Consumer advocacy group Choice has released results from its Internet Service Provider (ISP) Satisfaction Survey which shows the best – and worst – ISPs when it comes to keeping their customers happy. Here’s the verdict.
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Choice surveyed over 3625 people to find out their thoughts on their ISPs. The companies were rated on connection speed, value for money, connection consistency and customer service. It found that those using Internode, Westnet, TPG and iiNet were less likely than average to report having problems with their service.
Here’s the full breakdown of the scores:
As you can see, Westnet came out on top as the ISP with the happiest customers. On the other end of the spectrum, Telstra users were found to experience more problems with their internet connection compared with customers of other providers. The telco also rated poorly for customer service, value for money and connection speeds.
Overall 57 per cent of consumers surveyed had experienced issues with their ISPs. The most common problems cited by survey respondents were:
- Slow internet speeds, disconnections and dropouts
- Difficulty resolving queries with customer service
- Problems with wireless router
- Misinformation on changeover to the National Broadband Network (NBN)
Are you happy with your current ISP? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
13 responses to “Which Internet Service Providers Have The Best (And Worst) Customer Service?”
+1 internode.
out of the 20 -25 times ive called them in the last year, i think i have only had two dud help desk representatives. they are always super helpful, understand my needs, giving me extra tips and hints about speeding up my service from my device.
im just hoping they dont fuck up their help desk now the TPG has moved in.
+1 internode as well.
I spent weeks trying to give money to an ISP to connect me to the internet, here I was standing there with cash in my hand and both TPG and iiNet (yeh I know they own internode but still a different operator) stuffed up my order. I rang iiNet and spoke to a customer service rep about 3 times of 45 minutes each trying to get an account setup. Each time one of their reps stuffed the order up, when I finally rang back the only competent rep saw my tickets and said “yeh I’m not sure how they stuffed this up”, and when I told him I wouldn’t go with iiNet because of their incompetence he just said “yeh that’s fair enough”. I rang internode the next day, talked to a rep for all of 3 minutes, by the end of the week my net was up and running (which included a visit by a technician).
+1 Westnet, Australian Customer service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’d figure the low scores for Telstra and Optus would be weighted by the average non tech savvy 40+ mum and dad, elderly group. The same group that would simply stick with a provider they know inherited from their phone use, irrespective of how happy they are with them.
I remember all too well dealing with this demographic when I worked for a telco. Often with little understanding of their plan or how to use a computer that took a friends neighbors 12 year old kid to set up for them. I’m not saying it’s not a telco’s fault not being able to educate users. But the key demographic for these two providers are those who computer skills consisted of using the CD tray to hold their coffee and calling their kids to ask where the ‘any’ key is.
The opposite could be said about the top two with tech savvy early adopters more likely to hunt around for a tech friendly provider and have a much better understanding when it comes to computer and internet issues and how to self-troubleshoot. Not to mention talk the lingo when talking to tech support.
Not kidding when I used to get calls from people blaming the telco I worked for that Microsoft Words page margins were not working properly, and they’d never had issues with it before getting the internet.
IInet, excellent customer service.
Optus, horrible beyond belief
+1 for iiNet so far. Not sure how are or how they’ll be post TPG. I’ve noticed they’ve already changed pricing for their Naked plans.
I moved to iinet from telstra when I switched to NBN and must say I have found them to be hopeless in terms of support and service. About the only thing they do when they say they will do it is invoice me :/
Support is slow and often useless, and NBN performance is too patchy for my liking.
There needs to be another column in the rating here. All of these categories listed relate to performance or value, what it doesn’t actually rate is “customer service”. I was with Telstra for 2 years, without issue (though value for money was rock bottom). Some rep decided to “upgrade” us, messed up the connection, was on the phone to them every 2 weeks, filing official complaint after complaint, having the complaints department call me back and ensure my issue was fixed when it never was.
I ended up writing an email to iiNet filled with more coloured words than the optic spectrum to describe my feelings for Telstra and asked what they could do. They went out of their way to help with the transition, and were emailing me every second day to make sure I was happy with the new connection – and I have been. I later called them up with a query about an adjustment to my email, they put me through to a tech who sorted it out there and then.
For me “customer service” isn’t just providing high speed and reliable connectivity. In that aspect, Telstra were alright but charged way too much for it. The real service comes down to when you have a problem, their support team can identify it and resolve the problem without fault or resorting to threats.
So, for me:
iiNet: GREAT customer service, my main data usage is in their freezone (Xbox, Steam). No connectivity or speed issues.
Telstra: AWFUL customer service, Steam was in their freezone but then they decided to disable that Oct 2014 with no notification to users. 50gb quota for the same price as iiNets 300gb. No connectivity or speed issues.
Telstra is atrocious! I use a wifi dongle when away from home. Recently left the dongle on overnight for 2 nights, plugged into the power. Didn’t think anything of it when I ran out of credit after the 1st night, as I hadn’t recharged for a while. But when I ran out again next day, I woke up to what was happening. I accept I should not have left the dongle on overnight. Anyway, long story short – Telstra claimed that all usage on the dongle was ‘legitimate’; but when I asked for a list of what websites I’d supposedly been connecting to, they said they could not tell me as they don’t keep that info!
Never trust Telstra. Will be moving to another provider when I finally run out of this current batch of credit.
I was with Optus years ago and they were terrible. Then I was with Telstra cause they were the only choice at the time. They were alright except for a few arguments, most notably the one about wether the modem should be smoking. Telstra insisted it was fine. I’m with Optus now for six months and had to ring for help three times but they got things fixed……maybe I’ve just been beaten into submission but I’m happy.
Absolutely internode… Amazing customer service… Ive never been more satisfied with a provider…
And I think they may have actually been trained to provide computer and internet support… Can’t say as much for the rest! Also I can understand what they are actually saying…. Not saying outsourcing isn’t cost effective, just that they should probably know the language!
Recent conversation with Telstra.
Me: “My internet is running very poorly. Pings are through the roof. DNS lookups are really slow. My webpages are timing out most of the time. Tracert is returning some really weird stuff. It started a few days ago and is getting worse. “.
Call Guy: “I can help you with that. Let me do a quick line test. Nope, your internet looks fine”
Me: “…Ok. Well I’m on it right now and nothing is loading”
Call Guy: “Our tests show that it is fine”
Me: “No it’s not. Can you escalate this to technician to look at?”
Call Guy: “I can’t do that as our tests show that your internet is fine”
Me: “Is there seriously nothing that can be done?”
Call Guy: “Cal, I’m telling you that our tests show that there is nothing wrong with your internet. Now is there anything else I can help you with?”
Me: “…..”
A few days later my internet returned to normal.
Telstra is absolutely horrible. After being sent an ADSL router with none of the Telstra employees that were previously emailed regarding this sending any info regarding when it will be hooked up (said 12-3 on a Thursday, but no-one turned up), then get sent that we should try setting it up.
Well, it turns out that since it was a business router it needed something other than a bigpond.com email login that we didn’t have, so called support to get that and then to just hang up after spending 40 mins waiting to be connected to someone to see why it wasn’t working. Tried another day with another 20 mins on hold to be told conflicting ‘we don’t service your area’ (which they should check before sending a router and charging a set up fee) and that there are no ports (despite insisting before this that there was one available). So now we’re stuck with a worthless ADSL router and still on the same old horrible 12 GB 3G plan with no alternatives (you would think that they would offer more data for business customers, but apparently its just the same as residential plans without shaping, instead having excess fees)
This exactly.
We’ve recently moved to Telstra and literally any problems we’ve had can be solved over chat or a call in 5-10 minutes. I’ve solved billing/tech issues no problems and they’ve been far and away better than any company we’ve used(TPG, Optus and a few smaller ones). It’s the same as when I see a company like TPG top of the ‘netflix speed index’, the stats are just so obviously skewed but people hear top of the netflix index and come crawling.
Optus has THE WORST customer support. Constantly bounced around & being told our internet is fine when we are getting below 50kbps with constant drop outs… We’d literally be better off with dial-up internet.
I’ve stayed home from work multiple times to meet with the technicians who never show up causing me to lose my wages & without any resolution either.
Absolutely the worst company & I’ll do whatever it takes to drive this sorry excuse for a company into the ground & ensure they & their stakeholders never operate again.
It would be so nice to have some updated information in relation to this particular topic.
As a long time Internode customer, I’m experiencing serious difficulties with my NBN connection, and I’m finding Internode technical support woefully inadequate. While I fully understand the problem actually lies with the network architecture (i.e. ancient copper street wiring, and a long run of heavily spliced cable to the closest exchange), I would still appreciate Internode saying so in order that I may tackle the issue with my local member.
It took a third (and fairly threatening) complaint to Internode before they would even talk to me about my problem, and I have been given a fairly challenging run around ever since. They tried to excuse this by saying they have been inundated with customer service requests. If my situation is any guide, I’m not surprised they are overwhelmed, but any service provider needs to pay attention to its customers.
It is my firm view that until we return to a commitment to FTTP nationally, our NBN will remain worthless, and ISPs will cop a thorough hiding.
I have to say that since initially going onto NBN with Telstra, had hiccups at the very start, but never a problem since, over a year now, not the high speed we were led to believe before signing up, but does the job, we are only on FTTN (Fibre to the node) which uses the old copper wiring. Quite unlike a neighbour who is with Dodo and has daily and ongoing problems. Yes I hated having to ring Tech. Support as they are in India and can’t always understand them, but have not had to ring them for over a year. I will stick with Telstra, also not fair to blame them for our own technological failings.
Right now I am at a loss. I’ve been with Westnet for 12 years . I used to tell people how marvellous they were, but they have changed drastically and their tech support has become quite useless. They were bought by iiNet and now owned by another company (I don’t know) they advertise 24/7 tech support, but it is a lie. Sometimes the wait time is over an hour and they don’t always give the option for a call back and when they do, they don’t always call back. I got the nbn two weeks ago, and someone deleted our emails so I have been without my usual email for 2 weeks, I’ve tried creating it again but I can’t get it to work. Westnet/iiNet or whoever you are, if your reading; You have become useless to me.