Orcon NZ Fibre Broadband Review

I just wanted to share a review of my interaction with Orcon NZ regarding my fibre broadband connection. Whilst the broadband (fibre) service itself was good, dealing with Orcon’s (Indian call centre?) helpdesk & accounts people was a nightmare. Also the way Orcon deal with their customers is as criminal as the people the associate themselves with to do their advertising (Why would a reputable ISP possibly want to associate themselves with a guy who’s famously on charge for internet based crime? [Kim Dotcom]).

So here’s what’s happened: I moved house 2 months before my fibre contract was due to finish. I rang Orcon to arrange early termination. The lady told me that as I had to give 30 days notice to terminate the connection. I was not able to terminate it now, but had to wait until exactly 30 days before it was due to expire. What a moron. That’s not how 30 days notice works.

Anyway, she then told me that as my fibre broadband contract was so close to expiring, she would waive the termination fee if I signed up for another year at the new house. I accepted the offer and made arrangements to meet the guy from Chorus who was to set up my new Orcon connection. He told me that it wasn’t possible at my new house without running wires across the street and that Orcon would call me to arrange a price for this.

Orcon did not call me. Instead they billed me $340 and started charging me each month for the use of “Orcons services”.

When I rang Orcon to see what this was about, I was told that the charge was the remainder of my bill from the previous month, plus $250 for not returning the modem (which was a Dick Smith style cheapo wifi router – probably worth $100 tops). They then told me that the $95 a month after that was for usage of Orcons services at my new residence which they hadn’t connected up 😕

Probably no one will ever read this review, but I figured I’d spend my time productively while on hold to Orcon’s account department while they look into my issue.

Update: Orcon finally agreed to refund my money, but I had to wait for a postal bag to arrive, send the router back, then wait for them to email to say the service is cancelled, then wait 5 days before ringing them back to organise the refund. Seems slightly odd that they can’t just refund it, then refund the rest once they receive the router – I hope it’s not just something to get me off the phone so someone’s call centre stats look better.