing tenants don't lodge disconnections until the day they're moving out, or at the end of their billing cycle which likely isn't until after this date.

Plus also the majority of this process is automated, system errors do sometimes happen.

maxeon

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#1153308 14-Oct-2014 08:47

sbiddle:
maxeon: I just thought when you signup well before you move to a house, you would expect the ISP to do the pre-check's on when the arrival date is, and what is the status of the line etc before the customer moves in.

I don't quite think you understand how the process works.

It's not possible for an ISP to lodge an install until any previous service orders (such as a cancellation of service) are complete. The situation of moving into a new home and expecting a new connection on X date will more often than not cause problems, and people can go around blaming whoever they like, but these sorts of problems do happen if existing tenants don't lodge disconnections until the day they're moving out, or at the end of their billing cycle which likely isn't until after this date.

I might not understand the entire process, and that probably my reason for asking these questions.
However I feel the customer should be in a informed state rather than miss-informed state.

The customer is new to the company and signed up Online. The emails received so far are miss-leading. We received email from Spark saying they will have the connection ready when we move in and we just have to plug in the phone and the modem. Obviously that is no the case.

I understand those emails are system generated, but those emails should be sent after knowing the factual state of the connection.

I guess, I will just wait for it to be connected now.

Thanks for your help.

Jase2985

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#1153397 14-Oct-2014 10:14

the would be working on a best case senario ie you move in they have the line connected

they have no idea when/if the old tennant has logged a disconnect or when they have logged it for.

there is not much spark can do in your case i think your being a little overly critical of the whole process. yes its annoying but sometimes it happens

maxeon

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#1155973 16-Oct-2014 11:00

Got the modem, got the phone line & broadband last night. Happy now. Thanks everyone for their inputs.