TL; DR: I am moving house in a week. Finally after 5 months of communication problems with Slingshot and Chorus I have fibre installed which I anticipated to have months ago. I have just received a bill on the 24th extending beyond my last day of the 4th of August, which Slingshot are aware of, to the 23rd, and a termination fee of $199 sitting on my account! Feeling absolutely frustrated.

Here is my story:

I ordered a fibre connection through slingshot in February. That seemed to be all smooth sailing and then I seemed to hear from no one for six weeks. I rang up Slingshot and no progress had been made, but they would follow up with Chorus. At the fortnightly phone call Slingshot would ring me to notify the status they would continually say they had nothing to report or nothing had been action. Finally in early April I am emailed by Chorus and asked for consent as I live in a multi-apartment dwelling. I give them the body corporate details so that they can obtain consent from the building manager.

Three-four weeks later I’m talking to the building manager and she hasn’t received any correspondence from Chorus. The next time Slingshot ring they state that they’re still waiting on the Body Corporate to provide consent to Chorus, at which I detail that they haven’t been contacted. Slingshot follows up with Chorus.

A couple of weeks later in May I’m finally contacted by the design team who then come out and do the detailed design of the install. That happens fine. Many weeks later in June I’ve still heard nothing much since then, then abruptly without contacting me Chorus turn up at my house, cut a hole in the driveway and then install the ONT on the side of the house. This made me very annoyed as no arrangements were made nor was I was consulted. They then tell me I have to stay home the next day as they need to access the inside of house. Since the install has taken so long so far I feel I have no option but to. The guys then wire up into the house and disappear and leave equipment with me, saying there will be coming tomorrow to finish the job. He never shows up. Nor does he the next day. Status updates from Slingshot continue to state that Chorus are in the install phase, and I was pretty much waiting for them to contact me again.

It is now July, and I was thinking that the benefits of having fibre have dwindled with the time it has taken to install. Circumstances arise where I have to move house and I ring Slingshot’s UFB team to ask for the install status to be sped up as I need it to be done before I move out at the end of the Month. They say they’ll follow up with Chorus and I get a confirmation call the next day confirming install for the 21st of July. Funny that.

I call Slingshot’s accounts team a couple of days later to inform them that I’ll be terminating my Internet. They inform me I am not under any contracts and that there will be no termination charges. A couple of days later a modem turns up for UFB… Chorus finish installing everything on the 21st, and even turn up early. I ask the technician if the ADSL will still work he says it should do for a little while which is all I need. I let them fiddle around and plug everything in as it is all new to me.

Today is the 24th and I get an invoice from Slingshot not long after my other one with a change to the UFB plan and bill which extends to the 24th of August. My internet with them ends on the 4th. Puzzled, I log into the account section on the Slingshot website to find I have a termination fee for UFB for $199 set for the 4th.

I’m now finding it entirely unreasonable that I should have to pay this terminate charge, given that there have been numerous communication issues on part of Slingshot and Chorus. I’m not sure what to do! Is there a possibility of getting this waived you think?