Hey guys, just wondering if anybody else has had a bad experience with this ISP? I see they pride themselves on customer service but, to be honest, I'm banging my head against a brick wall with them. If others have had a similar experience, I'm thinking this is a chronic issue and giving my $$$ to other ISPs who may be more expensive, but less difficult to deal with, particularly since a customer can't *call* Bigpipe.

The situation is simply that I'm moving into a new apartment in Auckland, where Bigpipe is offering a special deal for UFB which looks good price wise. Thankfully, apartment block is already UFB capable so it wasn't a "consent" headache. Initially Bigpipe were rather helpful, and I was pleased that I only had to wait a couple of weeks for install. Got the "we have booked these dates for your scope and build, please let us know if you need to change it" email. Indicated that I was needed at work on those dates, and to please shift to the dates I have supplied. Received an email from Bigpipe confirming my changes were made - "I have changed the dates as per your request, if you have any questions, please feel free to reply to this email with your query." Awesomeness. Made plans, altered schedules, swapped dates at work to be home, booked builders to repair some issues in the new pad on the same day coz it isn't easy to take leave and I wanted to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Things going swimmingly, and I was really quite happy.

Then I made an enquiry about what time of day I'd have to be home, got a helpful reply again - "I have booked this for the PM slot so between 12pm and 7pm, unfortunately we do not have specific times as each job takes a different amount of time to complete." Not convenient, but hey, I'd been warned about the process. No sign at this stage of trouble, and I assumed all was in order (this was also an opportunity for them to have rectified on their error which I describe below)

My frustration begins when I follow-up with an enquiry about the free modem that was provided as part of my deal - to my surprise, I was told as a by-the-by in their reply that only the scope day had been changed as I had requested, but build/install day was as per original booking (not the day I had requested and was told was confirmed). No apology about an error, or for uncomfirming something they had confirmed - just one line stating the booked dates. I replied matter of factly, and explained that my date changes had already been confirmed and I wasn't happy about this development for any number of reasons. After to-ing and fro-ing over a number of emails, they then try to pull a fast one on me

"Unfortunately Chorus manage the service technicians and currently they do not have any technicians to carry out the install.

Upon your request we followed up with Chorus and to change the date to the 25th. And they have declined our request as they do not have resources do complete the job on the 25th.

Also, we had not confirmed the install date would be 25th and this morning just before your email the rejection for 25th came in and was re-confirmed for 26th as originally stated."


If they had not confirmed the changed dates, then why send me a CONFIRMATION email saying that?? I cut and paste that confirmation email from them (coz it seems you deal with a random person each time you email them, even about the same issue). The person who replied pretty much ignored what I had cut and pasted.

And it seems from their replies that this is all Chorus' fault somehow....no doubt Chorus is difficult to work with, but Chorus aren't responsible for an ISP (who are a RETAILER) having awful communication skills. And even if it was Chorus' fault, as a customer, it isn't't my problem that a RETAILER/Service provider (who has charged me for the installation and agreed to and confirmed a date for a service, and therefore, entered a contract) has a problem with their SUPPLIER. I'm a reasonable person though and a simple apology would've sufficed. Indeed, I pointed out that something along the lines of "Sorry dude, we botched up with that confirmation email, promise to do better, and here's a bit of compensation for the inconvenience" would've made me shrug my shoulders, and move on.  Rather, I was  fed a whole lot of nonsense about "oh we never confirmed anything...." Their lack of communication skills doesn't inspire much confidence when you consider they're online support only.

To top it off, I write back pointing all of this, but finish my email by supplying alternative dates for UFB installation - "Though my experience with Bigpipe is far from satisfactory right from the start, the dates for possible install are Saturday 27th , Sunday 28th, and Monday 29th."
This is what I get in reply in its entirety - "The connection dates are best effort, due to unforeseeable circumstances they are subjected to change.   As mentioned before there are no Chorus service tech available for 25th hence we can not get an installation date for 25th. At this stage the connection install date is 26th, if the date is not suitable please let us know your next preference." Clearly they didn't even bother reading my most recent email either *Facepalm*. Online support indeed.

Has anybody else had anything like this from them??