A neighbour's DSL connection with Slingshot and phone service faulty for two months

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › A neighbour's DSL connection with Slingshot and phone service faulty for two months

rhy7s

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#323140 30-Oct-2025 10:03

One of my elderly neighbours is still on copper with Slingshot but their phone service has been down for a couple of months and their internet connection is only working sometimes (at about 0.5-1.5Mbps if it's up). I hopped onto the email thread he had started with support and a case was raised on the 10th of this month in which it was said their technical team would take a closer look, and this process usually takes 5–7 working days. It's a bit beyond that now. Does he have any recourse in terms of not being able to rely on the service he is paying for? It would be good to know if he needs to look elsewhere.

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#3429235 30-Oct-2025 10:49

Is there a job logged with Chorus?

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#3429244 30-Oct-2025 11:13

@rhy7s Are you sure it is not a wiring fault inside the house after the etp?

nztim

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#3429261 30-Oct-2025 12:28

Linux:

@rhy7s Are you sure it is not a wiring fault inside the house after the etp?

^^^^ This mate of mine has his fibre install delated for 6 weeks so had xDSL - rats had chewed through cables

OP where are you located?

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

rhy7s

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#3429264 30-Oct-2025 12:38

Not sure about pre- or post- demarcation, when the weather settles down a bit I'll go around and burrow around a bit. In the past he's had issues after bad weather that have been fixed up by Chorus at the cabinet and at his gate, his road (in the Far North) is being hammered by logging trucks at the moment and I could well imagine something has been damaged during that process. Have had calls from a couple of others that have gone offline in the past few days after the tail end of the storm we got up here.

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#3429265 30-Oct-2025 12:50

Make sure it is not post- demarcation or you will end up with a bill from the ISP

Have they got a number of telephone jack points in the house that are no longer used?

MichaelNZ

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#3429266 30-Oct-2025 12:50

Chorus changed the procedure for copper faults a few months ago. I don't exactly understand what the changes are nor have any first hand experience since then because we have so few clients on copper and none have had faults in the interim.

But my crystal ball combined with what Chorus has said publicly, is copper is on the way out.

I suggest you have a discussion with them around an exit plan.

WFH Linux Systems and Networks Engineer in the Internet industry | Specialising in Mikrotik | APNIC member | Open to job offers | ZL2NET

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saf

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#3429267 30-Oct-2025 13:03

MichaelNZ:

Chorus changed the procedure for copper faults a few months ago.

This is only in regards to instances of large copper outages with many faults, and being uneconomical to repair given the lifetime of copper services. In these cases, Chorus will try a temporary fix while working with the end user on migrating to an alternate service (e.g. fibre/fixed wireless/satellite depending on availability).

Assurance procedure for standard copper faults, including lodgement and process has not changed.

My views are as unique as a unicorn riding a unicycle. They do not reflect the opinions of my employer, my cat, or the sentient coffee machine in the break room.

Chorusnz

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#3429325 30-Oct-2025 15:05

Hey @rhy7s do they have a fault ticket logged with us?

For some reason i have been finding of late that agents are hesitant to actually log a ticket, leaving customers (especially older ones) unsure what to do with a service that does not work.

Once we have a ticket in place, we will do our best to get the customer back online as quickly as we can. Although as has been noted, with copper being end of life technology that is becoming harder and harder to do.

If you want, I'm happy to take a look to see if we have anything from the RSP yet? If you flick us a PM with the address. ^Richard

rhy7s

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#3429326 30-Oct-2025 15:18

Linux:

Make sure it is not post- demarcation or you will end up with a bill from the ISP

Have they got a number of telephone jack points in the house that are no longer used?

He just uses the one jack, but I haven't been underneath to see if there are any other dis/unused branches of a star layout or if it's part of a daisy-chain.

richms

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#3429327 30-Oct-2025 15:21

A relative had ongoing issues when it rained that the line tests said was external but ended up getting pinged for a charge because it was actually internal where a wire that was from a non used outlet that was removed had fallen on the dirt under the house, which was only damp when it rained and caused the fault on the landline. Best to isolate all the unneeded crap in the house before insisting that they send a tech out to look at it.

Of course, this would not be a problem if they had bothered to put in proper demarcation points back in the day which allowed for isolation and testing.

Richard rich.ms

rhy7s

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#3429331 30-Oct-2025 15:29

MichaelNZ:

Chorus changed the procedure for copper faults a few months ago. I don't exactly understand what the changes are nor have any first hand experience since then because we have so few clients on copper and none have had faults in the interim.

But my crystal ball combined with what Chorus has said publicly, is copper is on the way out.

I suggest you have a discussion with them around an exit plan.

Yeah, will do. He has issues with Musk and has a lot of obstructions to the south in terms of the hill he's on with forest on the ridgeline so might need to run a longer ethernet cable than what's in the kit, however he is also in an area of very poor mobile reception so mobile data would also require quite a long ethernet run to get somewhere with a better chance of reception. He wasn't in a position to purchase a Starlink unit last time I was there and since then he has had car issues that will increase the financial pinch for a bit. He's off-grid, so it's been handy being able to have the phone work without needing power over winter.

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MichaelNZ

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#3429332 30-Oct-2025 15:34

rhy7s:

Yeah, will do. He has issues with Musk and has a lot of obstructions to the south in terms of the hill he's on with forest on the ridgeline so might need to run a longer ethernet cable than what's in the kit

Quite a few of us don't care for Musk's politics.

We got a Custom Install done which I have documented here but from what you said in your post (not quoted above) it sounds like this option will be beyond his budget.

So I suggest see what WISP options are available in the area or see if RCG with an external aerial is viable.

WFH Linux Systems and Networks Engineer in the Internet industry | Specialising in Mikrotik | APNIC member | Open to job offers | ZL2NET

rhy7s

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#3429338 30-Oct-2025 15:48

MichaelNZ:

rhy7s:

Yeah, will do. He has issues with Musk and has a lot of obstructions to the south in terms of the hill he's on with forest on the ridgeline so might need to run a longer ethernet cable than what's in the kit

Quite a few of us don't care for Musk's politics.

We got a Custom Install done which I have documented here but from what you said in your post (not quoted above) it sounds like this option will be beyond his budget.

So I suggest see what WISP options are available in the area or see if RCG with an external aerial is viable.

Yeah, he's 8km from the tower that in turn gets its connection via DMR to feed the local village's exchange and associated cabinets, so fibre's not going to be an option.

MichaelNZ

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#3429339 30-Oct-2025 15:54

rhy7s:

Yeah, he's 8km from the tower that in turn gets its connection via DMR to feed the local village's exchange and associated cabinets, so fibre's not going to be an option.

Based on what you have said it sounds like his options are move, come to terms with using Starlink, or wait for a competitor like Amazon. In this case its reasonable to consider their motives are no better then SpaceX and co.

Or see if a local WISP services the area.

I get the offgrid thing. We too are into self-sufficiency and partial offgrid. But there are degrees in this and it sounds like his location doesn't hold cards.

WFH Linux Systems and Networks Engineer in the Internet industry | Specialising in Mikrotik | APNIC member | Open to job offers | ZL2NET

rhy7s

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#3429438 31-Oct-2025 09:47

Chorusnz:

Hey @rhy7s do they have a fault ticket logged with us?

For some reason i have been finding of late that agents are hesitant to actually log a ticket, leaving customers (especially older ones) unsure what to do with a service that does not work.

Once we have a ticket in place, we will do our best to get the customer back online as quickly as we can. Although as has been noted, with copper being end of life technology that is becoming harder and harder to do.

If you want, I'm happy to take a look to see if we have anything from the RSP yet? If you flick us a PM with the address. ^Richard

Thanks @Chorusnz, I've flicked you a PM.

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