TPG unable to relocate services owing to lack of active telstra line

ameyas7 on 08/05/2017 - 23:43
Last edited 08/05/2017 - 23:46

Hi OZBargainers,

i have been a satisfied TPG customer for about 2+ yrs now. as we never had any issues with their home phone / ADSL line, we decided to continue with them while relocating to another place (both old and new addresses are based in Sydney). they offered me a waiver of relocation fee as i agreed to sign up a contract with them for next 6 months.

however, on the date of installation to our new address, they sent telstra's technician to set up the connection. the guy came and checked all the ports. initially, he said 2 out of 3 ports are active (i.e. he could get dial-tone with some kind of loopback instrument) and should be fine but the 3rd port wasn't giving any tone. he said he will go and check something and come back. as he was gone for about an hour or so, i called up TPG customer care asking if they had finished with the checks or anything else was still pending. they asked me to wait until everything was finished. after about 1.5 hrs the technician returned and mentioned that there was no line from exchange to our house and the 3rd port was probably a non-telstra line. he also mentioned that someone may have "moved the line" considering it dead which did not make much sense to me as the previous owner had moved out just 2 weeks back and was using internet without any issues. he said he will submit report to TPG and went.

when i called up TPG to follow up on the case, they mentioned that there is no active telstra line in the premise and that is a requirement in order to get their service. they are also claiming that the customer need to bear the cost of installation for such physical line and TPG does not provide such connection.
following is a quote from their email.

"The technician who was assigned to complete the installation found out that the allocated pair for <ADDRESS> might be faulty (probably by the previous ISP) and unfortunately, we ran out of spare cable to use. However, if you can provide us with an active Telstra phone number / Phone line we can use this to provide you with our Home Phone and ADSL2+ service."

i wonder if anyone else has gone through such situation and how it was resolved. given that the house currently has 3 ports for telephone connections and the old owner was (and some neighbours are) using internet without any issues, i would like to know

  1. how can i find out which telephone provider / ISP connection is currently available at my premises. im not willing to pay cost of laying down cable from some arbitrary point to my house.
  2. what are the odds that the technician may have blew up the line. i do not understand how it changed from 2 ports are getting dial-tone to there is no active telstra line in the premise.
  3. who is responsible for providing (and maintaining) telephone line from exchange / network boundary point to one's house.
  4. can someone simply move the line away if it wasn't in use for 1-2 weeks without owner's or strata's permission? is there a way for consumers to trace these kind of things?
  5. will strata be aware of any details on this kind of infrastructure? our new property is strata based unit.

Appreciate any kind of help. Thanks in advance.

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Comments

  • Richardc on 09/05/2017 - 00:26

    ask what previous owner use?

    • ameyas7 on 09/05/2017 - 10:18

      Certainly, i'll try to check that but i don't have their direct contact details so it may take some time to sort out via that path.

  • SydStrand on 09/05/2017 - 01:17

    Not quite the same situation, but a few years ago, had serious bandwidth issues with my DSL. Eventually got a TPG guy to check it out and apparently the network was laid in such a way that Telstra had split phone lines into multiple neighbouring houses to save money, so I was stuck dodgy internet. Apparently nothing they could do about it, and so we just stuck it out until I moved out.

    • ameyas7 on 09/05/2017 - 12:32

      I had similar situation as yours with optus in my old unit. Although, eventually they agreed to cancel the contract without any additional charges as i was only getting 1 mbps speed while they had advertised it as 12mbps with some % +/- .
      Thatswhere i switched to TPG and the same line (in old unit) was giving me 10mbps+ for past 2 years. And now i have completely different experience with TPG in my new place.
      Sigh. Wonder why is ISP model / infrastructure in such bad shape? Im sure there must be some technical limitations beyond a layman's understanding but not sure why its hard to get it fixed than buck passing the responsibility altogether.

  • hhbb555 on 09/05/2017 - 07:19
    +1

    Similar situation here. Tpg sent a telstra guy only to find that the connection in the house doesn't get connected to telstra line outside of the house.
    He then saw an optus box at the house and said if I were you, I'll join optus cable instead.
    I followed his suggestion and optus cable has been good so far.

    Do you live in a apartment or a house? might be hard if it's an apartment

    • ameyas7 on 09/05/2017 - 18:11

      Its a single storied townhouse / villa. Wonder if there's a way a customer can make out which line is already installed without requiring any technicians being involved. As in order to try optus at this stage, ill have to sign up a contract with them. I don't mind signing up for a year or so but if they repeat the same story after few weeks of downtime it will be very disappointing.
      Going with telstra is safest bait but it is relatively expensive (around 1.5 times exp on monthly basis for N no. of months).

      • hhbb555 on 09/05/2017 - 20:19

        Well, this is what i know.
        Telstra cables are underground, which makes it harder to do anything with it if it's not working.
        Optus goes from the electricity poles, makes it easier even to install new connections.
        Unless of course if your new place is on a newer complex which doesn't have electricity poles anymore.

        Give optus a call and ask directly, or chat through their website and ask

        • ameyas7 on 10/05/2017 - 10:22

          Thanks. Will surely try that route as well. The only thing that worries me is its bit hard for sales staff to be aware of any technical issues on the ground. The house is an established unit (15-20 yrs old) and bit old suburb. None of our neighbors have any issues and i believe previous owner did not too. Its just that either things broke during the transition phase or as the technician put it "someone moved the line as it was down for some time" which could be reality but i don't know for sure as its prolly down only for 2-3 weeks.
          If i look up the plan availability for this address, all providers suggest ADSL+ should be available. But the (under)ground reality is bit different unfortunately.
          Optus / telstra might be the only hope as they provide the infrastructure i believe. So am i right to say that if telstra is missing, optus is likely to have established infra there?
          Wonder if there is a way for customers to find out this bit upfront?

        • hhbb555 on 10/05/2017 - 18:06
          +1

          @ameyas7: just ask the Optus that question.
          ie. If for any reason you can't get the Optus connection, do you need to pay anything.

          fyi, when i checked via tpg on my address, it's also showing the connection is available, but the reality is different.
          and in case you're not aware, if you get the optus cable, you'll get 30mbps speed which is way faster than ADSL2.
          however the phone connection is going to be from the cable modem, meaning if you have any critical equipment (ie. alarm system, emergency alert system) that needs access to a phone line, it might not be ideal for you, but you could always get a UPS to cover that.

        • ameyas7 on 11/05/2017 - 00:59

          @hendyb:
          checked with optus. they said they will face the same issue as they rely on telstra's network too for ADSL line.
          they have their cable line network but for ADSL, its still with Telstra.

  • cloudy on 09/05/2017 - 08:31

    It seems to me sometimes Telstra just weird too much influence in terms of infrastructure they own and how they can shift consumer choice. Sad I reckon. I bet if you asked if Telstra can provide adsl they would say no worries.

    • [Deactivated] on 09/05/2017 - 11:55

      that's why their shares are worth nothing yet, they are over priced in every aspect of business the only thing they have going for them is they have the infrastructure that the newer/better companies need.

      • ameyas7 on 09/05/2017 - 18:13
        +1

        Agreed but personally i feel if TPG is using telstra's infra, it is upto them to chase them and get it fixed to provide service to existing customer?

        • pyramid on 09/05/2017 - 18:19

          That's not how tpg thinks mate.

        • ameyas7 on 09/05/2017 - 19:07

          @pyramid:
          Yea. Sadly enough. However, when i approached telstra directly, i was told that they can't raise any fault incident in this case as im not their direct customer. So looks like either i need to sign up for premium service or keep guessing which alternate provider can provide me service without any additional cost.
          Ill consider to check with TIO as its not very clear whose responsibility it really is and i have no means to verify claims from either party tpg / telstra.

        • PVA on 10/05/2017 - 13:46

          @ameyas7: that's tight. TPG is their customer.

  • reecho on 09/05/2017 - 09:56

    I recently asked for a new Telstra 2nd line and entertainment bundle. I had a iinet service already but wanted to migrate to the RIM around the corner for more speed. Telstra could not provision a second line at all due to faulty equipment at the RIM and lack of copper from RIM to pit. Just crazy…

  • ACTGBilly on 10/05/2017 - 13:41

    Good Day,

    Similar problem here. If there was a phone jack in the house when you inspected then you have a right to expect a phone line (Victoria - not sure about NSW). Therefore, the landlord is required pay for the line to be added/reconnected - unfortunately, you have to "negotiate" this with the landlord.

    https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing-and-accommodation/re…

    Best of luck

    • ameyas7 on 11/05/2017 - 01:04

      thanks. although i do not get why customers should pay for this kind of infra issues. it should be fixed as part of providing services or just routine maintenance. if some cellphone tower goes down, can one expect telecom company to split the cost between subscribers? i feel its kinda similar even if there may be dedicated line (and hence easily attributable cost) in case of ADSL connection.

      • ACTGBilly on 11/05/2017 - 07:48

        Yeah, you live in a place and Telstra has approx. $10 billion of public money to keep the copper network going. They should 100% have to ensure that copper twisted pair goes to every existing place. :|

        • ameyas7 on 11/05/2017 - 19:26

          Apparently, TPG is still refusing to take responsibility to drive telstra to fix it as they think initial infrastructure must be provided.
          I feel its completely telstra's monopoly. Keep swapping faulty line and get new subscriptions for free.
          I tried to knock TIO's doors too but in vain. Initially they thought TPG should drive telstra to fix it but eventually gave up and are saying you have an option to cancel TPG account. Sigh.

        • ACTGBilly on 12/05/2017 - 16:30

          @ameyas7: Sigh. All the best

  • TheGMan on 13/05/2017 - 15:59

    Isn't there some law about every house is required to have the ability to have a phone line connected? Well i know there use to be… tis why the nbn wall boxes had a ups attached.

  • ameyas7 on 17/05/2017 - 19:41

    Well the house certainly has 3 telephone ports and the previous owner had an Internet connection as well (thatswhat i got to know from my neighbors).
    The issue is the line (from pillar to street i.e. somewhere outside our house) was somehow moved during the transition phase. Since we did not have active contract on new address, tpg says they can't get it fixed. They would fix any issues on my old address as its an active contract. I don't understand if the contract is w.r.t. person or is it w.r.t. person residing at specific address. Regardless, i feel tpg should be the one driving telstra to fix up the network issue. Although at this point i feel i will end up signing up with some other provider. Hopefully they won't tell me the same story after few weeks of waiting time.
    Let's see.

    • pyramid on 19/05/2017 - 13:43

      If there is no cable from your house, every provider will tell you same story or you'll need to bear cost of getting cable from street to your house.

      • ameyas7 on 21/05/2017 - 11:04

        Its an established property (~17 yrs old) so i don't think there is a basic infrastructure issue here. If that was the case, I would be happy to bear the charges as its an installation cost in that case. As mentioned previously, the previous owner did use internet without any issues and there is no issues with ports inside the house. As the issue is with the infrastructure owned by the telcos, I feel TPG should drive telstra to get it fixed in this particular case. But again thats just my personal opinion and not everyone will think alike.
        Already signed up a contract with Optus. They (at least the sales guy) was happy to onboard me without any additional charges despite knowing all the facts, lets see how that goes.

      • ameyas7 on 24/05/2017 - 22:18

        finally got lucky with Optus. They got me onboard in just about a week's time. the fault was still there on day 1 but they managed to raise a call with telstra and got the line fixed in less than 2 days and with their landline bundle, it is slightly cheaper than TPG. so i must say whatever happens, happens for the good :)

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