Chorus Contractor prone to lying - can he get away with this.?

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Tiberius

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Wannabe Geek

#248192 13-Mar-2019 22:48

Hi All, This is my very first posting. Please excuse me if I am doing the wrong thing.

A worker for a Chorus Contractor (or sub contractor) in Auckland, is telling us, his boss and perhaps Chorus - multiple fibs (lies)

1. We were told by our ISP that we would need to be at home on a particular day, as a 'technician' was coming to 'Scope' our job (getting ready for Fibre)

We canceled appointments and stayed home on that day. We are on an slightly isolated waterfront and the movement of people and vehicles are extra easy to observe.

No vehicle stopped outside our address and no person came onto our property. To make doubly sure we check our nvr. We have ip cameras pointing every which way.

This confirmed that no person visited us that day. For us, it was a completely wasted day.

We rang Chorus who referred us to Vision Stream. Vision Stream (VS) told us that the Tech. had logged a visit to our address. We complained bitterly. VS found the Tech and got him to come to our address.

The Tech. said he had been to our address (which was a bald-faced lie). A scope of the property should also apparently include knocking on the door of the dwelling.

Question: Do Chorus make a payment to contractors for each and every visit to a site ? (If so he is obtaining money by way of a false pretence (Crimes Act 1961, Section 246). I certainly hope this is not the case. However, why would he 'log' this as a job attended ? What is in it for him ?

2. The Tech. also told us that the info. on the Chorus website was rubbish and he would just ignore it. I rang Chorus and was informed that the website was totally correct and was updated regularly.

The Tech. was trying to avoid doing work that Chorus specified as being within the scope of the job. The Tech. was telling fibs again. Can we request that someone else handle our job ?

Our copper connection is failing and we just wish to get the job completed within a reasonable time. What do you all think ?

Thank you for reading this piffle.

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#2197602 13-Mar-2019 22:51

@ChorusNZ

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2197603 13-Mar-2019 22:59

Have you reached out to your provider and engaged them on this?

there is quite a few layers the provider has to look into this with chorus.

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

marpada

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#2197606 13-Mar-2019 23:13

Yep, they don't really care about you, you're not their customer. Your ISP won't do much either as it's not like they have a choice, it's Chrorus' way or the highway.

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2197609 13-Mar-2019 23:21

marpada:

Yep, they don't really care about you, you're not their customer. Your ISP won't do much either as it's not like they have a choice, it's Chrorus' way or the highway.

For these sorts of things there are pretty defined and regulated rules.

It's somewhere on tcf or comcom's site, i forget which.

There are public documents for changes in draft too (these will pop on google)

#include <std_disclaimer>

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freitasm

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#2197626 14-Mar-2019 00:07

As above, your first call should be your provider and they should follow up with Chorus on this.

Lias

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#2197638 14-Mar-2019 06:37

hio77:

marpada:

Yep, they don't really care about you, you're not their customer. Your ISP won't do much either as it's not like they have a choice, it's Chrorus' way or the highway.

For these sorts of things there are pretty defined and regulated rules.

It's somewhere on tcf or comcom's site, i forget which.

There are public documents for changes in draft too (these will pop on google)

I really hope those changes include total visibility to the end user of the entire process, being able to see the status of the order, whether it's with the ISP, Chorus, Subcontractor etc.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

chevrolux

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#2197641 14-Mar-2019 07:11

Speak to your provider and just ask for a new tech to be assigned.

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#2197662 14-Mar-2019 08:00

Tiberius:

. For us, it was a completely wasted day.

2. The Tech. also told us that the info. on the Chorus website was rubbish and he would just ignore it. I rang Chorus and was informed that the website was totally correct and was updated regularly.

The Tech. was trying to avoid doing work that Chorus specified as being within the scope of the job. The Tech. was telling fibs again. Can we request that someone else handle our job ?

@Tiberius sadly this is a lot of my experience with Chorus and their subbies, they just out and out lie to your face, you ask to speak to a field supervisor and they say the chorus website is out of date and they are allowed to do what they want.

I have asked for other tech's to attend and they will not do that, I was told I would have to cancel the install and wait 30 days and then request again ( we then got the same dodgy techs )

We also got told we missed appointments when when they did not turn up, we then had to wait another 6 - 8 weeks for another appointment ( there was zero movement on that )

There a lots of horror stories I have with UFB install techs.

Try asking for different techs, it cant hurt to ask.

John

I know enough to be dangerous

MurrayM

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#2197711 14-Mar-2019 09:17

The day the Chorus guys turned up to install our fibre I noticed them looking around at the bottom of our drive (we live down a right-of-way with several houses coming off it, all with their own little driveways). I walked down the drive to meet them and make sure they were here to install our fibre or someone elses. The confirmed they were here for our install but they had been looking at the neighbours house and thought it was the right one (not sure why as our letterbox is clearly marked and the only one at the top of our drive). After correcting them and pointing them in the right direction they were fine to deal with.

freitasm

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#2197712 14-Mar-2019 09:20

My experience was overwhelmingly positive. Scope/install done in a single visit, ONT placed in the home office room, all done in about 45 minutes (granted, aerial installation, no digging required).

xpd

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#2197737 14-Mar-2019 09:46

The local Chorus guys I dealt with for my VDSL install, were very forgetful but otherwise extremely good - I'm hoping for similar if I go to fiber. Will be straightforward OH install, will be pushing to see if they can make the run down to my garage though instead of the existing entry point.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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Chorusnz

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Chorus

#2197766 14-Mar-2019 10:11

Hey Tiberius, that is very concerning to hear. The majority of our subcontractors are good hard workers who collectively perform many hundreds of installs a day with most resulting in happy customers. Unfortunately as with all industries there are a few bad eggs who can ruin the experience. These subcontractors are the face of Chorus and we take a very serious view on their conduct/behaviour. Can you please send us a PM with your address so that I may follow up appropriately.

In general for anyone having difficulty, I do recommend getting in touch with your provider as a first response. They have processes in place to assist you and can escalate where required. ^Richard

snnet

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#2198246 14-Mar-2019 21:05

I had a client call me during their fibre "install" yesterday.

The job had been "scoped". The clients had been waiting a month for any kind of connection whatsoever and mobile is not an option due to poor signal from all providers. I know it's not life and death (in this case) but when the contractors come to do the install they did the following:

- Call me to find out where their network/miniducts are on the street (why would I know this and isn't this something to note at scoping)
- Proceed to tell me they wouldn't be doing the install that day because it required getting a spade out to dig and find their service ducts of their network
- Tell me they couldn't even do the internal installation because the work order did not include the internal hybrid cable being provided by them (?????? brand new house??? scoped??????)

This kind of thing happens all the time.

Tiberius

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Wannabe Geek

#2198938 15-Mar-2019 17:43

Could someone in the 'know' comment on this part of my original post.

Many thanks

Chorusnz

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Chorus

#2200535 18-Mar-2019 08:28

Hey Tiberius, we use an outcome based model. Because they are not paid for each visit, technicians are incentivised to confirm availability with you before attending. While I would be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt (perhaps he got the wrong property), the only reason I can think of would to avoid getting flak from the field manager for a missed commit.

If you can flick me your address as I requested before, I can make sure feedback is passed on to Visionstream. ^Richard

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