Ok fellow OZBs - who takes the OZB Shonky award for the worst internet provider? Take a moment to cast your vote - Who is the worst and why ?
OZB Shonky Awards - Which ISP Is The Worst and Why?
Poll Options
- 246TPG
- 153Telstra
- 119Optus
- 58BuzzTelco
- 43Dodo
- 34MyRepublic
- 31iiNet
- 26Belong
- 21Exetel
- 10Other (please state)
- 7Internode
- 6Iprimus
- 5AussieBroadband
- 4Infinity Telco
- 4Spintel
- 3Australia Broadband
- 3Skymesh
- 2Telecube
- 2Amaysim
- 2Mungi
- 2Mate Communicate
- 0Foxtel ISP
Comments
@BrodenIt: if that’s the case there is a line fault it’s not the isp that’s the problem. Although they should be able to help you fix it. Meaning that more than likely Telstra are your problem not tpg
@Mikinoz:
Here's a update on speed:
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/354899?page=1#comment-5524…Tpg only came once to fix something, already forgot what it was. The speed was suddenly great for 1 week then shit for the rest. I am sure tpg is just playing games with me. The guy even did a speed test and said our internet is very fast at 12mbp, etc which was complete bs
Need iiNet as a poll option.
They double billed my parents, there where 2 debit's on my parents card, refused to listen and sent a dept collector.
Thxs! Requested mod to add.
I feel that the poll will need to be normalised to the degree of entrants. Otherwise if telco 1 has 50,000 users with 100 bad experiences, 20 of which enter it in this poll, and telco 2 has 40,000 users with 75 bad experiences, 5 of which enter it in this poll; we're gonna have a data skew that is incongruent with the real world likelihood of which telco you might be better off with.
Ok I admit this poll is a bit shonky too 😊 (whats a shonky award without a truely shonky poll)
So where can get isp user numbers so I can normalise the poll ?? - number of votes weighted by the number of users with each isp should do the trick
I love my vivid wireless
You should tell them your feelings for them.
Valentines day is just around the corner:)
I want to be your valentine :).
I have Vivid and its all can really get for now, they are ok but slow speeds are a killer after coming from Exetel NBN 100.
Hopefully the NBN will be in my new area soon.
The problem with polls and review websites for isps, and almost everything. Is that company/products which are popular and have a lot of customers also proportionally have a lot of complaints which make the numbers look bad.
Tpg, Optus, Telstra would undoubtedly have high number of users. Hence high complaints.
Boutique companies always look good because the customer base is low and when people see low complaints and then one or two customers who praise how great it is.
I've been with Telstra (hellstra to some people) for 4 years now. Never had an issue with connection, excessive downtime, troubleshooting or ever with customer service.
Question.
The only internet I can get is ADSL 2 from tesltra. Optus also have Optus DSL which is couple dollars cheaper ($20 cheaper per month) which I can getShould I change up? And what is DSL?
I am pretty sure its ADSL minus the 'A'
will you be purchasing a fridge with the $20p/m saving?
No. This is ALL WRONG
The one ISP that could do everything so much better is Telstra.
Just some of the failures to date:
- failing to roll-out hybrid 150Mbps DSL (ADSL/VDSL+4G), years ago
- installing copper in green and brown field sites when fibre is a no-brainer (the lat 10 years)
- failing to roll out a low cost, low use/low power mobile network using GSM/3G/re-purposing old equipment to support sensors, IoT, alerting, etc.
- creating an environment in which an NBN was necessary
- failing to document its networks and sites properly, maintain exchanges, pits, existing PSTN, etc.
- failing to install cable in the ground everywhere, instead of up on posts so they take major damage and interruptions every time a storm occurs
- failing to setup security on practically everything they do, just adding it later
- compromising customer data as often as any member of the board takes a dump
- failing to install fibre technologies where customers (let alone Telstra) would benefit (doing nothing for years, instead of doing good business)
- failing to transition customers from ISDN to digital services, where possible, already
- investing in expensive satellites which easily become space junk, instead of running fibre which can be used forever
- wasting energy all over the country, both on site and in its exchanges, with all its old analogue equipment, let alone placing racks of equipment in all these new street-side FTTN boxes in the Australian sun, where they will just burn out in the heat let alone during power cuts
- billing (could it be worse?)
- making it necessary for someone else to organise (the TIO) which problems they fix first
- relying on customer service to handle customer 'rage', instead of fixing its services
- providing quite possibly the worst example of business management, at operational, strategic and executive levels, simultaneously
- etc.
- etc.
But since ozB users by their very nature shy away from the most expensive ISP, TLS will not rank in this survey, even though so many are stuck on their 20 yo ADSL services
Billing is on another planet hahaha we didn't pay telstra bill previous job for over 12 months because they couldn't figure out how to merge our mobile account with our data….
Retail customers usually just get double/triple billed until the customer explains and proves the costs accounts' full satisfaction. Unless the customer just pay the ambit claim they were presented with.
TPG has been really good for me. No lock in contracts is always a plus for me. Recently got
theretheir FTTN plan which is much better than I expected.I think you misred the post. This is the shonky awards for the worst isp not the best 😊
Care to try again ?
No, I was just shocked to see people voting against TPG so I thought I'll add my experience to this thread. I used Dodo (another commonly hated ISP) for about 3 years before TPG and their quality of service was great too.
Ok fair enough.
TPG although offers a really good no lock-in contract, but they use Indian call centres, an absolute horror to deal with.
Yes, half the time i dont kniw what there talking about.
I believe they are in Philippines unless it's changed recently.. Haven't had to call them for years..
Exetel use to have their call center in Sri Lanka. When I had Exetel ages ago I got one of my sri lankan mates to explain things to them in Sinhalese- problems got solved prompto !
I can't honestly tell you whether I spent longer trying to understand them or they spent longer trying to understand me.
Those Indian call centres are such a nightmare, I have a thorough check to see if I can solve it all first and then if not, I'll see if an IT guy can before facing the call centre.
Optus support in India too, absolute nightmare
probably easier to list the ISP does not have a call Centre in south east asia
I've had long experiences with Telstra, Internode and BuzzTelco and feel that they're all overall on par with each other but each have their own strengths and weaknesses. It depends what you need in an ISP.
Wouldn't you need internet?
Some sort of internet is usually part of the deal!
They all have different traits like:
Value Added Services
Network Quality
Network Reliability
Support Quality
Support Speed
Price!I love Buzz Telco, even if some would say they have an Unreliable (and low quality/speed?) Network and poor support. Those things aren't so important to me. So I love the cheap price!
Buzztelco = no internet (yes no internet) for 3 months for me 😡
@WTF: I once had an issue with speed upto what they have said. They have fixed that for me and now i'm on constant 85+
Buzz have had their issues with the change sometime last year, I think before and after that they are good.
Telstra is the worst
Typo it's Tel$tra
They take all of my Ke$ha too.
Tpg owns several brands, one of which is iinet.
They all are crap btw. Don't even ask why.
Ok I didnt know TPG owned iinet. Who else do they own??
Iprimus I think
Vocus own Dodo and iPrimus
@mccarthyp64: it's west net and internode.
This article is my point that iinet used to be awesome.
https://www.canstarblue.com.au/phone-internet/internet/broad…
I'd like to put a +1 on every provider that ISN'T Telstra or AussieBroadband.
I've been through 9 ISPs since NBN FTTP was installed in my suburb years ago. The only two that never slow down at night time or had any other issues are Telstra and AussieBB. 95Mbps speeds 24/7 with both. Co-incidentally; they're both the most expensive services. Hmm; wonder why? (Hint: because they charge a sustainable price for their services from a technical standpoint).
Exactly, you get what you pay for.. Lower contention ratio and more CVC.
Dodo gets my vote. Back when we moved to our new house before NBN was available, we signed up with them for ADSL2. Took them a month before they finally told us they had no ports left in the exchange. Rang up Telstra and we were connected in a couple of days.
I'm willing to bet that's Telstra being dicks. Dodo doesn't own any local exchanges, they only resell Telstra. So the delay would have been the Telstra wholesale arm not getting back to them promptly
My Experience:
Telstra (nbn, adsl) - Full speed, always online. Was cheapest on promotion (ignoring all their 'value adds' and ISP start ups). Excellent until help is needed. Every second customer service rep lied to me to get me off the phone and to get good CSI. The other reps where honest but could not help. Small issues take weeks to months to fix. I was on hold for an hour forty with them recently… They refuse to pay back over charges.
Aussie Broadband (nbn) - Slightly slower than Telstra. Downloads have to ramp up to reach full speed. Best latency after connection to server stabilises (should not be a thing…) Excellent customer service so far.
Exetel (nbn, adsl) - A little slower still, but they try to sneak increases to charges. No funny connection issues. Phones answered quickly. Customer service direct and to the point.
Australia Broadband (nbn) - Scam playing on Aussie Broadband's good name. Was lied to by staff.
Internode (adsl) - Was reliable a decade ago.
iiNet (nbn, adsl) - Slight pain to deal with. Had best deal on sign up.
Dodo (nbn, adsl, dial up) - Fairly slow (could be local hardware). Long phone waits (far better than Telstra). Fixed issues promptly and have not lied.
Optus (adsl, dial up) - Was significantly more expensive a decade ago (just like Telstra a decade ago).
Thanks!!! So looks like you have dated a few then!
Who takes the gong for the worst??
Telstra - Their 1st tier support staff are not authorised/given access to tools to help their customers. Pure nightmare to deal with as they lie, hang up and transfer to the wrong department.
My experience is you can't even work around these poor punching bags. Corporate seem to cut corners everywhere. I had to call to churn as they just didn't connect me. After a fortnight (which they charged me for and promised I would be reimbursed for when I left (I wasn't)) of back and forth one rep told me the truth: I had to call my old provider to churn as they 'couldn't'.
When I upgraded to the NBN they gave me a router that could not output the speed I was paying for (100/40mbps), lied to me about congestion (which disappeared once I had a capable router) and had a sales person stealing commissions from Telstra by moving me from a net deal I signed up for to a phone deal that cost $10/wk more.
Their internet connection was the best I have ever experienced. I would get full speed even when downloading internationally. But when it failed (NBN tech unplugged me) more of the same.
TPG.
In the last 6 months, I had heaps of ongoing problems. My most recent one they've claimed that the line is unrepairable so I have to deal with the constant dropping out and bad speeds because there's no NBN in my area yet.
My favourite thing is when they say "You're welcome to find another provider." They then claim "they really care about my business." This happened on two different occasions.
My favourite things is when they say "You're welcome to find another provider" while you are still on contract. I wish I could punch them through the phone.
Ouch!
Optus suck balls. Never had a good word to say about there service
What happened? Care to elaborate?
Just shocking cable service. Lucky to get .5mb. Unless it was 3am. Said month after month, that it was being worked on too be fixed. After about 15 months had enough. Lucky enough to also be able to get telstra Cable in my street and never had an issue since. Paying more yes. But it humms along 24/7
So i did another speed test…check the image
https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/208524/55599/ic-9819.j…Speeds seem to be getting worse this month
Heres more info
Line of sight distance: 995m. Possible cable distance: 1566mI pay $59.99 per month for unlimited adsl2+.
Should i complain? Or is it normal?
I have contacted tpg many times but they never end up doing any thing
It takes me around 10 sec to load a ozbargain page
Lodge a complaint with TIO? Takes like 10 min and costs nothing.
Also have you tried a different ISP? If the speed doesnt change much then it might be a line issue.
It takes me around 10 sec to load a ozbargain page
10 seconds on ADSL2+ and at best 3mb up and 0.5mb down that's terrible :(.
How old is your router/modem? I had the same issue with Exetel a few years back, turned out for some reason my router died 2yrs in. Borrow one from a mate and see how if that improves it.
Hahaha, its the exact same one that died on me lol. Try another one and see if it makes a difference. Im currently using a D7
@chumlol:
Haha, i bought a $15 modem router the other day. Will try it out. Also are you on adsl2+ or nbn?@BrodenIt: adsl2 with exetel. had to pay $200 to the optus tech to come through and tell me my modem was Fkd.
@BrodenIt: I should say, just because of the forum topic, super happy with exetel. Pay $55p/m for ultd usually get between 10 and 13mbps down. Up is always woefull, lucky to see 1mbps ever. Netflix is always speedy regardless of time/peak. Overall pretty happy
@chumlol: Yea Exetel is doing suprisingly well. Not fantastic but seems like not terrible either. Users seem ok with service.
@WTF:
Exetel serivice is pathetic. Don't know what you guys experience, but mine has been terrible.
I sent them a email for support and after 35 days they responded with "Do you still need this to be answered?"
I still have a copy of that email.
I have other complaints as well, but cbf. They have terrible customer service, they don't really understand what customer service is.
$15 modem, lol, that is asking for slow speed surely.
When you pick up the phone is it fuzzy? If its not, chances are your line is fine, and it might be your modem performance.
Haha that same modem craped out on me too.
@BrodenIt: Bad signal, frequent dropouts, frequently having to reset the modem, overheating. Those were the symptoms. I got fed up and tossed it into the bin. I am sure it costs like $5 to build.
PM me either your address or home phone number if you have one. I'm not from TPG but I can pull some accurate cable details for you
One for SkyMesh under Other, they used to be great but now have a much higher contention ratio at most POI’s.
I've read a couple comments here and there on OzB about SkyMesh not being so good anymore.
FWIW i've never had issues with them since joining 2 years ago. Im on 25/5 and did 3 tests just then and am pulling down 21 - 23.
Does location make a difference?
Yeah it depends what the spread of customers are like at each POI, congestion is also less noticeable on the lower plans. On the higher 100+ Mbit plans they need much more spare CVC to cover it.
Thanks OP.
This has been useful in trying to avoid the 'real horror stories'. All ISPs will have room for improvement but some of these are clearly more horrendous than others
Been with iinet for 15 months. No major issues so. Couple of points to note,
- connection died on few occasions due to late night maintenance (appriciate if they announced this earlier)
- reaching help desk can take long time ( i remember it took about 70-80 minutes on the line couple of occasions)Is $80 too much for a 25/5Mbps unlimited nbn line here in down under ?
Do you perhaps want to try Aussie? They have an offer on whirlpool atm for a month. They're also no contract and support generally picks up the phone <5mins of not much sooner
Once my 2 yr contract is done i’ll sure consider. Cheers ☺️
Go to iinet website and check their50mbs plans, I was reading somewhere iinet are giving a free upgrade, you might have to contact them.
@cloudy: Thanks. Wasn't aware of the new tier (nbn50) they had introduced. Upgrading costs me nothing as it's same price band as nbn25 that I currently use. However it renews the 24 month contract.
I didn’t know it renews the contract, but it’s good to know the free upgrade is available to existing customers.
That seems a bit much. I would also would suggest aussiebroadband. Also telecube is rating well so far and they have a current deal that got a lot of positive feedback.
- Telstra, personally it has been the worst ISP for home BB. During peak times it was near impossible to browse the same internet, at times struggles to the Google search page as well. The best speed test results never touched 8 mpbs.
Was with Telstra for nearly 5 years and recently switched to Optus Cable.
- Telstra, personally it has been the worst ISP for home BB. During peak times it was near impossible to browse the same internet, at times struggles to the Google search page as well. The best speed test results never touched 8 mpbs.
According to Netflix, the speediest ISPs of September 2017 are
- Exetel
- Optus
- TPG
- iiNet
- Telstra
- Dodo / iPrimus
What are your thoughts on this!!
Suprised to see Exetel up there. Always thought they were one of the cheapo providers..
Maybe good value ??
Average speed isn't the be all and end all.
Not many people outside of savvy consumers know about Exetel so they're the ones that are in Opticomm estates, look deeply for the decent NBN deals etc.
This explains why Telstra are down the list, but the list puts Dodo where it should be.
I've touched on this below but quality transit is also really important. I trailed telecube whilst still having my primary isp still connected (thank you fttp) and their transit was atrocious. I believe they use vocus and changing channels took 10+ seconds on international optic whereas it was <second for my primary one.
All of them pretty much work the same when within the country during a congestion free period but it's a whole different story when you actually need the full internet
Vocus had some horrible routing to Singapore a few months ago. I think they've fixed it up now though, my results look much better.
I run thorugh; https://bgp.he.net/AS4826
Exetel are OK for the price,or at least were when I signed up for ADSL almost three years ago.No intention of changing :)
Otway Ranges ….. don't ask …..
Most of the problems up here are/is Telstra.Strongly suspect Buzz Telco are in the process of going under.
Attempted to help a neighbor sign up. Crikey.
TPG is third?? Haha April Fools is still 2 1/2 months away. What a joke.
My download is about 12 so that's ok, but look at my upload 173.39 Kbps
I'm with Aussie
Judging by the forums @ whirlpool, MyRepublic is the worst followed by the TPG group.
Telstra has the mossy sufficient CVC and transit is probably the best you can get in Australia (important if you want to access sites and services hosted in other countires). Other aspects like support is apparently crap
Why would you say judging by Whirlpool? They have good Whirlpool presence. There is also the TPG Appreciation thread and Ask a TPG Rep threads.
Because it's full of complaints.
Presence doesn't mean jack when service is poor and support is bad in general
The Liberal Party would have to be the worst Internet Service Provider in the world.
@Mikinoz:
Just a sec