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Forums › Vodafone New Zealand › [TelstraClear] TelstraClear really needs to fix their processes


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Topic # 9002 12-Aug-2006 21:49
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Saturday, 9:30pm here and the TV went dark. I came to the office room and sure enough the Internet (cable modem) is down as well.

I call TelstraClear and go through a lady on their call centre. I ask if there's an outage here in Wellington and she says "I don't know", and proceeds to "test" things.

She asked me to turn the TV devoded off and on. Of course it didn't work. I asked her why is she testing the TV decode, since the problem affects the Internet as well and one is not related to the other, except from the cable out. She says she has to follow the script.

And she does. She asks me to unplug my cable modem and plug again, and sure enough it won't work. I then ask if she's sure there's no outage in this region and she says she can't be sure. And proceed to book a technician to come around here in three days.

She still refused to check if there was an outage.




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Reply # 43811 12-Aug-2006 22:17
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Tell me your joking... no? oh ok... sounds right then



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Reply # 43812 12-Aug-2006 23:07
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Thanks for free-to-air TV, and mobile broadband (TNZ and VFNZ). I am on-line, but counting megabytes on my cellular data.




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  Reply # 43813 13-Aug-2006 00:18
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Mmmm.. this and added with my situation with TCL.. i think you should blog about this. Public needs to see and hear what is a typical workflow for TCL and/or big companies.




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Reply # 43820 13-Aug-2006 09:41
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Ok, back after a few hours, and without having to have the technician around - which I now have to call to cancel.

What is wrong with this picture?

The TV and Internet failed at the same time, phone still working. I called TCL and asked of any known outages in this area. Instead of answering the lady started following the script - turn off decoder, turn on, she tries to access it, fails. Then move to the Internet and asked to turn off cable modem, turn on, she tries to ping it, fails.

I asked twice what good is to test these, since they come from the same cable, so the fault could be either the cable from our house to the pole on an outage on their network. Obviously she follows the script and won't answer my questions.

So, I accept with resignation that someone has decided that a script is smarter than us users (which may be true, but not all the time), and let her book a technician for Tuesday (this happening on Saturday about 10pm).

At 11pm there was a power cut here. Thanks to the UPS all computers stay on, but I grab the torch and walk to the back to check the fuses. That's when I see lots of flashing yellow lights. The entire hill is dark and some power company guys are working down the road.

I decided to call TCL again and I am patched through to business support because apparently consumer help desk closes at 11:30pm, [sarcasm] seeing that no one is using Internet at night or watchin TV, right? [/sarcasm].

I asked him if this power crew working on the pole could have knocked their devices off. He says it's possible, but they don't track this, until their own network sets off an alarm.

So I asked him if, let's say, 10 peple from this region calls the help desk. Would they know? Nope, apparently they don't track those individual callers. I would be looking for patterns, but he said that first they rely on what their engineers tell them, and the engineers rely on alarms.

So much so from user input...

Ok, so having no TV and Internet for a few hours (about 6 hours) is not the end of the world. Thanks to Telecom NZ and Vodafone NZ I managed to keep online through UMTS and CDMA. But the idea of having to do this for three days is appaling.

And not having balances and checks in their processes... Or at least not that are visible to us, poor callers.




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  Reply # 43822 13-Aug-2006 11:21
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I've had problems for several weeks with very very slow cable speeds for short periods of time and frequent micro outages where the modem drops off the network for short periods of time. After sending several emails to TCL support and not receiving a single reply I then rang them and logged a fault, after some "extensive" tests by them over several days and another phone call they conc;luded there was no fault and that any speed tests I was doing weren't necessarily correct due to the internet being busier in the evenings when I was primarily encountering the problems. They concluded there was no problem, end of story and couldn't seem to offer any explanation why the modem was dropping off the network.

Luckily I have contacts within TCL so within a couple of days had some technicans in the area looking at the problem, turns out that the issue was network related. There were issues with fluctuating signal strength affecting several nearby streets which was obviously the cause of the problem. This has now been temporarily solved but may not be fixed entirely until new cable is strung around the area as new power poles were installed last year and much of the current cabling is being held up temporarily until this occurs and loose connectors due to wind was the most likely cause of the problem.

TCL seem to take the attitude that there is no way the customer can possibly be right, it's no wonder they can't seem to move forward..

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  Reply # 43852 13-Aug-2006 19:59
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freitasm: Saturday, 9:30pm here and the TV went dark. I came to the office room and sure enough the Internet (cable modem) is down as well.

I call TelstraClear and go through a lady on their call centre. I ask if there's an outage here in Wellington and she says "I don't know", and proceeds to "test" things.

She asked me to turn the TV devoded off and on. Of course it didn't work. I asked her why is she testing the TV decode, since the problem affects the Internet as well and one is not related to the other, except from the cable out. She says she has to follow the script.

And she does. She asks me to unplug my cable modem and plug again, and sure enough it won't work. I then ask if she's sure there's no outage in this region and she says she can't be sure. And proceed to book a technician to come around here in three days.

She still refused to check if there was an outage.



Believe it or not, I went through the same process on Tuesday night and then again on Thursday; I love how one department blames another to the point where it becomes my problem and/ a fault with my equipment [which it seriously isn't].  During one of my conversations with someone from some department, somewhere, I was told I should check http://networkstatus.telstraclear.co.nz before calling - which is apparently easy to do if you don't have access to the internet.

Grrrr!.




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Reply # 43855 13-Aug-2006 20:16
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Today (Saturday after the fault was reported) I got a phone call from Donna, who asked on behalf of the technicians if the TV and Internet were still out of order. I told here that both were working again, after a 6 hour outage that didn't exist for TCL.

I told here how I called later on the same night to report a power crew working on the region and how their help desk couldn't tell me if there was a patern of other people in this neighborhood calling to report the same problem.

Instead of telling me something like "I will pass these suggestions/comments to the supervisor or management", she replied "I will check with the person who answered your call".

Well, I am pretty sure this will not make the process better or easier for the next time this happens again.




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Reply # 43856 13-Aug-2006 20:18
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I learned in my earlier experiences... and i got two words for you :-D

BLOG IT




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  Reply # 43860 13-Aug-2006 20:45
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munchkin: 

I was told I should check http://networkstatus.telstraclear.co.nz before calling - which is apparently easy to do if you don't have access to the internet.

Grrrr!.


And is generally only updated for major outages.. if it's updated at all.

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  Reply # 43861 13-Aug-2006 21:45
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I detailed my experiences in this thread

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=44&TopicId=8682

The difference was, there was no major outage - turned out to be just the street. This I only worked out after

1. pinging other modems off my node was okay
2. next door neighbour came along and asked if my TCL service was on (no it wasn't)

As for what to do, while the outage was on (5 days)

1. watched analogue TV over the cable (that still worked for some reason) - just no digital cable or internet
2. used a dialup for Internet access (Clearnet account). Since I only use this account to get global roaming, the rate on the account is not good and in 5 days managed to chew up $44 of online access!  So much for the 5 days of credit they gave me plus a free monthly telephone rental




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  Reply # 43870 14-Aug-2006 00:08
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The TV and Internet failed at the same time, phone still working. I called TCL and asked of any known outages in this area. Instead of answering the lady started following the script - turn off decoder, turn on, she tries to access it, fails. Then move to the Internet and asked to turn off cable modem, turn on, she tries to ping it, fails.


FWIW, the telephone wiring is seperate to the cable/broadband wiring. Dual-wiring is used, where HFC is the cable/broadband wiring and normal twisted copper pair is used for the telephone side of life.

So it's very possible your cable will go out yet phone remain active, unless all wiring is cut.

Which doesn't help your problem. Unfortunately there is no 'Mauricio' flag to indicate a geekzoner, although perhaps this should be considered......

Next time you call you can always ask for Complex Faults - I know that lot are a capable bunch...



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Reply # 43876 14-Aug-2006 09:00
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antoniosk: FWIW, the telephone wiring is seperate to the cable/broadband wiring. Dual-wiring is used, where HFC is the cable/broadband wiring and normal twisted copper pair is used for the telephone side of life.

So it's very possible your cable will go out yet phone remain active, unless all wiring is cut.


Thanks for the note, but yes I know that. Hence no mention of phone line during my call - neither on this thread.

And using logic, seeing that both cable-modem and decoder stopped working, it was not needed to test each independently. Obviously it would be a fault from the cable from my property through the street or down to TCL network.

Seeing that I called them to report a power crew working after the event, it begs the question why they wouldn't check if other people in the same region had complained about the problem - in which case it would help TCL isolate the outage.

Also, the outage lasted for 6 hours. This is not the first time this kind of thing happens, for this long. It happened before in my old address. Three times I called TCL and three times they booked a technician, just to have it cancelled the call out next morning, when the services were restored.

So obviously it is a fault somewhere, intermittent. It couldn't be my specific location because it happened to me on another address, and there's no process in place to identify a pattern when a fault like this happens, making people on the other side (users) sad for about 6 hours or so.




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  Reply # 43889 14-Aug-2006 10:30
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freitasm:

Also, the outage lasted for 6 hours. This is not the first time this kind of thing happens, for this long. It happened before in my old address. Three times I called TCL and three times they booked a technician, just to have it cancelled the call out next morning, when the services were restored.

So obviously it is a fault somewhere, intermittent. It couldn't be my specific location because it happened to me on another address, and there's no process in place to identify a pattern when a fault like this happens, making people on the other side (users) sad for about 6 hours or so.



6 hours!  Mine was 5 days! Required two  truck rolls (one the contractor who worked out the house wiring was fine, the second from TCL network engineers who went up on the poles to check street wiring). But really interestingly, I still had analogue cable service so I am guessing it was a signal level issue - just too low for digital, but okay for analogue




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  Reply # 43956 15-Aug-2006 01:04
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Five days is pretty bad. Have you enquired as to some form of compensation for the loss of service?




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  Reply # 43974 15-Aug-2006 09:44
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Yes I did. They offered me

1. 7 days credit on my monthly bill (which when you include  TV, telephone, internet is about $200)
2. Free telephone rental next month

All very nice but since I had no Internet access apart from a Clearnet dialup plan, a plan I only really use for roaming since it has iPass, the family ended up clocking up $44 in dialup charges over that 5 days!  So the credit was eaten up by costs for alternative access




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