This board is alive and kicking with regards to the state of TCL's contact centre; earlier today Stuff published an article about some truly impressive actions taken by the folks in CHCH:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4750536/Telstra-customers-phone-home
Business Contact Centre was based out of Radio Network House in Worcester St; the team is left by Richard Myers, who certainly meets the definition of pioneering and solutioning. Richard (who must have a forgiving partner!!) moved BCC to his house, and the group are running off his internet connection.
Of course there's more to the story in terms of systems access etc, but the point is that these guys just took charge and did it - restoring a modicum of service as fast as possible, to help customers.
There is also the contact centre in Auckland, which has been taking shedloads of calls. Sales and other staff have also been proactively contacting customers as well as taking calls, as I expect all service providers have been over the last few weeks.