Problems in signing up a new account with Slingshot

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Problems in signing up a new account with Slingshot

Foo

522 posts

Ultimate Geek

#67973 12-Sep-2010 11:44

Has anyone else had problems with signing up with Slingshot for a new account and getting a new home line and internet connected?

After deciding to join Slingshot I have really not been impressed with the sign up process and have run into a number of road blocks in getting my services working.

I called Slingshot on Monday 23rd of August, gave all my details and my proposed user name. I don’t hear from them for over a week so call them on Tuesday the 31st to see where things are at. They can’t find any record of my sign up and say that the process is that it is passed from their sign up team to the Provisioning team to action the new account creation. I’m told to call back two weeks after sign up if I haven’t heard anything by then.

This leaves me wondering if I will hear anything so call back on Thursday 2nd September and ask if there is any news. I’m told I will get an email or text with an update within a day or two but hear nothing.

On Monday the 6th (two weeks after the initial sign up) I call Slingshot again and speak with Joanie who with great customer service promises to track down my order and gets in touch with Provisioning on my behalf.

Tuesday the 7th September and I get a call from Slingshot saying my username was already taken and therefore I need to select a new one. I am then told I should get a text or email saying my account is set up by the end of the week. I am left wondering why my chosen username wasn’t checked at signup to see if it was already taken (or why the system didn’t pick it up).

Today, 12th September, I call Slingshot for the fourth time saying I haven’t heard from them. I’m told that they still can’t find my account, it is likely being set up by Provisioning and that I should call back tomorrow. I ask if they are taking notes each time I call as I have to explain the situation each time and am told that as there is no account created, there is nowhere for notes to go!

Anyway, while I have had good feedback about Slingshot from friends who are with them, I am left feeling that there has been a lack of communication and have no idea where things are at. Tomorrow will be three weeks since my first call to sign up and I from where I am sitting, it might be another week until I actually have a phone line and internet.

I appreciate that there has been a big earthquake a week ago which has kept their customer service team busy and that Slingshot have only started signing up new accounts a few months ago (as opposed the previously only migrating accounts from an existing ISP) but I had hoped for a bit more communication. I also wonder about the fact the customer service team can’t create a temporary account and can’t really help you until Provisioning have done their thing which can take up to two weeks. It seems like a bit of a process failure to me.

When I compare my experience to signing up with Orcon earlier this year, Orcon were up and running 8 days after my initial call. Orcon also kept me in the loop with emails and texts updating me on the account progress.

After all this, I have to say that I was impressed with Joanie at Slingshot who went beyond the call of duty to get some information to me, even if at this stage I’m not sure where things are at since then!

I wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience and if Slingshot has been responsive with sorting things out quickly?

Northland

111 posts

Master Geek

#378955 12-Sep-2010 12:01

Ah in most of the slingshot and callplus forum theres a bunch of feedback about slingshots service
it all speaks for itself it really is worth paying that little bit extra for good service cause you sure won't get that from slingshot 80% of the time and clearly you have more patience than I do I definitely would of moved on and I wish I had the option to. Your friends who are getting decent service from them are lucky id say.

When I signed up from telecom for their homeline and broadband they were connected within 2 days if I remember right all was well and good paid my first months bb that same day then it all went downhill after about 3 weeks, Every time I called I'd get someone 'foreign blah blah long story so I resorted to using their online help email system which is a complete joke and going by the email I got the other day makes me realise they really have given up on caring about their customers assuming they did to begin with

i will be stoked when I am free from them if I have to pay more for better service a then I will (;

P.s slingshot are all good if you never need to contact them and if you dont mind websites being slow sometimes !!

thats my story anyway g.l

raab

262 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#379056 12-Sep-2010 17:00

Welcome to Slingshot, enjoy the sub par experience*

*If you ever get connected

haakuturi

241 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#379183 13-Sep-2010 06:41

Foo, if you'd like to message me with your details I'll see if I can track down what's happening to your maybe-account!

I'll also pass feedback on to Joanie, she'll be stoked to hear it :)

Northland, I'm sorry that you feel that way about our Customer Service Team. I can assure you that all our staff are based in NZ and that we *do* care about our customers!

Foo

522 posts

Ultimate Geek

#379188 13-Sep-2010 07:44

Northland: Ah in most of the slingshot and callplus forum theres a bunch of feedback about slingshots service
it all speaks for itself it really is worth paying that little bit extra for good service cause you sure won't get that from slingshot 80% of the time and clearly you have more patience than I do I definitely would of moved on and I wish I had the option to. Your friends who are getting decent service from them are lucky id say.

Yep, I'm pretty patient - it took me even longer to get my connection up and running in the UK last year. British Telecom connected our house to the wrong exchange, delaying the activation by over a week. Once we were connected, O2 made the same mistake and connected us to the wrong exchange as well...we lived close to two different exchanges and they weren't sure which one we should be connected to.

After all was said and done, we had phone and internet but it took five weeks. The normal connection time was 5 - 10 working days. Of course, once it was all working, having unlimited ADSL2 for only £10 a month (and the first three months free) was worth it!

Foo

522 posts

Ultimate Geek

#379189 13-Sep-2010 07:46

haakuturi: Foo, if you'd like to message me with your details I'll see if I can track down what's happening to your maybe-account!

I'll also pass feedback on to Joanie, she'll be stoked to hear it :)

Hey there haakuturi, thanks for your response. I have messaged you my details. Please do let Joanie know too.

I'll post here how this all resolved as progress is made.

raytaylor

4017 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#379892 14-Sep-2010 22:22

I had all sorts of issues signing up a new account with a line and all you can eat broadband plan.

1) They kept getting the address wrong so Chorus kept rejecting the order
XXXa georges drive turned into
- XX georges drive
- XXXa georges road
- 2 other variations
When all we asked was exact same details of our existing account except change the address from house XXXb to house XXXa on the new account as we own both houses.
How hard is it to copy and paste?

2) Slingshot did not inform chorus that they had to call before coming to install the line

3) The chorus guy damaged a port in our pabx system because he started work without me being there. Still not heard back from either slingshot or chorus about this. Keep calling slingshot and they
- say we are waiting on chorus
- chorus rejected the revisit order (because slingshot put in the wrong phone number which doesnt even sound local)

4) Could not tell me when the broadband would be connected
She said they put you into a group and it sounded like there were something like 3 connection days every month, and you get connected on that day.
I know chorus dont charge as much when an isp gets bulk orders done, but i had to ring almost every day for a week before they could tell me the connection day.

5) They signed me up to the wrong plan
I said on every call that i wanted the all you can eat plan. It even has it in my customer notes at various places. But instead they connected me to the Pro plan, instead of all you can eat.

6) The username and password did not work.
They created the username and password which is ment to work straight away for logging into the customer billing area of the website. Its also related to the broadband modem's authentication. I had to call twice about this. I knew it was an issue a few days before the bb connection day, but it wasnt untill a day after the broadband was connected, that my modem could auctually authenticate.

7) 3 times I called in the evening, would spend an hour on hold, then at 10pm on the dot "You have called outside our operating hours" then it hangs up.
Normally a decent callcentre would start playing that message to new callers at 10, then wait for those already in the queue to be delt with before going home.

I like slingshot as a company, but seriously the customer facing people there really cannot understand simple instruction.

Goals of my efforts
- New account, exact same details except house number in address.
- Get new line in flat next door.
- Chorus to ring before coming to install
- Get all you can eat broadband plan on the new line.

I really would have hated going with my original plan of getting it all on a secondary line into the first house. I now fear they would have somehow screwed up the existing line and broadband and we would be left with nothing for a month.

Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here

jackk

53 posts

Master Geek

#379975 15-Sep-2010 03:27

Foo, get out of this while you still have a chance mate.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

ekud

263 posts

Ultimate Geek

#380139 15-Sep-2010 14:01

jackk: Foo, get out of this while you still have a chance mate.

+1 Run while you still can

Sign here

teihoata

100 posts

Master Geek

#380182 15-Sep-2010 15:23

I have had similar problems with slingshot. Signed up with them twice, once for myself a few months back and for my girlfriends flat about a month and a half ago.
First time it took me just over 2 weeks to get signed up and everything, was never told that they were unable to port my number, they had to wait for me to call up and say yes I would like a new number. I also too had the problem that my account wasn't found or registered however they seemed to solve it and within 2 days it was found.
The second time it took just over a month to get broadband connected, weird since calling up so many times resulted in the same "we will send you a txt when your internet is up and running", so everything was on track from the get go. No problems that I wasn't told about at all.
I believe this is how long is takes nowadays to get connected to slingshot, pathetic.

On the other hand I'm loving the unlimited broadband, if your not a hard out seeder or download excessive amounts of torrents that aren't cached, I suggest you have a look at the plan. Gaming is sweet, web pages load up in the blink of an eye and youtube loads as fast as I can watch it. Such a shame about the customer service.

Foo

522 posts

Ultimate Geek

#381549 18-Sep-2010 09:53

So, a little update as to where things are at with this...today is day 26 since initial sign up.

After the offer from haakuturi on this forum, I messaged him and he said he would get a CSR to call me. Thanks haakuturi!

Tuesday 14th of September - after no call from a CSR, I called Slingshot again (call number six to SS) and once again passed all my details over to the customer service rep. She says she will call me tomorrow with an update of where my account is at. I’m starting to get quite annoyed with the way things are going…more than three weeks is starting to feel like a joke...

Wednesday 15th of September I get a call from a Jonny, an on to it CSR who took a few of my details. He already had other details and was very apologetic with regard to my situation. Said he would work to get my account activated asap and would email me tomorrow (16th of Sept) with an update. I asked if there is any way to make sure things would happen faster than the standard 5 – 10 working days as I was currently on day 23 since initial sign up! He said he would do his best.

September 16 – I get an email saying the account hasn’t yet been set up but this can take 24 hours. Will get an update on the 17th…

September 17 - yes, I now have an account number and the wheels appear to be turning albeit slowly.

Thanks for the feedback jackk and ekud...is it based on the actual technical service of Slingshot or more on the customer service? From what I have heard, the technical side of things with Slingshot is okay but there do seem to be problems with some of their internal processes and a fair bit of negative sentiment about their customer service.

As a comparison, I do recall in the past calling Telstra and being on hold for 30+ minutes (on more than one occasion).

The customer service that I have received from Joanie, Jonny and Nik at Slingshot has been outstanding - it just hasn't been good from the 6 odd other people I have spoken to over the last 3 weeks.

Will do a further update as progress is made...

jackk

53 posts

Master Geek

#381570 18-Sep-2010 10:47

hey Foo, both performance and customer service are shocking mate. performance-wise, browsing is slow after 7 or 8. that is something that i can live with. I am on the "pro" plan and the biggest problem that i have is the "free data" period in the morning. this is basically one of the major reason why i signed up with them. In their website, nothing has been mention about shaping during that period. They even have a "fine print" section on their site and nothing about shaping is mention. During the sign up no one tell you abt this. it's not until you called up and complain then they bring it up in their "terms and conditions". I will definitely take more notice in "T&C" in the future.

as for the customer service, i called them a month ago, after like 40 mins on the phone, i asked to speak to a manager (politely of course) which they refused to speak to me but suggest that i make a complaint with another CSR and someone will call me back. If I am with Telecom i will get to one straight away or within the next hour or two. When i asked when can i expect a call, the CSR couldn't tell me anything apart from you will get one. almost 5 weeks on still haven't heard a thing.

i really don't know whether i will get anywhere battling with them, perhaps i will just wait my 6 months contract out, another 4 months and 12 days to go.

Foo

522 posts

Ultimate Geek

#381580 18-Sep-2010 11:14

Thanks jackk - the plan I am hoping to get on is the All You Can Eat plan which does indeed have traffic shaping (and this is explicitly stated).

However, all ISPs employ some form of traffic shaping and this is stated in the Terms and Conditions when you join. I would expect that VOIP is prioritised over ftp just as I would expect that web browsing is prioritised over p2p.

Re: customer service...well, yes. 3 superb people and 6 not good...