Orcon says product demand caused poor customer service

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Thu, 01 Sep 2011 6:05p.m.

Orcon call-centres have been over-run

Orcon call-centres have been over-run

By David Farrier

Customers of internet provider Orcon are still having to wait, days in some cases, to get glitches sorted out with a new service called ‘Genius’.

It offers an all-in-one broadband and landline connection, but demand has been higher than expected and call centres are unable to cope with the requests for help.

A simple website has been set up, clocking up the days one Christchurch customer ‘Tim’ has been without an internet connection.

“When someone changes broadband providers we have to rejumper the cabling in the exchange. Eight percent of that goes wrong due to human error, that's what's happened with Tim, but with Tim we didn't fix that in an acceptable timeframe,” says Orcon’s Scott Bartlett.

Part of the reason why is because six weeks ago Orcon launched Genius, a product which looks like a phone but uses the internet to make calls instead of a phone line.

It proved so popular, with over 10,000 units ordered, Orcon call-centres have been over-run.

“So we've hired another 40 people into our call centres and been bringing those on over the last two weeks,” says Mr Bartlett.

Programmer and blogger Ben Gracewood says Orcon simply wasn't prepared for the influx, but notes that the ones doing the plugging in, Chorus, are also to blame.

“The changes with ADSL in New Zealand have been atrocious for years. I have not met a person who has changed houses and had to change services smoothly, and that's Chorus' fault,” he says.

Orcon says Tim has been sorted out today, so tonight he'll be able to watch all the cat videos on YouTube he wants.

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Comments

12 Oct 2011 06:35p.m.

Auckland Resident wrote:

The only time to get through to Orcon quickly is when they open at 8am. Try 0800 131415 or actually 0800564687 gets answered faster as it's aimed at new customers. Appalling service when we joined them this month - it took them a month to get our new connection going in our new house only after I told them that they needed to connect the two telephone cables from our house to the cable next to them from the exchange! Pretty important this but not something that Orcon had thought to check! Don't bother trying to call them when you get home from work, unless you have an hour or so to kill or you like their on-hold music, which I have started humming to myself. I emailed a complaint to them and was told 7 days before I would get a reply! I also wrote to their CEO Scott Bartlett at the physical address on their website and so we shall see if I get a reply. I would recommend everyone write to Scott so that the message of appalling customer service gets through. They clearly have a long way to go as the they have simply decided to market something that they do not have the backing to support and because it's a good deal, us kiwi's appear to have taken to it in our thousands!

15 Sep 2011 07:46a.m.

Jane wrote:

On 6th September 2011 I had my new Orcon Genius connected. It has een a mission since then to get my phone connected. I am sure when I applied it would have been checked out before my phone was dissconnected that this wasgoing to work. I was told at the time of application it was all good. I now have had no phone for 9 days despite trying everyday to get it sorted. Being left high and dry is not a great feelind when you rely on your phone for work and family. I am appalled at the service as no one wants to be responsible for any problem caused and take appropiate action. Yesterday my phone was to be connected, but I am still waiting. The stress is simply not worth it believe me!! I have been with this company since 2007 but I have doubts that I will stay once I get a phone to get out of it somewhere where they can be relied on to give the service they promise.
My cell phone died last night from overheating trying to get Orcon to answer. I sat waiting from 6.15pm to 8.10pm to get a person to answer, I am still waiting. Any confidence I had in Orcon has been lost now, as they have made life pretty hard for me.

03 Sep 2011 05:24p.m.

Mike B wrote:

Wish we'd never changed over. The changeover left us without phone, internet or alarm monitoring for 4 days. Once connected the line speed's been apalling (0.2Mbs), and calling their Helpline just gets worse. Now talked to 4 different people over 2 weeks, been told 4 different stories, no promised callbacks made, and now told they still can't tell me when they'll look at it or have it fixed. Going back to TelstraClear asap - avoid Orcon like the plague!

02 Sep 2011 02:31p.m.

Angry Orcon Customer wrote:

This is all news to me. I haven't had the internet for 23 days now and Orcon didn't even have the decency in any of the many phonecalls in the past 3 weeks to explain that there is a known fault with their service at the moment. The helpline people are admittedly always polite but extremely unhelpful and never ring you back when they say will.

02 Sep 2011 01:18p.m.

Amelia wrote:

We have now been waiting nealry 4 weeks and STILL WAITING for Orcon to set us up (we have the modem). I can not count how much time I have spent on the phone with various Orcon staff members including people in Australian call centres that dont even work for Orcon!They have repeatedly promised us different set up dates and have yet to live up to their word and I have completely lost faith in the company and see no point staying with them as they have yet to inform us of why we are not connected. I even waited around last night for a technician to come around....which one never did. Although we are still with out internet Orcon does have the time to send us a months bill!!

02 Sep 2011 09:27a.m.

Catherine wrote:

Lucky Tim has only been missing his internet connection; my sister signed up with Orcon three weeks ago and has been without a phone line as well as the internet. Still waiting to get her phone line back.

01 Sep 2011 11:34p.m.

Michael wrote:

Signed up for orcon over a month ago, the website advised it should be set up within 10 working days. After a few weeks I had heard nothing tried numerous times to contact orcon but the phone lines were overloaded and advised to call back later. I eventually get through and the order had not progressed due to a processing issue. I was told however It would be prioritized. I received the modem 5 days later and chorus made the associated changes however there was a fault with the modem so another was sent to me and tonight I installed it to still find I cannot connect to the net! Absolutely sick of calling orcon and waiting a minimum of 30 minutes to speak to someone. Not impressed. Thank god for my mobile phone and iPad 3G connection otherwise I would be in the dark ages. Over 1 month and still waiting...

01 Sep 2011 11:30p.m.

Knowledge wrote:

Obviously NO ONE has heard of 2talk.co.nz. Up and running for years providing the Voip platform for ANY ADSL connection.

01 Sep 2011 07:18p.m.

Peter Casey wrote:

WAITED 3 WEEKS!! We had been with Orcon for about a year with no problems and good communication until recently we moved house and have moved onto the new Genius system. We gave a weeks notice of the move and told it wld take 5 to 10 days for it to be up and running. We got a text on the Monday following our move on the Friday to say it was up and running, but nothing wld work and thats when all the problems started. Countless phone calls where were made had with often waiting up to an hour for a representative to answer, it took 3 weeks to sort out the problem, however the technicians were helpful and polite, no one seemed to be able to figure out why it wasnt working. After 2 and a half weeks a chorus technician was sent out, but he said everything at the house was hooked up right, then by pure luck he noticed the Orcon box on the computer table. He asked were we with Orcon and when we said yes he said on his sheet it showed the exchange had hooked the house up to Vodafone. After Orcon was told it still took another 4 days to fix the problem and finally 3 WEEKS later...we finally had internet and phone. This was obviously a chorus human error however it should not have taken 3 weeks to fix the problem. No apology or compensation has been offered by Orcon which is disappointing as we have had to use our mobiles to make calls etc...and now those bills are a lot higher for the month.

01 Sep 2011 06:59p.m.

key wrote:

If you live in the Auckland or Northland region, Australian company Visionstream changes the exchange jumpers to connect broadband.Perhaps it is due to the dictatorial draconian contracts they have with their owner operator contractors.BTW it is an easy job to move some wires in an exchange and then solder them, no excuse there.