Orcon plans to change...

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Orcon plans to change...

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Geek
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#610811 17-Apr-2012 20:53

I must say Compass seem to have some killer BB + Landline plans if one was needing a landline.

nVoID

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#610817 17-Apr-2012 20:56

lucky015: With such an insignificant difference in price in most cases I fail to see how replacing a Landline with VOIP actually outweighs the problems and annoyances associated with the type of technology.

Those annoyances and problems you speak of seem to be limited to an unfortunate select few.

mattwnz

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#610829 17-Apr-2012 21:25

nVoID: Like i said, if the net goes down, so does your phone so yeah, power is crucial. But i can't recall the last time there was a power cut where i live.

I mean we could get into all kinds of theoretical situations like when there's a poltergeist running amok and it's severed the?power line?outside and you cant call the?ghost-busters but in my years using this service i have never had an issue, a power cut or missed a phone call. Not that anyone under 50 uses a land-line anyway.

The odds of either power or the net going down is actually reasonably high where I live. I have regularly had the net going down at certain times. For a couple of weeks I have BB going down at around 11pm until I rebooted the modem in the morning, which I was told at the time was due to maintenance. Power going down is a lot less common. But I expect even with my best BB provider I would have at least 3-5 BB outages a years. While my actual phone line never goes down.
It is more the annoyance thing if you can't use you phone due to the BB being down, than anything.

XDee

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#610847 17-Apr-2012 21:58

nVoID: The Genius plan is great.
Essentially these new plans are winners.
Let me break it down for those who don't seem to get it.

Genius is a Naked DSL + VOIP Service ok.....
The idea is that you take the modem they provide. This modem is the BoB.
BoB is a generally state of the art VOIP Capable modem with wireless and storage capabilities also.
It is a pretty damn good modem.

There are two versions of BoB.

BoB Lite which does not come with a handset, rather you plug your own Phone into it and it runs over the Internal VOIP hardware of the modem.

The other, the Regular BoB, has a handset (its black and fairly sexy) included AS WELL AS the option to plug in your own Phone. Essentially giving you the option of TWO Phones (for any tards who're struggling, its like having two landlines, separate nubmers for each).

VOIP is the landline killer PROVIDED you don't have sh*tty phone lines.
VOIP is a cheaper phone service compared to a conventional landline in regards to call pricing and phone functions such as Caller ID, 3-way calling etc are generally provided for free.
The only downside to VOIP is that it relies on your connectivity.
If your Net goes down, your Phone goes with it.
Also if you have a Monitored alarm, then that's not gonna work....
BUT provided you have healthy wiring, you pay your bill and have a few knives and baseball bats stashed around the place as your Alarm System.
You will never lose your connection.

The Genius service and plans are flawless. The only reason you would have an issue with this service is because your sh*t sucks. Well, to be fair, its Telecom's fault because the wiring at your location is crap... be it old and degraded by time or because the nature of your house made it difficult for a quality wiring job to be done by the tech who visited the site.

So yeah thats pretty much the jist of it.

Here's what im getting.

For $99 i am going to get 200 Gigs of data per month and a Phone. (Voip)

That's the best deal available to date based on my research.
It's is a very good deal.

Yeah it all looks good on paper, unfortunately in Orcon's case it is not the equipment that people are unhappy with. It is the dodgy telephony backend and poor to nonexistent customer service that is the problem. I have Orcon at work and the most frustrating experience has been trying to get them to set the digital phone lines properly. Business support is no better than residential, same disgusting experience. As a backup line maybe it's ok, but I would never trust Orcon with my single landline.

nVoID

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Geek
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#610889 17-Apr-2012 23:36

Heh yeah Customer Service is a funny thing. Telecom seem to be pretty consistent in that department actually.
Still, Orcon is alot better than Slingshot ;P

But seriously though, Customer Service is always a gamble, it tends to be a matter of chance.
Due to expansion and turn-over, a good chunk of the Reps in call centres are new recruits, especiailly when you're just dealing with Billing/Sales. Chances are you're going to get through to someone who hasn't developed a complete understanding of the internal workings of the specific ISP and thus, gets it wrong or just general is a bit suck.

I feel people need to be careful with judgement when it comes to ISP choice as there are _alot_ of factors to consider when it comes to the experience you have with an ISP and more often than not you get people sh*tting on an ISP when their issue has nothing to do with/is beyond the control of the ISP.

I have been with most of the major ISP's over the years and in reality, the only difference between them is pricing plans. Their is a required industry standard expectation on equipment owned and operated by ISP's and so its not really ever a case of "My ISP is faster than yours". The limitation seems to rarely be a result of the ISP but rather the Customers circumstance. And thats pretty much the whole of it.

old3eyes

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#610975 18-Apr-2012 08:54

lchiu7:
old3eyes:
AKLWestie: I am glad that I moved to Telecom a few weeks ago. Yeah, new plans, higher data caps, but it is Genius only.

But not everyone wants Genius.

And I'm one of those people who don't want Genius. So if these plans are not passed on to the normal people who have been with them like me since Voyager folded then it may be off to Telecom..

I had their fone service once but never again..

I am guessing you hated Genius because of the VoIP service?

Nope. never had genius but a LLU Orcon land line several years ago. It was a dog so never an Orcon fone line again. There would be another revolt in the family if I even suggested it.. FWIW I have a Telecom analog line and home and a 2Talk VOIP line both work fine..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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Ultimate Geek
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#610978 18-Apr-2012 08:57

I think we're going to move to the Genius 200gb plan with the release of these new plans. It is a bit of a wait but oh well. We need a new modem anyway so I guess the Genius Lite should be fine as well.

Kyanar

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#610991 18-Apr-2012 09:15

nVoID:
The Genius service and plans are flawless. The only reason you would have an issue with this service is because your sh*t sucks. Well, to be fair, its Telecom's fault because the wiring at your location is crap... be it old and degraded by time or because the nature of your house made it difficult for a quality wiring job to be done by the tech who visited the site.

That's an out and out lie. I have an issue with it because Orcon phone lines have terrible voice quality (I have two lines - one wholesale and one LLU. Guess which one works and which one is patchy and unreliable?) Being in Massey, power cuts are more common than you think. And last but not least I would never, ever, consider taking a commitment with Orcon - I've gone literally weeks with no voice or phone service because it's crapped out yet again and Orcon hasn't bothered to follow up with Chorus on getting it sorted. I opened a ticket about my DSL speed issues three weeks ago - do you think I've even had a response since sending them my diagnostics? Hell no. You say "at least it's not as bad as Slingshot". I wouldn't be too sure.

Behodar

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#610993 18-Apr-2012 09:17

lucky015: As far as I know Telecom are the only company that will provide Home Phone services with another providers ADSL service on the same line, Which I believe they may only allow if the other provider is using their ADSL equipment too.

About a year ago I had TelstraClear voice with Xnet DSL. As far as I know that's still possible.

xpd

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#611006 18-Apr-2012 09:45

Kyanar:
nVoID:
The Genius service and plans are flawless. The only reason you would have an issue with this service is because your sh*t sucks. Well, to be fair, its Telecom's fault because the wiring at your location is crap... be it old and degraded by time or because the nature of your house made it difficult for a quality wiring job to be done by the tech who visited the site.

That's an out and out lie. I have an issue with it because Orcon phone lines have terrible voice quality (I have two lines - one wholesale and one LLU. Guess which one works and which one is patchy and unreliable?)

I wouldnt say it was a "lie", its their experience with the product.

Ive been on Genius from day 0, and only had one major issue with it which did take quite a while to resolve but didnt prevent me from using the service as such.

Voice quality has been brilliant and my connection speeds have been great. And Im in an area a lot of people consider "backwards" to a point :)

You had a bad run with them, I had bad run with Vodafone and Xnet, but I dont call users on Xnet and Vodafone promoting them as great ISP's as liars.

Anyway, instead of getting off topic, how about we steer it back to Orcons new plans... any further arguing over "my ISP is better" can be taken elsewhere thanks :)

XPD / Gavin

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WrEK

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#611613 19-Apr-2012 05:01

Kyanar: I mean, it's not like Genius uses different data or anything - it's the same damn internet. Orcon is seriously beginning to piss me off with how much they're putting the boot into customers that can't get the new shiny.

sbiddle:
edaw: Does Genius work on the wholesale plans or just Orcon +?

Orcon+ and any cabinet or exchange that' supports EUBA (which will be everywhere by the end of the year)

-- edited top quote to show the original poster --

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Kyanar

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#611711 19-Apr-2012 10:36

xpd:I wouldnt say it was a "lie", its their experience with the product.

Ive been on Genius from day 0, and only had one major issue with it which did take quite a while to resolve but didnt prevent me from using the service as such.

Voice quality has been brilliant and my connection speeds have been great. And Im in an area a lot of people consider "backwards" to a point :)

You had a bad run with them, I had bad run with Vodafone and Xnet, but I dont call users on Xnet and Vodafone promoting them as great ISP's as liars.

Anyway, instead of getting off topic, how about we steer it back to Orcons new plans... any further arguing over "my ISP is better" can be taken elsewhere thanks :)

I was referring to that user's claim that Genius is flawless and that any problems with it are due to your equipment, and that there is zero possibility that the ISP is at fault. I think it's quite fair to call that a lie - describing your experience is fine, but that person was claiming that anyone who had bad experiences with Orcon due to circumstances under Orcon's control was a liar.

WrEK:
Kyanar: I mean, it's not like Genius uses different data or anything - it's the same damn internet. Orcon is seriously beginning to piss me off with how much they're putting the boot into customers that can't get the new shiny.

sbiddle:
edaw: Does Genius work on the wholesale plans or just Orcon +?

Orcon+ and any cabinet or exchange that' supports EUBA (which will be everywhere by the end of the year)

-- edited top quote to show the original poster --

While true, it's still the same data - it goes over the same pipes. Unless of course Chorus is charging them per GB transferred, but I don't see how that's the case - surely they're being charged for the CIR just like with Wholesale, in which case Orcon is more than capable of charging the same price for all involved.

garvani

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#611899 19-Apr-2012 14:02

Ive searched and can't find the answer. These new plans should be available on Fibre im assuming? The press release mentions the genius is fibre ready but dosn't explicitly say that the plans include fibre. One would assume that it would but if so Orcon need to update the fibre plans to reflect this.
I can't get Orcon genius here in Blenheim due to Orcon not having any equipment in the exchange. Will the UFB deployment (which has started on my street and due to be completed by the end of this month) change the ability to get genius or do Orcon still need to put their equipment into the exchange? Im looking forward to signing up for some flavour of fibre come July and these plans look ideal.

Snackos

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#613238 22-Apr-2012 17:29

Sounds awesome for me. Currently I pay $105 for 60 gigs, but on the new plan I get 200gigs for $99.

I presume orcon auto-changes us to the new plans, or do we need to contact them and do it ourselves?

bameron

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#613459 23-Apr-2012 08:31

garvani: Ive searched and can't find the answer. These new plans should be available on Fibre im assuming? The press release mentions the genius is fibre ready but dosn't explicitly say that the plans include fibre. One would assume that it would but if so Orcon need to update the fibre plans to reflect this.
I can't get Orcon genius here in Blenheim due to Orcon not having any equipment in the exchange. Will the UFB deployment (which has started on my street and due to be completed by the end of this month) change the ability to get genius or do Orcon still need to put their equipment into the exchange? Im looking forward to signing up for some flavour of fibre come July and these plans look ideal.

At the moment these plans are for Genius only however our fibre plans are going to be reviewed shortly, however there is no ETA on this.

Snackos: Sounds awesome for me. Currently I pay $105 for 60 gigs, but on the new plan I get 200gigs for $99.

I presume orcon auto-changes us to the new plans, or do we need to contact them and do it ourselves?

You will need to contact the Helpdesk on 0800 13 14 15 or via our website here: https://www.orcon.net.nz/support/request

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