Farmside pressuring clients back into contracts

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raytaylor

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Topic # 100703 17-Apr-2012 09:09

Hi all,
I am wondering if this is just what i have misheard from a few clients of ours

Farmside have bought tuaropaki communications, and are trying to pressure all tuaropaki customers into contracts to get them to switch to farmside's ipstar satelite system.

Because these are technologically illeterate rural folk, they never seem to be able to relay the phone discussions to me correctly so i cant figure out if its true or not.

I think one client said they had to leave them because the farmside dish wouldnt work because of trees (its on a lower angle to the horizon than their old tuaropaki dish)

I had another client in a similar situation call and ask what to do because they are also with tuaropaki dont want to be forced into signing a 12 month contract when they paid over $1k for the tuaropaki installation and its been working fine for a number of years.

It seems absolutley stupid that farmside would be willing to buy a company and its subscriber base, then cull off a number of these customers. I only have a small group of rural people that i talk to so i am thinking its probably going to affect a large number of people.

Ray Taylor
Taylor Broadband (rural hawkes bay)
www.ruralkiwi.com

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Reply # 610365 17-Apr-2012 09:27

Have you rung Farmside and asked them?

Also, I can quite easily imagine a situation where a company doesn't want to maintain two different access networks. It could make good financial sense to turn off one system ASAP - even if that means a few customers are out in the cold.

It's not good for those customers of course...

Cheers - N

plambrechtsen

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Reply # 610371 17-Apr-2012 09:51

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/govt-names-winners-144m-remote-rural-broadband-tender-ck-116964

Just saw this on my twitter feed then saw this geekzone thread...... Related?

bbman

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Reply # 610379 17-Apr-2012 10:15

Hey Ray, this is the case for all Rural inzone clients, Farmside heaving massive pressure on clients to sign up to a new 36 month term with new equipment.

We have been telling clients who are waiting to sign up to our RBI or Orari Gorge wireless networks to tell Farmside that they are not changing right now and to leave them alone. There was a large Trade me message board thread about this recently as well.

The rumour is that they are shifting consumer clients off rural inzone's service to make way for business clients to go onto it, service must be better??

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grant_k

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Reply # 610387 17-Apr-2012 10:22

I have a friend in a remote area of Taranaki, along the "Forgotten World Highway" in the hills above Stratford. He cannot see the Farmside satellite so I recommended him to approach Rural Inzone and see what they had to offer. He made phone call after phone call, left messages etc, but nobody responded. This was shortly before the purchase of Rural Inzone by Farmside was announced, so that may have had something to do with it.

I am reluctant to make a further suggestion due to the lack of success with the last one. Over the weekend, this person visited us, so I had a look at the RBI coverage maps with him. There is just a sniff of signal on surrounding hills from the Stratford site, and no others planned in the area that would benefit him.

Do you think there is any chance that Farmside would connect a customer via the former Rural Inzone satellite if they requested it?

Beccara

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Reply # 610389 17-Apr-2012 10:26

Talkiet: Have you rung Farmside and asked them?

Also, I can quite easily imagine a situation where a company doesn't want to maintain two different access networks. It could make good financial sense to turn off one system ASAP - even if that means a few customers are out in the cold.

It's not good for those customers of course...

Cheers - N

Makes sense and I would do the same BUT from what I'm hearing people are being pressured into shifting and being told to pay the install fee again which is not on

Most problems are the result of previous solutions...

All comment's I make are my own personal opinion and do not in any way, shape or form reflect the views of current or former employers unless specifically stated

bbman

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Reply # 610392 17-Apr-2012 10:28

Beccara:
Talkiet: Have you rung Farmside and asked them?

Also, I can quite easily imagine a situation where a company doesn't want to maintain two different access networks. It could make good financial sense to turn off one system ASAP - even if that means a few customers are out in the cold.

It's not good for those customers of course...

Cheers - N

Makes sense and I would do the same BUT from what I'm hearing people are being pressured into shifting and being told to pay the install fee again which is not on

Most of the clients in this situation are also open term, month by month so own the gear already.

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gwh

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Reply # 610732 17-Apr-2012 19:01

Do you think there is any chance that Farmside would connect a customer via the former Rural Inzone satellite if they requested it?

Probably not. GE23 (the satellite Tuaropaki are using ) is being cleared as fast as it can be physically done,

PM either bbman or me and we can see if we can get them on an RBI plan.

grant_k

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Reply # 610738 17-Apr-2012 19:07

gwh:

Do you think there is any chance that Farmside would connect a customer via the former Rural Inzone satellite if they requested it?

Probably not. GE23 (the satellite Tuaropaki are using ) is being cleared as fast as it can be physically done,

PM either bbman or me and we can see if we can get them on an RBI plan.

Thanks for the suggestion Glenn. I already sent BBMan a PM and he is looking into it.

Basically, someone needs to go to this guy's place and do a site survey. If he was closer than 9 or 10 hours drive, I would do it myself. There is a sniff of Vodafone 3G coverage on surrounding hills, so it's not out of the question that a yagi would pull the signal in.

By the way, if you need any RBI site surveys done in Northland, I may be able to help.

raytaylor

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Reply # 610745 17-Apr-2012 19:13

grant_k: I have a friend in a remote area of Taranaki, along the "Forgotten World Highway" in the hills above Stratford.

I suggest contacting primowireless

Ray Taylor
Taylor Broadband (rural hawkes bay)
www.ruralkiwi.com

There is no place like localhost
For my general guide to extending your wireless network Click Here

grant_k

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Reply # 610755 17-Apr-2012 19:30

raytaylor:
grant_k: I have a friend in a remote area of Taranaki, along the "Forgotten World Highway" in the hills above Stratford.

I suggest contacting primowireless

My friend and I have already looked at their coverage, but it doesn't come anywhere near his place. He knows people who are connected via Primo Wireless, but they are quite some distance away, and separated by several ranges of hills.

jjnz1

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Reply # 610761 17-Apr-2012 19:46

We (Araneo Wireless) have coverage out that way. Have you tried us (via your ISP)?

jjnz1

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Reply # 610778 17-Apr-2012 20:17

plambrechtsen: http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/govt-names-winners-144m-remote-rural-broadband-tender-ck-116964

Just saw this on my twitter feed then saw this geekzone thread...... Related?

This announcement is a big step forward for hard to reach rural schools and their rural communities. Well worth the read everyone.

BTW: What the article fails to mention is that Araneo are also planning to supply the rural communities that surround the rural schools with internet access. So broadband internet will really be available to all Kiwi homes!

Back on track.. does the client really own the equipment or is it still the property of Farmside? My bet is that Farmside own it but I could be wrong.

Quick question, can the clients keep the same service without changing/resigning? Or are we just talking about the pressure element?

grant_k

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Reply # 610784 17-Apr-2012 20:23

jjnz1: We (Araneo Wireless) have coverage out that way. Have you tried us (via your ISP)?

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked at the coverage map on your website, but the nearest red line is quite some distance away. I will PM you some details of the location.

BradenJ

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Reply # 611080 18-Apr-2012 11:55

Hi all,

It would appear that there is a cretain amount of misinformation around rural inzone customers migrating to Farmside.

I can confirm that for existing rural inzone customers there is no cost for a standard install when migrating to Farmside (IPSTAR).

For customers with no line of sight to IPSTAR a solution is curretly being rolled out using the existing GE satellite. Again at no cost to the customers for the equipment supplied.

In regards to contracts, all migrated customers situations are dealt with case by case and we have been personally contacting all the customers to discuss the options by phone, following up with emails and posted letters for those we have not been able to reach.

As Farmside provide a larger range of products, services and plans (e.g. bundles, land lines, RBI, ADSL and Mobile) in some cases a new contract term is possible.

If you have any details of customers who feel they have been pressured please feel free to PM me the details so that I may investigate as this was not the intention with any customers.

Regards
Braden Judge
Customer Services Manager
Farmside

bbman

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Reply # 611117 18-Apr-2012 12:52

BradenJ: Hi all,

It would appear that there is a cretain amount of misinformation around rural inzone customers migrating to Farmside.

I can confirm that for existing rural inzone customers there is no cost for a standard install when migrating to Farmside (IPSTAR).

For customers with no line of sight to IPSTAR a solution is curretly being rolled out using the existing GE satellite. Again at no cost to the customers for the equipment supplied.

In regards to contracts, all migrated customers situations are dealt with case by case and we have been personally contacting all the customers to discuss the options by phone, following up with emails and posted letters for those we have not been able to reach.

As Farmside provide a larger range of products, services and plans (e.g. bundles, land lines, RBI, ADSL and Mobile) in some cases a new contract term is possible.

If you have any details of customers who feel they have been pressured please feel free to PM me the details so that I may investigate as this was not the intention with any customers.

Regards
Braden Judge
Customer Services Manager
Farmside

Thanks for the response Braden, customers can obviously get things wrong but this thread has reflected the customers we have dealt with's feelings.

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