Slingshot Indian Callcentre

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bradstewart

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Topic # 7186 25-Mar-2006 15:56

Not sure where this belongs!

All week i have been receiving calls from slingshots indian call centre. Don't they know that people work during the day??? Anyway i spent all week telling them to get lost. They rung again before and i finally lost it with them.

If you are going to try and convert me to your products consider the following!

1. When i pick up the phone i do not expect to have my ears blasted by some squaking sound
2. Dont get indian people who i cant understand trying to reason with me, i just get angry!
2. Dont try telling me that paying $30 a month for 1Gb of broadband is better value than $59 a month for 10Gb
4. Dont get indian people who i cant understand trying to reason with me, i just get angry!
5. I dont care about making landline to mobile calls for 41c a minute when i make them cheaper form my mobile! Trust me there is no argument you can make that will make me pay MORE for calls to mobiles. COME ON!!!!!

I like being able to pay ONE bill every month that cover my landline, cell phone, broadband and any other telecom services. Saving $2 a month on international calls i dont make but having extra bills isn't worth it to me.

I tried to tell the guy that i dont make international calls, his reply was (if i understood correctly). "It doesnt matter, you only pay a small monthly fee so if you do make international tolls they will be cheaper" WTF????? Why do i want to pay for a service i will never use???

When i told him i had no interest in switching to slingshot because all they wanted to do was leech off telecom via LLU to make money instead of investing, he told me that i could switch for just one month and if i didnt like it i could switch back.

Slingshot needs a giant rocket up their collective rear ends.

[Moderator edit: Moved to Broadband]

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Reply # 31516 25-Mar-2006 18:51

Thank you very much for calling come again

bradstewart

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Reply # 31522 25-Mar-2006 19:17

I thought the whole thing was very hypocritical given their stance on things. Or you could also say not unexpected either, they want to piggyback off Telecom and they hire cheap labour, i think we should refer them to the commerce commision

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Reply # 31526 25-Mar-2006 20:32

I HATE slingshot,, I will admit, they are the one company I just HATE. (sent me to baycorp for $8.45)

Yeah this is really Disgusting, those poor people from India.

Any company that Telemarkets me usually pays a fair price, I skip "complaints" and attack their bottom line. Right where it hurts.

Remember i4free and them abusing a charging glitch at Telecoms expense then crying blue murder when they got chopped

They are the one making the largest noise about LLU and similar, Poor us, Mean Telecom, Help us Government...

Blech!

Would anyone like Annettes personal mobile number to tell her themselves?

HISS!

bradstewart

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Reply # 31528 25-Mar-2006 23:02

Ihug arent much better in their whinging. But seriously Slingshot make me sick!! For all their talk, their interst is not in getting New Zealanders better broadband, it is in getting a situation where they can force their way into making money off the huge investments of another company which were mostly funded by the taxpayer back in the days off state owned telecom.

So i dont appreciate being rung up by them and getting told i am being being ripped off by Telecom when that is exactly what they are trying to do.

Even if slingshot do get LLU, there is no way they are going to invest millions in upgrading the network. They will just get a bigger profit margin and Telecom will suffer and they are the only ones who will invest. When they suffer they will invest less and eventually we are on the receiving end of that.

In closing........the whole bread slogan thing SUCKS!! Everytime i see the TV ad i really want to beat Annette round the head with her loaf of bread

freitasm

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Reply # 31529 25-Mar-2006 23:17

bradstewart: Even if slingshot do get LLU, there is no way they are going to invest millions in upgrading the network. They will just get a bigger profit margin and Telecom will suffer and they are the only ones who will invest. When they suffer they will invest less and eventually we are on the receiving end of that.

And that's why I am not a supporter of Local Loop Unbundling. It's good for some, not for all. If they were required to invest in infrastructure as part of their "ticket" to get access to the local loop then I might rethink. But if they just suck the infrastructure that is already there, then it's not fair to all New Zealanders who financed the infrastructure in first place with their payments to the state owned company, and later to the incumbent.

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freitasm

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Reply # 31530 25-Mar-2006 23:18

By the way, would you mind changing the subject on this thread?

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Reply # 31531 25-Mar-2006 23:22

I don't really get the bread thing. Is it something from the TV ads (I don't watch TV that often)?

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bradstewart

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Reply # 31532 26-Mar-2006 00:01

cokemaster: I don't really get the bread thing. Is it something from the TV ads (I don't watch TV that often)?

Stupid TV ad with annette using bread as a metaphor for money. rather stupid if you ask me.

Topic title changed

If Slingshot and ihug really cared and wanted better broadband, the would take their 'bread' and invest in something like Telstras cable network. I gaurantee we would be better served by that kind of action. Think of the possibilities.....cable tv - 100's of cheap trashy channels for the moral benefit of all.

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Reply # 31533 26-Mar-2006 00:05

paradoxsm: Remember i4free and them abusing a charging glitch at Telecoms expense then crying blue murder when they got chopped

They are the one making the largest noise about LLU and similar, Poor us, Mean Telecom, Help us Government...

Blech!

Is i4free now slingshot? Some things dont change!

paradoxsm

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Reply # 31537 26-Mar-2006 03:37

If you're paying more than $9.95 for your internet, You're throwing your money away.

She reminds me of someone pledging for save-the-children.

And look at these videos!... OH DEAR!!!!!! and DEARIE ME!

(those downloads are quite large)

Her website is clogged with rubbich about Slingshot criticises Telecom.
complete with audio feeds of her cutting into Telecom and ripping chunks off them... Darling... MOVE ON!

Yes, i4free ws "drug dealerware", it suckered in customers for Free access then took it away only about 4 months later and the moment the $$ stopped rolling in, they forced slingshot on people.

At least Zfree kept it's service open for about a year and a half and Freenet runs till this day though it's only an hour a month now and $10 for unlimited.

(just been woken by phonecall from sth America GRRRRR!)

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Reply # 31544 26-Mar-2006 09:49

freitasm:
And that's why I am not a supporter of Local Loop Unbundling. It's good for some, not for all. If they were required to invest in infrastructure as part of their "ticket" to get access to the local loop then I might rethink. But if they just suck the infrastructure that is already there, then it's not fair to all New Zealanders who financed the infrastructure in first place with their payments to the state owned company, and later to the incumbent.

Well, by reselling services over the existing infrastructure, that is what Slingshot and other ISPs are doing already... leeching a margin out of Telecom. We're not ever going to see real competition that way, because Telecom clearly sets the terms and conditions of the resold services. The low margins encourage el-cheapo operators.

It's too late for LLU. Four, five years ago, it would've been a great idea, expanding the market, allowing other providers to build customer bases and for Telecom to develop a true wholesale business. Now with the NGN largely in place, LLU isn't going to work. Thank successive clueless governments and very effective Telecom lobbying for that.

Instead, we need to look at what's happening in Europe presently, where utilities and municipal authorities are getting involved with the successor to DSL, namely fibre-to-the-premises. Make it easier to stick fibre into the ground, basically. The cost of the actual cable is pretty low - around $4/metre for single-mode, IIRC - but you can easily end up with another $150-$200 on top when battling local council and state bureaucracy. All councils should by law ensure that any kind of duct or conduit that goes into the ground has room for fibre. The MUSH project was apparently set up to teach the councils this, but we'll see what happens with it. I hope the MUSH funding won't get frittered away in conslutancy fees...

Juha

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Reply # 31578 26-Mar-2006 19:04

I never though of that! they will get access to some old 1860's technology copper rubbish that is going to be phased out beginning next year!

Clever Telecom... As least they'll have someone to sell the old NEAX and DSLAMS to!

I will say, at least slingshot did invest in iTalk,, whoever was invloved in that decsision made a damm good one.

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Reply # 31581 26-Mar-2006 20:55

paradoxsm:
I will say, at least slingshot did invest in iTalk,, whoever was invloved in that decsision made a damm good one.

iTalk is merely an extension of their commercial Commverge product offered by CallPlus.

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Reply # 31598 27-Mar-2006 10:38

Jaffa: Now we know where all Annette’s bread goes into her pockets she employee’s Indian people who work for $2 a week and thus she makes lots of bread. Nice going slingshot at least Telstra, Telecom and Voda all have nz call centers providing new zealanders with jobs.

Hmm, a clarification about the indian call centers. They earn about $1000 avg a month, which is more than enough money for a graduates to start off their careers and more than enough to pay for an apartment's rent, lavish food and booze ( you get the crux..)... So where are they lacking....Probably the culture difference and sales technique and politeness

Although I totally agree with the Unbundling comments, India, as I understand has become a poineer in broadband. Last time I visited New Delhi (2001), I saw fibre being laid to home, although services werent offered at that time. But the finance minister and Telco minister were probably educated and knowledgable enough to realise the potential. I must also add that the finance minister ( prime minister now) is a Oxford top student and the Telco Minister at that time was an eletronics engineer with MBA and experience in Telco. Well they must have made a good decision to have forced slingshot's call center to be based in India.

What's the qualification of our Telecom minister? does he understand broadband and its business implications? Dont know...

Anyway, cut short, I dont think jumping up and down about LLU would neccessarily result in anything. What have you done about this, if you are sitting at a management position?... should be the right question to be asked...
As a user what we can do about it, should be probably the next question?

(Hmm.. I hope this hasnt come across as a political speech...)

If we channel our resources in right direction, probably the govt and companies might realise that people are fed up and start giving concessions to Telco companies who want to invest, not to leech...

Can we as users, do anything about this? at all?

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Reply # 31599 27-Mar-2006 10:47

suvneet: Hmm, a clarification about the indian call centers. They earn about $1000 avg a month, which is more than enough money for a graduates to start off their careers and more than enough to pay for an apartment's rent, lavish food and booze ( you get the crux..)... So where are they lacking....Probably the culture difference and sales technique and politeness

Although I totally agree with the Unbundling comments, India, as I understand has become a poineer in broadband. Last time I visited New Delhi (2001), I saw fibre being laid to home, although services werent offered at that time. But the finance minister and Telco minister were probably educated and knowledgable enough to realise the potential. I must also add that the finance minister ( prime minister now) is a Oxford top student and the Telco Minister at that time was an eletronics engineer with MBA and experience in Telco. Well they must have made a good decision to have forced slingshot's call center to be based in India.

What's the qualification of our Telecom minister? does he understand broadband and its business implications? Dont know...

I think everyone agrees that the technology sector in India is quite evolved. I always read good stuff about technology companies in India - it's just that Call Centre is not a technology development area per se.

And on your comments about the knowledge being held by the ministers in the cabinet there - lucky them to have this available!

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