Should I move to Orcon

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Should I move to Orcon

stenknz

103 posts

Master Geek

#25394 20-Aug-2008 11:57

Apparently Orcon brings me the next generation Internet access.

I have a few questions. I am with Telecom at the moment and I have been thinking of moving my services to Orcon.

For a start I haven't had any issues with my Telecom broadband what so ever. Speeds are fine for what I require. Online gaming is OK, PING could be better but what should I expect here in good ole NZ

I'm glad I logged on to this forum for a bit of research. Seems Orcon are having some major issues with their delivery of their next generation Internet access.

Can you tell me what their service is like?

Should I bother to make the move. I would be saving some cash, but not sure if it is worth the hassle.

What is their Service Desk like? Do they seem educated and interested in resolving your issues?

If I have issues in the weekend will they strive to resolve them or tell me to wait until Monday?

The thing with Telecom is I didn't have to call their Service desk a lot.

Now what are the speeds like. I'm quite far away from my exchange, around 4km I believe so should I expect a speed increase?

International Traffic seems to be a thorn in Orcons side has this been addressed?

And I guess the most important question are you happy with the service YOU are paying for? Is it value for money?

You see with Telecom I don't really mind spending a few extra dollars for a Problem free service.

Thanks for your time!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

112 posts

Master Geek

#158376 20-Aug-2008 15:35

For the most part I am happy with Orcon and have no wish to change ISP. Yes there are issues with international performace at the moment but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. But in your case, is there any compelling reason for you to change? If it ain't broke, why fix it? FWIW I think you answered your own question in your original post.

stenknz

103 posts

Master Geek

#158383 20-Aug-2008 15:51

motogpnz: For the most part I am happy with Orcon and have no wish to change ISP. Yes there are issues with international performace at the moment but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. But in your case, is there any compelling reason for you to change? If it ain't broke, why fix it? FWIW I think you answered your own question in your original post.

Thanks motogpnz

I guess this is why it is better to do a bit of research on your own, but with all that said it is always good to hear from the company's core clients YOU!

In regards to my reasons for making a move, well saving money is always a plus and I could potentially save 20-30$ per month..But again it's good to hear from the likes of yourself as I have no idea how Orcon treats its customers hence me asking the questions.

Also you get "a homeline with calling around NZ and to a country of your choice" which for me would be fantastic

Also I do not consider myself an expert in Broadband technology so also good to hear from users that moved to this 'next gen' service and whether I will likely see any benefit from it.

Again I believe it is always good to ask these questions, what I am after is a quality hassle free service. I have had that with Telecom, but again if I can make a savings and the service is the same or better I could be swayed to make a change.

motogpnz

112 posts

Master Geek

#158398 20-Aug-2008 16:36

We still have plain ol' cookin' ADSL here until around April '09 so can't really comment on "next gen", but no doubt you will have looked through the other threads.

My ADSL sync is 6.3Mbps down/136k up and I'm getting about 4M national and between 2M & 4M international on speedtest.net right now.

If you do go to Orcon I think you'll be fine - I switched more than 3 years ago and the current international problem is the first issue I have had in that time.

reve4rekcah

17 posts

Geek

#160983 31-Aug-2008 08:40

I assure you that you would 100% regret it if you change to orcon from my experience as i have just changed about 2 months ago. The only thing i can say is that it bloody sucks for me.

nexttothemoon

35 posts

Geek

#163207 9-Sep-2008 01:08

I think it all depends on what you do with BB and how much you are paying now.

I've been with Orcon for almost a year now. In that time I've had relatively few hiccups with the service. We got in on the Free Homeline+ Unlimited National Calls + 20 GB 128kbUp/FSDown plan for ~$82 and it was excellent value. As far as an overall package this was excellent bang for the buck.

That special plan is expiring though and they are pushing me up to ~$129 for an equivalent package (I'm not in their Unbundled zone and won't be in the forseeable future...(South Island Nelson rural region) so for me they just don't have the same bang for the buck anymore.

Their service is fairly solid if you aren't wanting to download 100 GB of torrents a month or gaming heavily on international servers. If you are a more moderate user of 20-30 GB of regular surfing/YouTube/Email per month and just a light torrenter then they are good value. They have no contracts and they have an unlimited National calling plan so all in all they still have a decent package.

With Orcon I can stream Youtube pretty consistently around the clock... 90% of the time I'd say and streaming Youtube vids is generally a good practical test of international speed.

All in all... give them a try and if they perform worse than Xtra dump them. Xnet and Orcon are the easiest to trial as they have no 12 month terms to tie you up. They both deserve credit for that alone.

Slingshot is my other choice and if it weren't for their 12 month mandatory contract I'd definitely recommend giving them a try but with the huge piles of free data they are throwing around to attract more new customers they look like a disaster waiting to happen once those new customers all try using that free data at the same peak times over the coming months. I wouldn't want to be locked into a contract with them while their BB speeds potentially go down the crapper and then have to pay a penalty to "escape"... at least with Orcon and Xnet you can leave anytime you want.

motogpnz

112 posts

Master Geek

#163252 9-Sep-2008 10:46

nexttothemoon:
Slingshot is my other choice ... I wouldn't want to be locked into a contract with them while their BB speeds potentially go down the crapper and then have to pay a penalty to "escape"... at least with Orcon and Xnet you can leave anytime you want.

Been there done that 3 years ago. This was pre-youtube but trying to watch a 250kbps live stream with Slingshot meant getting a slide show maybe with audio when it was fine with Xtra. (The only reason I left Xtra then was the hard data cap and absurd per Mb charge to get out of it.) Some friends had Orcon and also subscribed to the same video feed and had no problems so I switched as well. Have had no problems until May but all is well again now after logging a ticket and a few emails back and forth. I didn't really want to go through the hassle of changing ISP again so they got to keep me for the time being.

Regarding Slingshot, I simply rang them at the time and mentioned the words "Consumer Guarantees Act" and "fit for purpose" and they let me go without any penalty.

2MEKEE

33 posts

Geek

#164828 16-Sep-2008 15:10

my advice is to cheek out to orcon international preformace thread,that will give you an idea of orcons preformance.

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

jackyleunght2002

392 posts

Ultimate Geek

#164853 16-Sep-2008 16:05

Hi

I think Orcon is a great services after 2 days of usage...

but just need to watch out when transferring network - network....

make sure that they get everything done correctly! otherwise you will be like me, stuck with no internet and no phone line for 3 days!!

Thanks
Jacky

pistolpower

139 posts

Master Geek

#164894 16-Sep-2008 18:36

Guys im just wondering how, how could you be saying you like orcon so much? I am refering mainly to the huge thread below this that is complaining about international speed isues. But it is not that, that really bothers me. It is how orcon had that problem a while ago, then finally claiming that they brought more pipe bandwidth. They said that the problem was solved. But they increased there monthly fees that where allready not a good selling point and justafied this by saying that they had to purchase more pipe bandwidth. But this pipe bandwidth was allready being paid for by custermers in there old price plan. But really if people are paying per GB used then i dont know why they increase the base fee when they should have increased price per GB. And if paying per GB then how can they not have enough money to increase there bandwidth. But i think theyre having speed isues again. Idk... im with xnet. But awhile ago I had thought It might be worth swapping to orcon. After seeing that they lacked a decent voip network ( having features above basic ) and there voip fees I decided against it. But now having seen all of this im glad i didn't join orcon.

I mean comeon. If you pay per GB for data transfered over your internet connection. And if that internet connection costs like $110 and comes with only 1 voip line and no options for aditional lines. And if there voip calling fees are outragous. Then why should the internet go slow? Maybe im missing something? Maybe im not? Doesnt this seem like a bit of cash to pay? But maybe where not paying enough? Does that look like a cheap connection? I think not, so why are they doing this? Are they trying to alienate there custurmors?

Anyways if i where to go to orcon i would want there adsl2+ silver plan i think. It would cost something like:
Monthly adsl2+ silver conection:$110
One 100GB data block:$60
+ i would want a total of 2 voip phone lines. (This they dont have)
+ i would want it to go fast considering what im paying.

yet for $170 per month they cant even offer the few services they have at the moment.. Looks disapointing. So my reply to you would be no. If you want good custermor service i advise you against orcon. I allso advise you against telecom. :D bye.

manhinli

2483 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#164910 16-Sep-2008 19:26

Orcon don't provide VoIP services - all phoneline services within Orcon's packs are fixed line phone services.

Find me on Twitter!

I posted 1, 2 x 10^3 times!

duncanblair

248 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#165100 17-Sep-2008 15:15

pistolpower: Guys im just wondering how, how could you be saying you like orcon so much? I am refering mainly to the huge thread below this that is complaining about international speed isues. But it is not that, that really bothers me. It is how orcon had that problem a while ago, then finally claiming that they brought more pipe bandwidth. They said that the problem was solved. But they increased there monthly fees that where allready not a good selling point and justafied this by saying that they had to purchase more pipe bandwidth. But this pipe bandwidth was allready being paid for by custermers in there old price plan. But really if people are paying per GB used then i dont know why they increase the base fee when they should have increased price per GB. And if paying per GB then how can they not have enough money to increase there bandwidth. But i think theyre having speed isues again. Idk... im with xnet. But awhile ago I had thought It might be worth swapping to orcon. After seeing that they lacked a decent voip network ( having features above basic ) and there voip fees I decided against it. But now having seen all of this im glad i didn't join orcon.

I mean comeon. If you pay per GB for data transfered over your internet connection. And if that internet connection costs like $110 and comes with only 1 voip line and no options for aditional lines. And if there voip calling fees are outragous. Then why should the internet go slow? Maybe im missing something? Maybe im not? Doesnt this seem like a bit of cash to pay? But maybe where not paying enough? Does that look like a cheap connection? I think not, so why are they doing this? Are they trying to alienate there custurmors?

Anyways if i where to go to orcon i would want there adsl2+ silver plan i think. It would cost something like:
Monthly adsl2+ silver conection:$110
One 100GB data block:$60
+ i would want a total of 2 voip phone lines. (This they dont have)
+ i would want it to go fast considering what im paying.

yet for $170 per month they cant even offer the few services they have at the moment.. Looks disapointing. So my reply to you would be no. If you want good custermor service i advise you against orcon. I allso advise you against telecom. :D bye.

Hi pistolpower,

There are quite a few points in there, and some of your information seems slightly incorrect, so I will try and set the record straight and hopefully answer some of your questions.

Firstly, we currently do not offer full VoIP lines, so I am not sure what your points about our VoIP calling rates are about.

Secondly, the cost of our Orcon@Home Silver+ plan is $79.95, not $110.

I am not quite sure what the other questions relate to. If you read the international bandwidth thread that you are referring to you will see that is a mixture of both positive and negative feedback, with the feedback recently being much more positive.

If you do have other questions please post them up and I will be happy to answer them.

pistolpower

139 posts

Master Geek

#165190 17-Sep-2008 21:23

Sorry maybe i was a bit rash... but...

I have a sugestion to make to orcon. I sugest that orcon should make a plan to get full voip services and put that plan on there website so that everyone will see that theyre doing something. I sugest you tell us when it will come. I say this because untill i see information stating otherwise, it looks to me that orcons not gona get voip suport for a very long time.

And i do not like seeing people ranting about there speed. I mean if someone is paying for data per GB downloaded and they have a good synch rate then why are they going slow. Now i dont know if this is the case but there seems to be a huge flameing thread in the orcon forums that doesnt look very friendly. But mainly i just see a lack of suport from orcon and i recently thought orcon looked good. But with so many complaints i can't ignorethe posibility that im wrong. So now i don't like orcon. It reflects poorly on orcon to have unsatisfied custurmors. I sugest they do something to improve the situation before it gets bad. And unfortunatly im left thinking that orcons just gona grow into another large money hungry evil isp like telecome who i dislike. Seriously that isnt the rep a buisness should want. :(

Oh and dude theres a rant about your speed isues that is 2 days old and has like 52pages. I sugest that you talk to them and or make your own thread promising something done that will make everyone happy without price increases. Or atleast admit that you can't do anything. Anyways saying the truth will help. Even if you just say that we cant do anything then at least people will feel like, you know hey at least they just told me. Like people will think that it was much better that they didnt have to wait arround to they gave up then rage quited your broadband service. Well maybe not but its better than them ragequiting and hating you. But its up to orcon. 52 pages in 2 days is pretty nice, and you cant ignore problems that big.

manhinli

2483 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#165207 17-Sep-2008 22:13

pistolpower: Oh and dude theres a rant about your speed isues that is 2 days old and has like 52pages.

"Orcon international performance": Page 1.

Topic # 22105 posted on 16-MAY-2008 21:05

... maybe a bit more than 2 days

Find me on Twitter!

I posted 1, 2 x 10^3 times!

nexttothemoon

35 posts

Geek

#165212 17-Sep-2008 22:20

Regardless... the thread has almost 800 replies and over 42000 views... pretty impressive . :) I'm a current customer of Orcon and don't really have a problem with their speed in general(maybe I'm lucky)... but if I were a new customer looking for an ISP... that thread would certainly get my attention and would make me think twice about trying them.

The fact that they have no contract terms though makes them a reasonably safe ISP to try... if they are crap, bail and move on.

manhinli

2483 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#165217 17-Sep-2008 22:26

nexttothemoon: The fact that they have no contract terms though makes them a reasonably safe ISP to try... if they are crap, bail and move on.

Pretty much a great thing from such a large ISP.

Could / Is Orcon be experiencing a high customer turnover though?

Find me on Twitter!

I posted 1, 2 x 10^3 times!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4