Editorial: Could I please be connected?

Communicating information to customers doesn't need to be so torturous.

In this age of fierce competition, the quality of the service you receive is very important.

If the service is not good, it can be frustrating. Recently I moved out of Havelock North and soon realised that some telecommunication compromises may have to be made.

The view is worth it, but at my place, fibre is a foreign concept. After a laborious month-long process, I realised that wireless or broadband is not an option. The more expensive option of satellite is the likely way forward. Who would have thought, in a first-world country like ours?

My issue was the process. As I was an existing Spark customer, I decided to try it first. Yes, said the operator in Christchurch, broadband should be possible but a technician needed to come out.

Spark said it would get Chorus, its partner company, to send out a technician but it would take a few weeks.

I waited patiently. Eventually the technician (from Downer, who had got the job from Chorus) phoned me from a nearby substation to say that he was testing the wires but unfortunately there were loading coils (a relic from pre-internet days) which meant I could not get broadband at present.

He was the most helpful person I spoke to and said he would file his report. I went back to Spark and relayed the information about the loading coils being on the line. "Impossible," said the operator, there are no loading coils on that line."

I hung up feeling a little irritated about the whole process but slightly hopeful.

Any hope was dashed the next day when another Spark representative phoned to tell me broadband would not be available because there were loading coils on the line.

I understand if a service is not available but does the process of telling a person have to be so torturous?