Getting Chorus to do something

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Getting Chorus to do something < any tips??

nicsd

11 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 25

#305827 6-Jun-2023 17:47

I have recently moved from abroad to NZ, first time living here, and tbh I have never come across a company as unhelpful as Chorus @Chorusnz

Moved into a new house, didn't know it at the time but the builder put the drop off point on the wrong side of a shared drive, not far, perhaps 5 meters, doesn't seem like a big issue to any normal company.

Chorus discovered this in Dec 2022, since then they have visited twice, (I assume to confirm that the drop of point hadn't moved by itself) and phoned me once to tell me that my drop off point is one the wrong side of the drive, then they sent me an email to confirm that one field manager was discussing with another field manager that my drop off point still hadn't moved of its own accord. 6 and a half months this has been going on.

I reckon I have phoned >15 times, I also phone UCG the service provider, just so I don't keep giving the nice Chorus ladies a hard time, I like to change it up a bit. And no one ever phones back or in fact has any idea of what they plan to do to install fiber. I'm not talking out in the woods here, this is Mairangi Bay, main street. Digging a hole and pulling a few wires shouldn't be this hard.

It has gone from frustration to amazement at their level of incompetence. Does anyone else get the feeling Chorus must be doing it deliberately? Like they are gaslighting the whole of NZ? I've lived in a lot of places round the world, and this is by far the worst company I have ever had to deal with. Is there some kind of reality TV show I'm not aware of where stupid members of the public are set up by Chorus? What am I missing here?

So my question to you lot is do you any suggestions as to how to get Chorus to do their job? who can I complain to other than my dog?

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Wheelbarrow01

1784 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2638

Trusted

Chorus

#3085801 6-Jun-2023 22:37

Without having any specific details to investigate, I can only take a guess at what has happened based on the limited information supplied. One possible set of circumstances could be as follows:

Assuming your dwelling was built by a developer carrying out a new greenfields subdivision or infill housing development (knocking one house down, subdividing, and building several new houses), they would most likely have paid Chorus to provide a fibre drop-off to the boundary for each new dwelling. As part of the prep work for that, there is a network design drawn up which clearly shows where we will put our network on the street, and where the developer/builder needs to place their lead-in duct to meet up with it.
If the developer/builder has deviated from those plans, then that is their responsibility, not Chorus or our service partners.
If the Chorus network on the street was installed more than 18 months ago, that work could potentially have been carried out by Visionstream - our previous service partner.
Now that you are trying to get connected, UCG (our current service partner) is having to deal with it. Sometimes just up and moving a network element on the street is not so easy - especially if it is feeding multiple dwellings.
There's also the question of who pays - 5 metres of additional trenching/thrusting/cabling that hasn't been accounted for in this install may not sound like a big deal to Joe Bloggs but it still has a dollar cost in terms of labour, materials, design fees, council permit costs etc. UCG won't want to pay because they didn't make a mistake. Chorus probably don't want to pay it because we didn't make a mistake either (based on the limited information provided).

Given you seem to know the developer/builder has put the inside boundary duct work in the wrong place, is this problem also affecting other adjacent dwellings? Have you raised this issue with the developer/builder to see if they intend to put it right? If you haven't, that probably should have been your first port of call before spouting off about the failings of Chorus and our service partners.

It's really not that cool to publicly have a crack at Chorus when you yourself have stated that the issue came about by the failings of another party. Chorus ultimately wants to make a return on our network investment, so we are motivated to get end users connected in the shortest amount of time to start getting that return. Every day's delay is money we will never earn. We don't delay connections because we enjoy it - it will be because there is a serious problem onsite that needs to be solutioned for.

If you send me a DM with your name and service address I can look into the situation and see what the problem actually is. I appreciate a resolution hasn't happened as quickly as you might expect so I can look at why that might be - eg has Chorus asked the developer/builder to fix their mistake and are they dragging the chain?

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

nicsd

11 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 25

#3088964 12-Jun-2023 12:36

I am not sure who Wheelbarrow01 is behind the keyboard, but as I said in a DM to him, if he's not already CEO of Chorus, he should be. I have very helpful technicians from UCG on site this morning, just turned up out of the blue, and they are installing fiber as I type. it turns out they can use the overhead powerlines to run the fiber most of the way to where my builder put the drop off pipe, a good solution so the drilling is now minimal, about 1 meter under a small path.

I will be singing the praises of Geekzone to anyone who will listen for the rest of the year. I had hit a total brick wall until I found this place, and I am hugely grateful. As I mentioned previously, because we work from home this was a complete nightmare.

Thank you Wheelbarrow01, and thank you for all the others who have taken time to read adn reply.

Cheers. Happy Monday.