Thought id share with the community a good news story about how i went about resolving an NBN speed issue and hope that anyone having similar problems can use this as a blueprint of what to do and how to push these big companies to stop taking advantage of us little people.
I connected to the NBN with a speed boost plan of 100/40. During off peak times i'd be getting 95/37 consistently. Perfect. As soon as peak times came along, although my download was always fine, my upload speed dropped off a cliff to on average 0.8. literally just went from 37 to 0.8 in the pace of a minute...like someone flicked a switch. at times that upload speed dropped to 0.2 and then last weekend it dropped to 0.00.
most people only care about download and my download speed was excellent...why is the upload a problem ? (i didn't know !!)
no online gaming for the kids
home phone wouldn't work properly
no video conferencing or facetime
no emails getting sent
even basic web browsing took like 20seconds to load a page.
this occurred from day 1 and i went through the normal channels and kept getting the run around by some bloke in India or Bangladesh who had no idea. At first i was even told that "its just congestion"...as if that was a reasonable explanation.
It was referred to nbn numerous times and these muppets just tested it in non-peak times and would close the case saying "no issue found". this went on for weeks on some stupendously obnoxious merry-go-round. I got fed up with it and emailed Andrew Penn, Telstra CEO and as a result of this I got a CEO case manager who through this whole process has been excellent from a customer service perspective.
Even with that, progress was painfully slow and no end in sight. I lodged a case with the telecommunications ombudsman. Still little progress. I wrote to Mitch Fifield, Communications minister and my local member of parliament. I emailed Andrew Penn my speed updates every day for a while. I tweeted him about how crap my connection was.
Happy to say that just this past week, the NBN found some obscure fault with the amplifiers on the node; undertook the work and bingo...connection improved immediately. its not yet fully fixed cos they ran out of parts (?!?!), but we're on the right track and I can now use the internet again.
Lessons learnt as a consumer ?
Take notes of who you speak to and when
Keep records of your speeds at different times using speedtest.net.
DON'T GIVE UP or accept pathetic service that YOU pay for
Get on record that you want a full refund of the time your internet was down
Harrass them incessantly until they resolve your problem. I emailed or called them EVERY DAY.
DON'T wait to report to the ombudsman, report it as soon as you can and get a case number
Email Andrew Penn and make a complaint https://service.telstra.com.au/customer/general/forms/contact-ceo-form
If you get no satisfaction, write to the Minister. http://www.minister.communications.gov.au/mitch_fifield
Contact your local member of parliament
Tweet your dissatisfaction to @andy_penn. he may not read it but someone is monitoring this social media all the time.
I know this soudns onerous and it was painful but you just have to have your facts.
if this hadn't been resolved id have no problem going to radio, going to the PM, lodging a case with the small claims tribunal... whatever it took. i'll be damned if im going to accept the fact that i pay my hard earned money to telstra and they don't provide what i pay for.
in saying all this...I have to commend telstra for their efforts to help me, i have to say i was surprised by how much effort they put into this from their end once i got a case manager. but they are unfortunately in the position where they are our go-between to the NBN. The NBN ? as far as im concerned that organisation is a disgrace. a pack of incompetents who treat customers with utter contempt and act as if they are above the law.
In short...get stuck in !! Dont let them bully you aroudn and ignore you. Dont bother with these forums alone and just randomly complaining. Take it to the next level...respectfully but intensely.
Hope this helps someone or motivates you to refuse to accept mediocrity. unfortunately, the more noise you make. the more likely you are to get a resolution. it shoudnt be this way, but looks like it is. if you don't, you're just one small voice and they can easily ignore you. Good luck !!
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