Good Morning all

Thought that I would blog my efforts in gaining a new broadband connection/plan.
I have looked around various forums and sites to try to gain insight into best plans, ISPs etc, and found (as you would expect) a huge variance. So hopefully this will track my experiences, and possible help some through the current minefield of ISP's and offerings.

I needed to get a broadband connection to our new residence as my partner and I will be studying on-line from the end of the month.

We decided ideal criteria to be -
Naked DSL as we have no home line requirement.
Start off with 30Gb plan to cover tutorial streaming - upgradeable
No contract
ASDL2 if possible
Budget of $75 - $85 per month.

I already own fairly current Dlink ADSL2 equipment - so new equipment not needed.
I have been around the IT world for a few years, so have a reasonable understanding of the environment.

So......

Background research showed ADSL2 available in my area http://www.chorus.co.nz/sat (Kerikeri central)
Contacted 8 ISP's directly by phone to personally establish details of connection and availability.

Interestingly quite a wide offering of plans from naked DSL through to requiring a phone/DSL package.

Narrowed down best match of criteria to be offered from Slingshot - $80 per month, naked DSL, $49.95 connection fee (the land line to our house does not have a current phone connection active) with a 12 month contract (early disconnect fee of $149) Also included 500 minute credit on iTalk a VOIP service.

All good – rang them back after discussing with my partner. Call answered quickly and all details and questions went through. Confirmed pricing, availability, ete, etc. All good.

Next day received a txt to contact their help desk. Did so, and after their customer care rep dug through their systems and talked to another person, I was advised that we would have to pay a further $20 per month for the agreed plan as we were classed as a “rural” connection. This was the first time that this was mentioned despite checking our residential address twice with them before signing up (we are less then 1km from the main Kerikeri exchange and Chorus' mapping facility http://www.chorus.co.nz/sat shows us as having ADSL2 direct from the exchange).

So.... cancelled service request with Slingshot.

Further digging around found Compass (I can hear you groaning from here), Naked DSL,Unlimited Gb, waived connection fee, ADSL2, $79.99 per month, cancellation fee of $99, and Customer Care Rep VERY helpful. Customer care rep said that she would give me time to think about it and call me back at 5:00pm.

I had read various forum posts (http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=95563) regarding this company and we decided to give them the benefit of their contributor who stated that big changes had been made.

So...original customer rep called me back at 5:00pm ! So we signed up over the phone – all very painless. Approx 30mins later a further rep called me back to say she was calling just to confirm all the details and assure me that the service will be actioned ASAP. ( I had stated several times that I urgently need the service within 10 days – they responded with “no problem” )

Received an email from them within 10 mins confirming all details and providing me with A/c number, login, and temporary password, and a bunch of guides to configuring their various services. Of course I tried straight away to access my account on their web site ( http://www.compass.net.nz/ ). After registering for the on line access, received a new email welcoming me to their on line service and showing my account details.

 

So......watch this space