Dear Telecom,
Our internet connection died on Monday morning.
I phoned your help desk. A recorded message told me people were experiencing email difficulties, technicians were working on it and the waiting time for calls to be answered was about an hour.
I hung up.
About an hour later I rang back, heard about the email problems again and then was told if I left my number someone would call back.
I left my number. Someone called back.
She tried to help and couldn’t. She passed me onto someone else who tried to help.
She wanted me to tell her which of the lights were green on the modem. I couldn’t see to read in the half-light under the desk. I enlisted a younger pair of eyes, she read out the labels and I relayed them to the help desk.
It didn’t help and nothing else that was suggested worked. She passed me on to someone else.
After about an hour of this the bloke who was trying to help said he’d have to email a technician who would text me and I could expect that message within four hours.
By Tuesday morning I’d still heard nothing. Our office manager spent more than an hour on the phone getting to the same place I had.
But at 9:35 I got a text telling me Telecom had logged a case and giving me a reference number.
Yesterday evening when we’d heard nothing more my farmer rang for help.
He got nowhere.
I went over to the office and found a message saying the problem had been resolved and everything would be fine by this morning.
At 9:18pm I got a text saying the problem had been resolved.
I went back tot he office, the internet was still dead. I rang the support number again.
The woman who answered got me under the desk again to put the end of a paper clip in a tiny hole in the modem to reboot it. That didn’t work either.
She passed me on to someone else who studied the case notes and said that the problem at the exchange had been fixed but they still had to do something else, it should be fine in the morning and I’d get a text between 8 and 9am.
At 9:30 having heard nothing I rang the help desk again. I explained I needed level 2, the woman who answered said she’d try to help me first.
She couldn’t and eventually passed me on.
Once more I had to get under the desk and stick a paper clip in the tiny hole in the modem. The paper clip bent and wouldn’t turn the modem off. The man on the help desk suggested I get a tooth pick. I did. It broke. I found a stronger paper clip which enabled me to turn the modem off.
It came back on but the internet light still didn’t.
The help desk man eventually said he’d have to email the technician again. I asked him if he could impress upon him the urgency of the matter given we ‘d been trying to run a business on a couple of t-sticks for 48 hours and could he please ask the technician to contact us and give us an indication of what might be done by when.
He said I should get a text.
I didn’t.
I tried phoning Chorus directly but was told I had to go through Telecom.
It’s been more than four hours and we’ve still heard nothing.
Yesterday was the 20th of the month, had it not been for the t-sticks we wouldn’t have been able to pay the bills. As it was we could, albeit at a far slower rate than normal because mobile reception isn’t very good out here.
Thanks to the t-sticks we’ve been able to send and receive emails and I’ve been able to blog too but the much slower connection and the hours we’ve spent on the phone are costing us time and causing frustration for our staff and us.
That would be bad enough at any time of the year but it is especially concerning just two days before the country shuts-down for Christmas.
The length of time it’s taking and the silence in which we’ve been left are an appalling reflection on your customer service.
How hard would it be for a real person to phone us and tell us what’s happening and give an indication of when the problem might be resolved?
The very least a business in the business of communication should do is communicate with its customers when they’re having problems.
Yours in frustration
Ele
UPDATE:
3:08: Internet is back. Thank you.
My sympathy. My empathy – haven’t we all got Telecom horror stories to tell? It’s no wonder that every year, without fail, they get roasted in public surveys for lousy customer service. It seems they don’t give a damn and exploit their market dominance to the max. Yes, we can all understand that they face technical problems from time to time but their repeated, deliberate misleading of the public in response is totally inexcusable. Grrr! But anyway, Merry Xmas to you and yours, Ele!
We had very similar non-help experiences with Telecom at the start of the year when we were trying to set up our Internet connection. Evenutually we told them that they could take their broken promises and total lack of service and stuff it up their…. well, I wouldn’t like to foul your blog with such words, Ele. We signed up with Inspire instead, who have been uniformly excellent.
Really sorry to hear about this Ele – it’s not the service we aim to deliver at all. If you are still having trouble, please email me at ort@telecom.co.nz, I’ll see what I can do.
Richard Irvine, Telecom
Thanks Richard, I’ve updated the post – the conncection has been restored.
I hate that.
But in my case it’s generally opperator error (me) or a bit of technology which has given up the ghost.
Sympathy. A few years ago after finally getting someone on the phone to say that I did not have an internet connection I was eventually told to email my problem- duh?
Been there, have the scars (from pulled out hair and that is an ever decreasing comodity)
In our case it was our modem which although it worked at the neighbours, would not work here
Replaced it and all was good but it took weeks and a tec. visit which we had to pay for
The key word is “escalate”.
You need to get past the trained monkey at the front who’s only exposure to the problem is the notes of the previous trained money, and to someone who actually is able to take ownership of the issue and coordinate the resolution of the issue.
HP – that is an action replay of our getting the internet connected when we moved back into our Hastings House about 6 weeks ago. I got a text saying it would be connected between 8am & 12noon on the Tuesday. When nothing happened I phoned to see what was happening. This call elicited all of the under the table etc investigations.Another text duly arrived to say between 8am & 12 noon on Thursday followed soon after by another text to say it would be Saturday.
That raised my blood pressure and I got on the phone only to find no one wanted to talk to me, especially Chorus. Eventuallly I found a Telecom Head Office 0800 number and asked to speak to Paul Reynolds – but he does not take calls. The person I spoke to could not find any management person who was available – despite my call being in business hours. They did however promise to get someone in management to call me back – luck I did not hold my breath as I am still waiting for that call.
In the end I had to wait until Saturday when I got a call from a very helpful Chorus technician who talked me through getting set up. He then turned up at my house about 3 hours later to get me to sign a form so that he would get paid.
That is a precis of what went on – mickey mouse is a phrase which springs to mind and don’t get me started on getting the landline connected.
ps – I note that Telecom guy at 3.29pm did not give you a contact number to phone him. What do these people do all day – perhaps he could return to this thread and tell us how he fills his day in other than reading blogs.
I honestly thought it was a send up of TELECOM prior to it being sold off HP..
Just to back up the State Asset Sales..
Cie La vie..
I changed providers years ago – nice to see that Telecom service has changed not a jot!!
My recent dealings with them were for a different reason, obtaining a consent approval. After having some trouble finding the right person initially, it was processed very efficiently by a lovely woman, named Gretchen, who was willing to take responsibility and who understood the importance to us. Not what I expected given the de-merger. It absolutely MADE my Christmas, so I just had to say a good word for Telecom/Chorus. They’re not all bad….!