Aussie Broadband Nightmare Experience - Disconnected Landline When Internet Activated on NBN

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Aussie Broadband

• 

  apptrack on 16/08/2017 - 09:51

  +17

  That's correct, when she asked if you needed a phone service, you should've said yes and have the number ported. NBN takes over the existing phone line.

  It's not AusBB fault, that's how the NBN works.

  Get a phone line with AUSBB and ask them to port the number over. Carriers keep the number for a while until they reassign the number.

  • 

    Rifraf on 16/08/2017 - 18:52

    -1

    Thats how the NBN works?

    Why would someone new to NBN know in advance that their phone would be cut?

    Readying of this travesty of service, I'll make sure they never get a bean from me.

    Fail

    • 

      apptrack on 16/08/2017 - 21:03

      They will when they cut off your service after the disconnection date :)

      • 

        Rifraf on 16/08/2017 - 22:02

        +1

        I'm not the OP.

        I don't have the NBN as its not available in my area (yet?)

        When it is, I won't be getting it with AusBB after hearing of the OP's experience.

        I'm honestly disgusted by it.

    • 

      furys12 on 17/08/2017 - 12:27

      Thats how the NBN works?

      thats how FTTN works because it uses your existing copper from the node, which is why its "cheaper" and much hated by anyone with a brain.

      Why would someone new to NBN know in advance that their phone would be cut?

      This is perhaps the biggest issue with the NBN, nobody really knows anything, the gov keep changing what it is, NBNCO keep changing everything and nobody is explaining anything properly, any information you look up is outdated before you finish the sentence, that said they were for a good long time sending out mountains of pamphlets letting people know that the copper had an expiry date and that telephony would go through your internet now but i'm guessing they only did that for places that were lucky and got FTTP though and left it up to the ISPs to explain the FTTN situation?, i was lucky and have FTTP and exetel have been so excited to make sure i know my copper line will be dead soon they accidentally sent out an email too early.

      Readying of this travesty of service, I'll make sure they never get a bean from me.
      Sadly it will be hard to be guaranteed better service elsewhere, it's not an excuse but it must suck being ISP trying to navigate the minefield of who knows what when they aren't even sure if what they know is current, it's hard to know if ABB deceivingly left out the the fact the phone line would be cut off, or if they assumed op knew what he was talking about or whatever, should that have confirmed that op knew it would be cut off, probably yeah, are you guaranteed any other ISP will confirm, nope.

    • 

      Dazza610 on 17/08/2017 - 13:20

      T&C's…
      You DO need to read them in this case.
      Even if it's only the first 50 pages or so??????

      And yeah… I had a problem that was sort of similar.

      I followed ALL the instructions perfectly.
      I should add here that my connection is FTTN.

      All worked as it should, or so I thought.

      It wasn't until my daughter rang me 'on the land-line', a couple of weeks later and got a 'This service is not in use' message.

      So she called me on my moby and told me that she couldn't get through on the land-line.

      This puzzled me because it was working on my end, (I could call out).
      After numerous google searches, I relented, and called Tech Support.
      I was in luck, I got someone with an Aussie accent, (after about an hr on the phone waiting), and he stepped me through all of the set-up procedures again in case I stuffed something up.

      I explained every detail, as I was doing it.
      When I got to the part: *Where you plug the "splitter" into the outlet…, he stopped me and said IGNORE that, don't use it.
      Even though the instructions were VERY specific about it.

      Errgh… generic instruction sheet…

      So for a few weeks anyone who was trying to call me couldn't get through, and I had no clue. Hope there wasn't anything important.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 17/08/2017 - 08:30

    She should have explained that the current phone service would be lost. A lot of people don't want the nbn. They think it's dodgy because of poor customer service incidents like this.

• 

  toomuchdogfur on 16/08/2017 - 09:55

  +3

  This isn't really Aussie Broadband's fault - any new NBN connection will disconnect the existing copper lines (including the home phone). If you want to get continued phone service you'll need to either sign up with an ISP that can provide home phone service over the NBN (Aussie Broadband or otherwise) or get a VoIP service and the appropriate hardware.

  I mean its a hassle but the only loss here is the phone number - it's good you're speaking with Telstra about it but you might be able to sign up for a new service and ask for your number back, there's a chance they can still get it if its only been recently disconnected.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 16/08/2017 - 10:02

    Thanks for the info but I have to disagree.

    The NBN is new, I've spoken to a lot of friends and family and colleagues about this and no-one else was aware that this would happen. Sure it's partly my ignorance but can't help but feel the companies who are selling NBN have a responsibility to advise someone if they'll be disconnecting a phone line. Especially when they asked and I mentioned that my mum was keeping her line. Surely that's their opportunity to say 'oh, no - she won't be able to keep that once the NBN is activated'.

    Am I missing something here?

    • 

      sane on 16/08/2017 - 10:09

      +1

      It's not possible to keep the line like that.

      Now maybe the sales staff could have caught what you thought you were doing and explained things to you, but in the end it was your screwup. Not really on to blame Aussie Broadband for that - probably best to blame NBNCo for the mess they have made of the rollout.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 16/08/2017 - 10:18

        -4

        Not sure why I'd blame NBNCo? They have a system, it's up to the resellers to educate people on how it'll work.

      • 

        sane on 16/08/2017 - 11:51

        +2

        @DisabledUser224827:

        It's up to NBN to educate people. They were given that role. And explaining that things are changing significantly should have been done by now, by them.

        Thing is, they haven't done a good job - how many people know about backup batteries etc.? Or that phone points around the house aren't going to work? Or the choice between VoIP and Uni-V?

• 

  oscargamer on 16/08/2017 - 10:04

  +8

  sorry to hear your story, but you are mostly to blame

  why did you go with ABB? i'm guessing cos you've read good things?

  so, you've done some research?

  you should have thought about the whole landline thing.

  on the ABB website, they talk about which modem you need and that there is an extra cost for a landline - that should have set your alarm bells ringing

  it's up to you to tell your NBN provider what services you had and what services you need, not keep some of that information from them

  my 2c

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 16/08/2017 - 10:08

    -3

    Not sure if you saw this part where I did tell them what I needed (broadband) and what I didn't need (Telephone)
    "She asked if i needed a phone service and I said no, this internet was for my mum and she has a phone line through Telstra."

    As for modems, I didn't mention that but we had that discussion on the call - there is already an NBN modem at my Mum's address so the only discussion around that was checking that it'd work with their service as it's a telstra modem and maybe it might be locked. As we'd only been talking about broadband I was going to test next time I went to my mums.

    • 

      oscargamer on 16/08/2017 - 10:11

      +1

      i'm not arguing with you, it's just that there was some confusion about the landline and your automatic reaction was to blame your ISP.

      i'm suggesting that if you had made it absolutely clear, then there wouldn't have been this situation

      are you getting a LL through ABB now? has it been resolved? talk to ABB and explain and i'm sure they'll sort you out. they can even listen to your conversation that's on tape. but at the end of the day, it's a free trial, so walk away if you're not happy.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 16/08/2017 - 10:23

        No confusion - was pretty clear in my intentions - unfortunately they weren't.

  • 

    Rifraf on 16/08/2017 - 18:58

    +1

    Thought about something you don't know about?

    Is the OP a medium?

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 17/08/2017 - 08:32

    That's bull.

• 

  follow on 16/08/2017 - 10:30

  +1

  you can't keep your landline and connect to nbn with a different provider. your landline gets disconnected and becomes a data line. if you want a landline, you can keep still for ~18 months from when your area is connected. but since you switched, it cut off completely

• 

  Kail on 16/08/2017 - 10:39

  +3

  I thought it was common knowledge that moving to NBN disconnected the phone service.

  When you declined the phone line service with them they should have informed you that you would lose your existing phone service, I guess they also didn't realise people out there don't know this, but as a service provider they probably should have considered that.

  Now your easiest options are to either get a landline through your current ISP and try to port your old number over, or change ISP and get an NBN + phone bundle through another company. Telstra won't be cheap but may be your best bet at getting your old phone number back?

  • 

    aboabo on 16/08/2017 - 13:50

    -1

    Why didn't they just call it called NBNAPDS (National Broadband Network And Phone Disconnection Service)?

  • 

    Rifraf on 16/08/2017 - 18:56

    +1

    I guess me and the OP simply arent commoners then

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 17/08/2017 - 08:33

    Why on earth would you think this was common knowledge?

    • 

      Kail on 17/08/2017 - 11:28

      +1

      1. Many other commenters replying here know.
      2. They ran TV ads when NBN was new telling you this.
      3. Anyone who looked up NBN should find that information, and I would hope people wanting NBN would look it up before buying it.
      4. It's in the letter you receive letting you know you have NBN available in your area and must switch over before a certain date.
      5. It's in the NBN ready email you get from your ISP (at least I hope all ISPs include this).
      6. It's on most ISP sites when you sign up for NBN, so you will know at the point of purchase.
      7. It's in the confirmation emails for this particular ISP after purchase (never used them before but Sun n Moon posted it below).
      8. Perhaps the most important reason - my computer illiterate parents who know nothing about the interwebs know about it.

      I'm not sure how else people are supposed to be told about this if TV ads, letters, emails, sign up details and confirmation details all manage to slip by them. Although I will say if you aren't in an NBN-ready area and have never looked up NBN before you may not know but I'd certainly hope you would be told once your area is ready for cut-over, as I think it's pretty important information to know.

      I think in this particular case the ISP wasn't communicating as clearly as they needed to. The OP misunderstood when the ISP asked if they needed phone service, and the ISP should have picked up on that when the OP mentioned having a Telstra line. It's hard to say without seeing the full conversation but what's done is done; now the OP must acquire a phone service ASAP and hopefully they can reclaim their old phone number.

• 

  dcep on 16/08/2017 - 12:06

  +5

  disabled user ? that was fast.

• 

  Sunshines bright on 16/08/2017 - 20:09

  +4

  "She asked if i needed a phone service and I said no, this internet was for my mum and she has a phone line through Telstra."

  Did you literally SAY she had phone service through Telstra that she was keeping? I doubt it, as they would have then realized you did not know you had to give up the copper wire phone line.

  And they did ask if you wanted a phone line!! You just assumed they were trying to sell you one, when to be honest they were asking literally if you wanted/needed a phone line seeing as you were going to lose the one you already had if you had one.

  In my opinion it is never up to a seller to fully educate a person on everything about what they are offering, you have to do some research yourself in order to ask the right questions and to communicate your needs.

  To be honest with you, I managed to learn that the NBN made the copper phone line obsolete when I did research about the NBN before I decided to go to it from ADSL. Then I did even more research about the companies offering NBN.

  It is like buying a car, if you do not know what a car is or how it works why would you go to Toyota and purchase one? if you did you would not be able to drive it would you (no license, no knowledge of how to use it or even what type of transmission you need)?

  The point is you should have done your research first before opting into NBN through ABB.

  Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on the sellers part!

  It was not ABB fault, it was yours.

  I have ABB and in the second email I received about them porting my service over to ABB it said this ( and they send the same stock letter to every person who signs up with them)

  More information
  Important note - if you are a Fibre to the Node customer with a single copper line to your premises, your nbntm service will take over your line once it's activated. This means your existing phone and ADSL services will stop.

  So you see you have no excuse for not realizing you were losing the phone line!!!

  • 

    Rifraf on 16/08/2017 - 22:08

    They have a great excuse for not knowing.

    They are trying to buy access to internet and not selling their landline.

• 

  srhardy on 17/08/2017 - 08:16

  +3

  you OLD mum, like mine will just have to adapt. get her a mobile, its way better value and more use for the aged than a landline anyway. 6 months she wont remember what the fuss was about!

  went through all this with mine! aldimobile $25 a month UNL calls on the t$ network, cheaper than a landline inc calls

• 

  magic8ballgag on 17/08/2017 - 08:23

  +1

  Nightmare? Mate, your life has been cozy.

• 

  farknos on 17/08/2017 - 09:28

  +1

  unfortunate, but you can get the number back, it goes into quarantine for a period before it can be reissued to anyone else, the worst case you will have to lodge a complaint with the telco ombudsman, it may be a bit long and drawn out but you will get the number back, as others have suggested get your mum a mobile in the interim. the exiting telco should be able to forward your mums number until you can get it connected via the nbn, you may not get this service until you whinge to telco ombudsman.
  its not the first time its happened and wont be the last, be ready to chew some time on the phone trying to sort this as customer services is lacking with all telcos.
  if you want it sorted dont delay your complaint to the ombudsman, sadly most telcos dont act until the complaint is lodged.

• 

  HeWhoKnows on 17/08/2017 - 10:48

  +1

  They are correct. You cant mix the old technology with the new NBN technology. Futhermore the old tele[phone line is due to be cut off anyway so your mum wouldnt have any choice. They should have made this clear up front. Just ask them to fix it.

• 

  BigBirdy on 17/08/2017 - 12:05

  +1

  NBN FTTN is fundamentally different to the Internet solutions of our past in that it doesn't co-exist with your landline phone. The retailer should have made that clear, particularly as you were conversing with them by phone. Your solution now is to arrange a phone connection (& hardware if required) from your NBN retailer. I suspect you'll have difficulty recovering the old number, but you should definitely push hard for it.
  Note that an NBN phone requires an internet device (typically your modem/router) with a telephone connection on it as that's how your phone is connected. Ie you cannot use existing phone outlets/extensions. It's typically best to get a cordless phone with multiple handsets, connect the base station to your router, and handsets located as required. Make sure your retailer understands your requirements, ie that you are supplied all required equipment and understand how to connect it all. Remember, not all NBN modem/routers support phone connections. Check what Aussie supplied you, or perhaps other Aussie customers can confirm (I'm not with Aussie) if the modem supports a phone.

• 

  Sunshines bright on 17/08/2017 - 19:28

  DisabledUser224827 on 16/08/2017 - 09:46

  This means the poster closed his OZBargain account permanently so is no longer see these posts.

• 

  kiitos on 17/08/2017 - 23:44

  So when you move to NBN, you can elect to port your landline number to VoIP, is it guaranteed that you can port the number out to a different provider later on if you want to change?

  I understand that there was a risk of losing your number when porting from pstn to voip and back again a few years ago, was wondering if that's still the case? (I realise you can't port out of NBN once you're in, but is there a risk of losing your number porting between vsps?)

  • 

    farknos on 18/08/2017 - 09:35

    +1

    Kiitos

    the only time you should ever be at risk of losing your number is if you disconnect with a service provider before porting,
    as long as you port from one provider to another before you disconnect you would be fine.

    • 

      kiitos on 18/08/2017 - 13:56

      Great, thanks farknos!

  • 

    sane on 18/08/2017 - 15:37

    Be aware that Telstra want their pound of flesh when you port a number out - something that should have been stamped on if we had a working regulator.