It was exciting to read on Orcon's website that 'Our pencils are always sharp',  suggesting that Orcon is progressive and innovative, but a few phone calls later and their pencils are looking decidely blunt.    Since customer service has been outsourced to the Philippines, the reps seem able to read only from the script, anything not written in the blurb sheet can not possibly be discussed.   One of the customer service reps showed her lack of basic geographic knowledge when she assured me she was unable to connect my call to head office in Auckland, but if I'd wait she'd be happy to connect me to Northcote! 

The purpose of my call to Orcon's customer service was to request a modification to my current 30 GB ADSL Genius account.  My request was for a simple upgrade to VDSL.    It's plain stupid to pay for 80 GB data when we're using less than 10 GB used each month.  Why shouldn't one be able to have a significantly lower traffic cap at a significantly lower price while benefiting from technology we've had to wait so long for in NZ?   After all we're not all gamers, film-watchers and Facebook addicts. 

But no, such a challenging request is not going to see the light of day it seems.    The reason was not easily forthcoming.  After repeatedly failing to elicit any valid reason for such inflexibility, I suggested a couple of logical explanations and it was eventually agreed that probably it is the narrow-minded billing software that won't allow anything other than the couple of VDSL plans to be offered.   So the question arises:   why does Orcon not use the much-vaunted 'sharp pencils' to write software and a customer service script which will provide more flexibility for the consumer, instead of persisting with the corporate self-righteousness that has become so evident in many industries today?