I just wanted to share my experience with an NBN provider.
After having a huge range of issues with Telstra, I called up Aussie Broadband instead to arrange an NBN Fibre to the Node connection.
I had a 0 minute wait time to get through on the phone. The staff member was knowledgeable, professional, warm and explained the process of connecting in a really clear way. In fact, the staff member told me of a current “double data” deal they had, and encouraged me to get a lower data plan for the first six months instead to save money. (A salesperson encouraging you to spend less money with them? How awesome is that?)
We should be connected by next Thursday.
Time will tell how good my internet connection will be, but I was really impressed by the customer experience signing up.
I have been a happy customer of iiNet now for nearly thirteen years. Until now.
Recently TPG bought out iiNet and the fall off in customer service is very telling. Enough that I am will to pay for the cost that breaking my current contract with them will cost me.
Why a big company would purchase another company that has consistently ranked amongst the highest and then make changes to it within months of purchase, rather than reviewing their award winning practices for themselves and then making any changes they deem were necessary is beyond me.
Very short-sighted. Regardless, would be most interested to here how the services of your new provider go.
I was a long standing iiNet customer from almost their beginning. They bought out another ISP I had been with. When iiNet took over they changed and improved the service to iiNet standards.
TPG business practices are quite different to iiNet’s, and TPG obviously realigned & subsumed iiNet to fit into the TPG mould; in the same way iiNet did to all the ISPs they purchased.
This is why competition is so important. It gives consumers choice.
I agree with competition - as a general rule it does enhance and improve things for those concerned.
Yes, iiNet did indeed subsume many a smaller business. I was with one such company which is how I came to be an iiNet customer in the first place.
However, iiNet only improved things - at first I didn’t think it would last, but it did. The consistently improved the services, yet continued to keep prices low.
If TPG had come in and made improvements for its customers then I would not be on here now, looking for information for a better providers but I am.
I’m still waiting for a call back from this company from last week for goodness sakes.
I can only see iiNet loosing its customers and loosing the status of a company that put it’s customers and staff first.
I moved from iiNet some time ago, because they don’t provide a service where I am located.
I moved to Club Telco http://clubtelco.com.au/broadband_compare_plans.html which costs $40/calendar month for totally unlimited up/downloads plus an annual $80 membership fee, working out at $46.67/calendar month.
(Club Telco leases bandwidth off Dodo, who leases off Telstra. So your exchange has to have Telstra capacity.)
Wow - Clubtelco are cheap! Any reason why they are so much cheaper?
I’m looking for a provider as I’m moving house in the next month. There are so many options, it’s so overwhelming. I’ll only get ADSL unfortuantely - no cable or NBN on the street.
It looks like Club Telco haven’t included the cost of the telephone line (requirement for ADSL) - so those prices make sense once you include getting a telephone service from them or someone else.
Sorry, @TillySouth no idea why they’re so cheap, But they are!
I researched providers 4.5yrs ago, before I went to them, and they were cheap then. The only thing is I’ve noticed the speeds drop a bit during peak periods, but I think that is due to bandwidth congestion ultimately with Telstra.
I put a callout on Facebook to friends to gauge who is using what provider and how they navigate the system. Seems that everybody is just as confused as me. Hopefully once the NBN rolls out everywhere then it will be less confusing!
I have had a similar experience with iinet these past few weeks, which has resulted in a contract cancellation and a complaint to the ombudsman. Their customer and tech service has gone from best in business to completely appalling. I hope Choice will do a new ISP review soon as they are still (now very misleadingly) ranked in the top 10, along with Westnet, which are now also part of iinet (the same service line).
Is it possible that all that customer service cost the company too much and that that was one of the reasons it was purchased? Not good for TPG to ruin their reputation by disappointing customers.
I sat around and watched various technicians implement the NBN connection at my fathers unit. The tasks are divided up between subcontractors who dont get any compensation for doing their job in a way that makes the next stage easier so they do the obvious thing and make their part of the process easy. The guy that ran the fibre took no account of the fact that his cable termination would make the job of installing the NBN equipment inside difficult ( not my job mate). The person that installed the internal equipment (fibre to the premises). Didnt care where the existing phone lines were ( not my job mate). Then along came telstra whose job it was to connect the NBN node to the phone lines. And so it went on since each task made the subsequent one more difficult. Dad has home monitoring since he’s over 90 and blind as a result there were more stages in the “NBN”. Its painful to watch.
They approached our household stating that they were a “Subsidiary Company of Telstra”
which they are not…
We have had no end of problems and difficulties with this company, apart from their initial lies that they told us to get us to sign up with them…
We have returned to Telstra, but only after considerable expense and total loss of telephone communication for many weeks due to this Company’s inefficiency and lies.
I also went through a nightmare just before Xmas - the worst time of year - when I agreed with my provider TPG, to move me from my existing ADSL Plan to the NBN. However, I was unaware that there would be a technical issue re the position of my existing Foxtel cable and my computer. My Foxtel cable which is where the NBN technicians installed their black box, was located at the opposite end of the house to where my PC was located. Not only did TPG not warn me that I should organise a private technician to install an extension to my cable prior to the NBN technicians visiting my house, but when the NBN technicians arrived, they just did their installation, knowing my computer was located far away and I would lose my internet connection until I could organise someone (over Xmas/NY) to come out and extend the cable for me. This is in spite of the fact that I had asked the NBN technicians to guarantee that I could keep using my computer after they had gone. They said I could. So I was left with no connection over the Xmas/NY period until I was able to find someone willing to come out on the 2 January, to extend the cable via my ceiling, down the cavity wall and into the room where my computer was located at the cost of $740 (and that was the cheapest quote). TPG gave me a 3 day temporary connection twice only and that was also a long winded experience. They then took $30 off my next bill as compensation - wow. No one compensated me for the trauma, the long hours spent on the phone trying to sort this out for many days and my out of pocket expenses which included $110 payment to my IT person who was attempting to assist me. I am lucky in that I had the money to pay for all this. Imagine someone who can’t afford to pay for the additional cabling. So much for the Federal Govt’s declaration that the NBN is free and will provide us all with faster internet speed. I can barely notice the difference.
I’ve also recently had issues with my ISP who was bought out by iiNet a few years ago & of course TPG more recently. My ISP used to rate well for customer service. But last week I tried ringing tech support one night, there was no call-back option offered (as on previous occasions). I was on hold for over 1hr & 45mins before I finally gave up after 11pm, after submitting my complaint online. I got an auto-response with a ticket number. However, they have not bothered contacting me about the issue since then - by either email or phone (& I know they have my mobile number!). I sent a follow up email the other night to complain about the lack of response. Still no response from them! They used to be so much better - I’m quite disappointed!
The big difference with the NBN wont be noticed by those on cable. The hype is all about moving from ADSL to the NBN.
In your case no one technician can offer a guarantee because I dont think anyone it actually in charge of the complete process. Dogs breakfast. Feel for you
Hi Debir,
iinet was bought out by a Chinese company and there in is the problem. All front and no substance. I have been with iinet for almost 12 years and like others, had brilliant service until the take over. Calls were answered in Aus… without waiting hours.
Service went down (yet again) this Jan 4th and again 10 days later. Called 3pm and was advised to request call back which would be in around one hour. Call back came from South Africa at around 8pm. Tech naturally had no idea of what was going on in Aus re general outages and when I started up the computer, it had decided to work again. These days it seems to go off with boring regularity. Certainly time for a change but as most people are saying, just who can one trust?
The best part of their service was when they promised to send a replacement modem whatsit and sent me just a blue plastic bag! Now, had I known that all I needed to connect to the internet was a blue plastic bag, it could have saved me all of these problems…and expense! They did managed to send a new whatsit after several phone calls and a 12 month wait. It sometimes takes 10 minutes to get on line because after having my computer hacked, I disconnect said whatsit when I turn off the computer. Carrier pigeons could be making a comeback.
