A group of about 50 angry residents from "The Green" in Brighton, Western Australia recently demanded a meeting with their developer and Telstra over extensive delays in getting connected to Velocity - Telstra's Fibre to the Home product.
According to one of the attendees, the meeting - which was held on the 30th of June - turned out to be "more of a lynch mob with lots of angry people yelling abuse." He said, "one resident has been waiting since December last year for their connection."
The outcome from the meeting is that existing residents were promised their connection within the next 2 weeks (by 14th of July) and those without a TV service would be given a temporary antenna at Telstra's cost. Anyone who had already paid for their own antenna would be reimbursed by Telstra provided they showed proof of purchase and only after Telstra had investigated the installation.
Telstra had previously provided residents a temporary telephone service in lieu of their permanent fibre based telephone, but they "had not been offered an alternative broadband service up until now". At the meeting Telstra relented to the residents demands and offered to provide - to those who wanted it - a temporary internet service delivered over NextG wireless.
With the two weeks expired as of tomorrow a number of ONTs have been installed, but according to the residents they don't appear to have active services. After two telephone calls to the Velocity helpline, on Thursday my contact was still waiting for his temporary antenna, but it had been "promised to be installed today [Thursday]". He said "no ONT had yet turn up yet [on his house]; looks like this week might be a busy week for Telstra".
Moving on from Brighton another Telstra Velocity estate in the southern Perth suburb of Harrisdale - Herron Park - is also having issues with installations. My contact at this estate (who also happens to be my best friend) has been given the run around. He ordered his service four weeks ago and was promised an installation time on the morning of the 8th of July. In accordance with the ACMA Customer Service Guarantee, all Telecommunication companies must give a 4 hour appointment window and met that appointment or pay [a nominal] compensation to the home owner.
On Wednesday [9th July] he called the specialised Telstra Velocity help line to find out what was going on; he is moving in this weekend and needs to ensure he at least has a telephone service. Telstra told him they "don't know why the appointment was not kept" and blamed their contractor [name supplied] as the responsible party. "We [Telstra] will have [the contractor] contact you to arrange another appointment time".
On Thursday he made another call to the Velocity help line for an update and this time was given a name of a different contractor. He was then promised the sub-contractor actually doing the install (for which he was given the name) would call him. Telstra did inform him that there were "three homes in the estate with active services".
As of today, he is still waiting for these calls and still waiting for his service. Hopefully these delays are just minor glitches as Telstra ramps up its installation teams.
According to one of the attendees, the meeting - which was held on the 30th of June - turned out to be "more of a lynch mob with lots of angry people yelling abuse." He said, "one resident has been waiting since December last year for their connection."
The outcome from the meeting is that existing residents were promised their connection within the next 2 weeks (by 14th of July) and those without a TV service would be given a temporary antenna at Telstra's cost. Anyone who had already paid for their own antenna would be reimbursed by Telstra provided they showed proof of purchase and only after Telstra had investigated the installation.
Telstra had previously provided residents a temporary telephone service in lieu of their permanent fibre based telephone, but they "had not been offered an alternative broadband service up until now". At the meeting Telstra relented to the residents demands and offered to provide - to those who wanted it - a temporary internet service delivered over NextG wireless.
With the two weeks expired as of tomorrow a number of ONTs have been installed, but according to the residents they don't appear to have active services. After two telephone calls to the Velocity helpline, on Thursday my contact was still waiting for his temporary antenna, but it had been "promised to be installed today [Thursday]". He said "no ONT had yet turn up yet [on his house]; looks like this week might be a busy week for Telstra".
Moving on from Brighton another Telstra Velocity estate in the southern Perth suburb of Harrisdale - Herron Park - is also having issues with installations. My contact at this estate (who also happens to be my best friend) has been given the run around. He ordered his service four weeks ago and was promised an installation time on the morning of the 8th of July. In accordance with the ACMA Customer Service Guarantee, all Telecommunication companies must give a 4 hour appointment window and met that appointment or pay [a nominal] compensation to the home owner.
On Wednesday [9th July] he called the specialised Telstra Velocity help line to find out what was going on; he is moving in this weekend and needs to ensure he at least has a telephone service. Telstra told him they "don't know why the appointment was not kept" and blamed their contractor [name supplied] as the responsible party. "We [Telstra] will have [the contractor] contact you to arrange another appointment time".
On Thursday he made another call to the Velocity help line for an update and this time was given a name of a different contractor. He was then promised the sub-contractor actually doing the install (for which he was given the name) would call him. Telstra did inform him that there were "three homes in the estate with active services".
As of today, he is still waiting for these calls and still waiting for his service. Hopefully these delays are just minor glitches as Telstra ramps up its installation teams.
2 comments:
- At 14 July, 2008 10:25 Anonymous said...
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I hear brightons full of Iphone loving old people anyway
- At 14 July, 2008 14:49 Anonymous said...
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I find it amusing that Satterly decided to oust Broadcast Engineering and E-Wire after years of faithful delivery in what was once a Telstra-free area for broadband services. Now they get to experience the over promise and under deliver mode of operation from Telstra. There are a laundry list of developers who have chosen to listen to the empty promise that is Telstra and suffer the exact same fate.
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