[TelstraClear] What is up with the wait times?

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › [TelstraClear] What is up with the wait times?

richardlh

17 posts

Geek

#23804 9-Jul-2008 12:55

This year I have never been able to get to speak to a person on the help desk in less than 40 minutes. The other night it was 56 minutes, and this was a routine enquiry during a non-fault period.

Today (no faults), it was over 1 hour.

While on hold, the message changes from wait times are over 15 minutes to wait times are over 40 minutes, and lastly wait times are over 1 hour. 64 minuntes to answer.

Turns out there was a fault that has taken some modems off line. Surely these should have been restarted automatically

It is a bit galling to walk through Wellington rail each night as see the banner proclaiming how great Telstra Clear service is.

What is up ?

tonyhughes

Hawkes Bay
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#145390 9-Jul-2008 13:42

Key points below (still in context).

richardlh: Today (no faults), it was over 1 hour.

Turns out there was a fault that has taken some modems off line.

What is up ?

No faults? What is up? - There was fault that had taken some modems off line.

Unsurprising that that increases wait times dramatically if there is a fault.

Can't comment on any other instances though.

I do however agree in general that ISP wait times are suffering beyond acceptable limits in my experience (and the collective experience of GZers who often have this discussion).

I would hate to be a call centre manager - I am sure you would have to lie at BBQs:

"Oh hey - Im Bob, I am a call centre manager at Xtra - do you hate me yet?"

richardlh

17 posts

Geek

#145414 9-Jul-2008 14:09

There was no fault shown on their website, and no fault mentioned on the phone system.

I reckon they should have REAL network status messages on their on hold message, along with the 'please cycle the power on your modem' that World Exchange have on theirs. (A "you are 476th in the queue" message would be nice too).

Never had to wait for more than 20 minutes on WxC (usually less then 10) and no more than 5 on Telecom. Years ago with XTRA always had to wait so long that I changed to Paradise (before Telstra bought them).

It is a real shame, because when you do get through the Tech guys at Telstra and always knowledgable, patient and helpful.

tonyhughes

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#145430 9-Jul-2008 14:27

IMHO Xtra was the main protagonist in the story of how network status messages became a joke in this country.

My pipe dream is that someday, all ISPs, Telcos etc will have a network status page that is updated at least daily, announcing, upgrades, capacity increases, helpdesk wait times, outages of all kinds and more.

I will step off my cloud and back into the cesspool now...

RalphFromSnap

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#145435 9-Jul-2008 14:32

Tony,

You just need to wear a Sumo Suit for protection... My experience shows that 80% of people don't know who Snap are, of the people that do know who we are only some are customers, and those customers are usually very positive towards the support the Snap team provides.

No one mugged me at the pizza evening, so I must be doing something right :)

Snap

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^RO Ricky - Technical Lead
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quietgiroth

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#149149 18-Jul-2008 13:49

It is a real shame, because when you do get through the Tech guys at Telstra and always knowledgable, patient and helpful.

Totally agree with that.

Although I have to admit that after you've waited 45mins to report that your signal is terrible or that your internet has gone down I get a bit pissy (even more so with the messages suggesting you go to the website...). Half the time I don't bother after the first 20mins...well more like 99% of the time (most of the time it's because my gf wants to watch Girls of the Playboy Mansion which seems to kill our box).

I guess it could be a way of putting off people reporting faults.

Zimsar10

210 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#150155 22-Jul-2008 10:41

My experience with TelstraClear had been almost identical to the first poster, average wait times were 45minutes, which is totally unacceptable, by any stretch of the imagination. I can't understand how hard it can be to put more bums on seats at peak calling times to help decrease the waiting times significantly, I am sure that some people would like to work at these jobs (yes I do believe this to be true, certainly not for me though I might add). I have since moved my ISP Services to Vodafone, so I now have them for everything, Landline, Mobile & Internet, but the waiting times are not any better than TelstraClear for their Landline/Broadband Services, Mobile however is brilliant, average wait time is 2-3minutes!! Go Figure.