Cambewarra woman Faye Suffolk is not connected to the National Broadband Network (NBN) although she would like to be, and after a bungled NBN arrangement she was left without any internet connection for two weeks.
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This is how her story unfolded.
May 11
After receiving a letter from the NBN stating her residence was now ready to connect to the ‘exciting new internet network’ Mrs Suffolk took steps to make the switch from ADSL.
“I thought I wouldn’t leave it too long, because everybody is going to be in a rush at the last minute,” she said.
“I rang Telstra and I renegotiated the contract.
“After everything was done, I was told someone would be at my place at 8am on June 14 to connect the NBN. I wrote it on my calendar straight away.”
June 1
Mrs Suffolk received a letter from Telstra dated June 1.
“It said they had tried to contact me but were unable to,” she said.
“I have an answering machine, so if they had tried to contact me they could have left a message.”
The letter stated that if Telstra hadn’t heard from Mrs Suffolk by June 15 they presumed she had changed her mind.
“So I started phoning them and I rang two and three times a day,” she said.
“I made 12 phone calls over three days and each time I got a message to say the case manager was on another call, but to leave a message and they would get back to me.”
They never rang back.
June 7
Eventually Mrs Suffolk made contact with Telstra and rescheduled the NBN technician once again for June 14.
June 14
The technician did not arrive as arranged and subsequently Mrs Suffolk’s internet was disconnected.
“I started ringing again and by this time I was getting irate,” she said.
“I told them I would be out at an appointment between 10am and 3pm on Wednesday, so they agreed to ring me back after 3pm.”
June 15
Mrs Suffolk returned home from her appointment to find a message on her answering machine.
“I got back at 2.30pm and he had already phoned,” she said.
“So I tried to return the call endlessly and no answer.
“Because I had no internet I went to the bowling club to use the free wifi, but because my account had been cut off I needed to re-enter the password, which was no longer working.”
June 16
Mrs Suffolk again spoke with an operator and was told she would be reconnected to the internet in six to 24 hours.
“That didn’t happen. I got back on the phone again, this time I was told it would be 24 to 48 hours, it didn’t happen. I rang again Friday, Monday and Tuesday; no answer,” she said.
June 21
Mrs Suffolk finally got through to another operator.
“They asked me if I had a mobile phone, I said ‘yes but it needs a password to get into it and you’ve cut my password off’.
“They sent a link to my mobile, and told me to select the link and they would ring me back, I said ‘Ok but when you hit the link it asks for your password. I put in the password and it won’t accept it’.
“It went around and around and around.”
Mrs Suffolk asked to be put through to the complaints department.
“They told me to go to Telstra, buy a dongle and they would reimburse me and said it would be another week before I was connected to the internet,” she said.
At this point Mrs Suffolk asked Telstra to be reconnected to her previous plan and ADSL, however she was informed it was not a possibility as they were no longer offering that service.
June 28
As advised by Telstra, Mrs Suffolk purchased a USB dongle from Telstra.
“The day after I purchased the dongle they gave me back ADSL,” she said.
“I had to cancel the NBN to get ADSL back. If I order the NBN again they will cut my internet off again.
“I couldn’t recommend anyone to rush in and get it. People who have the NBN keep telling me how fast the connection is, that would be great if only I could get connected.”