Oh Orcon... I want to love you, I really do...

Switched my Orcon to Genius last week. It didn't start out that well - called the 0800 4ORCON number, followed the prompts for product sales, indicated that I was an existing customer and call was answered by a real person in just a minute or two. I explained that I wanted to switch my current Orcon account to Genius, "Oh," he said, "I'll have to transfer you to accounts for that, hang on" - and then the endless hold began.. 

Of course the accounts queue offers the option to log a call back - having no idea how long the hold might be and wanting to get it sorted now I opted not to. Mistake. After about 30 minutes on hold I had to do other things and gave up.

I tweeted @Orcon and they arranged for someone to call me - that was about midday, at about 5:30 I still hadn't received a call. I sent a reminder tweet and got a call not long after. I answered the questions and said I wanted the normal Genius.

I got a provisioning email letting me know the install would be August 12th (ten days later). A few days later the modem arrived - it was the wrong one. They sent the Genius Light. I tried to call back, no luck - then was out of action for a bit (we had a baby the next day) - managed to arrange a replacement with the correct modem - again via Twitter the on Monday. It arrived later that day.

Today at 2:11pm I got the email informing me that the change over had happened and that I would have no dial tone now. I got home about 5:45pm and there was still a dial tone. At that point I tried to log a support callback before plugging anything in - as the Genius documentation is very clear about not connecting it before the service is set up. 

Turns out the callback option only seems to be offered on the account queue, not the support queue. I tried a few different numbers, but no method of getting to support offered me a callback option. So I tweeted again - Quentin replied a little bit later saying "I am told you should try plugging Genius in ..." - I have now tried that. Nope. No VOIP, still have a dial tone - so clearly my line isn't "naked" and my number isn't ported to Genius.

Gave the support line a try again, but gave up after 30 minutes.

I still have internet, and my phone still works (incoming and outgoing calls) but clearly the Genius service hasn't been setup (and certainly won't be within the "10 days maximum" I was promised). So now I assume that at any moment my internet, or phone service could stop - and there is absolutely no way for me to reach tech support. 

Clearly Orcon's support staff can't deal with the volume of calls (and emails - "up to 7 days" to reply there apparently) they are receiving. How about they stop accepting new clients until they can do so. What situation would I be in had I actually not been an Orcon DSL customer already?

Also, given that provisioning and new setup issues are really problematic (and potentially inhibit service) - how about a priority support line for current provisioning issues? Call a number and enter your order number.

It's great that I can get some response of Twitter at least, but that's not actually that beneficial and it's no use at all for customers who don't use Twitter proactively like I do.