Off the internet. It seemed appropriate

Mum has been trying for months to get her ISP (Optus) to make the Wireless Broadband connection to her home work. She has had almost a total blackout and been unable to even connect to the service.

The happy friendly people at Optus customer support have been delighted to make her jump through all kind of unnecessary hoops and because she has no technical knowledge she has been convinced she is at fault. They sold her some kind of a booster promising it would get her connection working and it did nothing in practice.

Considering that we took the account after we had double checked with Optus sales that the connection was available and the signal strong we were surprised to find there was non-existent signal and the account could not be serviced at all.

Not only did mum ask Optus for help but she spent several hundred dollars getting a technician to go over her machine and connection and try various options for making the connection work.

So here we have between two and three hundred spent on a modem. Almost two hundred dollars on a technician and about fifty on some sort of booster. All spent at the behest of Optus and with the promise that these spendings would bring the wonders of broadband and the internet to my mother’s lounge room. They didn’t! Mum was determined to stand up to these guys and get by her lack of technical knowledge so she noted every attempt to get online, every hiccup and pop-up her computer threw at her and then rang Optus again.

They put her through the same pointless exercises and made the same empty promises only there was a difference. The difference this time was that they ran her signal from several different towers and for a few minutes she had a connection, then it was gone.

In my experience of a different ISP they told me that all I had to do was pay more (upgrade to a more expensive account) and they were sure my problems would go away. I dunno how you see that but I see it as holding poorer customers to ransom. A purposeful brigandage. The illegal process of selling a product they have no intention of supplying without further cash from the customer.

By running her off the other towers and showing her they could supply they indicated they have chosen NOT to supply.

Two days ago I contacted The Communications Omnbudsman and made a formal complaint. This morning mum was contacted by an Optus representative. She was let out of her twelve month contract and the bill she owed them for a service they had yet to supply was deleted. No mention was made of the many hundreds of dollars she spent at their promise it would get her a serviced connection. Or of buying back her now useless modem and booster! Optus admitted by their actions that my mother had been whipping a dead horse by trying to get onto a connection they could (would) not supply. Mum bought a netbook and I spent money flying up there because we had assurances from Optus that the connection was available and working. I wanted her to have access to all the communications the family uses and I am really bloody bitter at how much we all did in good faith without any result. After I left mum’s place her brother spent many hours teaching her to use the machine and on the phone to Optus trying to get a connection.

There is significant anecdotal evidence to suggest that ISP’s are regularly selling contracts they are unable or have no intention of providing full service to. It is illegal to make a contract which allows a supplier to backslide out of providing a service at their own desire. It is illegal to sell a product knowing it will not work. It is pointless bringing this up as the chances our governments will do anything useful and and not be outmaneuvered by the ISPs is slim to null

I spoke to friends and acquaintances to try and get a handle on how often this happens and was amazed to find the number of tricks ISPs and phone contract providers have for prying extra money out of people’s hands. It was impossible to do much however as most of the people I spoke to have more money than sense and paid or upgraded to more expensive accounts just to avoid drama. Some even felt their more expensive connection was some sort of affluence test that gave them bragging rights over those of us who struggled to hang on to our money and call the corporations to task for their dishonesty

The Federal Opposition have been pounding the national broadband scheme from Julia Gillard’s party and using wireless broadband as though it is an option. It has to make people uneasy to recognize that the only people who would suggest wireless broadband is suitable to challenge a solid fixed line broadband is the corporations selling it! The Liberals cannot have bothered to do any real testing of how well the system works on the ground!