Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Ihug: still screwed?

mark p baker

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:48:02 +1300

Earlier in this topic:

..."Perhaps it's just me, but "moving everything to Auckland" and "purchased by Australians" seem to be harbingers of doom for many a company's quality"...

Those two phrases are a long way of saying: "it's f**ked".

Sorry, but I'm a ten eyar veteran of having "moved to…

mark p baker

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:48:53 +1300

Sorting out ISP blues

1. ihug invoices are now electronic, we have no choice but to comply...but I like hard copies for my business accounts, and resent having to pay for the envelope and stamp to send back my cheque...solution? wait a month and get the "did you miss your…

jon_knox

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 12:06:15 +1300

Here's something for the telco obsessed/futurists....a bit of a change from the ISP bagging.

The independent regulator of the communications industry in the UK has published a collection of essays about communications in the next decade.

tineke van niel

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:06:07 +1300

Well just dialled another overseas number. I was able to hear but they couldn't hear me. So just another 2 minutes toll chareg wasted.
The toll connections through Ihug are more like you expect from third world countries!!!

Simon Grigg

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 15:45:37 +1300

Ihug's help desk has gone from very good in the Wood and post Wood days, to absolutely appalling these last twelve months.

I agree with you on the email support too...an email re hosting issues took two months to get a reply. The issue (with the www. and the non…

tineke van niel

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 10:32:27 +1300

Well I joined Ihug, the Best Internet provider bla, bla bla. Since I joined them in September I have not received any invoices and I only paid them after downloading them from the site.
The international phonecall connections were a problem from the word go. In one weekend all the…

xurizaemon

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:54:38 +1300

E-mail has become the thread that seems to hold our society together these days and when it unravels things can go very, very wrong

You're so right! I too will be holding email responsible when the next war begins.

gardena

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:29:41 +1300

Yes couldn't send any email last night, worked for a bit this morning but now it's out again. And yes I've had multiple invoices too. Something definitely not right in the house of IHUG. Why doesn't Vodafone step in and throw some resources their way or are Vodafone the problem?

Miker

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:23:17 +1300

It's getting worse down at Ihug... can't send today either from my account or via webmail. And you can't ring the helpdesk – apparently because of a power outage! Ihug – voted NZ's worst internet provider...

James Green

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:13:03 +1300

Gmail is where it's at. And I log in this morning and there's a few new tricks added!! 4 of th 5 seem relatively un interesting so far, but the new Reply menu is very cool.

Richard Elwin

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 10:04:16 +1300

Ho hum... Email's playing up again.

Time to check my the conditions of my contract with them I think. Not sure I'm getting my money's worth at the moment.

MikeE

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:29:57 +1300

* No invoices for two months then the complain the bill hasn't been paid.
* On hold for 4 hours over the weekend to try and work out why net isn't working
* CSR who is reading of a script and has no technical knowledge at all

(all blogged about…

Beatrix

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:02:50 +1300

For the last two days my email's actually been getting sent...but it's all been tagged as SPAM. Apparently they were testing new spam filters...Nice. A good look.

wendyf

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 11:41:54 +1300

I've had 4 invoices, so har de har har!

wendyf

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 11:40:20 +1300

I've had 4 invoices, so har de har har!

Aquila G

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 11:08:29 +1300

I also had to ring up and wait on hold 25 minutes to find out what settings to change because they couldn't just put it on their website.

And I was obviously one of only a few, since when I got through they started telling me how to fix it…

Anton Angelo

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 09:14:36 +1300

My organisation had issues with iHug customers not being able to use our website – we run a big complex web application. Many many calls to iHug tech support took us nowhere until I dropped an email to their business sales group – something along the lines of, "Shall I…

Glen Wright

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 07:00:39 +1300

The best thing about Gmail is the trainable spam filter, which pulls about 600 messages a month for me. All my mail goes via Gmail. Although I admit to being a little uneasy at the idea of them never being deleted, especially when work related.

Hamish

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 22:38:56 +1300

Gmail.... You'll never look back! It's lightening quick, packed full of features, and you really don't ever have to delete anything. Plus, it's Google – they're never going to lose your emails. :D

Kiwiiano

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 22:36:50 +1300

Rich Bentley was billed twice, I received my bill 3 days after it was due to be paid.
The trouble with losing mail is you may never know. I know I have because when I suspected something was wrong on the Saturday, I sent an email to all 4 working…

Matt Taylor

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 19:47:08 +1300

Agree with the above on paradise, I had the same problem & moved to iHug with the lure of the wired country connection (which I missed out on unfortunately...)

But, given I was apparently "one of the few" people-yeah right- who needed to reconfigure their email client to be ever able…

Richard Bentley

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:09:43 +1300

Further to my previous post I am utterly delighted to say that I have received a third copy of my November invoice from Ihug. It really is reassuring that they are so keen to ensure that I get bills from them, and it goes such a long way to making…

Steve King

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 09:38:42 +1300

I've had no email on one of my ihug accounts since the beginning of last week. All emails to that account bounce back with a 550 error which- after calling them about it on Tuesday morning and getting no response- I discovered when I called again this morning a lot…

Peter Stayt

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 07:59:57 +1300

I have had the same problems with missing e-mail – and the same lame response when I have contacted ihug. Three e-mails sent on Mon 30th and one sent wed 1st (Iwas with the sender when it was sent!) have not been received (these are the four i know about!!).…

Richard Bentley

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 07:53:25 +1300

I have received the same emailed invoice twice from Ihug in three days. They obviously can't control their own system. I will be checking to see that they don't charge me twice.

Mark Shaw

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 21:44:52 +1300

Leave your ISP for ever http://www.google.com/hosted buy a domain name and go for Google hosted it's the business and what's best it's free. I've been using it for a small business I have on the go and I've had no problems at all.

David Ivory

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 19:43:40 +1300

Nic and Chris are on the money.

Why use an ISP email address? By having you lock yourself into their service as people are understandably reluctant to change email addresses.

Get your own domain name.

Most registrars will redirect your email to wherever – an ISP account, or Gmail.…

Miker

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 16:43:29 +1300

That's it precisely – it's far more damaging than is easily estimated. I feel seriously let down by Ihug over this – they simply don't seem to be taking it seriously. I was assured yesterday that no email had been lost, but also that they don't know when it might…

Carmel B

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 16:26:58 +1300

This has been a huge problem with me also – I have been with iHug for about 7 years now and have always had great service, but the last month it has gone from bad to worse.

Mail which never, ever arrived (contrary to the assurances that no mail would…

sumware

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:45:34 +1300

Some of our clients are iHug customers and they have had problems e-mailing us since 27 September. It was fine a week earlier.

Symptoms are the same – they can receive e-mail from us, but can't send to us. Analysis of our ISP's logs show that the e-mail does not…

Andre Alessi

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:13:03 +1300

There's been a general trend in call centres towards a reduction in staff skill and knowledge, but it's particularly obvious in ISP tech support lines. Partially that's to do with countering customer complaints about the time you need to wait for someone to answer the phone: you need more people,…

rodgerd

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:58:06 +1300

I've never found Ihug particularly good at responding to technical issues, nor any other ISP I've had experience with – Xtra, Paradise etc. Part of that is due to the fact they have to abrogate a lot of control to Telecom for ADSl, part of it must be I don't…

Richard Bentley

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:28:21 +1300

I have used Ihug for ten years and their support service has always been budget grade, as have their phone connections. However, overall they were good enough until the company was sold the first time. Since then the general standard has declined and on one occasion I signed up temporarily…

Russell Brown

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:15:06 +1300

I was chatting to someone senior at Ihug yesterday and it seems their problem is being between owners. The sale transfer is in a couple of days, and the old owner won't pay for extra servers, and the new owner can't yet pay. If it were not for this they…

Juha Saarinen

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:00:34 +1300

I've run my own domain including mail server for the last six years. This isn't something that everyone will want to do (and it cost me boatloads on Jetstream) but I would definitely advise people to get their own domain and sort out mail hosting for it.

That way, if…

DPF

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 12:05:54 +1300

I was chatting to someone senior at Ihug yesterday and it seems their problem is being between owners. The sale transfer is in a couple of days, and the old owner won't pay for extra servers, and the new owner can't yet pay. If it were not for this they…

Kyle Matthews

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 12:03:04 +1300

I think problems with Ihug in terms of customer support and their help desk etc are fairly well known. If people ask me what ISP I use, I say ihug, who are fine, as long as you never need help. I've told my parents to go elsewhere on the basis…

Ben Austin

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 11:51:29 +1300

I've never found Ihug particularly good at responding to technical issues, nor any other ISP I've had experience with – Xtra, Paradise etc. Part of that is due to the fact they have to abrogate a lot of control to Telecom for ADSl, part of it must be I don't…

Neil Smart

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 11:43:05 +1300

Peter Todd accusation that
" Is it possible that Ihug have not invested sufficiently in their server infrastructure prior to their recent sale to an overseas company? I suspect it may be the usual story of the fast buck for today's shareholders versus investment in the future. It's just another…

Mark Walker

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 11:03:54 +1300

Not exactly on the same thread but my dialup to Ihug has been screwed for three weeks. Apparently "some exchenges" have issues and mine (Mangawhai) is one of them. When I dial the number I get a "Your call can not be connected at this time. Please try again later."…

Chris Chambers

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 11:01:04 +1300

I agree with Nic. I do the same I never use my ISP email or web space I use them to connect to the internet an nothing else. I use fastmail.fm and have my domain parked at free parking pointing the MX record for mail to fastmail. The spam filtering…

Andre Alessi

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 10:31:11 +1300

I'd be suprised if this was an ihug specific problem, the one thing they've always been known for is keeping their hardware and network ticking along.

I know Xtra's had similar spam issues in the last month, leading to them announcing they'd be filtering outgoing emails for spam (to head…

nic.wise

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 10:28:56 +1300

I'm actually curious why someone with a company is using an @yourisp.co.nz address. With the (lack of) cost of things like hosted gmail for domains, or even (if you are a PC + Outlook type like me) hosted Exchange, using the ISP provided email for anything except the odd personal…

Kyle MacDonald

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 10:18:10 +1300

I have also lost emails, not particularly improtant, but annoying none the less. Interestingly, over the same period I also had delays of up to two to three days for emails sent to my vodafone.net.nz address, which gets alerted to me via text. It appears this may not have just…

Public Address

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 10:18:10 +1300

Discussion from blog post.