When fibre installs go wrong

The process

Chorus, the main UFB installer across New Zealand, breaks its process down into “ABC” steps: Agree, Build, Connect.

Agree

After you contact your internet service provider (ISP) about getting fibre, it will arrange for a Chorus technician to meet you at your house. The technician will explain what’s required and you’ll agree on an installation plan.

This meeting will be organised via phone from the call centre, and confirmed via text message and email. Most of this communication will come from your ISP. This is your chance to have your say about where the optical network terminal (ONT) will be placed inside your house and is where you plug in your router. You'll also discuss the path the fibre will take from the road to your house.

Build

This is where the fibre is run from the road and connected to an external termination point (ETP) – a small box that’s installed on the outside of your house. Chorus will cut any trenches or install any required cable. You may not need to be home.

Usually the fibre will be installed along the same path the old copper wires use to get into your house. If that’s not possible, Chorus will discuss other options available and recommend the best method for your property. This is where you may have a trench dug from the road to your house, or wires strung along a fence.

Connect

This is the final stretch! A technician runs fibre from the ETP outside and connects it to the ONT inside your house. This step could require you to be home for up to four hours.

How complex each step needs to be depends on your situation. You might need consent from other residents if you share a driveway, or your property may need a trench to run cables. Because there can be so many variables, Chorus creates schedules on a case-by-case basis. As our examples show, this is where you can quickly run into trouble.

The technician will complete the internal wiring and installation of the new fibre equipment in the agreed position, as well as testing it before leaving.

Scott's experience

Losing connections

It started well enough. Through one of its “ninjas”, Vodafone offered me a decent fibre package. I was advised the next step was a Chorus technician visiting to look at my fibre installation options. We’re on a back section, so I knew there’d be a lot of planning needed.

The next day our landline was disconnected. Premature, but of all the services that could have been cut off early this was the one we could live without.

Chorus told us the road-digging and kerbside work would start on 1 June, nine months after I started the process. My wife stayed home, no one showed up.

Technician inspection day arrived. I’d organised to work from home so I would be there for the anticipated phone call saying “are you home now?” Late morning and I’d heard nothing. I called Vodafone. I was told Chorus tried to call but the landline was disconnected.

The Chorus technician called my mobile the next day and agreed to see me at a different time. This consultation determined our property would require an overhead connection that needed consent from neighbours, meaning a delay of two to three months.

But the process had gone awry at Vodafone’s end. Four days later, our internet was disconnected.

Trench or no trench?

After a month went by, I was advised the fibre connection would be installed in a trench, not the overhead wires we’d agreed on. I raised concerns as I didn’t think my patterned-concrete shared driveway was suitable for a trench, but I was ignored.

My install date passed with no correspondence from Chorus or Vodafone, or visits to the house. I didn’t bother being home as I’d not heard anything from anyone.

When Vodafone did finally contact me, the date was moved back an extra month. Ten days later I was contacted again to say it’d actually be eight months.

At this point I also received three different emails telling me I needed to get all the consents in place and that I risked being sent to the back of the queue if they weren’t. Vodafone reassured me these messages were all sent by mistake.

When the install team did arrive there was a new problem: they weren’t a trench-cutting team! Worse, they had no instructions on the job or the consents that had been obtained. They also had no details regarding other Chorus visits and what the other technicians thought was or wasn't possible.

Finally, fibre

Chorus told us the road-digging and kerbside work would start on 1 June, nine months after I started the process. My wife stayed home, no one showed up.

I got a call from a Chorus field engineer seven days later. He said he visited the house and a trench wasn’t the best option and he preferred to run the fibre up our fence line.

The install date with this new process changed three times from 22 June, to 25 June then 21 July.

But then I arrived home on 29 June to find roadworks and diggers doing the kerbside work and later workers ran the fibre along the fence. I received no email or mail notifications about this work.

Then on 12 July, almost a year after starting the process, I finally got fibre in my house.

Hadyn's story

A comedy of errors

After having the date and time of the meeting finalised, I received a message saying the date had been brought forward. So I took time off work and waited. And waited and waited.

Since there’s no contact number for Chorus, I called my telco Orcon, and was told that the tech was on his way. He wasn’t.

It shared details from the tech’s plan such as “install the ETP on the red wall”. My house is blue.

The next day I contacted Orcon, again and used social media to get hold of Chorus. I was told by my ISP that, according to the notes on my account, the technician had been around and my install was going ahead. It shared details from the tech’s plan such as “install the ETP on the red wall”. My house is blue.

Through social media I was able to get Chorus to escalate my case. What followed was a comedy of errors. I was contacted by several people, including the technician, each with a different plan for what was going to happen next. This culminated the next day in a surprise visit from the tech and his manager to do the consultation – they claimed it had all been arranged; it hadn’t.

Technical no-show

This part of the process should have been easy, and yet it still got screwed up. The fibre from the street was going to get to my house via a power pole.

Chorus needed permission from the lines company to do the work and that could take a few months. No worries, I know these things take time. And in the meantime, I needed to get some wiring work done.

The tech said, if I let him know in advance, he’d come along and tell the electrician exactly what to do. So I booked the sparky and spoke to the tech, all sorted. Ha! No, of course it wasn’t.

The electrician showed up, the tech didn’t. Thankfully, the electrician had done some similar jobs and was able to complete the job. I never heard back from the tech until the final install day.

Fibre-optic fix

The setup and install were all agreed on so it was just going to be the technician and his assistant coming to do a quick install, right?

Everything seemed fine, except when the tech checked the electrician’s work he found a section of the tube where the fibre-optic cable couldn’t bend through (glass doesn’t bend as well as copper). So he had to fix that. This likely would’ve been picked up had he been there when he said he would be.

However, since my fibre has been installed, it’s been working fine.

Tips for when things go wrong

If your installation goes badly, and your ISP can’t offer a solution you’re happy with, your best option is contacting the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution (TDR) service. Most major telcos are members of the TDR and it’s a free service. The TDR has received 174 complaints about fibre installation in the past year.

To support your case, be prepared and keep records. For example, you may need to take time off work when the technician is coming around. Make sure this is put in your ISP’s case notes. Then, if the technician fails to show, you’ll have evidence to help you claim compensation.

To make a complaint, visit tdr.org.nz or call 0508 98 98 98.