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Source: ONE News -
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Many parts of the South Island are still affected by outages to Telecom's XT network and a marketing expert says the network's image has been negative from the start.
The network has been down in a number of areas since Wednesday due to a problem with a piece of hardware.
It is still down in parts of the lower South Island and Telecom says although full resources are being poured into trying to fix the problem it can't guarantee when it will be fixed.
Dunedin, Invercargill, Timaru and Queenstown are among the areas still affected.
AUT senior lecturer Dave Bibby says the advertising campaign has been fraught with difficulties since it used British stars to front the campaign.
Bibby says Telecom has missed the boat on a basic requirement of a new product. He says despite the huge promotion of the new network, it has not performed.
He says the best thing Telecom can do is front up, apologise and get the performance restored as soon as they can.
On Thursday Telecom's chief executive Paul Reynolds says the company will look closely at compensation claims once the problem is fixed. He says they have narrowed down the problem to two or three pieces of hardware on the network and they are methodically replacing those pieces until they find what has caused the outage.
"I apologise to our customers who have been inconvenienced, but also recognise that words are not enough. That's why we are taking rapid action," he says.
"I have commissioned an urgent and independent review to ensure we have taken all reasonable steps to assure customer experience."
He says the company hasn't been hedging on the issue of compensation but the focus has been on fixing the problem.
Reynolds says there's no doubt the outage just isn't good enough and a Facebook site set up called "I hate Telecom XT" is also not a good sign for the company.
Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce says he is sure Telecom has no doubt how serious the situation is. Joyce believes Telecom will act quickly and is aware it will lose business if it doesn't.
He says that is the harshest punishment for any company in a competitive environment.
Meanwhile Vodaphone is reporting a huge increase in inquiries, especially from business customers.
A spokesman told ONE News staff at stores in the south are run off their feet and asking for more stock.
Are you on the Telecom XT network and experiencing problems? ONE News would like to hear from you. Call 04 914 5095 or email newswn@tvnz.co.nz or share your experiences on our messageboard below.
Add a Comment:
Post new commentemail55 said on 2011-02-03 @ 13:04 NZDT: Report abusive post
I could not access urgent client files to meet deadline with client - recently with Telecom outage. I turned my PC on at 8 a.m. to access files and could not access until late into the afternoon. I don't expect Telecom to fork out for every little 'outage', but at what point is it deemed signficant enough for them to compensate? As it is, I rang them recently and they said, "A credit will be applied to your account". Two weeks later they told me they weren't??
technoman said on 2010-02-25 @ 14:19 NZDT: Report abusive post
people seem to blame every hiccup they have on 'the issue'. I suppose it is only natural but common now!
sh0na said on 2010-02-24 @ 11:31 NZDT: Report abusive post
Still more problems with network today. Down again at the moment............When are they going to fix it for once and for all??????????????
jclan said on 2010-02-24 @ 09:42 NZDT: Report abusive post
i rang telecom today to disccuss the sistuation with there tx service and was told "that the only comenstratin that i would get is what is on there website" they dont care what has happened they dont care about their customers its either there way or nothing
jacquinz1 said on 2010-02-23 @ 21:23 NZDT: Report abusive post
After saying I wanted a refund on three XT phones from our household and plans cancelled, I was told I could go into a Telecome shop and they would supply loan CDMA phones free of charge and swap plans and numbers over until XT becomes more stable. I would suggest everyone does this.