Hi all,

Out of complete frustration I thought I would post here to share my experience with what has to be the most unorganised company I have ever dealt with, maybe someone has some suggestions?

I have lived in several countries around the world and dealt with a multitude of organisations, but I have to say I never have experienced dealing with a company as bad as this in my lifetime!

After the Chch quake we lost services from TC, as our house was unliveable we had no choice but to move, I will summarise below so not to make this post too long-

-In Feb/March my partner called TC customer service to advise we wanted to be dissconnected- she was told that was no problem, was given a final bill amount to pay up to the dissconnection date and promptly paid this.
She was advised that we may recieve another bill next month due to a disconnections delay, but to ignore it and just call up to have the bill cancelled.

-Said bill arrived, I called TC on their NZ earthquake line, explained the situation above and was told that was no problem, all was taken care of, disregard the bill and have a nice day. Easy or so I thought....

-Received another bill shortly after with an overdue amount... by this stage the NZ earthquake line had been dropped so called their freephone number. After approx a 20+min waiting time the call was answered by someone in their foriegn call centre- spent I would guess another 30mins going over and over and over trying to explain that we were disconnected and that the recent bill should be cancelled as above. The CSR did not understand what I was saying to her but said she would get someone to call me back...

-No one called back...

-Called the freephone number again, long wait to to the foriegn call centre, spent again a long time trying to explain the situation, was then transferred to a 'team leader' in the same call centre, had to explain the whole situation AGAIN. They didn't understand either so gave up.

-Called again and went through the above again, eventually gave up and asked to be transferred to someone in NZ. Finally they put me through to someone here- was told that again I should ignore the bill and that it was all taken care of...

-Received another bill- repeat above steps with long wait times and explainations to the foriegn CSR etc etc with no luck, they would not transfer me to NZ.

-Decided to call TC's business number in the hope of speaking to someone in NZ, this worked and after explaining the whole situation AGAIN, was told  someone would call me back...

-No one called back....

-Called TC's business number again, long wait being transferred around, actually spoke to someone who was helpful, was advised to ignore the bill, the outstanding amount had been creditied back and was assured that it was all taken care of...

-Received another bill, called and got foriegn call centre (I dont know why I bothered), waste of time again, so called the their business number- after being transferred around spoke to someone who told me there was an outstanding amount to be paid- explained the whole situation AGAIN but was still told there was an outstanding amount (????) but they would credit this back as a goodwill gesture and I would receive a call back to confirm this had been done...

-No one called back...

-I called again to confrim this, had to explain the whole situation AGAIN etc etc, was told it would be taken care of and I would get a call back..

-YAY someone called me back to say the account had been resolved etc, however I had to send the cable modem back to them (no one had ever mentioned this and there are notes on their system to say we had returned it anyway?). No problem I tell the person, send me a courier bag and I'll send the modem back. Was told someone would call me to confirm the new address details (even though they already have this and had been sending their bills to the new address).

-Missed the call from the TC person whom was to send the courier bag, however called back the NZ number they left, got some random person and had to explain the whole situation AGAIN, asked to speak to the person that left the voicemail- but the woman transferred me to the foreign call center (repeat several of the steps listed above AGAIN) but eventually the foriegn CSR promised she had recorded my correct address details...

-Courier bag never arrived...

-Received another bill, this time with a large amount on it. Called the business number and asked to speak to the last NZ TC staff member I spoke with, the person could not transfer me but promised this person would call me back...

-No call back...

-Called again, asked to talk to the same CSR that didn't call back, was asked why- explained the WHOLE situation AGAIN. This person then told me that there was actually an outstanding amount on our account and that I owed them for the cable modem I hadn't returned WTF!!!! Remembering I had been told-
1- There was no outstanding amount.
2- There was an outstanding amount but they had credtited it back as a goodwill gesture.
3-They originally didn't ask for the cable modem to be returned and had marked it off our account.
4- When I told them I still had the moden I agreed to send it back but they obviously didn't change my address or didn't bother to send the courier bag out.

-I have requested another call back from the previous CSR again....and wait in hope


Sorry for the long post but believe it or not the above is the short version, add in a few more calls, being cut off a few times etc!  Any suggestions anyone?

Dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake was hard enough personally for us, but it doesn't for us compare to trying to deal with TC's ineptitude and the hours wasted trying to get this resolved.

In the meantime I will continue to try and convert friends and family away from TC, so far I have helped move a few people off their residential services and hope to move at least a couple of their business customers off them and will continue to convert as many away as possible. I realise this will make no difference to TC really in the big scheme of things, but at least it makes me feel a little bit better personally!

Thanks for reading this and if you have any ideas on how I can actually get our account sorted (a contact in TC that knows what they’re doing and won't false promise etc) that would be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading