Broadband Plan Changeover Period

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Broadband Plan Changeover Period

mwtb

33 posts

Geek

#98794 6-Mar-2012 14:22

Hi. I've recently moved into a new place where the Telecom account is in the name of the owner. The agreement was that the plan would be changed over from 20GB to 60GB before I moved in, but he apparently forgot to do this, as I found out when the connection throttled back to dial-up last week.

I got in touch with him and he told me that he had changed the plan on Friday. The Telecom site states that it should be switched within 48hrs but it's still throttled as I type. As I'm not Stephen Fry, my chances of getting it sorted by simply shouting at the world in general seem slim, so I'm wondering if some more experienced users can help me out here:

How long does this usually take really?
Are there any edge cases I could have fallen into? For instance, is the fact that I'd already exceeded the previous cap a problem?
If I ask the account holder to chase it up, what should he do? He's not technically knowledgeable and also not in the country right now, so is an email to tech support something that would get things moving?

jbard

1377 posts

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#591273 6-Mar-2012 14:24

I have upgraded/downgraded my plan with Telecom many times, It has always been done within 24 hours and usually within 12. Maybe i Just got lucky.

Do Telecom have a number you can free phone internationally?

mwtb

33 posts

Geek

#591282 6-Mar-2012 14:43

Yes, it looks like there is a freephone number from where he is. I'll let him know about it but I'm less than convinced that he'll expend much effort trying to get this resolved and that includes negotiating a phone support system. To be honest I'm not entirely convinced that he's even changed the plan.

scuwp

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#591287 6-Mar-2012 14:51

I have had changes carried over within a few hours no worries.

How confident are you that the owner has actually applied properly for the changes to be made? I am betting he/she hasn't actually done it.

If you are going to be responsible for the account why don't you just get the owner to appoint you as an authority on the account?

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

mwtb

33 posts

Geek

#591299 6-Mar-2012 15:09

As I said in the post above, I'm not entirely confident. I'd certainly prefer to be in a position to sort this out myself but the owner wanted to retain the physical phone line on the property as there's a second dwelling that uses it.

Having just looked at the request form the first page asks for the account number. I'm suspicious of his claim to have made the change as I doubt he has that number memorised or that he packed a bill for reference. I guess this may be more of a landlord issue than a Telecom one.

plambrechtsen

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Inactive user

#591301 6-Mar-2012 15:23

Ring the broadband Helpdesk on 0800 225 598.? If you make a good case they will run an order straight away and will be un-throttled in a few hours.? Otherwise it's normally overnight ~11pmish or so.? The normal SLA however is 48 hours due to systems could be down such as during the weekend.

Sorry I missed that the account holder was overseas: http://www.telecom.co.nz/help/other/contact

So the number would be: +64 9 356 8673

There is no special treatment to any customers. It does however help to talk to nicely to the CSR and see what they can do. Since you're not the account holder or a nominated person on the account you will have an issue. So the request can only come from the account holder no matter who you are.

Also I would talk to the account holder and ask if they are happy for you to be added as a nominated person for the account. That way you will be able to ring up and make changes. However that would need the agreement of the account holder.

mwtb

33 posts

Geek

#591510 7-Mar-2012 09:09

Well, I asked him to "check" that he'd done the upgrade and included URLs for the upgrade page and the freephone numbers. No response from him, but the broadband throttle came off overnight.

I guess the question is whether he actually did anything or the billing period just happened to cycle today.

Dyson

Shop now for Dyson appliances (affiliate link).

plambrechtsen

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#591527 7-Mar-2012 09:50

If you have a Xtra username or a Your Telecom user you can check the usage online here:

http://www.telecom.co.nz/broadband/usage

The advantage of using a Xtra user is that it doesn't expose all the account information which may be preferable to your landlord / account owner if they have other things on the account which they don't want you seeing over giving a Your Telecom account. You can also setup usage alerts in there too so you are e-mailed when you get near to your usage limit / go over your plan.

However the best way forward is to have either have your own separate account or for you to be nominated on the account. Legally Telecom are not permitted to give out any customer information or make account changes if you are not the authorized account holder or nominated additional person.

Ragnor

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Trusted

#591701 7-Mar-2012 13:13

mwtb: As I said in the post above, I'm not entirely confident. I'd certainly prefer to be in a position to sort this out myself

Most premises have 2 pairs ie: two lines, in the phone cabling into the place, you could get you own connection on the 2nd line / pair with any ISP you like.

More expensive than sharing but gives you total control over it.

Depending on the wiring at this place, you'll probably need to wire a new jack for the 2nd line if it hasn't been used before.

mwtb

33 posts

Geek

#591787 7-Mar-2012 14:53

Thanks. That's good to know. I think overall if it turns out that he's still not made the change and continues to be generally awkward/unreliable about managing the account then I'd probably be looking to move. Hopefully it just turns out that it slipped his mind and that he can be made to understand that the broadband service is nearly as important to me as the electricity supply!