My Republic; the honeymoon is over already!

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › My Republic; the honeymoon is over already!

ITStuff

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#224310 12-Nov-2017 15:16

Well after my fantastic transition to My Rebublic ( Topic # 222442 10-Aug-2017 09:32) I made a commitment to them that i would direct all new fibre business their way.

They in turn committed to provide me with a small finders fee.

So along comes my very first customer for them; a transition from ADSL and two phonelines to MRs 1Gig plan. My Client was going to be over the moon!

My first condition was that we were to transition the phones AFTER fibre was provisioned because my customer has a PABX driving 16 extensions and I did not want any risk of losing that during theswitchover.

The fibre provisioning was reasonably painless but that was primarily because I was the one managing North Power's activities rather than My Republic - but we got a good result.

The problems came when I asked what we need to do to bring over the phone lines.

Suddenly My Republic put their Teflon ISP hat on and in a nutshell deny that I clearly asked for the phone lines to be brought over. This is despite the fact that the "Customer Support Specialist"

a) confirmed the note I insisted be on record about the pabx was indeed on record

b) the guy who sold be the service was "just a salesman" (not great team support!)

I am given the option to continue paying another provider for the copper services whilst paying My Republic for the fibre service I signed my client up for. As you can imagine that combined cost is significantly more that the original ADS plan.

I have offered to take the business elswhere, no questions asked but no...

I am now told that

a) there is no record of me actually stating clearly that I wanted the phone lines migrating across (depite the note about the pabx).

b) If I choose to cancel my plan then there will be a contract break fee to be paid.

Despite all my efforts to negotiate an amicable departure My Republic are insisting on taking this to the line so my next step wll be a discussion with the commervce commission to see where I stand.

Come on My Republic - there is the letter of the law and the spirit of providing good customer service - you could have kept my business AND future business but for the sake of a break fee you want to lose both.

My message to those considering My Republic as an ISP is - watch this space and seewhere we end up - this could be you!

btw here's the speedtest for my customer after fibre was installed;

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#1899667 12-Nov-2017 16:29

How did you plan on hooking the PBX up?

ITStuff

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#1899672 12-Nov-2017 16:36

Hi There - I'm no telephony expert but had discussed with them that they provision the phone lines and we hook up from either their router or the phone out from the ONT to the PABX in lines.

I later learned that this would require that I have MR enable Clear Forward Answer Reversal (my advisor laid money that they would not know what this was - just as well I didnt put money on it!).

So when I discussed this with MR they went away to find out how this was done and then came back to say they couldnt.

Thats when the fun started.

richms

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#1899673 12-Nov-2017 16:38

This is why I record all my phone calls when dealing with businesses. So many BS like this claiming that things were never said that were.

Richard rich.ms

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#1899676 12-Nov-2017 16:45

They claim to have gone through all phone records but found no direct reference to the intent of transferring the phones. Shame I didnt have my own. We live and learn!

A direct copy and paste from their reply: "If you do have proof that we confirmed that the PBAX system could be transferred before you got connected please let us know with the reliant [sic] detail which this was agreed. "

Good business practice and customer service would lead to the conclusion the jointly we attempted something that wasnt possible so lets shake hands and go our separate ways.. but no.

I've already told my customer I will refund any costs incurred if we cant get this working.

sbiddle

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#1899682 12-Nov-2017 17:31

What pricing did you discuss about the voice services? Running two lines is an additional cost for to the LFC for the 2nd voice port for a start.

I'm not defending MR in any way here but based on your comment about not being a telephone person it seems you may have also sold a product without really understanding how it can all fit together. Running a PBX off an ONT is not a good idea - there isn't working clear forward reversal that I'm aware of on Chorus (I'm unsure if any other LFC's have it if you're not in a Chorus area) and unless MR have a way to do call stepping then you're not going to be able to step calls to the 2nd line.

Without clear forward reversal to reverse the voltage most old legacy PBX's won't register a disconnect. In all seriousness I wouldn't recommend anybody start trying to integrate legacy PBX's with VoIP setups unless you really understand what you're doing.

ITStuff

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#1899685 12-Nov-2017 17:45

I dont think the price is relevant in this case.

From the start I explained:

1. current state (2 x copper lines coming into a pabx, 16 extensions, old business now used as home etc, 1 x adsl)

2. desired future state (transition to fibre, then transition to 2 phone numbers through MR using existing pabx. Indeed one of their tech support guys told me they can provision phone lines straight from the ONT. That surprised me but I am sure they will find no recod of that either.

Rather than acknowledging that in hindsight the requeste config would not work, they have instead denied knowlede of the requirements (which they previously clearly stated has been documented at my request).

I have no problem vendors making mistakes - we all do at some time - My issue here is that there is total lack of acknowledgement of problem and then blaming me for not telling them and then when I suggest I'll go to a different provider who can do this, they tell me there is a break fee.

I gave these guys a rave review for the work they did for a simple transition from one ISP to them - so recognition where it's due. But when one cocks up or takes on a sale that cant be met, just admit it and move on.

xlinknz

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#1899703 12-Nov-2017 18:32

I left MR last Wed and had being a customer for 3 years

I was disappointed that despite being a customer so long they wanted me to sign another 12 months to get 100/20 unlimited for $75, they could have kept me if they simply said being a loyal customer we are happy to provide that price without the new contract. The secondary reason for leaving is I gave up waiting for IPv6.

That said I suspect you're find many ISP's exhibit similar behaviours. Keeping loyal customers doesn't yet seem to feature in the highly competitive ISP market...

I note MR were warned [along with Spark, VFNZ and 2D] by the Commerce Commission which you can read about here

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.

mattwnz

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#1899742 12-Nov-2017 19:17

richms:

This is why I record all my phone calls when dealing with businesses. So many BS like this claiming that things were never said that were.

Quite difficult though to do this, especially if using an iphone. Far easier if having a physical meeting.

chevrolux

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#1899752 12-Nov-2017 19:32

Price is very important. There are costs to make each single port on the ONT live. To expect a bottom dollar ISP to do that without a different pricing structure isn't smart.
There is also a very good reason there a proper business focused ISPs. Frankly, I would say it would be irresponsible to drive business customers to them.
MyReplubic have had very questionable marketting and average processes from the start.
You've made a mistake sending business their way. Learn about it and move on.

sbiddle

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#1899754 12-Nov-2017 19:51

ITStuff:

I dont think the price is relevant in this case.

From the start I explained:

1. current state (2 x copper lines coming into a pabx, 16 extensions, old business now used as home etc, 1 x adsl)

2. desired future state (transition to fibre, then transition to 2 phone numbers through MR using existing pabx. Indeed one of their tech support guys told me they can provision phone lines straight from the ONT. That surprised me but I am sure they will find no recod of that either.

Price is very important here - surely you discussed what the price would be for 2 x voice lines for a connection? As I mentioned above additional voice ports on an ONT cost the RSP an additional fee. Using 2 x voice ports on an ONT is a non standard setup.

As I also discussed how you were planning to manage the VoIP solution is also important. Without the ability to provide a call stepper solution then just having two phone lines going into the PBX won't replicate 99% of setups. Did you discuss any of this before planning the move?

At the end of the day there are plenty of business focussed RSP's that deal with these very issues on a daily basis and have solutions that work.

While clearly you have had a bad experience with them, as I explained above I think you've got to take some accountability for it as well. At the end of the day mistakes happen and we all make them, but sometimes you just need to move on.

ITStuff

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#1900114 13-Nov-2017 11:26

I have to disagree with both who have said price is important.

In the context of me approaching a vendor with a set of requirements, the vendor agreeing to proceed and when they discover they cannot fulfill the want to charge me a break for exiting from the agreement.

How much they planned to charge for the service is not relevant to the point of my post and that being that MR entered into an agreement for services they are not able to provide.

I have no issue with the fact that they cannot provide the services and I would be happy to just move on; I only have an issue with the fact that they want to charge a break fee.

So how far do I have to go to validate a vendors claim to be able to provide a service? I provided all the relevant details, current state and future state - the vendor agreed to provide what was required.

In the same way that my customers trust me to deliver what I say I will, I assumed My Republic would do likewise; in the same way that I trust my mechanic to fix my car brakes. I can't have zero faith in all providers, I'm clearly not that smart :-)

And on the final point, yes I have found a local business who specialises in integrating VoiP and legacy PABX.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing :-)

ITStuff

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#1900117 13-Nov-2017 11:30

Yes, xlinknz - I saw those items after I started digging deeper.

I saw a number of negative posts about MR when I was first looking at them but went on the assumption that mostly people only post negative stuff and there werent that many really.

sbiddle

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#1900130 13-Nov-2017 12:00

ITStuff:

I have to disagree with both who have said price is important.

In the context of me approaching a vendor with a set of requirements, the vendor agreeing to proceed and when they discover they cannot fulfill the want to charge me a break for exiting from the agreement.

How much they planned to charge for the service is not relevant to the point of my post and that being that MR entered into an agreement for services they are not able to provide.

To me the price is the critical component here - surely you must have discussed the price of a service before entering into an agreement for the service? Or did you just move broadband and then decide you'd discuss the price later for a combined package?

If you'd discussed this then surely you'd have a record of what you were actually after - and have a discussion point for breaking if MR can't provide the service you wanted.

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#1900134 13-Nov-2017 12:03

You mention NorthPower so I assume you are in Whangarei?

Why not support a local company for the fibre?

Uber Group are great and we have no issues with them, their pricing is very reasonable, and the local support is excellent.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

xlinknz

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#1900169 13-Nov-2017 12:33

ITStuff:

Yes, xlinknz - I saw those items after I started digging deeper.

I saw a number of negative posts about MR when I was first looking at them but went on the assumption that mostly people only post negative stuff and there werent that many really.

My experience with MR whilst I was with them had been good. In particular I found their tech support and service desk very good

Yes if ones looks there will be negative comments about every ISP. Case in point within 2 working days of being with my new ISP I had a post sales commerical query which they disappointed me on !

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