Tim and I moved into our new house on Monday 12th October. We had our phone connected the Thursday before, which was done through Primus. Tim had an account with Primus which was created in about July last year, and was a 24 month contract. Initially, it was just for ADSL, not the phone line. When we moved, however, he decided to switch the phone provider to Primus to take advantage of some of the more decent home phone plans on offer when you had both your home phone and your internet with Primus.
We were advised that it would take 5-7 days from the day of the phone being connected at the new place before we would be able to connect to the internet. In this time, we also lost access to the internet at the old apartment, so Tim was basically paying for internet that he couldn’t use, through the fault of Primus and their ridiculous timeframes on connections. But okay, that’s not the real issue. 5-7 days in the digital era is a bit rich, but not entirely inexcusable. Obviously Primus just don’t spend enough of their budget on technicians to get their customers actually onto their network. It’s no big deal to them if someone is paying good money for shit all, they get something for nothing, and isn’t the bottom line of all corporations/companies profit after all?
The time frame from connection of phone line to connection of internet was frustrating, but it isn’t the only thing that has gotten me all agitated and ranting. My real dislike of Primus took hold when I braved their telephone helpline. (If you’re wondering – 1300 85 85 85).
I phoned Primus on Tuesday after Tim had called them and been told that our internet would not be connected until Friday. I’ll list a few more of the issues I had with their helpline after I give you the general idea of what the phone conversation went like:
Primus: Hello, how can I help you?
Me: Hi. We’ve got an existing Primus account, and we’ve recently moved and we’re waiting for our internet to be connected. We’ve been told that it won’t be done until Friday, and this is unacceptable. I would like an explanation for why it’s taking so long.
Primus: Okay, sure. I’ll just have to go to a different department to find that information for you, would you mind holding?
Me: Sure.
Hold music ———
Primus: Thanks for holding, I’ve just spoken to so-and-so department, and the technician isn’t due to come out to your area until Friday, so that’s the earliest it can be done.
Me: Obviously it’s NOT the earliest that it can be done – Friday is the LATEST that it can be done. We were quoted 5-7 days for connection, and Friday is the seventh day since our phone was connected. Therefore, if it is the EARLIEST that it can be done, it is at the same time the LATEST that it can be done, and the SLOWEST time in which it could possibly be connected, because if it were any MORE than 7 days, I would be calling the Ombudsman or the ACCC.
Primus: Well that’s the earliest that our technician is able to do it.
Me: I’ve also been told that we can only expect speeds of 1500 kbps, whereas at our previous residence we were getting speeds of around 8000 kbps. Previously, we were advised that there should be no problem getting ADSL2 at our new place, which does not fit in with 1500 kbps at all. 1500 kbps is practically dark ages.
Primus: Unfortunately, the cables in the area are not big enough for us to get any better speeds there. It’s because Telstra was responsible for laying all the cables initially, so now there’s not enough room for us to get bigger cables through.
Me: how is that my problem? That’s your problem, and your responsibility. It’s not Telstra’s responsibility now.
Primus: I understand that, I’m just trying to explain why the speed is the way it is.
Me: Look, I’m not angry with you, and I’m sorry to sound hostile, but I’m extremely frustrated with this situation, and it doesn’t appear that much is being done in any way to rectify or resolve any of these issues.
Primus: That’s okay, I understand, it’s just difficult when we’re so busy and have so many people wanting to be connected.
There was a lot more that was said, mainly just verification of accounts and my identity etc, but the basic gist of it was that, a) it takes seven days for a technician to connect us to the internet, and b) the internet speeds that Primus provide are not their responsibility. Ha. Ha. Ha.
The reason I was pretty hostile straight into it was because I had been on the phone, on hold, for about 20 minutes by that stage. Also, it had been a shitfight even getting onto them in the first place. Tim had tried calling at 4:30pm one day, and had been greeted with the after-hours voice message that advised “…our hours are between 8:30am and 5:30pm, Monday to Friday…”. So the natural assumption is that they’re operating on Sydney time (eg. Daylight Savings Time). However, Tim also called on the Tuesday morning at 8:00am our time (9:00am Sydney time) when the call centre should have been open a good half hour already, and got the same after hours message as before.
Are we in the twilight zone? Or are they just pretending to run on Sydney time in the mornings, and then they change back to Brisbane/QLD time in the afternoons?
I’m not going to tell you not to use Primus, I’m just putting forth our experience to make others more aware of our problematic they can be. We’ll be looking elsewhere for our internet service from now on.
