..and to the email battle again

Here's an email I've responsed too at 11:30pm last night (this is my response email - my response as in bold non-italic:) ):

Hi xxx

Please refer to the response below to parts of your email

----------------------------------­ ----------------------------------­ ------------
From: The BigPond Teamxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed 2/13/2008 9:59 PM
To: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Please Explain this DN118xxxxx order status [Reference Number: xxxxx-xxxxx]

Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Thank you for taking the time to reply, I apologise that your enquiry was not answered to your satisfaction on the phone today and I understand that you wish to escalate this matter.That is correct.I understand that you have placed several orders in attempt to access an ADSL service and I would like to apologise that your order has again been cancelled. FYI- it's not cancelled - just checked the order status

>I have placed 55 ADSL orders over the last 8 months -I think 5-6 have been with Big Pond.

I appreciate that you were initially under the impression that ADSL was now available to you when you checked your order status online. Please keep in mind that when you place an order, further checks need to be done before we can guarantee this service. When you checked your order status online the reason that it may have advised you it was available was because at this stage the only tests that had been done were to see whether ADSL was available at your exchange. Please keep in mind that further tests need to be done on your actual phone line after this, which meant that your order status changed. Please accept my apologies for the confusion caused by this.

>xxxx, if that was the case then why was an ETA date given first before I recieved the following:

"Your BigPond Broadband ADSL application has been successful but there may be a delay in the service becoming available. Additional equipment needs to be installed at your local telephone exchange before we're able to connect your service. We apologise for the delay and once we've done this we'll contact you by phone or email and let you know what the next steps are."

ETAs are given on the inital exchange check before the next step been the path check through your LOLO backend database. This is usually done on the first day of the order. The status above was not changed between mid morning on the 5th of Feb, 2008 and this morning. Believe me I checked the status numerous times while at work and I have PDFs print to files of this to prove it. Just ask and I will send what I have when I return to work Monday - Currently on Annual leave - By the way this dailup at home is crappy I have to copy pasted what I've been writing in this email to a word document to ensure I can send it as the connection is known to drop randomly...

Furthermore, there was no disclaimer to say that more checks where needed ..it was as stated above - "there may be a delay in the service becoming available. Additional equipment needs to be installed at your local telephone exchange before we're able to connect your service. We apologise for the delay and once we've done this we'll contact you by phone or email and let you know what the next steps are." Where does it state that other checks need to be made? I suggest to you that the statement on the order status at that stage was misleading. why did it stay in that status for 8 days?!?!?! Once more why would it say "Your BigPond Broadband ADSL application has been successful" at all? Seems silly to tell a customer they are successful before checking that information is correct! The check to see I was on a CMUX/RIM without ports would have only taken 5-10 mins to be done via your LOLO backend database. I really did think I was going to get ADSL after 8 months of applying non-stop - As you are awaere there are NO waiting lists for ports on a CMUX/RIM and lets not go into the details of 182 rule. If you don't know about that go ready my blog at mordie-nitemare.blogspot.com '

Regrettably, it appears that we are unable to provide you with ADSL at this time because there are no spare ports available at your exchange.

>I think you mean my local CMUX/RIM DA 147 has no ports -it's not the exchange that doesn't have ports. I do KNOW that there are 48 ports on my CMUX of which all are currently been assigned and used by local residents. I am also aware that the local CMUX/RIM has not been upgraded with any ports since its installation in 2004. I also know that the ports ran out in 2005. It's now 2008 and more houses have been built. There are 3 just finished, 2 in lockup and another 3 heading into slab stage just in these last two stages of the estate. There is demand here it's just there is no way to prove it to you. Unfortunately, there are no planned upgrades for additional ports.

I apologise for this inconvenience. Although ADSL is not available to you at this stage there are several other options available to you. If you would like us to look into the availability of other broadband services at your address, we would be more than happy to do so.

There are serveral other options? Nope sorry there isn't:

This is from my blog as I worked out the costs along the way:

For the following examples I am using the need quota of atleast 12-16 gig of data a month. That would be the bear min I'd be looking at with speeds atleast 512/128

--Satellite 1 way and 2 way-- (1-way is been fazed out)

Highest plan on 512/128 is $249.95 a month with a quota of 2Gb and excess fees of 15c mb (roughly $150 a Gb) That's going to cost about $249.95 + $1500 (excess fees) to $249.95 + $2100 (excess fees) a month ...

**hardware and installation setup is 1,098.00

##There are no discounts for Broadband connect anymore.

--NextG--

Highest plan costs $109.95 for 3 Gb then .15c a mb after (or $150 per 1GB) NextG would cost: That's going to cost about $109.95 +$1500 (excess fees) to $109.95 + $2100 (excess fees) a month ...

**setup cost is $250 for the modem
## Does not work correctly in our area as my neigbour across the road from me has had nothing but trouble with it

--Cable--

Not in the estate.

--ISDN--

Is not been offered to home users anymore

There is only one other option and that is an unknown wireless company that is much cheaper and has no contracts. I am working out the details of setting it up. Will cost $500 to setup but then $88 a month for 15gig. Thought I rather ADSL becuase I need a low latceny connection.

xxxxxx, once again I am extremely sorry for any inconvenience and frustration that this matter may have caused. I trust that this information has provided further clarification to your enquiry.

>It just shows me that I'm going to be stuck in this nitemare for months, even years to come...Not happy at all

Thank you for choosing BigPond.

Yours sincerely,


And you wonder why I get fustrated with them... That was from a Team Leader!

Note: I do have a print out of the orginal ETA date I was given at the time I logged this current order...