This rant concerns an Australian crap internet service provider. So if you don’t live in Australia, you probably have better things to do, like preparing for global warming.
I’ve been cursed visiting Las Vegas. This month isn’t going well for me at all – I’ve had had everything from emails lost to people die.
The number one mistake would be to order TPG ADSL in the first place. That was the mistake I made on Christmas Day of 2006. The catch is, When you order an installation from TPG, they don’t actually install your internet.
As I found out 3 weeks later, you have to personally ring up again to notify them of your order before it even starts processing. From the time I submitted my application till after getting back from Las Vegas, nothing ever happened.
Unsatisfied with their service, I decide to cancel the install. Number two mistake is to cancel your install. Because at TPG, canceling your install actually means, full steam ahead!
Two weeks have passed, and after canceling TPG three times in a row, I’m still being billed for an installation that I’ve canceled, and an account which I never thought I had. All three times, I was guaranteed by a sales representative that my account has been completely canceled. Mistake number three is trusting what TPG tells you.
Currently, I’m being double-billed by two different ISPs (TPG & Internode) for a single ADSL connection (which I can’t even use yet) that both proclaim to service. Both charged me for an install, and both are charging me for access. Both companies want my money, but none wants the blame for contributing to a technically impossible accounting scenario.
I just want my tubes. 
Update: I’ve found out TPG actually churned the ADSL install by Internode without my authorization. Some dodgy (and probably illegal) business practices going on here.
Update 2: Yay. I finally have the tubes!
31 Comments
Rowan Lewis
Well, at least thats better than Telstra telling me to go to their website because I can’t connect to the Internet… No matter how many times we called, we where told to use the website to debug the issue. Morons.
Rowan Lewis
Actually, it’s not better, it’s just as bad.
Jesse
I’ve been with TPG forever so when I switched to ADSL (Good ‘ole 56k) it was easy as hell but I know some who have had some rubbish with TPG. D:
Bad luck man.. I’m looking to switch to another ISP too, I need more bandwidth / better speeds but basically all ISPs in Aus are seemingly equal for the most part.
mrmckeb
I’ve had no major issues with TPG, but some of their policies are outrageous.
Matt Sharpe
Damn, sounds like ISPs are just as crap over there as they are here in the UK. Good luck sorting it out.
rajo
Yes, ISPs are the same crap here in Czech Republic, unless you live in a large metropolitan area like I do.. I have totally unlimited 8/4 mbps optical connection for something like 30 bucks a month. That’s nice.
Jason Cox
I work for a small ISP here in the US and the main reason we get customers is not because of our prices, it’s because unlike the larget ISPs and telcos we actually give a (guess) about our customers and dont treat them like crap.
Long, you should be able to install the DSL yourself though, assuming telco doesnt have to come out and do work on the lines it’s as simple as pluging the DSL modem in.
tom
hey Long, I hear you regarding your moving pains…
… just going through the same:
Foxtel: Call them to change address. CSR tells me take your Foxtel IQ to the new location where Foxtel outlet is already installed. Technician will come out and install Foxtel. I ask what they are actually doing? Answer: “Hockup the box to the coax output”. I say I can do that myself and save $99. They say no because of some policy that’s not possible. CSR books in my new installation…
I hang up and find out an hour later that the friendly CSR has already closed my account at the old address (read disabled the smart card in the reciever). I call back and they tell me reactivation isn’t possible without setting up a new account but that would take at least an hour and I will lose my install date at the new address… at least the techno I talked to enabled the smart card… I am now offically watching pirated Foxtel… now for the fun part. I moved last weekend and hocked up the Foxtel box just for a laugh… well guess what, 100% signal quality and Foxtel works without a problem. Called back Foxtel and they tell Technician still has to come out, I still have to pay $99. Go figure.
Praveen
I thought it was bad here in US, but judging by your experiences we are better off here. hmm
tom
Praveen, the problem here in OZ is that a lot of services have a pseudo monopoly do to the small market size. There are about 20 million people in OZ… about as many as in the greater Manhattan area.
EG. all pay TV services are provided by Foxtel. They are being resold to some extend by other companies but mostly you are limited to this one company. In regards to broadband internet things are similar. The last mile and all exchanges are owned by Telstra (former government owned telco). In recent years Telstra had to provide access to the exchange for equipment from other telcos but it all comes at a price. In the big cities I believe Optus has a small number of exchanges but not enough to really put pressure on Telstra from a price point.
The big differentiator for resellers these days as someone already has pointed out really is through customer services. Some companies like IInet, Optus etc. now have their own equipment it the exchange and can offer cheaper and more reliable services with better customer service. However, when it comes to getting the phone connection from the exchange to the house you are still at Telstra’s mercy.
For example, at my recent move I got charged $59 only for a Telstra tech to do a check at the exchange that the phone line in the new location was still connected even though I had a dial tone and already knew the phone number. Again, go figure…
Renai LeMay
hey Long,
TPG suck for customer services — they consistently get low scores on this sort of thing. A lot of our readers have complained about em over the years.
Cheers,
Renai LeMay
Senior Journalist
ZDNet Australia
Berno
Long, I use TPG for my ADSL2+ service. I have not experienced issues with my internet connection quality or pricing. However, I would not recommend TPG if customer service is an important to you.
TPG phone support takes a very long time to pick up the call. Their customer service rep are often clueless to questions, often they have to put you on hold to ask others for help. I have no idea about their internal training quality.
Their policy are quite customer unfriendly too. Earlier in 06, I had to move from a location in Chatswood to another location in Chatswood (same exchange!) but they still wack me with a bloody relocation fee even if my connect is in the same bloody exchange. What really nasty is that with the relocation, they restarted my contract with them.
Australia broadband is woeful. The current gov underspends on infrastructure, often looking for short term gains and lack the will for long term investment in the future of the nation.
Tom
Hey Berno,
Australian telco infrastructure has been privatised for quite some time. The government is still a major shareholder in Telstra but that’s about it. So in essence it’s not the government but the telcos that are responsible for infrastructure.
The really crazy thing is the continued insistance by Australian telcos to push for hardwired services. I believe that ultimately wireless will be the future. Look at countries like China. It’s said that most people there will experience the internet via a mobile service for the first time. Telstra mostly sucks but what they have achieved with their HSDPA service (NextG) is great from a business perspective. I recently travelled through Western Australia and managed to get wireless broadband coverage in even the most remote of places. Okay so it isn’t exactly cheap but as a business customer I find it okay as an add on to fixed line services. Now if only Optus and Vodafone would get their act together and offer a similar competetive service to bring the prices down.
Matty R
Installation for ADSL? What? Just plug in the phone line and your set. What’s the problem? Someone’s a little picky.
Long Zheng
@Matty: Getting the line provisioned, getting the equipment.
Peter
Actualy, I’ve had no problems with TPG for the past 2 years.
Although, when I disconnected from Bigpond, they cut of the wires on my line twice.
Mick
I just churned from Optusnet to TPG because, living in Queensland, I can only access ADSL1 and Optusnet appear to have decided to hold out as long as possible on the upgrade from 1.5mbps to 8mbps download speed.
I had previously had a dialup account with TPG a couple of years ago and had forgotten what a brick wall their customer service was and some of the choicer policies, like direct debiting payment “up to 7 days” prior to the beginning of the billing period.
I’ve been with them for two months – first payment was debited 9 days before the agreed connection date (and actually connected one day after), second was 8 days. Optusnet had their problems, but on the whole were reasonably reliable and payment was debited on the same day of each month. Just the thing for a financially inept individual like me who needs to make certain there’s enough money in the account each month.
Both apparently make use of “outsourced” call centres, but there is a marked difference between the attitude of the operators in my experience. The TPG admin/billing people stick to their script with grim determination and if you vary from the path they will merely repeat their last sentence blandly until you give up. TPG technical support operators are patronizing and rude in fairly equal measures.
My download speeds are averaging just under 4mbps so far, with a peak of 4931kbps, or just over half the rated speed.
Sorry to inflict my rant on you here, it was either that or go postal. Come to think of it, the local TPG servers are located at my workplace. hmm…
In summary: TPG = (not so)cheap and nasty, with hired external personnel refecting this, but the options for Internet that can handle a reasonably large workload are limited, at least in my part of the world.
Peter
I’d love to see a cheaper internet service.
Jane
TPG Staff don’t speak for understand English. I wanted to go from dial up to broadband so called tpg my provider and spoke to non English speaking staff. Decided to go with bigpond for the cheaper deal and they all spoke English, which helped.
Now trying to get my tpg mail forwarded is a problem for them. They are working on it and it’s been all day but still they can’t foward my mail.
I have been so frustrated with their lack of English and hopeless service, I am so glad I didn’t hook up with them for broadband.
Typing in “TPG SUCKS”! Brought me here so I thought I’d leave my experience. So far bigpond has been fine, but then they just got my account so they should be.
margn
eeek! just visited this site after signing up to TPG yesterday. Please wish me luck. Their downloads seem great & a geek friend informs me that ADSL2 is the way of the future!
snowy
Same story once a member of tpg its impossable to cancell, tried manny times 20 months later I am still being BILLED FOR A SERVICE I DO NOT WANT.
Arif
This month I have moved my home from Melbourne city to Malvern.
I have asked TPG to relocate my ADSL connection to my new address but they ware unable give me same service (ADSL2+) in my location because no TPG Exchange is unavailable in my area .
But as I am in the yearly contact, they are going to charge my credit card. No mater the service available or not.
I don’t know if it is legal……
As I do not know about any legal mater, I have decided to pay TPG 300 and something for rest of the contract and get rid of bad TPG sevice forever.
Tom K
I have been with TPG for 3 months now and i long for the 6 month contract to be up so i can (hopefully) churn to another provider immediately. The connection is terrible with frequent high pings and lag spikes when gaming, slow page downloads etc, and if you ring customer support you get someone who doesnt speak english and doesnt really care if your problem gets solved or not. In fact all i got out of them in regard to the lag spikes etc was ‘try using a shorter phone line to your modem’ it is currently 50cm long and the performance is as terrible as ever. My advice: avoid them like the plague.
And if your currently churning to TPG let me offer my condolences..
Kruger
lol
yeah i typed in tpg sucks and got here so here’s my rant
upgradeing from adsl1 to adsl2+ i was with netspace they were quite good just kinda stickers for taking money early connections fees relocation fees etc was with them for 4 years had some trouble they’re like what sort of modem do you have i told them and they were like where did you get that… you gave it to me fools i’ve been with you so long why not give me a new modem… anyways a different company a different rant.
so i transfer to tpg. actually quite good, not that i can understand anything anyone says because they all speak with an indian accent (i have trouble understanding accents) but it was all very automated and worked well, quite fast connection time and speed.
but every time i call customer service i get on hold for at least 30min and often i will be told they are to busy to answer a call and just hang up on me.
at the moment having alot of difficulty with my connection it’s dropping in and out. when i call customer service after being on hold for 40min and being told every 30sec that my call will be answered soon. i get an indian lady i can barely understand, i get out of her that i have been throttled to dialup and i’ll have to be transfered to the adsl department to fix my intermittent internet connection problem. wtf i thought i was already talking to adsl department. so i go back on hold 10min later i get hung up on. i call back and get told they are to busy to take my call.
it’s all just wrong
oh well what can you do
DAVE
pathetic is all i can say same thing as above mass migrated to ADSL2 then got email saying limitations on my phone line but exchange ADSL2 OK was told after waiting 45mins my line was on a sub station and would have to get it moved by telstra my phone co
they saide nothing to do with them
back to tpg waited waited got indian bird after me asking to talk to a manager —- puttint you through sir to a bloody answer machine aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhh hh
jahn
Next time read the Terms and conditions. You obviously didn’t!
TPG is not well known for their tech support, so unless you want to cough up 3 times the amount you are currently paying monthly and switch to bigpond or who ever than go ahead.. if not stop complaining for a dirt cheap service. And for such a cheap service its bound to “weaker” in certain departments, such a tech support..
happy tpg user,
Ants
Well I can only agree with everybody – cheap as (main reason why I swapped from BigPuddle) – pathetic tech support or Helpdesk service from India – should always read Terms and Conditions. Note date and time of this posting as am surprised my connection hasn’t dropped out enough to let me post this (today in particular has been a nightmare and my home setup and ‘infrastructure’ hasn’t changed at all including all testing)
luca
TPG SUCK…. BIG TIME
kim
TPG is the shitest internet provider in the planet… yes I know that shitest is not a word… but is the only one that I know to express my feeling about TPG.
armand
I live in Sydney and I’ve TPG adsl2+… every night my speed drop to dial up like… is been like this for six months still waiting for a solution.
P.S.
dont sign with TPG their service suck
Paul
Been with them over 4 years-first on 1.5 unlimited and now adsl2+
Never had a problem in all that time
Cheap price,high download limits,great
Leave a Reply