Sorry about the title... awkward.

Basically, moved to Auckland just over 2 months ago, and decided to sign up with Orcon seeing as I'd heard so much about how fast and awesome it was supposed to be. I noticed the prices for the types of service I want were a bit higher than XTs but I went for it any way as, really, who hasn't been messed with in the past by Telecom. 

I don't know a lot about internet but I catch on quickly and I know when things aren't right.

We're on a 40gb plan, and I also rent a wireless modem from Orcon, and pay for wiring/maintenance insurance (whatever that is...)

There were a few delays getting set-up (apparently due to Christchurch earthquake) but we got there in the end. First month was pretty smooth sailing, way better than the mobile broadband I was forced to use where I use to live. Then I noticed we were getting slow speeds during peak usage times... but it was still acceptable. One day, in the afternoon, it got so slow it was unusable. My flatmates were spewing as they had work to do so I rang the 0800 number.

First call: Basically got told to reset modem, all the basic stuff (I had done this before anyway). Not a lot happened, hung up the phone feeling like I'd achieved nothing.

Continued using slow-sloth internet. Actually got WORSE. Can't open facebook, youtube out of the question. Very unstable speeds. Speed tests all had good results though (when the pages would actually load), around 13mbps download.

Second call: went through settings in that IP address for the modem thingy. did some online speed tests. guy on the phone got me to change some settings. said he was putting through a work request (something to do with the data being checked it was still correct when it arrives, removing that process?).

I then went away for a week, as did my flatmates. Arrived home to find slow slow slow internet all day and night. Could barely open a single page. Once again very unstable, seemed to work for a minute, then would go back to being slow. It took me over an hour to download something that was 6.5MB.

Third call: once again did online speed test. once again good result. went into modem IP address thingy again. guy on the phone got me to connect modem directly to wall (isolated testing?). then the internet wouldnt work at all. he said he'd send me an email to do diagnostics and then a technician may be sent. the program they sent me doesnt appear to work on macs... had to turn modem off for at least 10 minutes for internet to work again. He warned I may have to pay $120 if it's my modem... I find this kind of ridiculous when it's their own modem, they OWN it. Also, why am I paying the $3 a month for wiring/maintenance insurance?

I have been trying to call them back for the last hour but keep getting disconnected due to high call volume... they don't even put you on hold?! 

I don't know. Basically I feel like I made a mistake and I'm paying $140 a month to barely be able to load google or facebook. itunes downloads and youtube are out of the question, as is any online tv watching. Im a simple creature, I only need simple internet.

The people on the other end of the phone sound like underpaid, overpompous, computer geeks who think I'm an idiot. I may very well be an idiot when it comes to internet settings/diagnostics but I'm also a new customer paying, what I feel, is quite a lot of money, to be getting barely adequate service. I just think it's reasonable to expect to be able to USE the internet 24/7 if I so desired. I shouldn't have to wait for offpeak times or put up with an out of date itunes library.

Basically, I'm on here to ask, if anyone has the patience, could someone please try to explain to me what is going on, and what I can potentially do to try and fix this myself. 

I have one modem, one phone, one filter. No sky, no fancy alarm. No PC. 3 laptops, 1 iphone. We're in west auckland.