Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Saffa's Can't Fix It


About 14 months ago, I embarked on naked broadband with iiNet. Charmed partly by their Irish advertising campaign but moreso by well priced naked, superfast, broadband. It's not been as fast as I expected but for the first 8 months was reliable and consistent. Not so since October 2009.

I am engaging in battle with my
internet provier iiNet.. . get Naked Broadband, they tempted . .Its available in your area they said . .I did . .super fast they said . .it isn't and after 7 months of intermittent access and hours of helldesk enquiries over my mobile phone, I am beginning to develop a serious dislike of very polite but useless Saffas because that's where their internet helpdesk is based. Nice enough helldeskers but after three onsite visits from varying technicians they've dropped me like a hot potato.

"
Yoor too far awoi frum thi local serva" says Sharia . ."Theers nothink wrung weeth yer loin so we carnt do much maw for yew!"

What! I live in the suburbs of Sydney I have three exchanges within 6
kms of home and my internet drops out frequently. My so called 'high speed naked broadband' has as much charm as a hooker patrolling the Great Western Highway just outside Penrith wearing last night's hotpants and I wish, was as fast as said hooker engaging in a $20 blow job!

So . .the task begins. Looking for an economical provider who will give me constant, uninterrupted broadband for $80 a month. Any recommendations? Because
iiNet have sold me a service they can't provide and I'm up in arms. War has been declared. I'm attempting to get a refund for the last six months because I haven't had reliable service and they sold me something they can't deliver. Illegal, wrong and frustrating. My apologies for such infrequent visits. Time for a class action against the saffa faakers.

I get all set up with a nice
coldie, log in and generally watch little icons spin slowly before . ."connection interrupted"

iiNet, I hate you. You sold me a product that is not serviceable in my area under false pretences and if you don't fix it in the next week . .I'm , I'm I'm ..going to . . . report you to . . Fuck me to Friday . .to whom do you report an ISP who doesn't deliver?

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dunno what's available down under, luv. I had the problem of not being able to get the same provider I recently had( something about they didn't want to spend all that money on new infrastructure )BOLLOCKS! We're now paying almost double the ( monopolised ) rate!!!

Cathy said...

Try these people - we've been with them for years and always had good sevice. $49 unlimited
Don't know if they are NSW tho' - SA, Vic and Qld definitely
No I'm not associated with them in any way - apart from being a customer

Cathy said...

Helps if you leave the link lol

http://www.chariot.net.au/

i beati said...

same problem here with a co- they advertise big deliver little.send me some good job vibes . i must get a job must must must.

Alan Burnett said...

Not only who do report them to, but how do you report them if your internet isn't working. At least we have decent broadband providers here in the UK - but it is a much smaller area to cover.

Brian Miller said...

ack. i got no clue...i dont know where my net comes from...its not my neighbors...think some spy satelite has just graced me with net...

hokgardner said...

We used to have terrible internet service from our old provider, which had a monopoly here in Austin. But then a second company came to two, and we switched. THings have been lovely ever since. But there's little that's more frustrating than not being able to get online.

Roy said...

Hmmmmm... No clue about what's in Oz. Here in the US I've been using Verizon DSL since 2005 and have no complaints at all.

Grandad said...

You were charmed by their Irish advertising campaign? It's no wonder you were conned. Hah!

Janice said...

I share your frustration. Those spinning icons followed by a freeze drive me nuts.

xxx said...

:( sorry I know buggar all about internet providers... Cathy sounds like she's on to a good one.

JeffScape said...

Get 'em, Baino! Get 'em!

e said...

Find out who owns and runs the company and where it is actually registered and write them...Keep copies and take them to an attorney...that should get a refund, though I'm not sure how quickly.

Your local reference librarian can point you in the direction of any free legal resources in your area if there are any. It sounds like you've been scammed. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

Excellent post Baino and you do have my sympathies. This is a world wide problem. Service providers operate under license provided by the country's Government, generally following a large back-hander of a bribe to a Minister in Cabinet. This is where you must focus your actions. My point being that you call into question the granting of the license in the first place. This is how you must proceed. Contact the relevant Government department. Contact the department that's supposed to oversee standards in communications etc. and start making waves in those circles. Use Facebook too by setting up a 'group' to boycott the 'server'. It may be quite effective.

Tom said...

sic the kangeroos on 'em, mangy bastards.

Ronda Laveen said...

Totally know what you mean. We've had trouble staying connected to our broadband because the security system they provide with it is so high powered it disconnects constantly. I spend so much time just trying to connect that it is completely frustrating.

nick said...

My sympathies. We're with BT, staid but pretty reliable. We've only lost our broadband connection twice in four years, and the last time (yesterday) it was restored five minutes (yes, five minutes) after I reported the disconnect.

Unknown said...

Sorry Baino, the problem isn't with iiNet. It's with the shitty infrastructure all throughout the hills. The problem is the distance between you and the exchange. Changing to a different provider won't fix that. Try the telecommunications ombudsman but i'm pretty sure they will tell you the same thing.

Time to wait for Kevin and Conroy to give you super fast broadband from an unfunded National broadband Network ;) But you won't be able to view anything...

Susan at Stony River said...

I feel your pain. Vodaphone sold us a mobile "broadband" hookup which isn't broadband at all in our area, it's just a mobile-phone dialup connection. Vodaphone said, oh well if coverage hasn't reached you yet, it will in the next few weeks, expanding all the time! It was always the 'next few weeks'. A year later I got on the train and had the internet running on the laptop. There was a blip of broadband in Longford, another blip in Mullingar, and it finally came on full blast in Dublin. What liars -- but they know they're the only thing available in some places, so lucky them.

My current connection speed?
1.6 kbs, and that's flying, compared to most days.
:-(

Good luck getting set up with something new!

California Girl said...

Baino, I feel your pain but you're so fuckin' funny when you're in it.

Unknown said...

Mmmm - so frustrating! I have had problems with 3, optus and Telstra ..... I think they are all the same - just different levels of crapness!!!
Best of luck!

Megan said...

We were forced to switch during this move and so far we're glad of it. But it's only been ten days so who knows?

What on earth does the 'naked' part of it mean?

Sarah Lulu said...

Oh yes ...I too could be seduced by an Irish accent ...until reality hits.

We ...ouT here in rural oz ...went for ..

http://www.internode.on.net/

They have been ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC.

Can't say enough about how good it's been. My youngest son who lives with me ...is an IT Support Worker for the Dept. of Edu. and a gamer ...we had to have good.

It is good.

a. said...

boo!
when you pay for a service, you should receive said service. end of story.

kj said...

oooh i like it when you get pissed off! :)

frustrating. i'm glad you are going after justice and i know you will throw in some punishment too if you can.

slow internet service drives me crazy. i can't believe how happy i am with my iphone. i like that so much more than my local internet provider.

you go girl!

ps come on hells, you know you love me. why can't you say it? (heehee)

River said...

Post the same question in the editorial page of your local daily and weekend newspapers, to find out who provides fast reliable service to your neighbourhood. Lots of people may post replies which will give you an idea of who to sign up with. Or just contact every supplier you know about and ask them, what do they provide, how reliable are they, what does it cost, can you speak to any of their other customers? you don't want to be stuck with another lemon.

Baino said...

thanks guys, good tips all but Ryan hit the nail on the head. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. He lives about 1km closer to the exchange than me and has fewer problems. I like the plan I'm on, it's big and no extra charge if you exceed your upload/download limit, just get shaped until the next payday. I think we'll put up with it and lobby the Government who have been promising fast and national broadband for ages! I've had no internet for two nights until late last night and today, it's all tickety boo!

I haven't time for war or contact but I will be writing stern letters to the current Minister to pull his head out of his arse and get cracking with decent broadband instead of worrying about censorship!

Louise Bowers said...

I'm with unstranger. Only because he sounds very sexy.

Kath Lockett said...

We used iprimus in Adelaide and were happy with them and have been using tpg in Melbourne and are also happy.

Who do you complain to... hmmm, is there a telephonen ombudsman who might also dabble in online stuff?

Wally The Walrus said...

You complain to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

Internode will do something similar for a similar price. They also have very good reliability.

Anonymous said...

I have no idea what naked internet is... we only just got internet about a year back and now it only works when it wants to... and isn't censored of course ;0) I once put the word 'cock' in my post and was blocked for a week!! Today I have 'lesbianism' so dont be surprised if I disappear for a while!!

Lisa said...

We didn't like what we had so much, we went out and got another of the same one. Hoping two will improve the speed!??

You see here, we do not have any choice so we now each have their own broadband.

Jill from Killeny Glen said...

PURE FRUSTRATION!!
Many HATEFUL and ugly remarks sent to your RIP OFF server!

When we moved to the country we tried THREE different companies...LOSING money to each as they were ALL crooks and did not measure up to their high speed claims. We FINALLY...after TWO YEARS found one that is not that FAST but it is reliable.

Ed & Jeanne said...

Naked Broadband? That would work for me since I never...err...nevermind...

Anonymous said...

How maddening. Good luck with your search.

Unknown said...

Hello, I have a question concerning English language. We were doing a mock exam and there was a task, where a text was separated to lines and we had to tick out the correct ones and there was only 1 mistake per line. In the text Sydney was spelled as Sidney and I corrected it to Sydney but that line was correct. Does your city have multiple ways of spelling? Sorry if I am not eloquent enough but I am quite exhausted.

Anonymous said...

Why would Irish advertising attract you???

Baffled of Co Dublin

Mrsupole said...

Good luck, just freaking keep complaining to the local paper and put a complaint with a link to them on your sidebar and then see if it gets fixed with you not having to do the complaining. If it is on your sidebar then others can complain for you and screw the company.

We get our internet through our cable company and so it is fast and fairly reliable. It has gone out and they usually fix it quickly, but it has gone out for weeks at a time only a few times. I just take my laptop to my sister's house who has a different cable company and use it there. Or I use the dial up through the phone company which takes forever. I am not sure of my speed other than I click and I am there in less than a second. Hubby says it is very fast. He knows because he works for phone company and installs DSL's all day. Fiberoptics is supposed to be really fast. See if you have a company who does that. Otherwise just do like I do when I use dial up, I keep at least 6 windows open and do something on one and while waiting for it to change, I go do something else on another and well you get the picture. Then it only sucks when I am stuck waiting for them all to change. Cable is click and I am there. I hate dial up but it is good to have as a back up.

God bless.

Darlene said...

I had trouble with my DSL server so I changed to cable. I never did get the promised refund from the first server, but it was still worth changing because I no longer have Internet problems and cable is faster.

Mike said...

I have a cable modem and it almost never goes out. Hard for me to say when I do not know what kind of services that you have!

Taffy's Mum said...

We had that problem when we signed up to a company offering 8 meg broadband a few years ago. Unfortunately it ended up being capped at 4 meg as it couldn't keep the speed up due to interference on the line as we were at the max from the exchange and it kept dropping OH in the middle of an important MOHAA match!!
We have since moved to Cable and have a faster more reliable service!

Have your ISP tried capping at a lower bandwidth for you?

Anonymous said...

Ha ha brilliant!! I found out I've the exact same problem last night - the local provider's no good because we're all of 4km outside the business end of their catchment area! Soo tired of being booted off the intersnot so regularly, especially during a royal flush in online poker games. Grrr.

Jay said...

How frustrating!! I feel for you.

We got a call from a local (well known) company the other day trying to sell us superfast broadband. OH spoke to them and asked for numbers. They sounded wonderful so he said, OK, on to the next step - which is where they take your location, check your line and give you the ACTUAL numbers they can actually, you know, deliver. They were ditchwater slow. Far, far worse than what we have now.

So many people listen to the sales pitch and get suckered. Sorry you were one of them. It, um, sucks.

Hope you get it sorted, or a new provider. I like reading your stuff!

lettuce said...

gits

i hope you find a better alternative quick quick