The following is a copy of feedback posted through Orcon's web site. I publish it here in the hope that a publicly aired complaint will be a more effective instrument to persuade Orcon to address the poor service levels provided to its ADSL customers. If you are also an Orcon customer, and have experiences similar to what I describe below, please add them and any other comments you might have for Orcon to this thread. 

My feedback:
Since my wife and I joined Orcon on May 27 of this year, we seem to have been affected by the following problem with Orcon's quality of service:

"28/05/10 9:04 PM DEGRADED BROADBAND PERFORMANCE DURING PEAK HOURS ON STANDARD ORCON BROADBAND PLANS
Over the past week we have become aware of a congestion issue with one of our handover links on our broadband network. These links pass the broadband traffic between our suppliers network and our own. The result of this is that approximately quarter of our customers may be experiencing lower than usual broadband performance during peak times.
This has particularly become an issue this week as our customers had their data allowance reset after billing on the 23rd of May, which means that they begin using a lot of data again.

We are aware of how frustrating this can be, and want to assure you that we are taking this issue very seriously. We have been working really hard to come up with a solution, and have implemented a couple of temporary measures to improve performance. However we are still working on a long term solution. As soon as we have this solution we will be implementing it without delay. Please accept our apologies for this issue. We will update you as soon as we have a solution and a confirmed date for implementation."

When we paid our first Orcon bill of $155.39+GST earlier this month, we had the distinct feeling that we were being ripped off. I am frustrated, and I'd like to see some evidence that Orcon is taking the issue as seriously as it says.

During "peak hours", which I can only presume means "the time when people want to use their home broadband connections", the software updates for my Linux systems can arrive at the staggeringly low rate of 12-24kB/s. When I remotely perform the same updates from work (not during "peak hours") the download rate is in the order of 700kB/s or faster, from the same update sites (during their peak times), with the same computer, ADSL router, ADSL splitter, and telephone line. Extremely poor network latency and throughput during during the evening, and adequate latency and throughput during the day, has been our consistent experience since the start of our Orcon "experience".

When I telephoned Orcon Support to ask when the above issue, as it appears on the Network Status Updates page of the Orcon web site, would likely be resolved, the well-meaning, but thoroughly misguided person on the telephone asked that I check my modem settings, and perform a series of basic network connectivity tests in order to determine if there was some problem with my equipment. Not seeing any harm in this I obliged, though I was confused as to why I was checking my equipment when it seemed patently obvious that the atrocious network performance was almost certainly the result of the DEGRADED BROADBAND PERFORMANCE DURING PEAK HOURS ON STANDARD ORCON BROADBAND PLANS issue on Orcon's web site. Testing your Internet connection is a fairly sensible thing to do once in a while, even when you think everything is working correctly, so an hour of my time was spent conducting the requested tests and sending the results through to Orcon Support.

At that point, I was told that yes, the latency and throughput of my connection was very poor, and a fault ticket would then be logged. I thought this kind of odd, as I was under the impression that it was standard practice for IT support desks to log a ticket the first time someone calls up about a fault, but I digress.

I was then asked to download and run the "Orcon Diagnostics" program for Microsoft Windows (I don't use Windows), or the version for Apple Mac OS X (I don't use OS X). When running the Windows version of this software with a compatibility layer on my Linux system, I could see that this program is nothing more than a wrapper that uses the operating system's own basic network diagnosis utilities, such as ping and tracert, to run through precisely the same kinds of tests I had just spent an hour conducting manually. Why are customers not simply asked to use this automated time-saving utility in the first place (irrespective of whether a Linux version exists)?

This is where it became apparent to me that it must be Orcon's deliberate policy to keep its customers busy and delay for as long as possible without actually addressing the real issues with Orcon's quality of service. So I decided at that point, quite justifiably I think, to cease wasting my limited time with Orcon Support.

However, having recently paid over $155.39+GST, money for which I worked extremely hard, to a company that by all appearances doesn't, I feel once again compelled to ask, just when will Orcon provide its customers with the service they pay for? When, precisely, does Orcon plan to update customers on the unresolved serious problems with its broadband service announced FORTY FIVE DAYS AGO? What recompense will Orcon offer customers who are in effect paying for "broadband" internet at dial-up speeds?

Will Orcon immediately suspend all television, print, and web advertising aimed at growing its customer base? It seems to me that Orcon's available network bandwidth is grossly oversubscribed, and more customers will only exacerbate the situation for everyone. Perhaps the money saved could be redirected into whatever is required to bring Orcon's service levels up to those for which its existing customers pay for each month, who knows?

I have posted a copy of this feedback to the Orcon, iServe and Kordia forum on GeekZone (http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=82). Perhaps a response to all customers affected by Orcon's poor service is warranted more than one to me alone.