[TelstraClear] An example of substandard TelstraClear service... let's see how they go

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] An example of substandard TelstraClear service... let's see how they go

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#640890 14-Jun-2012 18:15

Nice to see they've publicly accepted the issue and will try to do something about it.

sbiddle

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#640895 14-Jun-2012 18:22

The woman who couldn't configure her router raises an industry issue, and once again I think Fair Go have gone on a war path again with without checking the facts.

Does somebody who decides to take the BYOD approach and use a router from another provider to get two months free rather than accepting a supported freebie modem from TCL. She has trouble configuring it because she doesn't know the password, contacts TCL who after a 15 min call can't help her. Is this really a TCL issue? Should her point of contact really be TCL, or possibly the modem/router manufacturer?

I raised this issue last night on Twitter and had the woman concerned reply to me, clearly she was so keen for the attention that was also searching Twitter for references. After TCL were unable to help her it then took a 77 minute phonecall with a friend who managed to help her.

This raises an industry problem in that ISP helpdesks are expected to be free tech support for issues that aren't in effect ISP related issues. If I can't tune my TV I don't call my power company, and if I burn something in my oven I'm not going to blame Harvey Norman.

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#640903 14-Jun-2012 18:31

sbiddle: Does somebody who decides to take the BYOD approach and use a router from another provider to get two months free rather than accepting a supported freebie modem from TCL.

One point here - TelstaClear don't fully support the wireless modems they sell or give away. They'll help you connect it to their network, but they won't help you connect your devices to it. When my brother had trouble and I asked for help I was told to call Dynalink for help - though their online rep did his best to give unofficial help. He could connect to any other WAP, but not the WAP TC provided.

I guess he got it going eventually, and I assume it was user error, but it wasn't very helpful.

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#640904 14-Jun-2012 18:33

sbiddle: The woman who couldn't configure her router raises an industry issue, and once again I think Fair Go have gone on a war path again with without checking the facts.

Does somebody who decides to take the BYOD approach and use a router from another provider to get two months free rather than accepting a supported freebie modem from TCL. She has trouble configuring it because she doesn't know the password, contacts TCL who after a 15 min call can't help her. Is this really a TCL issue? Should her point of contact really be TCL, or possibly the modem/router manufacturer?

Over the years I've actually seen a lot of weird ADSL problems which were due to faulty modems. It's kind of crazy how many seem to get sick over time, or have issues when you use them for DNS, drop out when using wifi, have ethernet ports die and not hold link state, not hold sync properly, etc etc.

I, like many others, always suggest when people have DSL problems that don't look like congestion, or obvious on the phone line noise, that they should try a different modem, but it seems like since we've moved from PCI cards to Ethernet modems/routers, that there have been a lot more problems.

One time not that long back I tried looking to see if there were any affordable PCI ADSL modems - and there really isn't much choice.

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#640905 14-Jun-2012 18:34

You couldn't expect a rep to know how to configure every router available around here... If your PC connects via ethernet and work, that's their job done.

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#640910 14-Jun-2012 18:36

sbiddle: The woman who couldn't configure her router raises an industry issue, and once again I think Fair Go have gone on a war path again with without checking the facts.

Does somebody who decides to take the BYOD approach and use a router from another provider to get two months free rather than accepting a supported freebie modem from TCL. She has trouble configuring it because she doesn't know the password, contacts TCL who after a 15 min call can't help her. Is this really a TCL issue? Should her point of contact really be TCL, or possibly the modem/router manufacturer?

I raised this issue last night on Twitter and had the woman concerned reply to me, clearly she was so keen for the attention that was also searching Twitter for references. After TCL were unable to help her it then took a 77 minute phonecall with a friend who managed to help her.

This raises an industry problem in that ISP helpdesks are expected to be free tech support for issues that aren't in effect ISP related issues. If I can't tune my TV I don't call my power company, and if I burn something in my oven I'm not going to blame Harvey Norman.

For sure, they can't help with everything, but they sure let their customers down with the waiting time on the phones. If they had the right number of people answering calls (an issue TCL has always struggled with, certainly when I was working there - and obviously even more so now) they could have told her quickly "sorry we can't assist with that...try this number instead". Instead she would have waited 20 minutes to be told the same thing.

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#640912 14-Jun-2012 18:37

freitasm: You couldn't expect a rep to know how to configure every router available around here... If your PC connects via ethernet and work, that's their job done.

most adsl routers are actually pretty similar to each other. the thomson's seem to confuse me the most often.

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mercutio

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#640917 14-Jun-2012 18:39

quickymart:
sbiddle: The woman who couldn't configure her router raises an industry issue, and once again I think Fair Go have gone on a war path again with without checking the facts.

Does somebody who decides to take the BYOD approach and use a router from another provider to get two months free rather than accepting a supported freebie modem from TCL. She has trouble configuring it because she doesn't know the password, contacts TCL who after a 15 min call can't help her. Is this really a TCL issue? Should her point of contact really be TCL, or possibly the modem/router manufacturer?

I raised this issue last night on Twitter and had the woman concerned reply to me, clearly she was so keen for the attention that was also searching Twitter for references. After TCL were unable to help her it then took a 77 minute phonecall with a friend who managed to help her.

This raises an industry problem in that ISP helpdesks are expected to be free tech support for issues that aren't in effect ISP related issues. If I can't tune my TV I don't call my power company, and if I burn something in my oven I'm not going to blame Harvey Norman.

For sure, they can't help with everything, but they sure let their customers down with the waiting time on the phones. If they had the right number of people answering calls (an issue TCL has always struggled with, certainly when I was working there - and obviously even more so now) they could have told her quickly "sorry we can't assist with that...try this number instead". Instead she would have waited 20 minutes to be told the same thing.

I think one of the problems is actually that profit margins are too tight, to really be able to invest much in helping people.

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#640918 14-Jun-2012 18:40

quickymart: For sure, they can't help with everything, but they sure let their customers down with the waiting time on the phones. If they had the right number of people answering calls (an issue TCL has always struggled with, certainly when I was working there - and obviously even more so now) they could have told her quickly "sorry we can't assist with that...try this number instead". Instead she would have waited 20 minutes to be told the same thing.

Wait time is unacceptable.

Saying something has been done, but not is unacceptable.

Saying there will be a call back but not is unacceptable.

Not fixing WiFi, I don't care. Not their problem.

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#640923 14-Jun-2012 18:44

timmmay:
sbiddle: Does somebody who decides to take the BYOD approach and use a router from another provider to get two months free rather than accepting a supported freebie modem from TCL.

One point here - TelstaClear don't fully support the wireless modems they sell or give away. They'll help you connect it to their network, but they won't help you connect your devices to it. When my brother had trouble and I asked for help I was told to call Dynalink for help - though their online rep did his best to give unofficial help. He could connect to any other WAP, but not the WAP TC provided.

I guess he got it going eventually, and I assume it was user error, but it wasn't very helpful.

And I would argue (my personal view only) that this issue is beyond what any ISP help should provide help with. They are a service provider providing you an internet connection. This issue doesn't relate to any physical aspect or fault in their network.

The problem however is that if a helpdesk dare suggested to a customer that the problem isn't their fault and they should contact an outside expert which may mean (shock horror) that they would have to pay for they're simply going to jump up and down and threaten to take their business elsewhere. People want internet, no wait times, full IT support for their entire network and don't want to really pay anything but the bare minimum for it.

Everything gets back to the project management triangle - fast, cheap, good. Pick any 2.

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#640924 14-Jun-2012 18:48

freitasm: Wait time is unacceptable.

Saying something has been done, but not is unacceptable.

Saying there will be a call back but not is unacceptable.

Not fixing WiFi, I don't care. Not their problem.

Yes :) that's the point I was trying to make :)

I predict that waiting times will always be a problem for TCL, and something they will never, ever overcome. (I speak from personal experience, in case you're wondering).

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#640926 14-Jun-2012 18:52

sbiddle:
timmmay:
sbiddle: Does somebody who decides to take the BYOD approach and use a router from another provider to get two months free rather than accepting a supported freebie modem from TCL.

One point here - TelstaClear don't fully support the wireless modems they sell or give away. They'll help you connect it to their network, but they won't help you connect your devices to it. When my brother had trouble and I asked for help I was told to call Dynalink for help - though their online rep did his best to give unofficial help. He could connect to any other WAP, but not the WAP TC provided.

I guess he got it going eventually, and I assume it was user error, but it wasn't very helpful.

And I would argue (my personal view only) that this issue is beyond what any ISP help should provide help with. They are a service provider providing you an internet connection. This issue doesn't relate to any physical aspect or fault in their network.

I'd expect Telstraclear to support the ADSL Wireless modem that they provide in a simple capacity. (ie not as a wireless bridge, repeater etc)

If they didn't provide an ADSL modem I'd say it was up to them.

That said, when you buy a car from a dealer they don't teach you how to drive.

quickymart

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#640934 14-Jun-2012 18:56

Even Telecom only assists with connecting one machine via ethernet to an ADSL modem. Anything outside of that, you're on your own.

DonGould

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#640978 14-Jun-2012 20:21

quickymart: Some more people with substandard service...

http://tvnz.co.nz/fair-go/telstraclear-video-4928038

I agree with a lot of the stuff that Steve said.

Seems to me that this is a move to pick up as many customers as possible to hand over to Vodafone.

Normally I'd be here arguing that these sort of issues hurt the TCL brand. But with the sale to VF pending, I very much doubt that anyone really cares about the TCL brand at all.

Yes, after 12 months of being locked into a crap service, customers are going to be pissed off, but VF will just sweep in and safe the day. Provide some local service, add a little value perhaps and just 'blame' the problems on the 'old company'.

There's been speculation that the sale to VF is just a precursor to them purchasing Telecom. So one might think that they would want to keep brand perception high. However, most people are short of memory and I wonder if this is as much a vehicle to make the Telecom brand look good?

Will we see VF in 12 months time padling flat out with all these pissed off customers while Telstra has existed TCL, picked up Telecom and then just vacuums all the customers back that they've just 'sold' to VF?

/TinFoilHat.

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#640986 14-Jun-2012 20:41

I've yet to actually read a single good reason why Telstra would want Telecom. It seems every expert analyst keep spinning this line but doesn't have a single reason why they would be interested.

I would argue TCL is a far better asset to own than Telecom.

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