Cokemaster: A troll beyond

State insurance being dodgy? Or just clever?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:47:00 -0500

Should State insurance offer 'market value' payouts on a set amount policy?

My parents car was recently involved in an accident where their car received significant damage after a truck hit the car. No one was hurt but we got the details, went to the police and got the stuff rolling.
The car is sitting in my driveway, not safe for road use.

Anyway, the insurance policy was insured for a set value rather than market value. The assessor for state insurance (IAG?) has basically offered approximately $5600 for repairs or replacement. This is below the set amount that was insuranced and the assessor only viewing the exterior of the car and not assessing potential damage to the car. The understanding is that anything above ~$5600 would be out of pocket.

When we contacted the assessor for further comment, he advised that this was because the car was only worth a certain amount, a market value and that we are lucky that we got offered that amount. That would be ok if it wasn't insured for a set value.

Clearly state insurance can't have their cake and eat it too? To me it sounds like a scam.

Whats your thoughts?

Ooops

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:25:00 -0500

I saw this article in The Independent Financial Review, on page 22.

Mobile broadband except when you need it

Telco conferences always attract delegates who seem to have the inability to go 15 minutes without using their laptop, even if someone is speaking. Not only that but delegates love to show off their latest laptop purchase. So it was at the Tuanz rural broadband conference at the Heritage Hotel in Rotorua. But Vodafone was left red-faced. Delegates, many, of course, major rural users of telecommunications, were unable to connect to Vodafone's 3G mobile broadband network for the duration of the two- day event. Oops. Ironically, Vodafone used the conference to announce it was expanding its 3G mobile broadband network from 63% to 97% of the population - to get to the rural areas. Maybe they could fill in the black holes first.

Do not pass go, go directly to jail

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:04:00 -0500

So after going to a dealership and being told to call Vodafone customer service, and then calling vodafone customer service for several days - we get told to go back to the dealer. The circle of customer service begins again.

A very disappointing result to the 5+ day wait to get a vodafone mobile connected. My flatmate is considering doing a walk to the Vodafone head office, porting, or filing a complaint with the TDR guys.

Surely, its possible to activate a recently suspended connection over the phone in a timely manner??!?

How many people does it take to activate a vodafone mobile

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:49:00 -0500

From the 'how many people does it take to change a lightbulb' department comes a tale from Vodafone.

How many days does it take to activate a Vodafone mobile?
How many calls does it take to activate a Vodafone mobile?
How many reps do we need to speak to activate a Vodafone mobile?

So far, the answer appears to be 5+. We don't know the exact answer because I keep getting promises that this mobile will be activated but nothing happens.

The individual in question (a flatmate) had her account disabled for credit reasons, which was fair enough given the situation. However she has since resolved the situation and was told that her mobile would be activated shortly. 2 days past.

We've made multiple calls to the Vodafone contact centre, only to be cut off by the IVR or some rep with a headset around the neck. We've made calls to Vodafone only to be told that it will be another 2 days or that someone will call you back.

So far, its been about 5 or 6 days... Not exactly 'making the most of now'. Tonights call was just as fruitless. I think its high time to either activate the mobile or just say if you aren't able to.

VFX - provisioning...

Thu, 15 May 2008 03:10:00 -0500

This morning I checked my emails to see that I've been set up and ready for me to enter the details in. Once I got home this afternoon, I followed the video and added the settings in. Sure enough it was true to the point and simple. Very good to see prompt service, delivering well before the expected 2 working days!

Entering it in, the modem restarted a lot of times. Quite a few. In the end I restarted the modem by turning it off and on, after a while and a few restarts - it started working.

I've made a few test calls despite it sounding 'different', the call quality was good. It was a little bit more noisy than a landline and sounded a bit less flat, but I put it down to the adapter. The person I called was unaware of any difference and even when I told her that it was using VFX, she couldn't tell any difference.

The online portal was good. Call forwarding was easy to set up. I've actually got my landline set up to divert to VFX for awhile to see how it goes...

So far so good. Lets see how the next couple of days/weeks go like...

(This post is a follow up)

My WorldxChange VFX experience (Signing up)

Wed, 14 May 2008 04:00:00 -0500

I recently decided to give this VFX service a go. After playing with a few other VoIP services - I'd always given up after poor voice quality, stability issues, and having to set up complex buggy clients.

The ideal VoIP product is a landline like service, where you use it just like a landline. The next couple of blogs will be going through my experience signing up and using the service.

So, I called up around 7PM today and got the standard IVR. After about 3 minutes I was speaking to someone. I found that the IVR asking for a callback was a bit frustrating, given how soon it was. However hold times were ok. I spoke to a friendly rep who understood that I was after VFX, and went through the details.

It was a little bit interesting that they asked for my Telecom account number. But otherwise the 'sign up' process was good.

I was told that it will take about two days. Lets see if I get the email. So far, excellent service.

My next post will be about the provisioning and the getting started experience...

Telecom offers 50% roaming prices!

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:34:00 -0500

I was just checking the Telecom website as I noticed some 'strange' things (cheaper than normal charges) on my unbilled calls on the Your Telecom portal.

The roaming section states:

"With Telecom WorldMode mobile phones you can roam in up to 140 countries - including Australia! Plus, all calls made while you're overseas are half price* until 30 November 2008!"

Thats great news for me in China, I'm now only paying $1 a minute for national calls and 40c per sms! I wonder if it applies to incoming calls....

Calls back to NZ are still quite high but still looks good.

Nevertheless its great!

Edit:
Included image regarding comment:

Browsing with candlelight... oops i mean blackberry

Fri, 02 May 2008 09:20:00 -0500

I've been to china several times so far and the internet has always been a challenge but never this bad. It really makes me miss dial up at home. Long story short: Peak times, you risk having limited and slow connectivity. Often can't access new zealand sites. Off peak times: better but not good local performance, nz sites access intermittent. The broadband here is billed in hours from when your modem connects and comes in 256, 512 and 1024kbps favors. Its cheap. Also has flat rate access. That's right - dsl access is billed by hours, not data! Its quite amazing. English support number is answered by people who can say hello and goodbye only. As a side note, the chinamobile and chinatelecom folk refuse to allow me to do a collect call back to nz?!? The general support staff are not helpful unless you want to upgrade, they don't care otherwise. Its worth noting that this area is quite built up and has been internet enabled for quite sometime... Previous years were relatively stable but slow. This year has meant that I've had to use my telecom blackberry... Its been really fast in comparison using gprs and I am able to access sites that can't be reached or are slow on cnc dsl. Like geekzone. I'm actually writing this on the blackberry. It does have its drawbacks though. If you are in a really busy area, expect either no data transfer or none at all. The latest example was a massive car accident and everyone was queuing for hours - it was a pain having to switch networks to try and send an email. But really, when people are complaining of 300kbps international throughput, I would love to have half of that... Let alone the ~19mbps I get on my home dsl2+ connection. And things just worked! I really miss the customer service that new zealand providers actually had.

Vodafone vs Telecom zone based roaming - who has the clever toys?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:23:00 -0500

I'm currently over in China on Holiday, roaming with both my VFNZ and Telecom connections. I've made a few calls here and there, text messages and a bit of blackberry data.

On the eve of my plane trip, I rang up Vodafone to confirm that my roaming was still activated as I had been overseas a while ago. It turns out that I wasn't and that I had to reactivate. Upon doing this, I was told that I was being put on the traveller zone based plan (I asked for the old one but was told he couldn't activate it for me).

I also use a Telecom Blackberry 8830 as well, and the pricing of roaming data came up in another thread - so I thought I would share the costs as well.

Telecom:
Calls forwarded from NZ - $1 per minute
Local (national calls) - $2 per minute
Outgoing sms - $0.80
Calls back to NZ - $4.50 per minute
International calls - $8 per minute
Satellite phone calls - $15 per minute

Blackberry data - $20 per MB

Vodafone:
Vodafone on the otherhand is a bit more confusing, its a single rate PLUS your normal homerate

For Asia its $3 + home rate
So I'm on a Choose 20 plan - that makes it $3.88

It also doesn't discuss what that rate applies to, the website doesn't discuss it. The terms and conditions state that its for outgoing calls so:
Calls forwarded from NZ: Not on same page (another page states $1 per minute)
Local (national calls) - $3.88 a minute
Outgoing SMS - Not on same page (another page states $0.80)
Calls back to NZ - $3.88 a minute?
International calls - $3.88 a minute?
Satellite phone calls - Unknown, it is excluded from the zone based pricing...

Blackberry data - $30 per MB

Vodafones pricing is all over the place with the non zone based pricing being much more complete (and cheaper with pricing being $1.30 per minute for local calls but more expensive international!). It is also a mission to find the old pricing details.

Each provider has its pros and cons - but what is quite remarkable is the differences for local calls and blackberry data. Makes one think twice before deciding to take ones Vodafone or Telecom connection (particularly if you have a vodafone blackberry - regular roaming through China mobile is $10/mb while vodafone charge you $30/mb because blackberries use less data?!?)

Its upto to you to decide which clever toy is the best for roaming

Apple warranty service 3-4 weeks?

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:10:00 -0500

I've had the hard drive in my Macbook fail recently.

Upon dropping the machine off, I was quoted a 3 week wait just for the machine to be looked at!

In your opinion, is this acceptable? I don't really consider it acceptable....

Street light outage in Royal Oak area

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:53:00 -0500

I just noticed that as I drove out to pick up dinner, there are no street lights at all working... this includes in Onehunga.

An outage? Or someone not accounting for daylight saving?

Auckland city council and dodgy parking fines

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0500

Someone brought this to my attention. They apparently parked in a P10 area and got a $12 fine from Officer 581.

The person was a bit surprised because the parking machine that was nearest to the park gave no indication, nor did it allow them to purchase a ten minute block.

I find the practice of forcing people to pay for a block of time which grossly outweighs the actual time allowed. Hence why I'm posting to maximise exposure on this.

Somewhat Auckland City Council have stated in the past that the parking tickets are non refundable... which leaves me wondering whether its a planned scam to get as much money out of people as possible.

Household now Slingshot free!

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 05:30:00 -0500

Last time I posted here, we were having significant issues where we weren't able to autheticate with Slingshot. Today, we've moved from them and not looked back.

Initial findings have been improved speeds and so far, no time outs or disconnections.

Previously we had to wait for upto a week for them to resolve connectivity (username and password wouldn't authenticate) and broken promises of credits to cover the downtimes. Now we have a fresh start and so far so good!

Slingshot responds to article

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:18:00 -0600

There was interesting discussion regarding a stuff news article which said that Slingshot were purchasing equipment for the purposes of managing traffic. Which prompted interesting blogs. Fortunately for Slingshots customers, it has emerged that they have no plans to 'manage' peer to peer traffic, instead giving priority to protocols that are time sensitive. Kudos for Slingshot posting comments providing clarification.

This provides some comfort, however does not quite answer the time old question of if people buy data, why should it be reduced in speed if users are paying by the GB for it at 'full speed'.

While this outcome was good, it was disappointing that a clarification was not made in the Stuff article or a later retraction. Though this is not the first, nor the last that has plagued the IT-Telco sector.

However, what is quite disappointing is the behaviour exhibited by the Slingshot forum administration, where rather than respond with cool logic decide to attack the person presenting the views. In this case, they decided to attack our own Mauricio Freitas. While I'm sure that we are shaking in our boots in fear, this behaviour on company run forums by company appointed administration can be seen as representing the company.

freitasm takes the wrong end of the stick and waves it around like its the be all and end all of information ....

geekzone = wxc forums ... expect no other love there

This gem originated from ops, Site Admin of Slingshot forums.

This is by no means the first foray into geekzone by Slingshot staff (forum link). Lets hope that they'll revisit their stance in future - WorldxChange have adapted a very community-customer stance which has earned them a lot of goodwill in the community. No, they are not exempt from criticism, however their support has no doubt been invaluable compared to the 'attack the person' contributions that certain Slingshot related elements have done.

Lets see what their next move is. Let us hope thats it in the right direction, for their customers sake.

Worrying times - if you are a slingshot customer...

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:54:00 -0600

Before I start, I'd like to point out that we've got a slingshot connection here (as well as a private Xtra connection) which is utilized by the rest of the household, they use a significant amount of usage compared to what a typical internet user might use, in the realm of 30GB. It comes from a lot of different sources.

The household pays for 30GB of traffic and so they expect to use that traffic. In any shape or form. This means using bittorrent, FTP, HTTP, streaming video - it all doesn't matter, because they are paying for that 30GB worth of traffic. Usually it is used over the period of a month however if there is something worth looking at, they might use a lot in a short period.

But thats ok. Because they pay for the data.

However it appears that Slingshot/CallPlus wants to put an end to that, if this stuff article is to be believed. According to the stuff article, Slingshot are investing in equipment that would allow them to 'manage' certain types of traffic. That word 'manage' came to haunt some users when they signed up to the Go Large connection where connections were managed and people complained about poor performance.

By the sound of it, Slingshot may be looking at applying the same technology but unlike Xtra who only applied it to their 'managed' plan, may apply to all their plans. If this occurs, this would make a mockery of their plans where if you pay for xx GB - sorry but you can only go yyy kbps because of the program you use.

Certain users on geekzone have pointed out that the traffic in question is 'illegal', however I disagree. There are plenty of Linux and open source torrents and there is no reason why they should be limited. Slingshots role is to provide internet connectivity, not act as the internet police.

Of course these are early days, if they decide to launch a 'flat rate' plan where traffic is 'managed', then that would be acceptable. But to shape or limit traffic who actually pay for bandwidth - its a slap in the face for their customers. Its high time to look for another ISP if/when they decide to do this...

Perhaps they are better off buying more bandwidth/capacity rather 'managing' connections. To repeat: these are early days, if they decide to launch a 'flat rate' plan where traffic is 'managed', then that would be acceptable. But to shape or limit traffic who actually pay for bandwidth - its a slap in the face for their customers.

It took 12 days but I got a response back from Slingshot!

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:12:00 -0600

Yes. I was quite interested to see what had been done.

Then I opened the email:

...
Thank you for using Slingshot's Online Help.We apologise for any issues you may be experiencing, our senior staff have been notified.
...

It takes 12 days for slingshot to raise a case to their tier 2 (which at least one of these issues has been with them before!!!).
Naturally they don't contact you back in my experience either! What a merry go round!

Oh and after logging a case with the TCF, they closed it without looking into the issue because I was not the account holder, despite me clearly stating the account holders details and offering to get the account holder on the line. Disappointing but I'll get the account holder to copy and paste the complaint in its entirety.

Great stuff!

Bond and Bond St Lukes? Honest sellers? Yeah right

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:06:00 -0600

Its quite often that you hear stories of shocking customer service, however I'd like to share my recent one. This was fairly considered a low blow due to a number of reasons such as selling something (while not disclosing till after the delivery details had been confirmed) that doesn't exist! Also How does taking advantage of Chinese migrants sounds? Because their performance sounds like they are certainly trying to do that.

A good friend of mine who will remain nameless purchased a fridge freezer unit in their St Lukes store recently. He was told that a delivery could be performed and that there would be a fee. He happily paid on the spot and was told to expect delivery on Tuesday. At no point did they state that it was out of stock. He was even charged the delivery fee!

Tuesday: Nothing came. No phone calls. They wouldn't answer their phones when we tried to call them.

Then after approaching them, they told us, despite selling the fridge freezer in store to us that there weren't any in stock and that they'd call us back on Thursday morning. Nothing happened, once again they were unreachable by phone. The only option left is to put them on the spot and get a refund, otherwise to look at legal options.

The sales people were falling over themselves to sell the 'fridge', yet once that EFTPOS transaction support was accepted, all that support goes out the window. They have been nothing short of evasive and deceiving.

A very disappointing experience to witness.

Slingshot does not respond to complaints???

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:08:00 -0600

I sent a complaint letter to Slingshot as our slingshot connection was having issues where it would lose the ability to connection (DSL was up but PPP was down) on a frequent basis and the speeds were reasonably low for a connection with high sync rates.

What is disappointing is the lack of acknowledgement of the complaint, yet alone any contact.

(Screen shot of complaint)

Notice that the complaint was filed on 10/01/2007 and today is the 17th... why has there been no contact? We've had a history of issues and based on this snub - I wonder if its time to contact the TCF directly...

Aside from that, while I was browsing the slingshot website, ironically their complaints link is broken:

(screenshot of complaints page)

Turns into:

(404!)

Locked out of purchased games: Why I'm giving up on Steam.

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:04:00 -0600

I’ve always been anti-DRM for multiple reasons, but what happens when you are not able to log into Steam (support changed password and forgotten question) and support won’t answer your emails?

The only solution I've thought of is to scrap the games.
I’ve traditionally been a bit anti-steam due to its pop up ads, in game ads (for games that your purchased and have been ad free for years). However this takes the cake.

I’ve been locked out of steam. Which means games like Counterstrike and Counterstrike conditional zero are no longer operational. Why? Because I can’t reset the password due to support changing the password.

I’ve emailed steam support 24+ hours so far… no response. Just an email to say that its arrived.

So what now? Well the games won’t play so I guess I’ll have to get cracked versions of Conditional Zero since Steam have locked me out of my legitimate copies. As the copies were purchased off the internet some time ago, I doubt there are any remedies through the CGA or FTA that I could follow.

Screw DRM. Screw Steam.

New Zealand connections - my take on it

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 04:29:00 -0600

New Zealand connections is a new website that has appeared on geekzone multiple times, however I would like to add my write up about it.

What is New Zealand Connections?
New Zealand connections is a site created by New Zealanders to discuss New Zealand connectivity technologies and alternatives. It’s a wiki based site, which means that anyone can contribute upon registration.

It’s not intended as a replacement or competitor to forums such as geekzone but rather a community built knowledge base for others. I started it after seeing a few threads which were basically trolling Telco’s or were just repeats of previous threads. I wanted to contribute some knowledge back to avoid this disruptive cycle.

What technologies?
Technologies that New Zealanders use or can use to communicate, whether it be:

Mobile technologies
Broadband technologies
Telecommunications technologies (VoIP, PSTN)

What about these technologies?
Their existence, pricing, information about the technologies, and technical information. We however are not interested in any confidential or internal information.

We've been very busy building comparsions for Internet and phone (including mobile) communications. One of the things I'm wishing to do is to build on the internet comparsions to include value added services as not all providers compete strictly on the bits and bytes of the connection.

Who can contribute?
Well, so far, we’ve had a few people contribute a lot however this should not be a barrier for anyone willing to contribute. Inflammatory posting or trolling is strongly discouraged.

How is it going to be a success?
At this point it is adfree and provided completely using hosting that I pay for. However return of investment is not my intention (though ads may feature in later releases to cover costs). Our intention is to try provide a centralised location where you can find everything you need to know about New Zealand communications.

Finally, how does this differ from forums such as Geekzones?
First of all - Geekzone has been invaluable for us. We’ve been using some of the features that are made available to geekzone subscribers which allowed us to arrange for this site to be created. Personally, I'd like to give whatever back I can as members of the geekzone community and the forums on geekzone have been very helpful for making this possible.

However – it is my personal opinion that we do not compete against forums. We don't intend to either. Forums are completely different animals when it comes to wikis.

Forums are discussion focused by nature, so it is of our opinion that we are not competitors to forums, but rather supplement forums. We see New Zealand connections as an ever changing point of reference (which accepts contributions from the community).

I'd like to also take this time to thank TheBartender and Manhinli for all the effect they've put it. It wouldn't be the same without you two!

So, what are you waiting for? Visit nzconnections and contribute today. If you are interested in making regular contributions, please let me know as we have private forums currently but are considering making a new public set.

"Take a closer look", accusations, poor customer service and Royal Oak McDonalds

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 01:10:00 -0600

In a cruel twist of fate, McDonalds have the slogan "Take a closer look" on their website, yet I'm finding it strangely relevant when poor customer service exhibited by the Royal Oak McDonalds.

Now by all means, I'm not a regular McDonalds customer, however given their proximity being down the road, I have spent a few dollars here and there. Generally the service provided is good, except occasionally excessive delays have occurred.

However todays incident really annoyed me. Why? Because I was accused of 'driving off' despite paying for my meal and despite being advised by McDonald staff that there would be a delay and that I should park in the car park. Upon doing so, I was left waiting for 10 minutes.

After deciding that enough was enough, I entered the McDonalds building and was advised that "Oh you drove off", after trying to explain that I was instructed to park due to delays, I was cut off and was told *yet* again that I drove off by what looked like a team leader.

Very disappointing. I don't think I'll go there again. Baseless accusations tend to piss people off.

When is an internet connection not an internet connection?

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:52:00 -0600

When its supplied by Orcon, if reports on the geekzone forums are anything to go by. Customers on Orcon have reported that Orcon have when using Peer to Peer applications, that they experience either dropped packets, time outs, or corrupted hash files.

Changing the user agent that these clients transmit appear to result in a dramatic improvement in performance. Many providers worldwide do employ packet shaping on peer to peer protocols and we've seen providers here in New Zealand adapt that for 'managed' plans. However, for plans where users have paid for a certain allocation - this leaves a big question over whether this is legitimate, particularly if it isn't disclosed. The commerce commissions broadband guidelines would probably disagree with the practice.

Messing with packets certainly is disappointing and deceptive.

I'd really like to see more examples with more conclusive testing. The forum discussions so far are worrying.

I feel sorry for those who have to navigate the maze which is Orcons terms and conditions pages.

Why I'm no longer going to buy from Valve or Steam

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:02:00 -0600

I've been meaning to write this for a while, but finally got around to doing so...

In game advertising. Its by no means a new concept but the same company that brought you the process of deactivating games based on where you’re connecting from without any refunds, you know that its going to be bad. In game advertising is an interesting idea which is appealing for small game producers as well as games where you deal with semi-realistic environments, like subways, streets, television, newspapers etc. However steams implementation is poor as they stick out like a sore thumb and really – have nothing to do with the game.

That’s right. If you have Counterstrike or potentailly any other half-life or steam based games, you can expect to see advertisements such as the ones pictured below in game. Its more or less a mockery for the people who have purchased the game, considering that there has been a sizable number complaining about how poor the steam implementation is. Couplied with Steams oppressive ‘community’ forums, where discussion about in game advertising is deleted, you have a company effectually preching ‘bend over and take it’.

This coupled with Steam nagging for one to install a steam ‘helper’ service so that it can circumvent the Vista security which prevents system changes by rogue applications, and the pop ups that keep on coming trying to get you to buy new games.

That’s why I’m no longer going to support Valve, Steam, or any applications/games based on steam – I’m going to keep playing CS, but realistically: hell has a better chance in freezing over before I purchase a game from them again. I strongly recommend others to do the same.

Slingshot telemarketing strikes back

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:38:00 -0600

Well, the practice of slingshots telemarket calls is by all means nothing new, being previously featured multiple times on geekzone. Some people had experienced issues in the past. Today I've had my share, with a call to my private, unlisted line trying to sell me a slingshot broadband connection.

While I was quite amused as there is no way that they could offer a better deal than what I was getting, it just happened that this private, unlisted number was being forwarded at my expense to my mobile. This of course, is not as amusing.

One may say 'So what, you decided to forward your calls to your mobile' - thats true, however, the whole practice of war dialing like certain survey companies, and others is disappointing. I have my landline set up so that friends and family can contact me urgently, without having to worry what number to call - I don't intend it as a means for telemarket contact centres such as Slingshots to contact me.

Slingshot: Blocking services is ok when you are capped

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:41:00 -0600

Well, today I rang up Slingshot. Spent approximately 20 minutes on hold waiting for a CSR.

Upon requesting a team leader (and not getting one), I was told that because our Slingshot connection was throttled that the limitation of services was normal. Thats right. According to Slingshot - your services may be blocked even though you're supposed to be capped at 'dial up speeds'. I couldn't believe it. Because this is an apparent 'feature', it apparently won't be looked at further. To try and justify this, the slingshot representative quoted the clause "As a result we cannot promise that our services will always be available or fully functioning. If our services are unavailable for any reason we will endeavour to restore service as soon as possible".

This is despite the fact that my Xtra broadband and Telecom mobile broadband connection is able to view the sites without any issues. In addition, the Xtra account when I had throttle on cap had no such issues. My dial up connection (XTRA) works fine, even when I set it to connect at extremely slow speeds such as 14.4kbps, 28.8kbps.

Their own website seems to not discuss this tidbit.

We will not slow you down and we will automatically add 3GB data blocks at only $5 each so you can keep surfing the net at broadband speed. You can also choose to be speed limited and not pay an extra penny if you wish.

Note that this states 'speed limited', it doesn't state that services like MSN, IRC, certain websites are blocked. Nor does it discuss it in the Slingshot terms and conditions. Keep in mind that this is probably out of line of the CGA and FTA, at best - against the spirt of the acts.

Great, so we have an ISP with a long history of issues (mind you, that didn't stop them winning ISP awards during times where there were documented issues on geekzone, which suggests the value of such awards) who deny that there is an issue, who has long wait time, who contradicts what is published on their website.

The solution that they've provided is to apply another data block to our account. Thats great, now I can access MSN and IRC, as well as those websites which I was having issues... but it doesn't address why Slingshot are blocking access when clearly there is no discussion on their website. This is what I call a short term fix. As I stated - I am collecting and documentating the issues so if it occurs again, a complaint to the commerce commission or this

Slingshot technical support did not committ to resolve the issue, nor, did they actually admit there was an issue. There was also a claim of heavy handedness on the Slingshot forums.

Where is the ownership?
Why are they not trying to resolve issues?
Is there any value in 'best ISP' awards when providers have issues and deny the existance of them.

Keep in mind that when I refer to the term block, I mean unavaiable as it effectively mean that sites or protocols cannot be used from a rate limited slingshot connection.