Comments on: When NBN installs go wrong: A nightmare tale

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:53:50 +0000

Actually, you’re wrong. I’ve had -exactly- the same issue, many many people here in North lakes have, and it pretty much boils down to this:

Nbnco Installation Contractors are overbooking. And then, up to 12 hours before, cancelling the booking. or just not showing up at all. And then rebooking months into the future. The ISP has no control over this, at all. They make an appointment with NBNco, NBNCo then advises them when the next available appointment is. The ISPs have absolutely no control whatsoever.

And North lakes is not alone in this. There are many stories appearing online now, as the NBN rolls out, of installation horror stories. And I anticipate it will get worse. Sadly, nbn will not allow ISPs to actually install hte hardware themselves. So Until NBNCo gets their shizz together, its gonna get much worse.

By: Tinman_au

Tinman_au — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:05:43 +0000

Nice to see NBNCo wants to learn from issues like this.

I’m on the Gold Coast and (hopefully) we should have the rollout rolling in “within a year”. Is there anything I can do to help things go smoothly, or even speed things up, when that time comes around?

By: Tinman_au

Tinman_au — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:00:04 +0000

Should be “Seems the”

Need an edit button here Renai :o)

By: Tinman_au

Tinman_au — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 05:59:08 +0000

Seems to switch to Telstra didn’t go so well:

Andrew Devenish-Mear ‏@adm_76

Well done @telstra for loosing our online signup for services.

https://twitter.com/adm_76/status/250765659535974400

and he’s getting the NBN anyway:

https://twitter.com/adm_76/status/251125225746481152

By: seven_tech

seven_tech — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:53:54 +0000

@Belinda

Definitely. There’s been many thousands that have obviously been good. But it is an unfortunate rule of customer service:

A Satisfied customer will tell 3 other people
A Dissatisfied customer tells 10

NBNCo. just have to learn from this.

By: Belinda

Belinda — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:24:16 +0000

And for every bad install ….. How many good installs are there ?

….. but of course no-one ever writes a blog post about good installs – do they :)

Anyway I hope NBNCo and Internode learn from this experience.

By: Richard Ure

Richard Ure — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:02:29 +0000

It could and should result in an investigation as to how technology could be fashioned to ensure there is an audit trail for all these types of communications so responsibility for stuff ups can be sheeted home to the person responsible. There are going to be millions of connection issues over the next ten years and beyond and we now have the hardware (tablets) to capture this data.

By: Leefe

Leefe — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:13:34 +0000

Should read "would probably be more like it". (need sleep) Oh, and while you're at it, we need an internet filter to ban pipes of this nature. Someone think of those children who aspire to be plumbers, what sort of plumbing do you think they will want to install?

By: Leefe

Leefe — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:05:41 +0000

You know, something like this would be probable more like it.

By: Leefe

Leefe — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:02:59 +0000

I can see here what the problem was. Obviously he wanted to download the Internet to his computer. Aside from buying a couple of extra hard drives, what he should have done is call a plumber, to get bigger pipes installed. (Just following your lead :)

By: Ben Zemm

Ben Zemm — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:57:23 +0000

If you RTFA Internode came to the party and gave him a free NodeMobile 3G connection while he was waiting. (They wouldn’t give us free 3G when we were getting Internode ADSL at work where Telstra took four extra weeks of “transpositioning”, but they did give us free express post on it). For us NodeMobile was faster than NodeADSL. Go figure. (But way more expensive) (Blame Telstra for that one too)

So Internode was doing everything in their power to help him, then he shunned them and went with a competitor. The least he could have done was sign up with Internode ADSL!

By: Ben Zemm

Ben Zemm — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:50:23 +0000

What about from when it goes unconditional? You need insurance on a house you are buying before it settles, so why not start the paperwork for things that take time? *grumble*

By: seven_tech

seven_tech — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:07:28 +0000

@Jim James

No, the drop had been done by the previous owner. This was supposed to be the NTD install.

By: Jim James

Jim James — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:05:42 +0000

This could be an example where a property owner does not have the NBN supplied connection from the street to the house as part of the standard rollout in the street.
“The previous owners hadn’t had the drop fibre installed from the street to the property. We had checked it out and knew that before we exchanged contracts. Yes, it did mean an extra step for our install, but I wouldn’t have thought it was too big a deal, after all they’re still installing fibre around town.”

Did this previous owner stop the drop line connection?

By: seven_tech

seven_tech — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 08:29:49 +0000

Appears it may have been a genuine mistake and miscommunication according to Scott. Would love more details and some assurance it will be learn from.

Probably asking a bit too much though.

By: Michael Wyres

Michael Wyres — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 08:26:53 +0000

Meh, where’s that written?

For all we know, it’s a lazy/stupid/incompetent local contractor/installer who doesn’t bother to show up for work. Every organisation has one.

By: Ben Zemm

Ben Zemm — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 08:13:50 +0000

Same with me. Moved into an existing house but it took Telstra six weeks just to update the database with my phone number. The actual ADSL2+ install was done in a matter of days after that.

By: seven_tech

seven_tech — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 08:04:13 +0000

Does anyone know if utilities can be installed during settlement?

By: Karl

Karl — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:40:34 +0000

“I have heard anecdotes of 6 week+ delays getting ADSL hooked up.”
And now you can hear another. I moved house at the end of July, and my ADSL is finally being connected this Friday after it took Telstra until 17th Sept to connect the phone line.

By: Richard Ure

Richard Ure — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:10:00 +0000

Settlements rarely fail to happen; they may be delayed beyond the agreed date but that is rare too. The death of a party can cause problems but hat is not a common event. Too many other things can hang off a settlement for them not to be a bankable event.

Surely if the person seeking the benefit of the installation is prepared to pick up any costs if the settlement fails, the rules should permit the clocks to start ticking in a period which is otherwise dead time.