Telecom refund offer to Ch residents

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Tel69

Tel69
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#79534 18-Mar-2011 17:41

I just tried to ring up Telecom about their refund offer, Strangely enough their phones were REALLY busy and my call back from the automated system was not answered. (My was more a query than anything else)

I'd like to ask one thing though from fellow geeks.
The offer as quoted in the Press was
"Telecom customers whose landline or broadband services have been affected for more than 24 hours will recieve a one month credit"

Don't get me wrong, I REALLY appriciate this gesture from Telecom and all the other telcos support as well.

The reason why I was ringing Telecom was I had no power for around 7 days, so how the heck can I figure out if I did actually have outages on the telecom network for broadband.
In fact considering the enormity of what happened and when I got back home, having no analogue phone I could not check that at all and most definately decided against driving to work to get one.

I was ringing them to find out when our phone and broadband systems came back online to see if I qualified.
I feel there will be a LOT of people in the same situation and over a range of telcos, but testing our communications unless you had an analogue phone was not possible (And definately no testing broadband).

I'm assuming considering the number of Chorus vans I've seen since it happened there was most definately some damage, but personally I think asking us to put it into a quantifiable measure of 24 hours and proving it would be difficult at best.

Your thoughts?
Tel.

P.S. Keep an analogue phone in your emergency kit.

jeffreyh

54 posts

Master Geek

#449728 18-Mar-2011 18:47

Hi,

Have you tried contacting your power company to get compensation for having no power to use your broadband connection? and sky (if you have that) and the food that went off in your freezer/fridge. I mean at the end of the day the root cause of your problem was no power.

Anyway I think the onus is on you to have logged a fault and if it was working when you got back then that is just bad luck for you since a check anytime prior using a phone would have indicated the line was faulty or not as the case may be.

We had analogue phones (or went and got one) so we knew the line was down and logged a fault and got our credit and our calls redirected to my cell with a credit to cover the diverted calls. Should they credit you yes if you logged a fault, otherwise they would have to waste alot of time trying to figure out who had a fault and who didn't sometimes not all pairs in a cable are affected so not everyone would be out of service,if you were using this as a measure. Some people turn off their modems anyway...oh right there was no power. I guess you can call and plead your case I know of people who have been credited there calls etc so maybe they will give you a break on you broadband

Jeff

Tel69

Tel69
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#449735 18-Mar-2011 19:09

jeffreyh: Hi,

Have you tried contacting your power company to get compensation for having no power to use your broadband connection? and sky (if you have that) and the food that went off in your freezer/fridge. I mean at the end of the day the root cause of your problem was no power.

Anyway I think the onus is on you to have logged a fault and if it was working when you got back then that is just bad luck for you since a check anytime prior using a phone would have indicated the line was faulty or not as the case may be.

We had analogue phones (or went and got one) so we knew the line was down and logged a fault and got our credit and our calls redirected to my cell with a credit to cover the diverted calls. Should they credit you yes if you logged a fault, otherwise they would have to waste alot of time trying to figure out who had a fault and who didn't sometimes not all pairs in a cable are affected so not everyone would be out of service,if you were using this as a measure. Some people turn off their modems anyway...oh right there was no power. I guess you can call and plead your case I know of people who have been credited there calls etc so maybe they will give you a break on you broadband

Jeff

I can understand your rather "matter of fact" response Jeff.
I don't know where in Ch you live, but when I got from the south western side of town (Where I work) to where I live there was a major difference in both the roads and the state of the houses.
When I got home, I was not thinking about my internet or anything else baring clearing up so I was not walking on broken glass.
I'm NOT one to claim for something I'm NOT entitled to, and have still not claimed the money from Red Cross I AM entitled to as I know there are a lot more who need it more than me.
I'm not pleading a case, just wanting to know if there is a way I could know how long my services were out for considering I have no way myself to know how long they were out for.
There IS a BIG difference between the Red Cross offer and ANY telco offer IMOHO.

Cheers
Tel

jeffreyh

54 posts

Master Geek

#449745 18-Mar-2011 20:02

Hi,

We live out east and didn't have power for 12 days. We lived at home during that time and because I can't get to work I have to work remotely. When I realized that the phone was not working (power aside) we logged a fault and arranged the other stuff as I said. I worked from someones place during the day. I'm not having a go at you, you asked for an opinion and I gave it. I think that you should have logged a fault, and expecting them to prove you did or didn't have service is ...unfair...honest opinion.

I would imagine it rather difficult to determine whether your connection was working as you had no power. I mean your line may have been ok,(for example our line ended up being down for 7-8 days because the cable had been stretched others in the street on Telecom were ok but some were not like us) but you wouldn't know because you didn't have power to run your devices( i.e test) and no way to get an analogue phone by the sounds. Even if your phone were fixed within the period (24hr) you still wouldn't have been able to use it.

Hey just had a thought perhaps this is a chance to suggest a move to a pay as you go model like power you pay a daily line/service charge and then pay for usage as you go. Then if you can't/don't use your broadband your not on the hook for the full monthly fee.

SteveON

1916 posts

Uber Geek

#449748 18-Mar-2011 20:14

Tel69:
jeffreyh: Hi,

Have you tried contacting your power company to get compensation for having no power to use your broadband connection? and sky (if you have that) and the food that went off in your freezer/fridge. I mean at the end of the day the root cause of your problem was no power.

Anyway I think the onus is on you to have logged a fault and if it was working when you got back then that is just bad luck for you since a check anytime prior using a phone would have indicated the line was faulty or not as the case may be.

We had analogue phones (or went and got one) so we knew the line was down and logged a fault and got our credit and our calls redirected to my cell with a credit to cover the diverted calls. Should they credit you yes if you logged a fault, otherwise they would have to waste alot of time trying to figure out who had a fault and who didn't sometimes not all pairs in a cable are affected so not everyone would be out of service,if you were using this as a measure. Some people turn off their modems anyway...oh right there was no power. I guess you can call and plead your case I know of people who have been credited there calls etc so maybe they will give you a break on you broadband

Jeff

I can understand your rather "matter of fact" response Jeff.
I don't know where in Ch you live, but when I got from the south western side of town (Where I work) to where I live there was a major difference in both the roads and the state of the houses.
When I got home, I was not thinking about my internet or anything else baring clearing up so I was not walking on broken glass.
I'm NOT one to claim for something I'm NOT entitled to, and have still not claimed the money from Red Cross I AM entitled to as I know there are a lot more who need it more than me.
I'm not pleading a case, just wanting to know if there is a way I could know how long my services were out for considering I have no way myself to know how long they were out for.
There IS a BIG difference between the Red Cross offer and ANY telco offer IMOHO.

Cheers
Tel

He is splitting hairs... why does everyone feel penalized just because something that they may be entitled to is not given to them?

Tel69

Tel69
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#449754 18-Mar-2011 21:02

jeffreyh: Hi,

We live out east and didn't have power for 12 days. We lived at home during that time and because I can't get to work I have to work remotely.

I totally understand that concept, but because I had no power I could not work remotely.

jeffreyh:When I realized that the phone was not working (power aside) we logged a fault and arranged the other stuff as I said. I worked from someones place during the day.

Yup, I only got an analugue phone into my house 4 days after it hit. (hense my hint of putting an analogue phone in an emergency kit)

jeffreyh:I'm not having a go at you, you asked for an opinion and I gave it. I think that you should have logged a fault, and expecting them to prove you did or didn't have service is ...unfair...honest opinion.

Fair comment, and I'm sure there are a lot of people who have and still are going through worse than both you and I have when it comes to the basic services.
I looked at what Id claim on my need.
For my power, I was not using any so that just flows through in the bill.
For the telcos they have offered some respite, I was someone who was on 24x7 call for a global company when it hit. My on call got transferred over to a person in Wellington as I managed to get a call out on the cell phone (Thanks Dave).
Your earlier comment about the different billing systems is interesting as all telcos will bill on the assumption the connection is there, with power companies when the connection is broken so is their ability to bill you as you can't bill someone who can't use the power.

jeffreyh:Hey just had a thought perhaps this is a chance to suggest a move to a pay as you go model like power you pay a daily line/service charge and then pay for usage as you go. Then if you can't/don't use your broadband your not on the hook for the full monthly fee.

LMAO!
No, probably not.

Kyanar

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#449881 19-Mar-2011 15:06

Tel69:
Your earlier comment about the different billing systems is interesting as all telcos will bill on the assumption the connection is there, with power companies when the connection is broken so is their ability to bill you as you can't bill someone who can't use the power.

That's not 100% true. Power bills are made up of three or four components. The per kW/h charge (the part you are correct in saying they wouldn't be able to bill you for as you can't use it), the fixed daily charge (which since it's per day they could charge it), and the Electricity Commission Levy (ditto). I believe the Lines Company charge (from Orion in your case) is another component though from memory it's built into the fixed daily charge.

So just because you had no power, doesn't mean they won't charge you. I'm sure most won't, but be prepared to stand up and have a go if they do try.

m0lly

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#449891 19-Mar-2011 16:08

The Telecom offer is available to anyone whose line was affected by the quake, you don't need to prove the line wasn't working you just have to call and ask.
As for them being VERY busy, the call centre that handles these enquiries is based in Christchurch and the building is in the cbd, so has gone bye bye at least for the meantime. Many of the staff their probably have their own problems as well losing houses etc, and the ones that are working are doing it out of their own homes or from a number of smaller locations.. I can imagine theres probably heaps of enquiries coming in from christchurch at the moment too.
I called them the other day and spoke to a really nice chick, she put my number on hold for three months (free) until i can connect it again.

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Damager

2125 posts

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#449893 19-Mar-2011 16:20

I believe the major retailers have offered a credit on their respective daily fixed charges or similar for a period of time.

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