Fed up with iiNet, Switching to Another Provider, Any Recommendation?

[Deactivated] on 15/07/2020 - 11:24
Last edited 16/07/2020 - 21:34 by 1 other user

Long story short, I am fed up with iinet and other TPG subsidiaries. My list of complaints is long from their customer service. billing problems, and the locked Fetch TV trick.

Does anyone know a better NBN provider that is cheap (I only need 20MBps), and the router does not require VLAN ID Setting (because I would like to keep my router). A bonus would be if the customer service is in Australia.

I have shortlisted a few, and wondering what you think.
Aussie Broadband - rather expensive. More expensive than IINET, so that's a no.
Belong - cheapest at $55 a month on contract, but can't find any information on how to setup the router.
Tangerine - never heard of this, but it is recommended on Whistleout.

Edit, there seems to be debate about tpg subsidiaries, here is the full list from wiki:
AAPT
PIPE Networks
Chariot
Soul
Vodafone Australia
Lebara Australia
IntraPower
iiNet
Internode
RuralNet
Country NetLink
Origin Internet
Octa4
TransACT
Grapevine
Westnet
Netspace
Adam Internet

Internet Broadband nbn

Comments

      • fozzie on 16/07/2020 - 20:56

        I am HFC as well. Great speeds

    • Leal on 16/07/2020 - 21:21
      +1

      Another one with only good things to say about them. I’ve been with mate since 2015, moved houses and they gave me a discount to match the same price they gave me when I first signed up 5 years ago. Local call centre (business hours only) but never had to call them other than when moving houses.

      • fozzie on 16/07/2020 - 22:11

        I actually had to contact them but did via chat (5 minutes) and they fixed my connection (got nbn technician sent over twice within days). Whilst superloop wasn’t able to help and every time I had to wait 1-2 hours to get through (and this was pre-Covid).
        Hence, now I will not move even if there is free nbn or discounts. We work and study, plus stream so I can’t risk again a bad connection

    • Akya on 17/07/2020 - 09:59

      +1 for Mate. Very happy for the past 2.5 years with them. Got my parents to sign up with them too. Aussie call centre and very helpful if you have problems with your connection. Very easy to move with them too.

  • [Deactivated] on 15/07/2020 - 13:25

    Been with Westnet,iinett now for 16 years never had a problem, never had any of their other add ons though, just net.

    • tight-ass on 16/07/2020 - 16:02

      Lucky you - until you've had the need to call an ISP's support number you really can't recommend them to others. They all use the same infrastructure after all.

      You'll have plenty of fun if/when you do have problems……hour plus wait times to call centres in South Africa, staff who are rude, have poor English & can only read from a pre-prepared script.

      I've also been with iinet for the same amount of time. They used to be what Aussie Broadband is today. The only reason I haven't switched is the hassle involved as my email address is linked to a ton of stuff!

      • [Deactivated] on 16/07/2020 - 21:33
        +1

        Iinet was great before tpg bought them, then they turn to shit.

        Tpg is really the worst, they are like fat bloater eating the good guys one by one…

        Lately they bought Vodafone as well, unbelievable.

      • Twix on 16/07/2020 - 21:49
        +2

        $25 to retain your iinet email for 1 year. Slowly move everything across to your new email that's not ISP hosted.

    • cowiie on 16/07/2020 - 22:18

      Have been with iiNet since they bought out Netspace many years ago. Logging into toolbox my tenure is 12 years. Never had an issue and their customer experience has always been good thank goodness. I managed to get a free modem, connection fee waived & fetch for 6 months on a 6 month plan when I added a new connection.

      Though spending $75 a month is a bit too much for me, might switch to Belong but I don’t have a non-ISP modem. Does anyone know if the iiNet TG789 modem/router works with Aussie broadband or even belong?

      • Zephyrus on 16/07/2020 - 22:50

        iiNet was bought by TPG in 2015. Basically a completely separate company now and I can confirm the service is nowhere near as good.

        Lots of companies gives you a free router and waives the connection fee if you sign up for a long enough plan. Belong will, Aussie broadband won't. It also isn't that expensive to buy one and it will be (much) better quality and won't be locked down as hard.

        • cowiie on 16/07/2020 - 23:11

          Any recommendations for a modem router that isn’t too expensive?

    • pippohippo on 16/07/2020 - 22:55

      I've been with them for 11 years and only 1 issue when a tree fell and knockout every line on the street. This caused the internet to become slow and fixed in 2 days. General customer support here and there have been really good, but was much better and faster prior to TPG buyout

  • kator on 15/07/2020 - 14:00
    +1

    Switched from iinet to Leaptel. Speed was ok, but had constant drop outs with iinet.

    Huge difference!! Great service with Leaptel. Bought my own Fetch TV retail box from Fetch tv website.

  • iforgotmysocks on 15/07/2020 - 14:08
    +1

    Another vote for ABB or Superloop

  • Trying2SaveABuck on 15/07/2020 - 18:51

    Im with Internode they are pretty expensive but they have been good

    • Twix on 15/07/2020 - 21:41
      +4

      Internode is a TPG subsidiary.

      • causeimbatman on 16/07/2020 - 09:32

        Been with Internode for 10 years.
        9.5 years ADSL, then moved to NBN a few months back.

        Customer service/tech support have always been local, except for a few weeks during the nationwide Covid lockdown, where I got routed to the Phils.

        It was a nighmare during those few weeks, as I tried to get my NBN upgrade sorted out.

        The last call to them (at the tail end of the lockdown), I seemed to be routed back to the local contact centre.

        Haven’t had a problem since.

        • Twix on 16/07/2020 - 21:52

          I never said Internode was bad. The opening poster says they don't want to be with any TPG subsidiaries.

          • Big Trev on 17/07/2020 - 09:15
            +1

            @Twix: I was with Internode. I was happy with them, and wasn't having any troubles, but the launch of the ABB app/tools for troubleshooting your own connection were what got me to switch across. 90% of the time if there's a problem you end up on the phone trying to figure out if it's just you, or more widespread. And if it is just you, in the first instance they'll reset the connection. Can self-diagnose and manage that myself with ABB.

            That said, I'm lucky enough that my connection was solid with Internode, and continues to be with ABB.

            • Twix on 17/07/2020 - 10:00
              +1

              @Big Trev: Aussie BB troubleshooting tools are sweet!

              • [Deactivated] on 17/07/2020 - 18:18
                +2

                @Twix: Aussie BB tools are the fooking bees knees!

                Luckily ive only had to use a couple of time for 2 connections over the past 18 months. But for a business connection for me to be able to login and reset everything in minutes and get up and running after a fault is PRICELESS.

  • whitelie on 16/07/2020 - 07:27
    +3

    I liken the NBN to an old saying from modifying cars….
    "Fast, reliable, cheap - You can only pick two"

  • this is us on 16/07/2020 - 08:10
    +2

    I have iinet FTTB and no issues at all. Service has been amazing, and customer service for installation was pretty good (FTTB is not NBN, it's a different world and I've never required support-installation was in December 2019).

    However, based on the opinions, I'd choose ABB or Superloop if I had to move to NBN, even if I had to pay a bit more to avoid the frustration.

    A few friends have ABB and they love it. The service is reliable and support team efficient. It's up to you if you can/wanna pay more for that or not.

  • barge-in hunter on 16/07/2020 - 08:48
    +6

    I think it's pretty incredible that a more expensive provider like Aussie BB is getting recommended on a bargains website. To me, this means more than the individual recommendations ever can.

    Fwiw I'm an ABB customer too.

    • djsweet on 16/07/2020 - 11:06
      +2

      Value != price
      ABB/Superloop/Launtel provide real value even though they are more expensive.

    • monky on 16/07/2020 - 12:16
      +2

      A professional never uses cheap tools.

  • zrmx on 16/07/2020 - 10:02

    ABB was only a short experience - first 6 months of NBN with them and it had no issues (HFC).

    Only contact customer support three times overall: 1) to call to sign up for a discount code deal before it expires, and they are able to schedule set up date up to a month in advance 2) an NBN drop out, which they actually responded fairly promptly, but it is over their online chat/ticket system so you might need to be okay with chat and diagnostic online if you want prompt responses 3) when I advise them I want to port out (to Exetel, which was cheaper at the time for nbn50, and I didn't need the top nbn100 speed), they had no issues and very easy to get things over and charged me correctly. Average wait time to get to a rep: ~<15mins on phone, very quickly reply online.

    Exetel (12mths): no issues overall other than several NBN drop out more on NBN. I noticed speeds go down during wet/heavy raining weather. I don't know if related or just because more people stay home and use internet. Average wait time when needed to get to rep on phone: ~15-30mins.

    Belong (~6mths so far, fttc): signed up at relative's place as it is cheap ($55 plan), while initially bit of hassle to get NBN connected, it wasn't really on Belong, as it needs the NBN tech to come and get wirings and hardware set. Then another major drop out but that's due to wet weather that killed some NBN hardware in the street kerbside (neighbours were also affected), so again NBN tech was sent and things got fixed/replaced. The connection and speed is quite solid. Average waiting time to get to rep on phone (when it was still possible): ~15-40mins.

    Launtel: no experience yet but I'm going to switch over to them in a week or two's time as I need more data during covid times.

    Overall: most of the times the faults rest on NBN, and once getting through to the customer service rep, things get solved within reasonable time.

  • MND on 16/07/2020 - 10:06
    +1

    If you have FTTP, which I have. I would then recommend Belong and their 55$ start-up plan. Unlimited data and speed is pretty goot for HD content, I have watched 4k content from netflix without an issue too. I also use my existing router!

  • bazingaa on 16/07/2020 - 10:14

    One of my friends use Belong FTTB cheapest package, so for it is good.

  • FareEvader on 16/07/2020 - 10:35
    +2

    I'm with Tangerine and it's been fine so far. They offered a 6-month promo at discounted rate. Might check out ABB after that but no issues for me with Tangerine.

  • PurchaseAnxiety on 16/07/2020 - 10:38

    I've had good experience with ABB too. I switched to Mate a while back, and I've been happy with the service for the price (seems to slow from time to time, but not to the extent that's ever bothered me).

    Go for a provider with no contract, try them, and switch if they're no good.

  • JoshJ on 16/07/2020 - 10:43
    +1

    I am with Spintel which is the cheapest I guess. It is not great but it is cheap. End of the story.

  • [Deactivated] on 16/07/2020 - 11:08
    +1

    I switched from iinet because of constant technical and billing issues and the deplorable customer service based in South Africa. I was able to keep my Adam (iinet took them over) email address for $25 per annum.
    Currently I'm with Belong. So far, all good.

  • adnrw on 16/07/2020 - 11:24
    +3

    If you've been with iiNet for a long time, you'll remember what they were like at the beginning. I left iiNet a few months ago, after 12 years of being a customer.

    I switched to Aussie Broadband and from the minute I started talking to them it reminded me of iiNet way back when. They're friendly, responsive, helpful and when our service didn't switch over on the day our hardware arrived, they were proactive in solving the issue for us (street connection wasn't connected to our house correctly).

    Since then the internet service itself has been solid – reliable and the speeds we get are exactly what they told us to expect.

    I highly recommend them.

    • babolimp on 16/07/2020 - 14:30

      iiNet was so good at the beginning i.e. when they started up in NSW and for a few years after that :) one thing that comes to memory was they would proactively give out extra data when they had downtime without you even asking. they were just on top of things and the quality was there too. I was with them for many many years as well until they sadly went downhill.

  • wii4u on 16/07/2020 - 11:29
    +1
    1. Aussie broadband
    2. Then Superloop

    You pay more and get more! Won't go wrong with either of them.

  • monky on 16/07/2020 - 12:13
    +2

    +1 for ABB, been with them since Feb last year and the service has been rock-solid.
    Had to get on the phones with them a couple times, always had local support who knew what they were talking about.

    Had one instance where I needed to have have my IP4 address rolled back off CG-Nat so my Switch would play friendly with online play: The operator understood immediately, and had it done within 5-10 minutes, even though I didn't pay for a static IP address at the time.

  • big on 16/07/2020 - 12:34

    I use Belong (FTTP) and use my own modem/router. Did not require any VLAN ID setting.
    Hope that helps…

  • knightslay2 on 16/07/2020 - 13:00

    Mate Communicate?

    • Kenww84 on 16/07/2020 - 14:12

      they are pretty good in my experience for FTTP connection. Not sure about HFC or other type of connection.

  • knk on 16/07/2020 - 13:10
    +1

    Superloop or ABB

  • JungliChilli on 16/07/2020 - 13:54

    Belong. Setup the router? Once the service is provisioned and if you have a nbn ready modem its plug and play for all technologies except adsl from memory. I can confirm that is the case for fttc and fttp.

    I can share my referral code, we'll both get 20bucks let me know if you want it 😀

  • connorlo on 16/07/2020 - 13:55

    In the same boat as OzBargein, waiting for contract to end so I can jump to ABB

  • babolimp on 16/07/2020 - 14:23

    i am with superloop and i'm happy. i've been with them around 6 months. the uptime has been pretty much 100% and the speeds are as advertised or higher. i got a free static ip (even though i was already paying for it, they were giving out free static IPs to new requests so i called up and they took it off my bill going forward). customer service is good. it's nice to speak to an aussie on the phone who can sort things out quickly without needing to pass you around to different reps all the time (like telstra).

  • Bensonzaclucy on 16/07/2020 - 14:34

    We have been with belong after iinet.
    Im on the starter (30mbs) plan for $55 however i always see speeds in the high 40's all the time.
    I use their modem/router and never had a dropout (unless a maintenance update at early hours of night) for the past 3 years.
    I have a code if you want a few dollars off for signup

  • superuser on 16/07/2020 - 14:46

    i'm with telstra 100/20 + phone (unlimited call) for $90,
    evening speed is around ~90Mbps

    • fozzie on 16/07/2020 - 20:37

      That’s a good price. Personally I have 4 mobiles with unlimited calls so I’d rather pay $79 with mate

  • kaleidoscope on 16/07/2020 - 15:09

    you get what you pay for…
    been with abb for about a year and no regrets.

  • realaaa on 16/07/2020 - 17:00

    AussieBB are very good, I've still managed to get into minor argument with them, over drop-outs which I believe are caused by NetComm router

    but despite that other service is solid indeed

  • Inzo on 16/07/2020 - 17:17

    I was an iinet customer for 17 years, i never had an issue with support centre, even when I dealt with South Africa (which was most of the times i called).

    Only dumped them for Aussie, as i went to gigabit to the house.

    • tight-ass on 16/07/2020 - 17:23
      +1

      How did you avoid the hour plus wait times? Or the crappy quality voip line?

      • Inzo on 18/07/2020 - 00:07

        dunno, could be my stuff never broke till midnight AEST so maybe most people were in bed?

  • rooster on 16/07/2020 - 17:23

    Im with belong the last two years as I had similar experience with iinet, Also belong is half the price.

    Whirlpool list the modem setting required for Belong and all other ISP's, I believe that you can configure your modem - however I just use the belong supplied saegecom in bridge mode and use a nighthawk as router.

  • Vert93 on 16/07/2020 - 19:16

    Very happy camper with Launtel here after 3 years of pain with TPG.

  • PappaLuigi on 16/07/2020 - 19:39

    cannot fault aussie broadband.. excellent communication with any planned outages, excellent AUS support, get onto issues ASAP.
    Also speeds are A++.. on a 100/40 plan and i actually get the full speed, i was hitting 102 meg download connection = ~12.75meg a sec download with a ~37meg upload = ~4.5megs a sec , PEAK TIMES.. never get lag during peak either..
    to note i am on FTTC, so FTTN could be different if thats what you have..

  • Dr-StrangeLove on 16/07/2020 - 20:13
    +1

    Cancelled my TPG today and applied for switching with Mate. 100/20 for $79 (NBN only plan). Fingers crossed.

    • fozzie on 16/07/2020 - 20:36
      +1

      Good luck I have been with them for 6 months on the same plan and they have been amazing for me

      • Dr-StrangeLove on 17/07/2020 - 10:17

        Great is it with HFC as well at your place?

        • fozzie on 17/07/2020 - 11:38
          +1

          Yes, hfc as well. $79 for 80/20 (in reality if works as 80/40 most of the time which is an added bonus)

  • virhlpool on 16/07/2020 - 20:39
    +1

    I recommend Mate Communicate as some of the comments above suggest.. great experience.

    • [Deactivated] on 16/07/2020 - 21:26

      Never heard of them before, are they good?

      • virhlpool on 16/07/2020 - 23:20

        I have had a positive experience.. local customer service and straight forward pricing structure - pretty much plug and play.

      • Akya on 17/07/2020 - 10:28

        They are great - there's a comment thread above from a few people (including myself).

        Most people refer to them just as "Mate".

    • Brianqpr on 17/07/2020 - 17:08

      Yep, I'm using them. Good pricing and service so far. No complaints.

  • OrderedChaos on 16/07/2020 - 20:45
    +1

    — "Aussie Broadband - rather expensive. More expensive than IINET, so that's a no."

    Sadly they are however they are DAMN good! Left them for a week because I needed 3g failover - jumped right back.
    I have a 50/20 HFC line with them and it's stella. They publish daily CVC graphs so you can check contention for yourself - no smoke and mirrors stuff here. I've noted them flex up CVC capacity as needed and pull back when not. Customer service is SOLID. Their callback service works amazingly well unlike Vodafone's - urg. The customer portal is WAY better than anything else I've seen.

    This is my standard experience at any time of the evening -
    https://www.speedtest.net/result/9765984362.png
    Rock solid unless NBN has an outage. Well then… it's an NBN lottery.

    I've tried…
    - Vodafone - AWFUL, awful, awful. BAD speeds, excuses excuses excuses - it's never them, terrible customer service - never follow-up as promised.
    - Sumo - you get what you pay for (they were an Optus reseller at the time) - I used to get 20mbps on their 50mbps package.
    Optus 3G - sucks (at least in my area) - Streaming was unworkable.

    G'luck.

    • gimme on 18/07/2020 - 09:14

      Funnily enough I'm with Kogan which are essentially the billers so everything is Voda. Ni issues at all and I find their India callcentre surprisingly very good consistently. Lottery I guess

  • TimboAus1234 on 16/07/2020 - 20:59
    +1

    Another one for Aussie BB been with them over a year and they are awesome never had an issue. on the 50/20 plan

  • ribze1 on 16/07/2020 - 22:00

    The three Ps - Product/Platform, Price and People (customer service). You can only have two, you want all three.

  • paulojr on 16/07/2020 - 22:43

    Yep I hear you bud. TPG are a joke and so hard to find decent options especially with broadband choice long gone (was such a great resource to research ISPs).

    I investigated Tangerine last week.. they are the same as TPG. LOCKED phone service, terrible customer service (offshored, no knowledge of their own products or Australian laws), disgusting pre-sales so could only imagine what post sales is like. Optus will do the same things to you.. not on your list of options so you probably know how bad they are. I also have used Exetel but too many faults and poor support following up to mention them, plus they massively jacked up prices recently.

    I've currently trailing Spintel right now. Price/options were good with lower plan options and free connection option with month by month which was perfect to trial with. So far activation is a bit slow (likely to occur tomorrow when nbn was connected today), however I'm not too fussed on how quick it is setup and if its not on tomorrow will just hit their chat team. I have fully confirmed the phone is not locked and can even be dropped from the plan so can configure it on any router and use whatever hardware you want. I'll try to remember to post back as things go forward.

    There was no requirement for VLAN tagging or other things mentioned so far. I know the website says that a router is part of the deal but I just called through and asked them to do a manual order and drop the router cost. I have 6 spare routers I do not need more!

  • utsc on 16/07/2020 - 23:36

    Any reviews on flipconnect?

    NBN 25 is only $49.90

  • Salty Pretzel on 16/07/2020 - 23:58
    +1

    I've only ever been on Aussie Broadband so can't recommend any other RSP. Connection is solid. No idea if their customer service is good since I've never had to call them up in 4 years.

  • RiseAndRuin on 17/07/2020 - 00:13
    +1

    FWIW I usually switch between AussieBB and Kogan, depending on the offers/discounts available, but on 50/20

    • Salty Pretzel on 17/07/2020 - 00:26

      any difference between the 2?

      • RiseAndRuin on 17/07/2020 - 09:37

        I think Kogan's support is only 8am-8pm, either way I had a bunch of issues that turned out to be due to NBN infrastructure every single time, and neither were very helpful but ABB support kept blaming my router all the time (they seemed highly incompetent call center operators rather than tech people tbh).

        • gimme on 18/07/2020 - 13:48

          Kogan just the biller. It's 100% Voda. Same as you all good with Kogan here. In fact nighttime speeds improved after covid. Probably as a result of extra capacity from nbn but either way never had any issues for 18mths except for the occasional nbn related outage.
          Only downside (if you care) is that you get no portal no nothing just a monthly bill which is fine by me for $65 50/20

  • Bold Eagle on 17/07/2020 - 02:42
    +2

    Whirlpool is the place to explore these sort of questions I mean that is what the website was founded on;
    https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/

    With that being said Aussie Broad Band (ABB) gets a lot of raves.

  • cheapjack on 17/07/2020 - 08:02
    +3

    Tldr the comments: Just get aussie

  • fycycy64 on 17/07/2020 - 09:55

    Tangerine are pretty hard to beat price wise for the first 6 months at the moment, $10 off for first 6 months, plus if you have referral code (hint: plenty on Google), first month $25 credit. Also local call centre.

  • Kenny Powers on 17/07/2020 - 13:19

    I've had Tangerine for a few months and I have had no issues. Although I haven't needed to contact their customer service so cant comment on that

  • cezasu on 17/07/2020 - 15:13

    FTTP here.

    u can try barefoot telecom. They have local customer service people.
    I used them before i moved to Telstra.

    Barefoot and letsbemates appear to be same company.

    I signed up for their 12/1 plan which was cheap with no contract, and I can keep my router but i had to move to telstra as I need the IP-POTS.

    Telstra is crap with overseas call centre and I had so much problem with them.
    I complained so much till they gave me a local dedicated person to complain to.

    After that all went smoothly.

    • LZCS on 17/07/2020 - 15:45
      +1

      12/1 with fttp? What a waste. Can we swap?

      • cezasu on 17/07/2020 - 16:03
        +2

        well.. blame the politicians for halting a fibre to the premise (FTTP) network rollout in favour of a cheaper multi-technology mix then.

  • LZCS on 17/07/2020 - 15:46

    Future broadband is best. Check it out, they use business grade network for residential consumers. Best speeds and reliability

  • aligind4h0us3 on 17/07/2020 - 16:20
    +1

    Aussie Broadband whilst may be a little more expensive, will give you the best service.

  • ass3ts on 17/07/2020 - 16:37

    I've always been with Telstra and it's not much better than that. Welcome to Australia's broadband access network.

  • Wiser on 17/07/2020 - 16:55
    +1

    Mare is a good oprion
    Cheaper than ABB
    But reduced customer service availability.

  • Brianqpr on 17/07/2020 - 17:06

    I've been using Mate, $79 per month for the NBN100 plan. All good so far and speeds are good.

    I didn't like the router they sent as it gave a poor wifi signal around the house, but they took it back and credited the cost to my account. Bought a mesh system instead and all good now.

    They've been very quick to respond to every email query I sent. No complaints so far.

  • spuddie1 on 17/07/2020 - 18:25

    Very happy with Aussie Broadband. Good speeds and excellent customer service.

  • Xenawarriorprincess on 17/07/2020 - 19:49

    +1 for superloop
    We’re on the 100/40 plan at the moment and have amazing speeds. I did have to speak to the customer service team when getting set up and they are Adelaide based and the guy was really knowledgeable, not reading off a script he actually understood what he was talking about. Easy to change between plans online, we’re going down a plan when I go on mat leave. I’m happy with them.

  • [Deactivated] on 17/07/2020 - 22:14

    Just stick with Telstra air, you'll never go wrong…
    Is it illegal to play around with a switched of fttp ntd box, read somewhere yes it's a crime.

  • wtfnodeal on 18/07/2020 - 00:44

    ABB is $55 a month you get 100GB.

  • azndraon on 18/07/2020 - 08:46

    With exetel, they've always been solid

  • Hamlet on 18/07/2020 - 12:01

    Oh dear, nobody mentioned Telstra? Time for me to change?

  • UFO on 18/07/2020 - 12:34

    Aussie Broadband.

    /close thread

  • Metre on 18/07/2020 - 21:42

    If you're pretty close to the POI I can recommend AussieBB. Try their first month free codes if still active, and plan a back up to switch to if you don't like them.

    Belong has next to no immediate customer service, but had used them for ADSL with no issues for 5 years.

    • Twix on 20/07/2020 - 13:28

      It doesn't matter if your live close or far away to the POI.

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