Wow Orcon - Terrible customer service

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Wow Orcon - Terrible customer service

gibben

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#189621 6-Jan-2016 16:51

Long time no post, however I just have to say something about the appalling customer service from Orcon.

So here goes ....
I receive an SMS on the 05/01/16.
"Your Orcon services will be blocked tomorrow due to non-payment of your Orcon account. Please call us on 0800 13 14 15 to make payment. regards, Orcon"

So I try the 0800 13 14 15 number ... your call can't be connected (it appears that number is down).
I try their other 0800 ..... go in the queue gave up after 45min ..... I try 4 more times, check their Facebook, it appears there are a number of other customers experiencing the same pain but Orcon won't be monitoring their Facebook until the 11th of Jan.

It turns out that Westpac had a debit card issue yesterday (well publicised)

How does Orcon handle this? Today they cut my phone and internet services. I finally manage to get through today, their response is:
"Yes, you have been cut off for non-payment. Are you a Westpac customer? (so obviously they were aware of it) because there was an issue with them yesterday"

So rather than think, Oh there has been an issue with Westpac so we will re-try tomorrow, no, they choose to cut my services and treat me like a dead beat customer. But hey, they were pretty quick to debit their $99 for 30 days notice of cancellation.

In short, I am now an ex Orcon customer on the lookout for a new ISP.

richms

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#1462518 6-Jan-2016 17:49

1 day from a failed CC to cutting you off? What BS is that?

Even bigpipe who appear to have absolutly no billing system retry the card many times when it fails. To not do that is IMO unacceptable.

But then again, orcon will send you to collections when they are too incompitant to correctly load a direct debit and not bother telling you that you owe them money so it doesnt suprise me. They are still well up my s***tlist of companies.

Richard rich.ms

JWR

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#1462556 6-Jan-2016 18:42

WestPac's card system down again!

I have been caught out twice with that lately.

It isn't very funny getting to the front of a queue at the gas station or supermarket and then having your EFTPOS card declined.

Get home, call them up.. informed system down.. try again in a few minutes... no apology.

At least they could return a proper error if their system is down. Instead they just decline the purchase. That makes it look my fault!

freitasm

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#1462594 6-Jan-2016 19:37

gibben: But hey, they were pretty quick to debit their $99 for 30 days notice of cancellation.

In short, I am now an ex Orcon customer on the lookout for a new ISP.

Sorry but you might have shot yourself in the foot.

By sending a cancellation notice Orcon can rightfully ask Chorus (or whatever network you are on) to disconnect you on the end of the notice. And if you find another provider the new ISP can not put a request for connection until after the current disconnection is completed. Which means you might be without Internet for a while - or even back at end of queue if by chance your area is full.

One must always first sign up with an ISP, then AFTER the transfer is done contact the previous one and cancel. If the old ISP charges 30 day notice, well, you will have to eat it.

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richms

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#1462604 6-Jan-2016 19:57

JWR:
WestPac's card system down again!

I have been caught out twice with that lately.

It isn't very funny getting to the front of a queue at the gas station or supermarket and then having your EFTPOS card declined.

Get home, call them up.. informed system down.. try again in a few minutes... no apology.

At least they could return a proper error if their system is down. Instead they just decline the purchase. That makes it look my fault!

That is why I have a backup bank which is actually the same bank that I have the company accounts with, just another account in my own name which I have a small amount of money in. Only needed it once and that was a place with a defective eftpos terminal that was only wanting to swipe and none of my ASB cards had functioning mag stripes. But really access to my money is too important to have a single point of failure on so I think everyone should have a second bank if they do not carry a decent sum of cash on them.

Still doesnt excuse the crapness of orcon for this. If you were away and there were people at home counting on the internet and phone to work then a days warning before cut off is totally BS.

Richard rich.ms

gibben

46 posts

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#1464821 7-Jan-2016 07:55

freitasm:
gibben: But hey, they were pretty quick to debit their $99 for 30 days notice of cancellation.

In short, I am now an ex Orcon customer on the lookout for a new ISP.

Sorry but you might have shot yourself in the foot.

By sending a cancellation notice Orcon can rightfully ask Chorus (or whatever network you are on) to disconnect you on the end of the notice. And if you find another provider the new ISP can not put a request for connection until after the current disconnection is completed. Which means you might be without Internet for a while - or even back at end of queue if by chance your area is full.

One must always first sign up with an ISP, then AFTER the transfer is done contact the previous one and cancel. If the old ISP charges 30 day notice, well, you will have to eat it.

Handy to know, nothing would surprise me with the way Orcon have been acting of late.

It seems a very typical cycle of NZ companies. When they are small and trying to build business they go all out to provide great service, then they get big and it all seems to go down hill from there.

freitasm

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#1464826 7-Jan-2016 08:03

The process I described is how Chorus put to ISPs. It would not be different with other ISPs.

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richms

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#1465265 7-Jan-2016 16:36

gibben:
Handy to know, nothing would surprise me with the way Orcon have been acting of late.

It seems a very typical cycle of NZ companies. When they are small and trying to build business they go all out to provide great service, then they get big and it all seems to go down hill from there.

That is because you have been unlucky typically and hit the hiring errors they have made. When a place is big they start to get totally unsuitable people applying for customer service and technical roles, and sometimes they bluff their way thru the process. These people never move on by themselves, and getting rid of them is impossible. The growth of the company sees people that are good moving up and the chaff left behind on the helpdesk. Or the good ones leave to start their own thing or move to another position at a different place.

Behind all this there is some poor staff member trying to get these useless people into some sense of order.

Someone I know in a similar industry says the reason they love the offshore helpdesks is they can get rid of them when they are useless, something they cant do with staff in their inhouse one.

Richard rich.ms

jhsol

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#1465754 8-Jan-2016 11:47

I moved from Orcon to MyRepublic in Sept 2015 after a support dispute (where my internet functioned at 35/15 for over 2 months). Best decision Ive made so far. My speeds increased from 85/15 (Orcon finally fixed the issue in August 2015) to 105/19 (on the 100/20 plan with MyRepublic) and the transition process was seamless (unplug orcon modem and plug in myrepublic modem).

Orcon used to be the best anti Spark/Vodafone company but not any more.