NBN Issue

[Different kind of Rabbit]

Does anyone here actually know how to get through to these people if you have an issue?

I bought a house around 18 months ago and at the time I was told that it had been rented out for the previous two years and that the tenants had got the NBN connected, so the house was NBN ready.

At my previous house, I had Cable broadband supplied by Telstra through the Foxtel cable. When I moved into the new house I found that I could still be connected in this way and that the connection speed was as quick as the NBN. The cable connection was also cheaper and so I decided to stay with it.

At the beginning of the year I heard about a new provider called My Republic who charge a flat rate $60 for unlimited data and top speed. I thought this was a decent deal and so I signed up. They contacted the NBN co and were told that I was set up to go and so they sent out a modem and gave me the go ahead to connect.

Problem is that unbeknownst to the previous owner or I, the people who rented my house from the previous owner, had taken most of the NBN equipment with them.

So for the previous six months, I've been talking with this My Republic mob, trying to get them to send out someone from the NBN co to fix the issue. Seems that NBN are ok when dealing with new connections but can't get their head around the fact that they need to come out and supply me with just the parts of my connection that are missing. Its not that I'm trying to get it done for free... I've told them I will pay for whatever I need, they just flat out don't seem to have the systems place to come out and provide a partial connection. Luckily, during this time I've maintained my Telstra cable connection and so I haven't been without internet. Last Friday I received an SMS on Friday from Telstra to tell me that they are cutting off cable broadband in my area at the end of next week. This is literally the first I've heard of it and I now have one week to sort it out.

I had a chat to Telstra last week to see if they could get some traction with the NBN co for me, but they seem to be hitting the same brick wall as My Republic and so it seems that I am stuck.

Anyone had a similar situation? Did you manage to find a way out of it?

 

[Captain Apollo]

Man that really sucks.

The Telstra issue is probably because the NBN has been in the area of your new house for 18 months. After the NBN has been in an area for 18 months, all ISPs have to move you to an NBN connection and disconnect non-NBN supplied ones. The ISPs have no choice in that matter as it is mandated by law.

AS to the NBN, having looked at their website, it appears they only deal with ISPs direct. No help I know.

If your ISP can't get through to them,only other thing I can suggest would be to try the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman - https://www.tio.com.au/

Going by the complaints they do look handle, yours would appear to be within their remit. You can contact them by phone, e-mail, fax or even snail mail - https://www.tio.com.au/about-us/contact-us

Their phone lines are open 9.00 am to 5.30 pm (AEST) Monday to Friday.

Hope that is of some help to you.

 

[Parra]

That does suck.

The whirlpool forums are a wealth of knowledge http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/142

 

[Incorrect]

Yeah the whirlpool forums will probably have an answer for you on this - there's not many ISP and NBN questions you won't find answers to on that board....

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

Yeah, I was aware that the ISP is the one who contacts the NBN direct. Considering My Republic were brand new to the country I thought that part of my problem was that they had a stack of new connections and not enough people to deal with them. After a few stints of waiting on hold for an hour at a time I sort of dropped off chasing them. After all, I had a working connection anyway so I figured it was their loss and not mine.

Now that I'm confronted with this deadline, I thought I'd try to see if Telstra could get more traction but it appears that the ISP wasn't the problem... Its the NBN co itself that seems to be completely useless.

Ftr, when Telstra inquired as to the status of the connection at my house, NBN co reports that it is complete and fully operational so, even after several months of trying, it seems that we haven't even been able to register an actual issue with them.

Think I may just have to get the ombudsmen involved...

 

[Twizzle]

what actually did they take with them ?

what are you missing ?

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

what actually did they take with them ?

what are you missing ?

Judging by what the guy next door has, they took the connection box plus the power supply and back up.

All I have left is the utility box that is located outside.

All of that is supplied by the NBN co when they set up the connection.

Once they connect a property they update their system to reflect that the property is connected and it seems that it's almost impossible to have this status reversed.

 

[Front-Rower]

What type of NBN connection is at the house? HFC (pay tv cable), Fibre to the home or Fibre to the node (phone line).

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

Fibre to the home

 

[Dogs Of War]

It is now up to Telstra to work the problem. I would ensure that something is logged with Telstra to follow up (get a reference number), and the ombudsmen notified of your difficulties to date, and the Telstra reference as well.

Telstra are the ones that have to push your case as NBN is only a wholesaler, so without going via Telstra you won't have any proper references to track what is going to be done. It may be up to Telstra to supply the equipment if it is missing. They would have recourse for get the money back from NBN if they choose to do so.

I'm an ex-NBN person. I know how a lot of stuff works behind the scenes, so just saying this is the best/ONLY approach to get anything happening.

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

It is now up to Telstra to work the problem. I would ensure that something is logged with Telstra to follow up (get a reference number), and the ombudsmen notified of your difficulties to date, and the Telstra reference as well.

Telstra are the ones that have to push your case as NBN is only a wholesaler, so without going via Telstra you won't have any proper references to track what is going to be done. It may be up to Telstra to supply the equipment if it is missing. They would have recourse for get the money back from NBN if they choose to do so.

I'm an ex-NBN person. I know how a lot of stuff works behind the scenes, so just saying this is the best/ONLY approach to get anything happening.

Thank you.

 

[Front-Rower]

Fibre to the home

Did they rip the NTD and PSU from the wall? What has happened to the fiber running into the NTD? Is it just dangling?

I'm surprised that NBN Co hasn't gone after the previous tennants as that equipment doesn't belong to them, it should stay at the property it is installed.

 

[Parra]

Why would the tenants do this?

What is in it for them?

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

Did they rip the NTD and PSU from the wall? What has happened to the fiber running into the NTD? Is it just dangling?

I'm surprised that NBN Co hasn't gone after the previous tennants as that equipment doesn't belong to them, it should stay at the property it is installed.

I have no idea what they did with the NTD and PSU. I think wherever it was and however it was connected to the wall was covered up as the previous owner refurbed the place before he sold it to me. All the holes were patched, walls have been painted and new carpet put down.

The fiber running to the NTD is just left dangling under the house. This is what fooled me because if you look at the connection on the outside of the house, it looks like it is complete. There is fiber running in and out of it but the fiber running out goes a few metres under the house and then its been cut.

Why would the tenants do this?

What is in it for them?

I have no idea... I can only think that they felt that since they had the connection put on at the house when they were renting it, that the stuff installed inside the house belonged to them.

Either that or the previous owner potentially didn't like the look of it and he ripped it out when he refurbed the place. I've spoken to him about it recently and he told me he had no idea what happened but there's always the potential that he fed me a line of bullshit.

Anyway... I've made some progress in the last day or two. After threatening Telstra that I would get a wireless connection with Optus if they couldn't help me out, I got bumped from one person to another for a bit until I eventually ended up speaking to some head of department or something.

Whatever she was, she was very good. She told me that as long as we had an NBN order in place, that they wouldn't nuke my previous connection until everything was all sorted. She then went on to tell me that they could match my previous plan for data allowance and price as a special arrangement as long as I signed up for a contract, which I did.

So it looks, at this stage, like Telstra have fixed it.

 

[justdave]

Shit, that's a great deal with Telstra. Well done

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

So I get home yesterday to find that my connection has been cut off. Ring Telstra and they tell me that it's because I now have NBN and everything should be ok. I haven't heard anything at all from the NBN co or Telstra about getting someone out. I proceed to tell the bloke on the other end of the line my story and that surely what is happening should be somewhere in the notes that are against my account.

After 20 minutes of being put on hold he comes back to tell me that he can see that I don't have an active connection... Thanks Einstein... And that he needs to talk to the NBN co. So he puts me on hold for another 20 minutes and comes back to tell me that they are waiting for "proof of residence" before they book someone in to come and look at my missing connection. Would be great if someone would have mentioned this to me at some point.

I asked him if its possible to re-connect my cable access and he politely tells me that he cannot and that "the NBN is better anyway". I'm sure its fantastic but it seems it would be far simpler and easier to connect to the internet via a cable made completely out of Unicorn hair then it is to actually connect to the NBN.

The saga continues... f**k I hate Telstra.

 

[Incorrect]

So I get home yesterday to find that my connection has been cut off. Ring Telstra and they tell me that it's because I now have NBN and everything should be ok. I haven't heard anything at all from the NBN co or Telstra about getting someone out. I proceed to tell the bloke on the other end of the line my story and that surely what is happening should be somewhere in the notes that are against my account.

After 20 minutes of being put on hold he comes back to tell me that he can see that I don't have an active connection... Thanks Einstein... And that he needs to talk to the NBN co. So he puts me on hold for another 20 minutes and comes back to tell me that they are waiting for "proof of residence" before they book someone in to come and look at my missing connection. Would be great if someone would have mentioned this to me at some point.

I asked him if its possible to re-connect my cable access and he politely tells me that he cannot and that "the NBN is better anyway". I'm sure its fantastic but it seems it would be far simpler and easier to connect to the internet via a cable made completely out of Unicorn hair then it is to actually connect to the NBN.

The saga continues... f**k I hate Telstra.

We recently moved house and I went through the whole "moving house" process that Telstra have on their website, 8 weeks in advance, gave them plenty of notice, spoke to them several times in the lead up to make sure they disconnected the old phone and internet at the former residence on date X and to activate the new phone and internet on the same day - "Yes sir, not aproblem, we have all the details here and you don't have to worry about anything"....do you reckon it all went according to plan?

4 days and multiple phone calls to our case manager later, no internet, no phone... My missus had arranged to work from home the first week we were to move in to the new house but wasn't able to... they ended up telling me to go to a Telstra shop where we would be given a complimentary 4G dongle with 300GB allowance to cover us in the interim. The dongle is actually faster than the ADSL2 connection they finally managed to deliver (NBN won't be available in our neighbourhood until April 2018).

Of all the things we were organising prior to moving - such as disconnecting water, gas, electricity, arranging removalists, getting furniture delivered, settling contracts on time etc etc - Telstra and their not f**king up activating our internet connection at the new place was my biggest concern - it turns out my concerns were completely justified... useless...

 

[Generalzod]

Fibre to the home

Liucky you Rabbit where scheduled for FTTC next April.

 

[Pommy]

Off topic slightly but does anyone know if it's true that a new build in a fibre area gets fibre to the door as standard?

 

[Twizzle]

what is a fibre area ?