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Thread ID: 135449	2013-11-04 07:43:00	Telecom - Chorus	pctek (84)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1358709	2013-11-04 07:43:00	Son moved weekend before last. Couple of miles from previous house. Phone OK, broadband not working. So, he calls them up and after the usual round of unplugging things etc...they send a tech. Tech says problem sorted. Problem continues. More calls, new tech comes out - in fact apprently twice more. At this stage the tech says he tried his modem and it worked therefore their Telecom provided modem is the problem. Son eventually finds his old Netgear he used with Orcon. PLugs in, we go though set up - using default Telecom username password, zilch. I ask, what lights? No DSL light...aha, it's the line. What did Telecom modem do? Same - no DSL light. I tell him to ring them again. Manila not helpful yet again, tell him they cannot provide them with any infpo - hello? Are they not the actual account holder? WHat does that mean? They can't be given any info? By now he's got 3 tech call out charges and now being sent a new modem at $100. Apparently. I ask son did they observe Chorus person testing modem or did he just say he had and his worked? Yep, he wasn't there, GF there but not watching and never saw it work, chorus just said that. I ring Telecom, ask for NZ, get Tier 2. Explain all this, he tests line, says he doesn't see DSL on line. Books tech again. Looks up last chorus tech notes - no notes. Interesting.... Son taking day off on next scheduled visit, instructed him to test himself with all modems, not let chorus guy out door until problem is properly established/fixed, Telecom will waive callout charges etc. Pretty slack really.....	pctek (84)
1358710	2013-11-04 08:21:00	Standards are being maintained, it's just like the good old days. Like, last year, the year before that and so ad infinitum.	R2x1 (4628)
1358711	2013-11-04 08:31:00	Story of my life. I had over 50 Chorus visits to my home (Not to mention the visits where they just dicked around the Exchange) to fix some problems back in the day. Many of them are just so damn terrible... West Auckland has this one guy now who's *real* good and real efficient, fixes problems first time and fixes them right... Met him a couple of times for different installs, he's a real good bloke. Glad all hope is not lost for the Chorus contractors :p	Chilling_Silence (9)
1358712	2013-11-04 08:53:00	Chorus are usually pretty crap regardless of who your RSP is, unfortunately.	inphinity (7274)
1358713	2013-11-04 17:52:00	Story of my life. I had over 50 Chorus visits to my home (Not to mention the visits where they just dicked around the Exchange) to fix some problems back in the day. Many of them are just so damn terrible... Yes, read your saga. I told son that, there are a few with a brain, the rest have no idea what they are doing. Then again, look at the way they employ them now.....	pctek (84)
1358714	2013-11-04 22:44:00	Chorus has no techs, the people who come to your house are contractors working for Downers or Transfield or Visionstream who contract to Chorus. Not that that makes any difference to your experience. The trouble is a historical one sort of, back when Telecom was a government department and part of the Post office there was probaly a lot of excess staff and training levels were very high. Once it was sold the drive to increase profits and perform for the stockholders coupled with techonology changes that required less maintenance meant the service companies stopped hiring trainees and stopped their training programs and reduced staff numbers periodically which they could do due to the high numbers of staff initially. It's a great way to keep profits raising at the expense of staff & service levels. This went on for close to 20 years, so now you have the situation where trained staff are hard to come by. Mainy of the best techs around are over 40 and predate these issues, however they come from a telephone background and have had to relearn for broadband with varying degrees of success. New trainees are being hired and trained again over the last few years but only in small numbers and with a high attrition rate, meaning many of the staff have to be hired from offshore. In my opinion most of the guys do a great job all things considered, broadband faults can be vey hard to diagnose and fix. There are definately some of them that stand out though. The helpdesk however with their foreign accents, scripted responses, and limited knowledge, are not a great customer experience I think.	dugimodo (138)
1358715	2013-11-04 23:17:00	Chorus has no techs, the people who come to your house are contractors working for Downers or Transfield or Visionstream who contract to Chorus. ome of them that stand out though. The helpdesk however with their foreign accents, scripted responses, and limited knowledge, are not a great customer experience I think. I know. I went for a job doing this once at Downer. They showed me - it horrified me. Husband used to work for NZ Post - installing and maintaining exchanges so I had been in heaps before it disintegrated into a mess. I've spoken to Telecom again about, never mind the issue and a new tech being sent, what are they going to do about the one that outrightly lied and didn't do any real testing in the first place? Just to confirm, son dropped off his modems here today and all of them work just fine on my connection. Pretty outrageous having these idiots just bullshit you they tested things......spend your life going back and forth arguing with Telecom over it. If I had access I'd fix the damn cabinet port myself.	pctek (84)
1358716	2013-11-06 08:38:00	In 1977 the Auckland Technicians Controlling Officers committee asked the Engineer-in-Chief what the priorities were for technicians. His reply was - 1] restoration of service to subscribers who had lost it, (no customers in those days) 2] training in order to fulfil priority number 1. How things have changed !!	decibel (11645)
1358717	2013-11-07 06:10:00	It gets more interesting. Son was rung a few times at work toady, GF stayed up (she works nights and sleeps days) and waited. So Telecom said the contractor had been, he'd logged the job, notes indicated he'd plugged in a modem again....basically same reporrt...all was well, all was working. Except no-one had turned up. All day. GF had rung them eventually to see why when all this was then discovered. Telecom Complex issues are now totally P'ed off, it's costing them money now too, are "getting to the bottom of it" about contractor etc... Next contractor (or same one?) scheduled for tomorrow now. I don't see how this guy thinks he can get away with it, does he think they won't notice or something? Telecom is kicking up a fuss now too.	pctek (84)
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