So I sought advice from this forum a few months ago about what service provider to go with. We ended up with Telecom. Living in the Aro Valley area in Wellington.

We reported fault on land-line on the 14th Sept. I believe the problem existed a few days before this date and that other people in the area were affected. Buzzing on the line which made it unusable. Broadband also slowed to below a megabit and on a number of days since to just slightly faster than dial up.

Initially told that due to staff being unavailable, earliest it could be repaired would be the 22nd Sept,mention of striking technicians was made. I complained that this was unacceptable and an extremely poor service to offer a new customer. Compensation offered to calm me down.

22nd arrived,land-line not repaired. Told it would definitely be be working within a couple of days. Further complaints made, including to a Team leader, highest person in chain who was willing to speak to me.

Then I was told it was fixed on the 25th, whilst I was calling from work as line not working. 'Maybe it's a problem with your phones, unplug everything and we can check it'. Still not working. 'Oh there appears to be another cable fault in your area', Thanks for telling me. We'll have that resolved by tomorrow 3pm.

Another day, another day without a working phone. Various complaints made to Complaints Team leader, who said she would get to the bottom of it, call me with an update and email me with details of problems so far. Further compensation offered.

Did she call, did she write did she even send us a letter, NO, NO,  and NO. I sort of miss her.

So where are we now October 1st ? Who knows because Telecom don't seem to. I bumped in to a technician this morning who told me there was definitely a cable fault, you're joking, shot gun at the ready.

As for their complaints department, what ever you do don't email them, becuase they'll just acknowledge you have a fault but actually do nothing about it. Don't call because you'll waste about 20 minutes each time waiting to speak to someone who actually doesn't know why your phone isn't working. If your lucky one poor sod will actually ring you back a couple of times, each time having to put up with me chewing their ear off with no end results, a working phone.

We are just appalled by the lack of service we have had over the last couple of weeks. If i have to make one more call
to Telecom complaints line I may need to shoot myself.

How can telecom get away with this ? We are relying on them and they have failed on every level of service. Their promises mean nothing. The level of communication has been scant. I'm not that scary I swear. I just can't believe anything they tell us, because so far there have been plenty of lies, misinformation and general mis-communication.

Where does this leave us ? Not any closer to having a working line. A potential new customer of another communications company, most definitely. Only problem is Telecom service the lines, so what can we do we still need them to fix them.
By the look of things I may need to get out there, qualify as a cable guy,dig up the road myself and repair said problem as well, because it doesn't look like Telecom give a damn.

My final comment is think before you choose Telecom, then choose someone else.