Contact Energy broadband - regretful move

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b0untypure1

1425 posts

Uber Geek

#295600 9-Apr-2022 06:42

Hi all

After being on Vodafone fibre for 6 years we decided to move to contact energy and check out the 1000 down 500 up fibre plan. This was a massive mistake.

6am and I'm lucky to get 50mbps download. I have screenshots of results showing 4mbps download.

For the first time in 6 years my youtube buffers, game latency goes from 40ms to 170ms then back to 40, then 120, then 150ms.

For the first time in 6 years I'm frustrated with internet speed like we all used to be during dial up / early broadband days.

They seem to use "Devoli" as their provider and they have scathing reviews on Google.

To conclude, I'd recommend this service to nobody.

PS: No it's not my setup, I'm an absolute nerd and every corner of our house gets 700mbps on wifi 6 and 950 down on ethernet when I was with Vodafone and the equipment hasn't changed. If I'm super lucky Contact Energy will randomly give me 950 down on cable and 700 on wifi but 2 minutes later back to 10 down 2 up.

Cheers

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#2898874 9-Apr-2022 06:55

As has been mentioned on here numerous times, power companies generally don't do internet well. What made you change to them anyway? Price?

Other (better) options include 2degrees, Skinny or Voyager.

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b0untypure1

1425 posts

Uber Geek

#2898876 9-Apr-2022 07:15

Family work there so we got a decent price. But yeah it's honestly not worth the pain. Sent their support a message but if no decent reply I'll be leaving ASAP.

quickymart

11192 posts

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#2898880 9-Apr-2022 07:31

b0untypure1: Family work there so we got a decent price. But yeah it's honestly not worth the pain. Sent their support a message but if no decent reply I'll be leaving ASAP.

Yep, it's not a good idea to choose based on price. Many have tried that and then end up in a similar situation. See my post above for some (far better) alternatives 🙂

Linux

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#2898891 9-Apr-2022 09:04

You do not leave a good performing ISP like VodafoneNZ to move to Contact!

Dynamic

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#2898894 9-Apr-2022 09:21

b0untypure1: Family work there so we got a decent price. But yeah it's honestly not worth the pain. Sent their support a message but if no decent reply I'll be leaving ASAP.

If you have the time and energy, I'd encourage you to troubleshoot this with their support team and see if it can be resolved and report back to us.

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Lias

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#2898897 9-Apr-2022 09:24

Linux: You do not leave a good performing ISP like VodafoneNZ to move to Contact!

I think people overly focus on Vodafone's reputation for terrible customer service/billing/etc, and not on the fact that the actual network is really good.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad 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.

b0untypure1

1425 posts

Uber Geek

#2898921 9-Apr-2022 10:00

Dynamic:
b0untypure1: Family work there so we got a decent price. But yeah it's honestly not worth the pain. Sent their support a message but if no decent reply I'll be leaving ASAP.

If you have the time and energy, I'd encourage you to troubleshoot this with their support team and see if it can be resolved and report back to us.

Will do, so far I sent an online help request 8am Friday and haven't heard anything back :) off to a great start.

quickymart

11192 posts

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#2898924 9-Apr-2022 10:04

Do they not have a helpdesk you can call them on? Or are they one of these "online support only" outfits a la My Republic?

Delorean

511 posts

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#2898931 9-Apr-2022 10:21

I would just switch back to VF. You know how there network preforms with your setup.

The term, "you get what you pay for" is appropriate in this case

mcarans

16 posts

Geek

#2899083 9-Apr-2022 16:31

I think Contact has issues today, particularly with Google services. Those same services are working fine using mobile data.

Jase2985

12348 posts

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#2899392 10-Apr-2022 12:15

what router are your using? your own or contacts one?

mcarans

16 posts

Geek

#2899396 10-Apr-2022 12:21

Jase2985:
what router are your using? your own or contacts one?

I am using Contact's one.

Jase2985

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#2899407 10-Apr-2022 13:29

have your tired a different router?

surfisup1000

5288 posts

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#2899458 10-Apr-2022 14:08

quickymart:

b0untypure1: Family work there so we got a decent price. But yeah it's honestly not worth the pain. Sent their support a message but if no decent reply I'll be leaving ASAP.

Yep, it's not a good idea to choose based on price. Many have tried that and then end up in a similar situation. See my post above for some (far better) alternatives 🙂

I chose on price...skinny, 6 months free, then $99 a month for 6 months....works out at approx $50 a month over a year, for unlimited 1gbps plan.

I recently checked out the aussie internet (in case i decide to move there for work), it is an embarrassment. We're so lucky here.

With respect to Contact, I'd call them and tell them to sort it out ... if you're under contract, I'd consider such slow speeds to be a breach of contract.

[edit] This is why ISP performance monitoring and reporting is of vital importance to consumers.

The commerce commission produce a report through "Samknows", it is woefully inadequate as it doesn't show performance metrics for each ISP. If the commerce commission did their job properly, we'd not have these issues.

Probably we could organise a better reporting system ourselves!!

quickymart

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#2899520 10-Apr-2022 15:29

Skinny is the exception to the rule when it comes to price - only catch is no phone support, but if you don't need it, then it's not a deciding factor.

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