For anyone considering becoming a Compass Communications customer, my advice is DONT!  If you are, check your bills carefully.

I can honestly say I have never dealt with such a complete cowboy organisation that shows such contempt for customers.  I hope that the publishing of my experiences stops others from joining this ISP.  If anyone from Compass reads this, I also hope you now understand something about the impact of such bad customer service.  As any customer service manager would know - on average a happy customer tells one other.  An unhappy customer tells at least 10 - hopefully this is far more these days thanks to the Internet.


I was a Compass Customer for more than a year.  When I joined, Compass was the only ISP that could provide a broadband service in the Pt Chev area in Auckland using the wireless service from the Sky Tower.  The service worked ok most of the time (apart from slowdowns that were resolved by restarting the terminating unit).  Things really went downhill from here.  Examples:
* They charged my credit card for the monthly charge twice (ie double charged) then when I tried to get them to refund the excess it took two weeks and multiple calls.  They told me the accounts people are very busy and they normally process these things on set dates.  If you take money from a customer incorrectly you should refund it immediately!  Not 2 weeks later when it suits you.
*Next month send me an overdue account email when they have already charged my credit card.    After following up they finally admitted it was a mistake.

* When I close my account I am told there are automatic contract rollovers for 12 months as I was advised by post.  I received no such notification and all correspondence from them had been by email.  When I questioned this the guy I spoke to told me he agreed it was stupid but it was management policy he didnt agree with.
* I am then told a new version of the story in that two months notice is required to close an account (which I give them)
* I receive account suspension emails for a supposed unpaid bill that they have already charged to my credit card.
* Emails to customer service are acknowledged with an auto-reply promising a response within 3 working days.  My experience is that they are ignored.
* After I have closed my account I receive further invoices and payment demands along with service suspension warnings.  When I speak to someone in person about this they promise to fix it but do not.
* More invoices with late fees now added.
* As a last straw I write to the Managing Dirctor asking him to get someone to sort out the billing mess.  Coincidentally, within a few days of writing to the MD,  I get a reply to the email I sent to accounts 2 months earlier.  It starts of saying "sorry for the delay responding ..." - 2 months?  What a joke.
* A credit is promised in the email I finally got from accounts.  Within a few days of this I get ANOTHER invoice with NO credit.
* When I made my final account payment by cheque I sent it via the Managing Director with a summary of the (lack of) service I had received and asked him to consider wheter he felt it was appropriate to bank it given the service they had provided.  The cheque was cashed.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!