New Lows in support and functionality

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nunz

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# 208726 24-Feb-2017 22:18

Client: Emails getting bounced back as spam when sent via xtra email

Try to log onto web portal. Cant. Hack username and password out of email client to ensure its not wrong. It's not.

xtramail.co.nz redirects to some other site which redirects to a spark portal with crud about checking if we have migrated .Put in email - we haven'tmigrated - surprise surprise.

Redirects to yahooo.com

Redirects to NZ yahoo.

Click on xtra mail - page not found.

Backup , click on mail - forced to sign in again.

Phone spark as reset system down.

TWO hour ZERO MINUTES - ZERO SECONDS - phone call drops. I think they are now ditching calls if the queue gets too long as the zero minutes and zero seconds is too much of a coincidence for me.

Re phone again - we're closed. Bollocks!!!

Phone again, talk gibberish to phone, get forced to choose phone number want to discuss so put in 0800 225598 - sparks number. Actually get to person. Ha ha ha.

Log in process above - gone through. Exactly same email address and password now works (copied and pasted and also typed in two different browsers.).

Got to go to yahoo mail not xtra mail log in symbol.

Mail client now open. Search for address bounced back as spam. No results in spam or sent or recevied. That's really funny as the address is inside two emails I can see in the list, where I was emailing client re the issues. opening the emails shows the exact term I'm searching for. Copy and search again - still doesnt find it. Advanced search - still doesn't find it.

Order by sender - options greyed out.

What a pile of wasted space kraps. You guys are going from bad to worse.

Oh by the way, you'll be receiving another complaint as when I ask to talk to a supervisor I do expect to be sent to a supervisor and not have some twerp hang up on me - especially as the first thing I had done was make him take my number so he could call back if he lost the call.

Just a reminder the S in ISP stands for service - how about actually providing some.

2.75 billable hours thanks to kraps stuffed systems. Client still cant get the email through.

nunz

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# 1725987 24-Feb-2017 23:11

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That might be one of the most hard to read posts I have read in a long time. Perhaps try and cool off before posting.

If I am not mistaken you have been on these rants before. Surely if you know that the system isn't to your liking you would spend some time proactively advising your clients to switch to a different provider. Xtra's email issues and limitations are pretty well known.

You could have migrated them to a different platform for less hours. I think I would struggle to justify charging a client for nearly 3 hours for that.

Who is kraps?

yitz

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# 1725992 24-Feb-2017 23:33

networkn:
Who is kraps?

Lol name of an ISP spelt backwards...

networkn

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# 1726001 25-Feb-2017 01:31

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Well that's a breach of the fug to start with. Perhaps if he spent less time coming up with clever names....

michaelmurfy

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# 1726002 25-Feb-2017 01:36

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The whole "Spark backwards" thing started off when the move from Telecom to Spark happened and some idiot decided it is funny to abuse Spark staff by calling them Kraps - he ended up getting trolled and removed his posts but not before a bunch of others saw it and thought "oh what a great idea"...

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
A quick guide to picking the right ISP | The Router Guide | Community UniFi Cloud Controller | Ubiquiti Edgerouter Tutorial

DaveDog

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# 1726040 25-Feb-2017 09:30

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Seems to me that somehow you think Spark as an ISP should be providing a decent email service. The I stands for Internet - Not Email ...

My suggestion (and it's probably been said before) is to migrate the mail to a decent service like 365 ... Those 2.75 billable hours you've wasted would have paid for the hosted email service for probably 2 or 3 years ...

nunz:

Client: Emails getting bounced back as spam when sent via xtra email

Try to log onto web portal. Cant. Hack username and password out of email client to ensure its not wrong. It's not.

xtramail.co.nz redirects to some other site which redirects to a spark portal with crud about checking if we have migrated .Put in email - we haven'tmigrated - surprise surprise.

Log in.

Redirects to yahooo.com

Sign in again.

Redirects to NZ yahoo.

Click on xtra mail - page not found.

Backup , click on mail - forced to sign in again.

Sign in fails.

Phone spark as reset system down.

TWO hour ZERO MINUTES - ZERO SECONDS - phone call drops. I think they are now ditching calls if the queue gets too long as the zero minutes and zero seconds is too much of a coincidence for me.

Re phone again - we're closed. Bollocks!!!

Phone again, talk gibberish to phone, get forced to choose phone number want to discuss so put in 0800 225598 - sparks number. Actually get to person. Ha ha ha.

Log in process above - gone through. Exactly same email address and password now works (copied and pasted and also typed in two different browsers.).

Got to go to yahoo mail not xtra mail log in symbol.

Mail client now open. Search for address bounced back as spam. No results in spam or sent or recevied. That's really funny as the address is inside two emails I can see in the list, where I was emailing client re the issues. opening the emails shows the exact term I'm searching for. Copy and search again - still doesnt find it. Advanced search - still doesn't find it.

Order by sender - options greyed out.

What a pile of wasted space kraps. You guys are going from bad to worse.

Oh by the way, you'll be receiving another complaint as when I ask to talk to a supervisor I do expect to be sent to a supervisor and not have some twerp hang up on me - especially as the first thing I had done was make him take my number so he could call back if he lost the call.

Just a reminder the S in ISP stands for service - how about actually providing some.

2.75 billable hours thanks to kraps stuffed systems. Client still cant get the email through.

sbiddle

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# 1726057 25-Feb-2017 10:53

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Considering the huge number of negative posts the OP has had about Spark's email platform I really wonder why he's still got customers on it. Migrating them away would seem a far less stressful solution.

nunz

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# 1726190 25-Feb-2017 17:57

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sbiddle:

Considering the huge number of negative posts the OP has had about Spark's email platform I really wonder why he's still got customers on it. Migrating them away would seem a far less stressful solution.

Simple - I don't get to decide for my clients what IT they use. I can advise, I can persuade but I don't get to decide and at the end of the day if that costs more - that's their decision. In fact by charging for the time taken to deal with idiot issues, I am in effect persuading my client - as businesses justify decisions on cost and business risk. to not charge is to hide dumb decisions being made and do them a dis-favour.

The reason I rant at ISP and support staff is we are accepting worse and worse levels of service and allowing more and more idiot processes to go un-remarked on. it is not politically correct to rant and rail - but if we don't, if we do not let people know what we think of their services then we are complicit in the resulting carnage.

It burns my daks that we are accepting crappier services, more interference with our lives and less control over our own destinies as progress. it's not. its an erosion of the good works that got the internet / IT to the place it got to today - progress done by individuals and independents and now getting ripped off and monopolized by a few for corporate profit.

SPARK ( whom I always see as kraps as I read their vans and cars in my rear-vision mirror) got themselves in the pickle they are in now by cost cutting and failing to remember their best good is to protect their clients best good with great service - not foisting mediocre cost cutting half bakedisms on us for corporate profit. And no, that's not my opinion (cost cutting for sparks benefit) , that's the opinion of a then current CEO of Spark / Telecom - who acknowledged the company is ripping its clients off - and then did nothing about it coz she didn't care. since then nothing has changed for the better - rather the opposite.

More and more IT and services are being thrown into fewer and fewer hands - cloud services don't improve most things, they dumb them down and it's all about cheapening costs and maximising profits. take subscription services for Office software and the likely move of the OS in the same direction. That's not good for the client. it's good for the seller. it also means you lose control. An office 365 subscription forces you to "upgrade" software, often losing functionality in the process or adding costs in retraining, and dealing with the fall out of beta software being shipped before it is ready. in the "good old days" you got software that worked, and sat on it because if it wasn't broke - you didn't fix it. now that choice is being taken away.

And why shouldn't I rail at Sparks email services. Seriously - is there anyone in their right mind who thinks that it is a good thing? The costs to businesses, individuals, the economy is horrendous - and again - spark bears no responsibility for this. This whole process has been a mega shambles.

You may think criticism is a bad thing - i think keeping silent is the wrong thing. Spark and other ISPs dont take suggestions made in good faith, calmly and clearly via their official processes. That's fine - I'll make them loud and clear in public. It seems shame is the way to do business now days - you gotta look good, is more important than doing a solid job for your clients.

nunz

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# 1726192 25-Feb-2017 18:00

DaveDog:

Seems to me that somehow you think Spark as an ISP should be providing a decent email service. The I stands for Internet - Not Email ...

My suggestion (and it's probably been said before) is to migrate the mail to a decent service like 365 ... Those 2.75 billable hours you've wasted would have paid for the hosted email service for probably 2 or 3 years ...

nunz:

Sorry - i must have mis-heard. I thought you said 365 was a decent service.

I know you didn't mean that considering their issues with latency, speed, failure to propagate permissions properly in a timely fashion, history of outages and total disregard of any form of SLA when the poo did hit the fan.

And again, how about paying a decent NZ company to do a job - it may cost a little more - but it keeps your neighbours employed - unlike Microsofts services. The only benefit they offer is cost cutting - a form of greed.

nunz

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# 1726193 25-Feb-2017 18:03

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My workplace has been on 365 for more than three years... countable outages I can remember = 2 ...

As far as greed goes... I presume then you don't buy anything online/from overseas either - local physical shop front right?

nunz:

DaveDog:

Seems to me that somehow you think Spark as an ISP should be providing a decent email service. The I stands for Internet - Not Email ...

My suggestion (and it's probably been said before) is to migrate the mail to a decent service like 365 ... Those 2.75 billable hours you've wasted would have paid for the hosted email service for probably 2 or 3 years ...

nunz:

Sorry - i must have mis-heard. I thought you said 365 was a decent service.

I know you didn't mean that considering their issues with latency, speed, failure to propagate permissions properly in a timely fashion, history of outages and total disregard of any form of SLA when the poo did hit the fan.

And again, how about paying a decent NZ company to do a job - it may cost a little more - but it keeps your neighbours employed - unlike Microsofts services. The only benefit they offer is cost cutting - a form of greed.

BlinkyBill

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# 1726195 25-Feb-2017 18:07

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If I don't believe in a service, I don't support it for my customers no matter how much they want me to. Unless they pay me a disclosed pain premium.

My philosophy in business is it is unprofessional to provide a service you don't believe in and can't deliver, even if it is a third-party supplier issue.

BlinkyBill

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# 1726200 25-Feb-2017 18:17

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I'm honestly too apprehensive to even try and help here. Shane, you acknowledge you're ranting, you're making lots of inflammatory and unsubstantiated claims and you insist on continuing to misuse the 'kraps' moniker (for humour or catharsis I presume, if not not outright hatred).

I needed to post just to clarify that none of the Spark employees on GZ are paid to monitor these forums and we often/usually render assistance, where we can, on our own time. Because of that we all get to choose whether or not we engage with individual users on here, and it's rare that I won't.

Regards

Neil G

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

DaveDog

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# 1726204 25-Feb-2017 18:25

I presume it makes you feel warm inside to rant at the ISP staff when your issues are likely not solvable by them, they've been demoralised by the cost cutting and practically forcing these poor staff to suffer at the hands of customers like you ...

Maybe your rant would be better directed at management and not the poor sod that's trying to help you - that way the management might actually listen to you, and the poor sod trying to help you might be willing to help a little more when you're not a ranting client...

nunz:

sbiddle:

Considering the huge number of negative posts the OP has had about Spark's email platform I really wonder why he's still got customers on it. Migrating them away would seem a far less stressful solution.

Simple - I don't get to decide for my clients what IT they use. I can advise, I can persuade but I don't get to decide and at the end of the day if that costs more - that's their decision. In fact by charging for the time taken to deal with idiot issues, I am in effect persuading my client - as businesses justify decisions on cost and business risk. to not charge is to hide dumb decisions being made and do them a dis-favour.

The reason I rant at ISP and support staff is we are accepting worse and worse levels of service and allowing more and more idiot processes to go un-remarked on. it is not politically correct to rant and rail - but if we don't, if we do not let people know what we think of their services then we are complicit in the resulting carnage.

It burns my daks that we are accepting crappier services, more interference with our lives and less control over our own destinies as progress. it's not. its an erosion of the good works that got the internet / IT to the place it got to today - progress done by individuals and independents and now getting ripped off and monopolized by a few for corporate profit.

SPARK ( whom I always see as kraps as I read their vans and cars in my rear-vision mirror) got themselves in the pickle they are in now by cost cutting and failing to remember their best good is to protect their clients best good with great service - not foisting mediocre cost cutting half bakedisms on us for corporate profit. And no, that's not my opinion (cost cutting for sparks benefit) , that's the opinion of a then current CEO of Spark / Telecom - who acknowledged the company is ripping its clients off - and then did nothing about it coz she didn't care. since then nothing has changed for the better - rather the opposite.

More and more IT and services are being thrown into fewer and fewer hands - cloud services don't improve most things, they dumb them down and it's all about cheapening costs and maximising profits. take subscription services for Office software and the likely move of the OS in the same direction. That's not good for the client. it's good for the seller. it also means you lose control. An office 365 subscription forces you to "upgrade" software, often losing functionality in the process or adding costs in retraining, and dealing with the fall out of beta software being shipped before it is ready. in the "good old days" you got software that worked, and sat on it because if it wasn't broke - you didn't fix it. now that choice is being taken away.

And why shouldn't I rail at Sparks email services. Seriously - is there anyone in their right mind who thinks that it is a good thing? The costs to businesses, individuals, the economy is horrendous - and again - spark bears no responsibility for this. This whole process has been a mega shambles.

You may think criticism is a bad thing - i think keeping silent is the wrong thing. Spark and other ISPs dont take suggestions made in good faith, calmly and clearly via their official processes. That's fine - I'll make them loud and clear in public. It seems shame is the way to do business now days - you gotta look good, is more important than doing a solid job for your clients.

quickymart

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# 1726372 26-Feb-2017 09:30

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As awful as this sounds, he sounds like the type of customer I would go out of my way to not help (back in my phone-answering days). I can understand customers being p'd off and frustrated, but if you're just going to be an outright jerk to me, how motivated do you think I should be to help you? Try putting yourself in my shoes maybe?

Rikkitic

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# 1726382 26-Feb-2017 09:45

I am not in business and my only dealings with Spark have been indirect, when Telecom policy was holding back infrastructure development in this country and forcing me to put up with very poor dial-up. I agree that front-line staff should not be abused for things they have no control over, but I also think nunz has a point if you strip out the frustrated emotion (which I fully understand) and listen to what he is actually saying. I don't know if he is correct or not, but I think it is worth listening to.

I reject your reality and substitute my own. - Adam Savage

richms

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# 1726427 26-Feb-2017 11:29

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If you are really providing support for people in a paid environment then I really think that you should be disclosing what you will and will not support upfront.

I do casual support for people I know, and I absolutely refuse to support ISP email, slow-as computers, anything before windows 7, consumer grade printers/scanners with drivers from hell and other things that result from people being cheap.

Get them to get a domain name, office 365 or google, have them set up forwarding from the ISP email address if they have people using it still or it printed anywhere and leave it at that. Pain gone.

Richard rich.ms

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