[TelstraClear] Horrendous Customer Service from Telstraclear

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mastapenguin

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#110281 6-Oct-2012 10:51

Hi All,

I called Telecom yesterday to port my service from TCL to Telecom. Telecom informed me that the earliest date the port could go through was next Wednesday, the 10.10.12. After getting home from work last night I realized both my internet and home line were already disconnected.

This morning I phoned TCL customer service, and spoke to two people. Both were helpless and told me they had ported everything and all my services had been disconnected. A bit annoyed, I rung Telecom, and was put through to a real person in the porting team. This person explained, the port request had not even been in the system yet, and Telstraclear should reconnect me until the 10.10.12. I relayed this information to yet another robotic script reader in India, and was told that it is all Telecoms fault they could not help me. I my asked to speak to someone in disputes resolution, but that was not possible. Then I asked to speak to someone in level 2 support, again not possible. When I asked for a supervisor I was hung up on.

So I have a number of queries:
- How long does a port take? Should TCL have disconnected me?
- Why can't anyone at TCL help, I clearly should have been escalated to a real person.

I'm disappointed at the shear incompetence and lack of desire to help by TCL.

If anyone has any comments or numbers of people I could speak to at TCL that would be great.

Thanks,

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#697076 6-Oct-2012 10:54

mastapenguin: This morning I phoned TCL customer service, and spoke to two people. Both were helpless and told me they had ported everything and all my services had been disconnected. A bit annoyed, I rung Telecom, and was put through to a real person in the porting team. This person explained, the port request had not even been in the system yet, and Telstraclear should reconnect me until the 10.10.12.

How would TelstraClear know you are porting a number if Telecom claims the port request was not even in the system yet?

I think Telecom is not telling the whole story here. Unless TelstraClear is using the TARDIS and travel in time (yes, I know the Petone building is internally called TARDIS but they don't master time travel yet) there's no way they would disconnect your services without a request from Telecom.

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mastapenguin

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#697078 6-Oct-2012 10:57

An excellent point, I will phone Telecom and ask them that. I am very peeved I'm not going to have service for 5 days.

sbiddle

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#697087 6-Oct-2012 11:30

Are you talking about a port or simply a transfer of servic between providers? A port will only occur if you're moving between networks, if you're in a part of NZ where TCL doesn't have their own network and wholesale Chorus services then you'll simply have your service transferred from TCL to Telecom on the same Chorus wholesale network.

Zeon

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#697090 6-Oct-2012 11:49

Yea if Telstra know of the transfer, sounds like Telecom have already put it through. Once its been transferred at the Chorus level the old provider can do nothing AFAIK.

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mastapenguin

71 posts

Master Geek

#697102 6-Oct-2012 12:06

Just a quick note. I was on tcls equipment before so it is a port afaik. After yet another call to both telecom and tcl, I finally found got both providers to confirm that no port has gone through. A technician at tcl confirmed Im still connected to tcl but there is a physical fault with the line and he has now logged a fault with chorus. This is despite 3 previous reps at tcl telling me all services were ported and disconnected at their end.

lucky015

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#697116 6-Oct-2012 13:05

mastapenguin: Just a quick note. I was on tcls equipment before so it is a port afaik. After yet another call to both telecom and tcl, I finally found got both providers to confirm that no port has gone through. A technician at tcl confirmed Im still connected to tcl but there is a physical fault with the line and he has now logged a fault with chorus. This is despite 3 previous reps at tcl telling me all services were ported and disconnected at their end.

Sounds to me like someone at Telecom submitted half the paperwork and did it incorrectly at that, Hence the apparent fault to TCL.

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lucky015

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#697119 6-Oct-2012 13:10

To answer your questions:

- How long does a port take? Should TCL have disconnected me?
The time a port takes is usually defined by the ability to organise it with Chorus, Give or take a day for internal systems to be configured.

- Why can't anyone at TCL help, I clearly should have been escalated to a real person.
If it is correct that Telecom submitted the request for TCL to disconnect the line then there is not all that much they can do from their end other than fighting to get it back which would likely take at least as long as it will for Telecom to reconnect you.

sbiddle

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#697125 6-Oct-2012 13:36

lucky015: To answer your questions:

- How long does a port take? Should TCL have disconnected me?
The time a port takes is usually defined by the ability to organise it with Chorus, Give or take a day for internal systems to be configured.

- Why can't anyone at TCL help, I clearly should have been escalated to a real person.
If it is correct that Telecom submitted the request for TCL to disconnect the line then there is not all that much they can do from their end other than fighting to get it back which would likely take at least as long as it will for Telecom to reconnect you.

Neither of these are correct as the OP has posted above where the issue actually lies.

lucky015

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#697134 6-Oct-2012 13:48

sbiddle:
lucky015: To answer your questions:

- How long does a port take? Should TCL have disconnected me?
The time a port takes is usually defined by the ability to organise it with Chorus, Give or take a day for internal systems to be configured.

- Why can't anyone at TCL help, I clearly should have been escalated to a real person.
If it is correct that Telecom submitted the request for TCL to disconnect the line then there is not all that much they can do from their end other than fighting to get it back which would likely take at least as long as it will for Telecom to reconnect you.

Neither of these are correct as the OP has posted above where the issue actually lies.

Ah, Misread the latest posts =S

Odd timing for a fault, But I suppose entirely plausible.

mastapenguin

71 posts

Master Geek

#697147 6-Oct-2012 15:03

Okay, finally have Internet working at home again. The Chorus tech came around and did a great job, the fault was a result of water getting into the pvc pipe that carries the telephone cables, just outside the house. Also, Telecom is adamant that the port was not scheduled to go through until next Wednesday, so it seems like an unfortunate coincidence. I assume the TCL customer service reps didn't seem to think it was their problem as they could obviously see some sort of documentation, evidently at 3pm yesterday the "port was accepted by the new provider, Telecom".

At the moment, I'm still on TCL phone/Internet and all is well. Hopefully the port next Wednesday goes smoothly.

DravidDavid

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#697159 6-Oct-2012 15:44

mastapenguin: Okay, finally have Internet working at home again. The Chorus tech came around and did a great job, the fault was a result of water getting into the pvc pipe that carries the telephone cables, just outside the house. Also, Telecom is adamant that the port was not scheduled to go through until next Wednesday, so it seems like an unfortunate coincidence. I assume the TCL customer service reps didn't seem to think it was their problem as they could obviously see some sort of documentation, evidently at 3pm yesterday the "port was accepted by the new provider, Telecom".

At the moment, I'm still on TCL phone/Internet and all is well. Hopefully the port next Wednesday goes smoothly.

I'm always puzzled how these kind of "failed install" situations end differently to how one would expect it to. Why on earth was this fault not affecting your services earlier? Was it just a huge coincidence? It seems to happen often.

Were your old services using the same line?

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mastapenguin

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#697163 6-Oct-2012 16:04

Been with tcl for 13 months and Orcon for at least 2 years before that and have never had any physical line issues. Always had high sync rates during that time.

DonGould

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#697202 6-Oct-2012 17:59

mastapenguin: Been with tcl for 13 months and Orcon for at least 2 years before that and have never had any physical line issues. Always had high sync rates during that time.

It's no wonder telecommunications is so expensive if you're changing provider this often.

With respect to the opening post, I think your expectations of the L1HD staff were just unrealistic given how often this sort of thing really happens.

I agree that this situation is less than idea and I agree that the L1HD service from TCL is less than stellar, but the reality is that complex faults like this don't actually happen every often meaning that in most cases, most of the L1HD staff in most providers won't have much experience in this sort of thing.

"Be careful what you ask for"... we asked for a deregulated, open access market with Chorus split from Telecom and a bunch of different retail service providers.

Now that we have this environment we're starting to discover that some of the warnings presented about it three decades ago where true.

Having said this, 25 years ago the phone service of an entire city would go dead for 5 hours at a time, it could take months to get service connected and there was only one choice for most services - Telecom.

All I'm saying is I think you need some perspective here.

TCL's HD is what it is. I'm guessing you were with them chasing price and Orcon before that for the same reason.

Their HD is our sourced to Manilla as you know. Expecting that the out sourcing company is going to transfer you back to someone with in New Zealand is just unrealistic. See it from the HD's point of view and TCLs.

The bottom line here is that you now have a market of choice, but there is no provider with the level of control, service, and product feature set you want any more (if there ever was).

I think you've done well to get your service restored and just highlighted the business case of UFB even more.

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mastapenguin

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#697236 6-Oct-2012 19:04

I generally sign on for 12 months contracts, and then re-evaluate value/price after that time. I don't think it's fair to say that telecommunications is expensive because customers switch often; I'd say it would be the reverse, most typical customers would not switch telco very often. Many people of my parents generation have been with the same provider for a very long time, and providers sometimes don't contact the customer with their latest offerings. For example, a friend of my parents were still on a 2GB broadband plan paying something like along the lines of $90. When the plan was introduced it may have been reasonable, but several years down the line I think it's pretty poor that no one contacted them offering a higher cap plan for the same price.

Also, I do appreciate that my expectations of L1 support may not be realistic, but this definitely could have been solved quicker by them 1) checking that I was still meant to be connected to their equipment or 2) transferring me to someone else that could have helped. I was told by several CSRs on no uncertain terms that I was no longer a TCL customer.

In addition, I opted to go with Telecom because a number of my friends changed to them over the last couple of years, and in nearly every case they (existing customers) had been given free upgrades to the latest plans (i.e. doubling data caps) frequently. I think you also make a valid point that there is a trade off between quality/price/speed and in that respect I've always preferred fixed cap broadband for the generally better speed cf "unlimited" plans. When I signed on with TCL last year in August they were doing pretty well in terms of cap/speed/quality, but over that time nearly every other ISP increased their data allowances, and TCL did not until very recently, and did not even contact me about the higher caps. I had called in June this year asking if they'd make their plans more competitive, and was told to expected something "soon".

If in 12 months time, I haven't had any issues with my Telecom connection, and they were generally price competitive I won't bother changing providers again.

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#697245 6-Oct-2012 19:25

mastapenguin: Also, I do appreciate that my expectations of L1 support may not be realistic, but this definitely could have been solved quicker by them 1) checking that I was still meant to be connected to their equipment or 2) transferring me to someone else that could have helped. I was told by several CSRs on no uncertain terms that I was no longer a TCL customer.

I could make lots of suggestions, but until we know the fate of TCL with the VF merger, it's all a bit moot.

Ideally you'd just record your calls to the helpdesk and forward those to TCL management to sort out. But it's likely that VF will take over and all the support will be back on shore within 12 months, so it really is just a loosing battle.

The reality is that the service isn't that much poorer than anyone else in the market, and the perception even less so.

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