Poor performance from telecom

[Ian Batterbee]

I thought I'ld share this little experience with the list. I'm sure you've all had your share of fun with telecom.


So, I'm on the original jetstream starter 128k plan. On the 28th September, I decided to change that to 256k surf plan, so I rang telecom, and told them as much, and they replied with the the usual speech about how it wouldn't take effect until the next billing cycle, which would be the 20th of October.

So, all good.. just have to wait wait wait.

Yesterday the 20th comes along, and I'm all eager for more bandwidth, but nothing seems to have happened, so I gave them another call, and tell them I called several weeks ago to have it changed over, and they tell me my billing period isn't the 20th, it's actually the 8th, so it should have happened on the 8th of October, except that they had screwed up and not changed it at all, so after putting me on hold for a good 10 minutes (and their on-hold music is the worst I've ever heard), the guy comes back and apologises and says he's credited my account with 29.95, and the plan will change on the 8th November.

So I went to the jetstream usage page (which in retrospect, I should have checked a few weeks ago, because it shows the plan and billing period there) at https://jetstream-usage.telecom.co.nz/ and checked, and it still says that my current and new plan are both 'jetstream starter usage'.

Figured it might take their system a while to update, so I left it overnight and checked it again this morning. Still says the same thing, so I call them again, 0800 253 878, press 1 (yes, I'm a telecom customer), 5 (tech support) 1 (to continue), and then get to listen to lovely on hold music for 2-3 minutes before being told that a customer care representative will be with me in approximately 7 minutes.

Four minutes later I got a real live human, and explained the whole thing to him and asked him to check what it says at his end for my next plan. He said he couldn't 'get into the order at the moment becuase someone else was in it' (whatever that means), and told me that the jetstream-useage page may take up to a week to reflect the next period plan. (why ?).. he checked some more and said it was going through the stage where it is being processed, so I told him I'ld check again in a week.

So... here's hoping that telecom can actually succeed in carrying out something as simple as changing a jetstream plan.. at least on the 2nd or 3rd attempt.

[l***@ihug.co.nz]

Post by Ian Batterbee
Figured it might take their system a while to update, so I
left it overnight and checked it again this morning. Still
says the same thing, so I call them again, 0800 253 878,
press 1 (yes, I'm a telecom customer), 5 (tech support) 1
(to continue), and then get to listen to lovely on hold
music for 2-3 minutes before being told that a customer
care representative will be with me in approximately 7
minutes.

That's interesting. I called Telecom, not this number since
I'm not an Xtra customer so I called 123. Went through
whatever numbers and got put on hold. There was no music, no
voice telling me I was on hold, nothing. It just ringed for
a while and then silence. So I was left wondering if I was
on hold or there was something wrong with their system. It
turned out I was hold but why there was no indication I
don't know. This happened more then once (not same day) too.

Post by Ian Batterbee
Four minutes later I got a real live human, and explained
the whole thing to him and asked him to check what it says
at his end for my next plan. He said he couldn't 'get into
the order at the moment becuase someone else was in it'
(whatever that means), and told me that the
jetstream-useage page may take up to a week to reflect the
next period plan. (why ?).. he checked some more and said
it was going through the stage where it is being processed
, so I told him I'ld check again in a week.

A lot of people have observed strange behaviour with the
usage meter. In my case, it didn't start working until about
2 weeks after I first got service (actually I didn't check
it for a while so I only know for sure it started working
about 3 weeks after I got service). The good thing about
this was my billing date also didn't start until this time
so I got 2 weeks free.

[Ian Batterbee]

Post by l***@ihug.co.nz
That's interesting. I called Telecom, not this number since
I'm not an Xtra customer so I called 123. Went through
whatever numbers and got put on hold.

I'm not with xtra either.. 0800 253 878 is the jetstream helpdesk - I got it by calling 123 and before they transferred me, asked for the number.

I had some truely awful music the first time - it was really hissy and muffled, and just awful music as well.

I think they've sort-of changed my account over, as a traceroute shows I'm routing through global-gateway, and not orcon anymore - it was like that last week - a result of them trying to change it the first time I assume. They just forgot to change my traffic shaping, or tell me about it, or update the plan they have set for me in 'the system'.

As for the jetstream-usage page.. I can't believe they've had that horrible kludge up for so long now.. it's been there for years, and never really worked properly from day one, doesn't have any of the normal telecom look-and-feel, displays stats on a calendar month basis instead of for the billing period, and everyone complains that the numbers on there are wrong anyway.

I guess they expect that people will use their ISP's traffic tracking page instead.