Rain damage swamps Telecom

Bryce Canter shows his displeasure with Telecom on his number plate. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Telecom customers, some with serious medical conditions, are being told to wait despite the urgency of their needs as the company struggles to clear a 20 per cent increase in reported faults.

The company blames bad weather across the country for 36-month highs in the number of customers phoning with faults.

In Auckland and Northland, reported faults are running at up to five times the normal level, with Telecom transferring staff from other, drier areas to help to clear the back-log.

Auckland and Northland experienced double the usual rainfall in April and May, with May rainfall figures double for most other areas too. Parts of Otago saw up to four times the usual rainfall in April.

Some Telecom customers have waited weeks to have faults attended to in the wake of the bad weather.

The normal call-out time is two to four days, Telecom spokeswoman Sarah Berry said this week.

Consumer marketing head Victoria Crone has promised a review of Telecom's systems in the hope of cutting excessively slow response times.

In one case, an elderly Auckland man with a serious heart condition waited days for a fault caused by heavy rain to be fixed.

In the meantime, he was offered a cellphone and quizzed about his internet access.

But Ms Crone says such cases should not have happened.

"If the customer notifies us they have a critical medical issue, we notify the service company and the company puts them on to the priority list.

"With this customer, something didn't happen, and we are looking into that. In most instances, it works well but in the current environment it has been exposed and we need to review that process."

Telecom guidelines state that people with no phone service for more than 24 hours can have their landline diverted to a cellphone or alternative landline for a month.

Residential customers are also given a month's free rental or $50 of phone cards.

Business customers receive a refund for each day the phone is out of service.

Northland woman Leigh Bramwell was given four months' free line rental and Telecom suggested that she ask her business insurer to compensate her for the loss, after roadworks near her home cut phone communications.

But she says the company is out of touch with ordinary New Zealanders.

"Theresa [Gattung] obviously doesn't realise that little tiny companies like mine that only employ three people don't have business insurers. It's not what life is like out here in real New Zealand."

Telecom said service took longer in some areas, but when it realised how long Ms Bramwell had waited, it sent someone out quickly after the phone broke down for a second time.

It said compensation was considered on a case-by-case basis, and Ms Bramwell still had the opportunity to discuss it further.

Overall, Telecom had a good record for dealing with faults, Ms Crone said, citing one recent disaster where staff worked quickly to restore phonelines.

"We think that we do do a good job and we have a track record of going the extra mile when exceptionally bad weather hits, such as Telecom's response to the Manawatu floods in February 2004, which involved more than 100 technicians, with some working through the night to restore services to customers."

Who sux?

Helensville man Bryce Canter says he is unhappy with Telecom, and has spent $500 to protest his "lifetime of bad service from Telecom".

Mr Canter says his personalised 027SUX plate was bought partially as an investment, but also to make a point with the company, which originally quoted him $3000 to install a landline at his lifestyle block.

His landline negotiations began two years ago, and Mr Canter says he has since talked the company down to $500, though the haggling is still going on.

"I am as happy with Telecom as much as their other small customers."

He believes Telecom has "definitely lost their personal touch".

He had received some interest in the plate, but was undecided whether or not he would sell it.


29-minute hold

A Northland woman claims she is thousands of dollars out of pocket after waiting weeks for Telecom to fix a line fault.

Leigh Bramwell, Kerikeri-based editor of Al Fresco magazine, waited for 2 1/2 weeks for her home-based business line to be repaired after it was damaged during roadworks in mid-April.

Four days later, it went down again.

She called faults, and held for 29 minutes "while I cooked my entire dinner with one arm. I call it Telecom risotto."

She was told it would be another 10 days' wait, "but after I made a huge fuss and threatened suicide and stuff, they sent someone out the next day".

The phone line was fixed, but the fax stayed down until last week.

She estimated she had lost about $3000-worth of business.

'Not urgent'

A 74-year-old Auckland man was told his landline phone could not be fixed for five days, despite him telling the faults operator he had a serious heart condition, lived alone and needed the phone in case he had to call 111.

His great nephew, Thomas Harvey, said that when the man first called Telecom on May 26 the operator did not log the fault as urgent, asked if he had internet access and suggested he buy a cellphone.

"He thought that was bizarre, since email isn't the most efficient way of calling an ambulance. So he was advised to buy a mobile phone. When he said he shouldn't have to, they said 'too bad'."

After Mr Harvey also rang Telecom and the job was upgraded to urgent, it took a further four days for a technician to appear.

Telecom has apologised to the man.

4-day wait

West Auckland woman Lorraine Daly reported a fault with her landline on May 24.

Ms Daly - who lives with a husband who suffered a heart attack last year, a daughter who has recently left hospital, and two diabetic grand-daughters - went more than four days without a landline.

When a technician arrived, he was unaware of the urgency, or the family's situation.

He was surprised, and told Ms Daly he would have fitted her in earlier had he known.

"I was so angry. How appalling is that for a communications company?"

Ms Daly has also received an apology.