Xtra Broadband - anyone else had bad experience

[Coyote]

That's the beauty of the ADSL routers, they're connected all the time, and since I leave the PC on all the time, with powersave on, I never have to wait for anything!!

Thats what I have, only it doesn't want to stay connected all the time and would rather be a bitch. Unplugging and replugging the wires and crap reminds the computer that the modem exists

[Leong]

Thats what I have, only it doesn't want to stay connected all the time and would rather be a bitch. Unplugging and replugging the wires and crap reminds the computer that the modem exists

Told you I was one of the lucky ones....

[TwoSeven]

I've noticed that in the mobile business and internet business telecon are struggeling with the technology. I think they have had 3 mobile networks and I'm not sure how many internet upgrades. They just dont understand the capacity planning model used to do these.

If I was doing a uni degree I would compare these business units to the legacy units and see how they compare. Also would be interested in comparing consumer feedback with corporate feedback to see what the difference is.

[Karma]

Thats what I have, only it doesn't want to stay connected all the time and would rather be a bitch. Unplugging and replugging the wires and crap reminds the computer that the modem exists

Could be one of two issues here...

One.

Your PC is plugged into the modem using usb? And therefore could be having a power issue whereby Windows is doing it's usual and not realising something is connected when it is.

Two.

Your modem is disconnecting from the service due to one of a million reasons... power blip on your phone line... maintenance in the exhange... changeover of billing period.. you name it. In this case, unplug the power from the modem... leave for 10 seconds, plug the modem back in, wait 2 minutes, connection should be up and running again.


I'm sure I've made some assumptions above that are incorrect... but I just love a nice ass

[geoffm]

Telecom sux. No two ways about it. In Christchurch we have the flat on Xtra (landlord's choice). At home it is Quicksilver, who has much better service, although this is not hard.
Telecom are "optimistic" about the ADSL speed - at best it is half the rated speed. To make it even better, our area in Chch is infested with students and Teleocm allow (IIRC) 10 or 20 people to the 2mb chunk - ie they sell you the capacity, but you are not supposed to use it. Of course this is a load of BS, where you have lots of students, many from countries with broadband (unlike NZ) and running Torrnet files flat out.
Geoff

The minute upload allowance also means it cripples your download speed - packet acknowledgements and requests get lost, etc.

[Beemer]

You're lucky you can even get Broadband - where we live, it's not available! We've had phone trouble this week - lost the phone line (and internet connection) at 10.15am Wednesday (after it being off for a time on Tuesday afternoon as well) and got it back at 6.03pm Thursday! Had it working fine on Friday and then this morning it was clicking badly and kept dropping the internet connection. Rang Telecom for about the gazillionith time at 10am and finally got the problem sorted at 5pm! Initially they told me it was an electric fence - bullshit, we may live in the country but our nearest fence is about half a km away and it has never caused any problems before!

I asked them about Broadband and was told that we were about 1km outside the limit, so I'm stuck with dial-up for the forseeable future. At least they seem to have taken us off the zero plus two (or something like that!) line we were on - basically like an old party line but you don't get to listen in on other people's calls! Tonight the dial-up seems so fast compared to what it has been like - usually about 24kbps!

[sunhuntin]

trying to connect to broadband, but they never asked us for an email to send the logon and password to. so needless to say im less than impressed. hopefully itll get sorted tomorrow. till then ill stick with dialup.

[Blackbird]

Well, credit where credit is due, there was an email waiting for me from Telecom saying they'll send a technician to fully check everything out and are prepared to do a house re-wire - relevant bit from their email folows:

"Now if you have tried some new filters and you’re still experiencing this problem where the ADSL signal won’t sync up, then there must be too much noise on the phone line somewhere with the wiring of your home. If this is the problem I would like to arrange for a full connection and wiring to be done to your home. This would mean you would not need to use filters and the connection would perform at its best. We are willing to credit you for the cost of this."
At least it shows that they're trying to solve my problems in a prompt and professional manner. They seem to be really getting their act together - maybe because of loss of market share, but I'm well pleased at this stage. Will make a final post when the deed is done!

[Beemer]

You're lucky, how's this for pathetic - when I rang on Saturday to report the clicking on the line, the girl I spoke to said she could see we had been without service for more than 24 hours so when our service was fully restored, I could ring back and ask to be credited with a free month's line rental. I said I would like to request that credit be actioned now, but was told no, I had to ring back later to ask for it! Considering I have phoned them more than 10 times from my mobile in the past week, I have no desire to be put on hold yet again, so will put my complaint in writing or email it to them.

[Blackbird]

You're lucky, how's this for pathetic - when I rang on Saturday to report the clicking on the line, the girl I spoke to said she could see we had been without service for more than 24 hours so when our service was fully restored, I could ring back and ask to be credited with a free month's line rental.

Sounds like double standards apply here. When our phone went on the blink, my wife was told directly that we would get the line rental directly credited - none of this waiting.

Feeling a bit pathetic myself this arvo My wife is in the UK for 3 weeks so I've had a weekend working my butt off painting at our bach. Got back to Tokoroa after a great ride home to find a dismembered duck inside the house, courtesy of one of the cats, then a big patch on a spare bed where it decided it didn't like duck after all. Right, strip off the duvet cover and chuck it in the washing machine along with the weekend's clothes. Full load and the machine packs up. Bet something is stuck in the pump. My wife knows how to unjam it courtesy of the repair man last time. I don't.

What with the sodding Internet and this afternoons' disasters, it isn't my week

[Karma]

You're lucky, how's this for pathetic - when I rang on Saturday to report the clicking on the line, the girl I spoke to said she could see we had been without service for more than 24 hours so when our service was fully restored, I could ring back and ask to be credited with a free month's line rental. I said I would like to request that credit be actioned now, but was told no, I had to ring back later to ask for it! Considering I have phoned them more than 10 times from my mobile in the past week, I have no desire to be put on hold yet again, so will put my complaint in writing or email it to them.

Sounds like the got one of the new staff... they've been undertaking a lot of recruitment recently... the quality of service really depends at the moment on who you get put through to on the phone

[Lias]

I'll have to go with the others and declare "Ihug Uber Alles".

I've been with them for ~8 years now, and whilst they've have a few niggles in that time, on the whole they've been very good to deal with. In that time I've also had 2x xtra DSL connections, Chello Cable, and Paradise Cable, and ihug has the best support out of that lot imo. I've got no idea how Parasite used win best ISP awards becauses all my experiences with them (bar the one time I got a guy I knew IRL on the phone) left me in the mood to cruise down to their helpdesk with a blowtorch and a pair of pliers.

[Beemer]

Sounds like the got one of the new staff... they've been undertaking a lot of recruitment recently... the quality of service really depends at the moment on who you get put through to on the phone

Yes, a couple of them were really switched on and did what they promised, but one didn't do anything and just told me that if they said the phone line would be restored by 4.30pm, then IT WOULD BE. I had called at 2.30pm to check on the progress of the repairs and she was really rude and didn't bother checking with the service crew. I rang back at 4.35pm to report the phone still wasn't working and was told the fault had been fixed hours earlier (probably before I rang the first time) and it was too late to send anyone out that day, so we had to wait until the morning.