Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


networkn

Networkn
32349 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

#85677 23-Jun-2011 12:15
Send private message

Hi There!

John Filmore Contractors have been down our street for the last 3 weeks, working on new footpaths.

In that time they have cut the cables to our phones and internet no less than 5 times, and since then we have had crappy internet speeds sporadically, our lines drop off and need to be reconnected and we have crackling/static on varying lines at different times. This has been almost constant since they arrived.  Chorus have been pretty responsive to the cut cables and every time we log a call they come and "fix" the problem, for us to have another problem or the same problem come back again, hours or minutes later. At one point the problem was so bad I relocated our servers to another location to continue to be operational.

Vodafone have been pretty good, but they are saying there is nothing they can do to get these problems resolved properly until the work has been completed which is 2 months away for our street, and perhaps 12 months for our area.

The issue primarily is the age of the cables and the depth they were originally buried, which is 1cm below the concrete.

I have been contacted by Chorus who say they can only fix reported issues as they come in (Despite being out twice a day most days since work begun), and that they won't properly replace the cable, or lay it deeper or put waterproofing around it, unless authorized by Telecom. Telecom won't talk to me since I am a VF customer, and VF are saying they can't do anything until Telecom repair the lines.

Whilst not likely, this day to day disruption could go on for another 12 months! There are eight businesses in our building alone who have been affected, and I know other businesses on the street are having problems too.

There must be some way to get this working better than this!

John Filmore keeps saying "sorry,can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs", and suggest I call the council if I am not happy. I can't find a single person at the council who knows who to raise the issue with.

I am at my wits end, what can I do?


View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic
 1 | 2
timmmay
20574 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #484967 23-Jun-2011 12:58
Send private message

Are you in a business area, or more residential? Constant cable cutting would drive me insane.

I suggest you host your servers in a data centre while the service isn't reliable. I'd be demanding a 100% rebate on my bill too.



networkn

Networkn
32349 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #484979 23-Jun-2011 13:07
Send private message

We are a business (and an IT business at that) and no way am I housing my data where I can't lay my hands on it immediately, but thanks for the suggestion. I need a better long term fix.

I am just not sure who to talk to about it.

timmmay
20574 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #484989 23-Jun-2011 13:12
Send private message

I doubt there's really much that can be done. Personally i'd call the mayor, I find starting at the top and working your way down works well.

Why do you need your servers in the same building as you? Are they unreliable machines? Do you ever actually "lay your hands" on the data - whatever that means? Is your security not good enough to put it in a data centre?

I think servers serving customers are usually best off in a data centre with redundant power, connectivity, etc, than in a server room in a building with a single resource. This incident has shown that's true in your case.



scorpiworld
192 posts

Master Geek


  #484993 23-Jun-2011 13:15
Send private message

How frustrating this must be for you!

The right thing to do is complain to your retail service provider (Vodafone?) and continue to get a fault(s) logged with them each time an outage occurs.

As a customer you should not need to know or care if it is Telecom / Chorus / Council or anybody else that is responsible, only that it is your retail provider who needs to fix this.

It is up to the retail provider to escalate and complain on 1 or more customers behalf to their provider which could be Telecom Wholesale or Chorus if your on the Red Network.

I can?t see this being solved overnight, but with the many layers of process and procedures I would recommend sticking firmly, but politely with your retail provider.

pwner
423 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted
2degrees

  #484995 23-Jun-2011 13:16
Send private message

You are a Vodafone Customer and so Vodafone need to be your first point of call. They should in turn interface to Telecom Wholesale or Chorus depending how you are connected and they will then get it fixed. If you are just getting 'point fixes' and not an actual solution then you need to push Vodafone who will pass the pain along :)





Any posts are personal comments and not that of my employer


networkn

Networkn
32349 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #485003 23-Jun-2011 13:23
Send private message

pwner: believe me, I have been at them and at them and escalating and escalating, but they have been told by Telecom it's "not a priority" and I want to speak to whichever moron made that comment so I can assure him it is.

Most of us would rather have working lines than nice footpaths.

pwner
423 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted
2degrees

  #485010 23-Jun-2011 13:29
Send private message

networkn: pwner: believe me, I have been at them and at them and escalating and escalating, but they have been told by Telecom it's "not a priority" and I want to speak to whichever moron made that comment so I can assure him it is.

Most of us would rather have working lines than nice footpaths.


I completely understand, but as you have already stated you are not a customer of Telecom or Chorus so they wont listen to you at all :(

Maybe Johnr can help get the message through to the right people, i am sure he will be aware of this thread sooner or later. but it also might help posting in the Vodafone official forums (http://forum.vodafone.co.nz/) as they would be more likely to monitor them.

I would assume that from the impact you are seeing your neighbours would be in the same boat. if some of them are with Vodafone as well it could get more action if you co-ordinate your actions.






Any posts are personal comments and not that of my employer


 
 
 

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.
networkn

Networkn
32349 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #485029 23-Jun-2011 14:02
Send private message

Hi There!

Vodafone have been pretty good up until now, but the problem is their hands are tied as well, they can't issue work orders, and I don't think the right message is getting to the right people, basically it gets passed up the chain and someone completely disconnected from the situation gets a briefing and decides without a full idea on the impact.

I have asked for it to be escalated, but my guy has said he will do whatever I ask, but it won't make any difference and the response will be the same. They are obviously not happy to tell me who makes the decision so I can speak to them on behalf of those affected.

johnr
19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user


  #485030 23-Jun-2011 14:06
Send private message

Vodafone does not control the cables in the ground,

The data should be in a data centre, You can't create work orders unless something is broken

Gigs
95 posts

Master Geek


  #485032 23-Jun-2011 14:15
Send private message

networkn: pwner: believe me, I have been at them and at them and escalating and escalating, but they have been told by Telecom it's "not a priority" and I want to speak to whichever moron made that comment so I can assure him it is.

Most of us would rather have working lines than nice footpaths.


Just a guess, you're not on a business plan are you?


networkn

Networkn
32349 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #485044 23-Jun-2011 14:39
Send private message

LOL of course we are on a business plan, we are a business!

kontonnz
137 posts

Master Geek


  #485050 23-Jun-2011 14:55
Send private message

I would consider going down the RMA path; the initial contractors will require resource consent, and in that their should be outlines on disruption lay a complaint and try and get their work stopped temporarily if possible as their the causation of the issues; especially if their cutting cables they shouldn't be; at least it is worth a chat to the council compliance officers for RMA and works....

while Vodafone might not be responsible for the cables they are still responsible for the delivery of a service of a level of quality outlined in their ToS; badger them on that.



oxnsox
1923 posts

Uber Geek


  #485078 23-Jun-2011 15:50
Send private message

Eight businesses in the building. Eight folk contacting their service provider each time a cable is cut, and each one asking for a fault to be logged...... sooner or later, no matter who you're all connected thru, someone in Chorus/Telecom will join the dots.

From what you're saying they've got months of this ahead soo will eventually make the connection

pwner
423 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted
2degrees

  #485101 23-Jun-2011 16:37
Send private message

johnr: Vodafone does not control the cables in the ground,

The data should be in a data centre, You can't create work orders unless something is broken



Vodafone are a customer of Telecom Wholesale or Chorus and can therefore make a request for the cables to be improved etc. While your customer has no control over the cables in the ground, Vodafone as a direct customer of Telecom Wholesale or Chorus do have in-direct control over the cables.

e.g. if a Vodafone cell site was running on a link from Telecom and that Telecom link was broken, it would take that cell site off the air affecting Vodafone customers. Therefore Vodafone would jump up and down till Telecom fixed it. This is just the same thing but for a fixed line.




Any posts are personal comments and not that of my employer


cisconz
cisconz
1341 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #485244 23-Jun-2011 22:45
Send private message

oxnsox: Eight businesses in the building. Eight folk contacting their service provider each time a cable is cut, and each one asking for a fault to be logged...... sooner or later, no matter who you're all connected thru, someone in Chorus/Telecom will join the dots.

From what you're saying they've got months of this ahead soo will eventually make the connection

Sounds like VS or chorus' other contractors will be getting fed up with not getting paid for a repeat fault that chorus think they did not fix in the first place.




Hmmmm


 1 | 2
View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.