I just wanted to share with Geekzone readers my experiences with my Aussie broadband provider.  I've just returned from Sydney, and honestly, trying to get back to a broadband service here is like being exiled to Eastern Europe (mind you, that's probably insulting Eastern Europe).  I got used to great customer service.  It's just painful coming back to NZ where companies seem to regard my wanting to be a customer as just a huge inconvenience to them.

So, the ISP that I chose was Internode and I got ADSL2+ because I lived in Macqaurie Park and wasn't very far away from the North Ryde exchange DSLAM.

They offered prompt, friendly service every step of the way.  They sent an SMS to my phone to let me know what was happening.  My first txt message told me that they had completed the work at the exchange, then they sent me a txt to tell me that the service was active and that I could try using it.  I also got an e-mail that contained everything I needed if I wanted to set it up myself.

Then again, even better, when I went to purchase my ADSL2+ Cisco Router from Dick Smith's it set itself up for Internode! My connection was going in about 5 minutes flat.  It was such a painless, wonderful experience, I almost cried with relief.

I never saw a downgrade in my speed, no matter what time of the day or night I was online.  It was consistently around 5 Mbps (sometimes even a little higher).  Basically it meant I could watch TV online from sites like ABC, Nine and Ten with no buffering (or minimal buffering).

I had a whopping 60 gigs per month for $49.95 per month on their Extreme ADSL2+ plan (bundled with a phone for $29.95 per month).  Even better, if I watched ABC online, the content was unmetered!  So that was essentially free TV viewing.

When I had to close my account, the customer service person was lovely and actually thanked me for being a customer.  I was sent a prompt e-mail saying they had arranged disconnection (and it stated the date) and again, the e-mail thanked me for being a customer.

Let's compare that with my last two days of trying to get my cable broadband service back with TelstraClear.  I was their customer for years, but the past two days of trying to arrange for someone to install the cable modem and provision the service has been a nightmare of mis-communication, long phone calls, being passed fro one person to another and being endlessly put on hold.  All because I wanted to reschedule the time and day (and it wasn't last minute - I'd tried rescheduling via e-mail and a phone call, none of which were actioned).

Now I'm going to have to figure out who else to go with (probably Telecom), but it's a depressing state of affairs. 

Anyway, it's nice to get great customer service.  I miss it :-(