Recently I had the unpleasant experience of discovering that NBN had cut off my Internet without notice to myself or my Internet provider. The service was cut off on a Thursday evening without warning, and my ISP (Internode) emailed me at midnight on Friday to let me know that the service had been transferred. It appears that, when a new customer (the person moving into the house the following week) requests an NBN service through another provider, then NBN performs the switch without any checks to the ISP. When I called Internode on Friday morning, it was too late to do anything. They tried setting up a new account but were refused by NBN Co, and in the end I decided to go the week without Internet service and rely on mobile data.
The Internode staff reported that they had worked at other providers where this also happened, and that despite telco providers raising the issue with NBN Co that there was nothing that they could do to prevent your service being switched off.
In principle it is outrageous that an essential service can be cut off without warning to the client or their ISP. It is pretty standard practice for new occupiers to initiate requests for Internet a week or two before, and it is not the fault of the new occupiers or the ISPs who are keen to make the switch. Rather, it seems that it is NBN Co here who have taken the simplest route for themselves, because the understandable customer anger when this happens doesnāt come to them, it comes to the retailers who have no power to do anything about this.
It is terrible and concerning as it could allow anyone to instigate a change at any time.
When we moved a few years ago, we contacted our own RSP who had a āspecialist moving teamā (maybe a better name might be āensuring customer doesnāt leave when moving teamā). Something we had to do is provide information on the property settling date. They were clear at the time they couldnāt instigate the change until the day of settlement, thus resulting in about 1-2 days before the new connection could be setup. While inconvenient not having NBN for a few days, I could see why they sat until settlement day - if it didnāt settle for some reason, they werenāt left with a mess to resolve.
It appears some RSPs might be initiating an account/service change without any checks - I blame the RSP not doing basic checks as they are responsible for their customers, not the NBN.
It would be interesting to know who the offending RSP was as well.
Thanks Scott - I hadnāt thought about complaining to the TIO (because, of course, when one is moving thereās so much admin you just give up on this stuff) but will look into it. Other posters - the NBN service was an NBN FTTP service (although it didnāt sound like it was specific to the type of NBN service), and the ISP that initiated the conversion was Vodafone.
Interesting point about the other ISP not doing the checks - it would be a good idea for them to also do the checks on the date. My own ISP (Internode) was pretty lax in that regard and, despite my requesting several times not to set up my own Internet until a specific day (as we had tenants in the house that we were moving back to), went ahead and set up the service anyway. Luckily for us our tenants had moved out early.
If you are still writing remember the NBN does not work for me and you. They work for the RSPs (and government). NBN gets āordersā from RSPs and fulfils them. Vodaphone, while not your RSP, might need be the party you complain about.
Other than the TIO adding it to a list of naughties put what do you want them to do now in writing with the complaint. Since the process appears to be from lax to non-existent include that, and ccing the Honourable Communications Minister cannot hurt.
When I moved from Sydney to rural NSW in early 2020, I contacted my ISP to arrange the transfer to my new house. Settlement day was the Friday for both houses. When I arrived at the new house on the Monday, not only was the power on (I had arranged that to transfer too) but I was able to plug in my modem from the old house (FttC) into the new house (FttP) and I had internet. Now issues at all. Mind you, my furniture didnāt arrive until the next dayā¦ but I had internet.
The significant issue raised by others though is the ability for one customers request to their RSP to connect a service to cause the loss of service to another before they have moved out.
It does not happen with electricity. So why should it happen with the NBN?
I think in my case, what helped was that settlement day for both houses (the sale of my old one in Sydney & the new one in the bush) were on the exact same day. Maybe that is what we should strive to doā¦ coordinate settlement days to ensure a smoother transition of services.
Oooh we know all about this nightmare issueā¦ NBN Co sent a request to our service provider to disconnected us and it took us 3 months and a TIO case to get our services reinstated.
This issue happened because a new tennant moved into our backyard flat and signed up to an ISP who submitted the request to NBN Co. Tenant had provided the correct port number (we paid NBN Co for installing a second port on our property) but their ISP or the NBN ignored this info. Or quite possibly NBN Co does not allow for port numbers on their form used by ISPs.
Either way, NBN Co contacted our ISP and told them to remove our service (the home owner!)ā¦ we were notified of the cancellation after it had been disconnected.
Now no one had NBN because weād been disconnected and the tenant had been connected to our main house NBN port and not the flat NBN port. Not to mention our home phone number (part of our contract with our ISP) had been allocated to another house!!
Long story short ā¦ our ISP coped the TIO complaint because we couldnāt raise the complaint against the tenants ISP who could not follow a simple instruction to use the correct NBN port.
We did request our provider make notes on our account that our property has two NBN ports and the one for the home owner should not be cancelled without notification and confirmation from us first. They assured us this would not happen again, but unfortunately, we expect this probably will, with the next tenant change.
Itās an unusual situation. Good to hear it was resolved but not that it took 3 months.
Many in the community may be aware the NBN typically only provides one service per residential property. There are exceptions including what the NBN refers to as an MDU (Multi Dwelling Unit) and for business purposes.
There may be others interested in what the NBN offered and what was paid for to deliver the second connection to your property. In the past we have had two independent copper lines to our home. One for business and one for personal. When looking to replicate this with the NBN at a new property we were advised the ability to do so depended on the NBN technology choice at the property. IE it may not be possible to deliver two totally independent services. Although it appears the NBN Co technology provides for more than one port over a common connection.
Assume you now have two working services to your property, each with a different provider/RSP. The NBN and RSPs are accustomed to dealing with more than one service to a property where there are units or townhouses (2 or more). Although they also use a lot number or 1/nn, 2/nn or nn/A, nn/B in the address providing a unique and recognisable difference. It may be worth asking if this will help.
Whilst my issue does not directly relate to loss of service, it does relate to NBN. In short, work was recently undertaken in my street to āhaulā (terminology used by contractor) cable through the existing network. This required the existing āpitā to be exposed for the āhaulā & since then ever time it rains water runs through he conduit from the pit to my home. I have contacted both my provider & NBN but to neither seems to be able to provide an answer to the issue. Iām at loss where to go from here
The TIO also offers a further avenue.
My past experience is a reliable RSP will redirect your issue and the NBN will contact you to resolve. Itās good to know there is a more direct pathway and the fall back when all else fails.
That looks like the core of the problem to me. The ISP is the only contact point but has no control over physical structures and the NBN controls the pits, cables etc but cannot be contacted.
I presume that theoretically the ISP is supposed to pass on the complaint to the NBN. I can see that the problem is so far from their area of business or ability to act upon that if they did so once they would not want to play any more if there were follow up contacts or additional complaints.
I can see that there ought to be one point of first contact and for most issues that would suffice. If there were more expecting the user to be able to decide which body was responsible is pointless. However, the system could be flexible enough that once it was established the problem was structures and equipment operated by the NBN then direct contact was possible. Instead we play Chinese Whispers.
The NBN however cannot remain at arms length for what it does outside your immediate connection, EG the street/footpath. Not all consumers have an NBN service however they may have a pit at the front gate or latent FTTP service connection to the property. In either example one does not necessarily have an RSP to complain through. There is a pathway, although clunky with timeliness of a response possibly subject to how well one words the request.
Thanks to all. Yes I have contacted both NBN & my ISP both of whom replied its the others problem to rectify. I have had the ISP inspect the pit & suggested a simple remedy BUT indicated its an NBN issue. So around in circles I go again
The TIO and possibly the local Federal MPs office have been my fall backs. Some MPs seem better connected than others to the regional or State level management of Telstra, NBN etc.
