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Thread ID: 141619	2016-01-21 03:29:00	"Special offer" from my ISP to upgrade my fibre for twelve months. Thoughts?	John H (8)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1414899	2016-01-22 21:49:00	It's a software change, if it takes a while it's just because it's in a que with a lot of other work. If they employed staff at a level that allowed instant responses to customer requests they'd have to price themselves out of the market. It's always a trade off between service and cost and companies tend to favour cost a little more. The actual change will take someone a few minutes at most when they get to it. Part of the problem also is the delays involved in service requests passing between multiple people along the way, for example: customer -> isp (eg spark) -> wholesale network provider (eg chorus) -> contractor/service company (AlcaTel, Nokia, Downers, Visionstream, Broadspectrum) it's really quite surprising how many different people are involved in the broadband and telecommunications industry just to provide one simple service. I haven't even listed all of them, just the main ones I know of.	dugimodo (138)
1414900	2016-01-22 22:33:00	I think the catch is just in the 12 month contract, and in the fact that a lot of customers will likely end up sticking with the faster plan. It's easier to live with something when you've never experienced a better option, 30M is fast but after 12 months on 100M it may not seem it. Along the lines of "How will we keep them down on the farm once they have seen Paris"! Yes, that is a potential problem! One small point about 100M and faster broadband, make sure all the equipment between the fibre and your PC is fast enough or you will not get the full speed. Probably need it all to be GigE to be sure. If you use Wi-Fi for your primary networking you may never see the difference from a slower plan. The Chorus box is right beside the PC. The connection from the box to the Spark modem and thence to the PC is by short Cat 6 ethernet cables, so I should be apples downstairs in my study. However, upstairs may be a different thing. Because of difficulty in getting a decent WIFI signal upstairs, I have the modem/router connected to a powerline system by Cat6 ethernet cable. Streaming video upstairs (Netflix etc) is via that system using a Nexus 9 tablet. It works fine as is, so I am not expecting it to be worse with higher fibre speeds.	John H (8)
1414901	2016-01-22 22:36:00	I just moved to the 100mbps plan - same price, 12 month contract. I ordered it 7 days ago. After 2 phone calls they told me they are having 'problems' with fibre plans at the moment and I should have an 'update' by Tuesday next week. How hard can it be to change speed from 30mbps to 100mbps. Shame on Spark. I decided to go ahead - nothing ventured, nothing gained - but found that Spark are using the same system that they use for a new sign up, or an upgrade from ADSL to fibre. All the "electronic paperwork" supposes that fibre is not already connected and in operation. I had a sinking feeling filling in the forms, wondering what kind of mess I had got myself into. Maybe it would have been better to let sleeping dogs lie, but greed got the better of me...	John H (8)
1414902	2016-01-22 22:38:00	It's something Chorus has to do as I understand. Shame on Spark...jeez, talk about first world issues. The Spark reply to the "order" was that the first thing to happen is that the local fibre company would contact me to discuss how the connection would be made, where the cable and hardware would go etc... I hope that the same subcontractor to Chorus that did the original fibre set up is engaged again, because he was intelligent.	John H (8)
1414903	2016-01-22 22:46:00	It's a software change, if it takes a while it's just because it's in a que with a lot of other work. If they employed staff at a level that allowed instant responses to customer requests they'd have to price themselves out of the market. It's always a trade off between service and cost and companies tend to favour cost a little more. The actual change will take someone a few minutes at most when they get to it. Part of the problem also is the delays involved in service requests passing between multiple people along the way, for example: customer -> isp (eg spark) -> wholesale network provider (eg chorus) -> contractor/service company (AlcaTel, Nokia, Downers, Visionstream, Broadspectrum) it's really quite surprising how many different people are involved in the broadband and telecommunications industry just to provide one simple service. I haven't even listed all of them, just the main ones I know of. Within a week or so of us putting in our original order for fibre, a Chorus van turned up, and I assumed the technician was here to supply the Spark fibre modem/router and set me up. He (who had English as a second language) seemed puzzled at what I was saying, and eventually he said he was here to fix a telephone line fault reported by the previous owner... I have no idea how old the order was, because fibre had been installed at the house some time before we arrived, and the previous owner was presumably using a phone connected to the Chorus box. However he turned out to be useful for something - the previous owner had taken away the power brick for the Chorus box and I had no way of getting it back - the technician just took one out of his van and gave it to me without an order to support the supply. But you are right - the thing we learned over the whole Spark/Chorus installation saga, and the previous debacle with Vodafone over VDSL, was how many people are involved, and who is NOT ALLOWED to talk to whom. For example, Joe Bloggs in Spark or Vodafone is not allowed to talk to Chorus to find out what is happening. The only communication is via order forms or whatever they call them. I couldn't talk to Chorus either. It seems the daftest way to do business.	John H (8)
1414904	2016-01-23 04:05:00	You'll find the "chorus" van that turned up is actually a contractor and not chorus at all, just another link in the chain. You can tell by looking for dual branding, the actual company logo will be much smaller because that's part of the contract with chorus. They are acting as chorus representatives but don't actually work for them. Chorus do have staff and vehicles, but they don't come to anyone's house and do actual work.	dugimodo (138)
1414905	2016-01-23 04:43:00	... - the previous owner had taken away the power brick for the Chorus box and I had no way of getting it back - the technician just took one out of his van and gave it to me without an order to support the supply... ???? - then how was your fibre connection working ??	decibel (11645)
1414906	2016-01-23 05:00:00	But you are right - the thing we learned over the whole Spark/Chorus installation saga, and the previous debacle with Vodafone over VDSL, was how many people are involved, and who is NOT ALLOWED to talk to whom. For example, Joe Bloggs in Spark or Vodafone is not allowed to talk to Chorus to find out what is happening. The only communication is via order forms or whatever they call them. I couldn't talk to Chorus either. It seems the daftest way to do business. Think its who you are actually dealing with. Once when Vodafone were called to come and sort out the slowwwwwwwwww internet connection the tech guy tried everything, he basically changed all the Vodafone equipment, checked everything from the connection right though to the modem, when he rang through to someone in Vodafone the guy at the other end of the phone ( on speaker phone - they do swear when they think no ones listening :D ) was jumping my plan all over the place "on the fly" he changed to a similar plan I had, then lower, and even higher, all that was required was rebooting the modem. At the end of the day the problem was tracked down by a comment ( cant remember if it was the guy or myself) it was along the lines of " its acting like there's no actual account", The guy at Vodafone said shiiiit hang on just want to check something -- YESSSS found the problem. Then said best leave it alone as its an internal fault and if he fiddled any more I might lose everything. Later that day opened my email -- up popped around 8 emails all saying "thank you for changing your plan" etc. So they can change plans quickly -- Just all the red tape.	wainuitech (129)
1414907	2016-01-23 06:09:00	Not mixing up bits and bytes are you 1101? Windows shows download speeds in Bytes, ISPs state them in bits. 1 MByte/s = 8 Mbits/s and would be pretty close to what you'd expect from a 10Mbit per second connection. I'm sure you are not, but it's a common enough mistake to prompt me to ask. A speedtest on my 30Mb connection (VDSL) gets 28-29 Mbps which is pretty close, waiting on my 100M fibre to see how it'll compare :0 But if you can only get 1Mbit on a 10Mbit connection, something is really in the sh!t...	Agent_24 (57)
1414908	2016-01-23 08:33:00	???? - then how was your fibre connection working ?? It wasn't. I never said it was - all I indicated was that fibre was connected to the house and there was a Chorus box in the house. With no power connection it obviously wasn't working. There were about another 2 weeks to go before I got a connection. It had worked for the previous owner but had been disconnected prior to settlement day as is usual. Unfortunately he or his packers packed the power supply and it was with all his goods that were in indefinite storage in Auckland.	John H (8)
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