Moving nbn from Telstra to Leaptel Taking More than 3 Days - Is This Normal?

So I decided to move off Telstra (HFC connection) after more than 2 years - basically couldn't justify the price. I decided to move to Leaptel and duly signed up a few weeks ago specifying Saturday 2 Sep as the cutover date.

My wife and I both work from home full time and internet is critical for us so I chose the move for a Saturday thinking I'd have the weekend to complete the move and sort out any issues.

Around 10am on Saturday 2 Sep, my connection to Telstra was lost. By 12pm I still had no notification from Leaptel so called them up. They said they checked with NBN and everything all ok and on track, will just take some time. 2pm I called again, same response but the helpful support person offered to call NBN and chase it up which he duly did and called me back to say there are no issues on NBN side but it's just taking a little longer than usual.

By 6pm I called again only to be told that NBN has now advised that the move will only happen on 5 September. Zero reason or explanation. I asked the Leaptel person what options I had? Escalation? Any exception process to at least understand what the problem is but constant response: "There is nothing we can do".

So couple of questions:

  1. Is this sort of delay in moving from one service provider to another common?
  2. What could cause this sort of delay?
  3. Is NBN so "all-powerful" that they can just do whatever they want without consequence or explanation?
  4. Any advice on what I can do here? Given the experience so far, I have very little confidence that I'll be up and running on the 5th.

Any thoughts or ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated - I'm more thana little frustrated right now.

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Comments

  • +2

    Likely story is Telstra cut it off before Leaptel were ready to connect, or it simply failed to connect, or one of many things went wrong therefore NBN need to go through a manual provisioning process rather than the automated one.

    It's probably just human error somewhere along the line, if Leaptel aren't being too descriptive then maybe it's them?

    NBN are setup to not communicate directly with you, so you need Leaptel to do it for you. Much like you deal with a power retailer and not the grid operators/power stations directly. It's annoying, but really Leaptel should have been able to give you more info than they did (or at least get it from NBN) and likely didn't bother trying. Who knows, maybe someone with fat fingers hit 5 instead of 2.

    • Thanks - I get human error, it's just hugely frustrating. And not having the details makes it even more so. The way Leaptel made it sound was that nbn just said "5 Sep", no explanation provided. Even if it is just human error, let me know - as annoying as it would be, it's still far less annoying that not knowing at all.

      • To anser your other question, yes your correct in that NBNCo can basically do what they like. They don't prioritize residential connections you get no guarantees under the NBN and you actually wave your CSG rights under it. Only Telstra need to provide a Customer service Guarantee and that is probably some legacy lgegislation left over from the sale in the 90s.
        Providers do have the TCP code they need to comply with but that is more around making sure that people don't sign up for plans they can't afford and that type of thing.
        Long story short if you want priority assistance from NBN you need to be on a business plan. Even then some providers will leave you high and dry as not all have 4G or 5'G backup solutions for when the NBN goes down or can't provide services straight away.

      • Just to confirm you didn't have a phone service or other stuff bundled to the Telstra NBN Account? that can make transferring away fun as you need to port the phone number first under a CatC which unbundles the services effectively but can take a while for the port to go through. If you didn't have bundled services then you shouldn't be stuck in the Telstra billing system hell and you should be fine.
        It shouldn't be a Telstra issue but could be.

        • No - no home phone involved

          • +2

            @macfudge: In that case probably an NBN stuff up sometimes they barely know what day it is, especially being an Aus Government org, they aren't exactly that officiant.
            Like anything gov related its good when it works.

    • +1

      "Likely story is Telstra cut it off before Leaptel were ready to connect"

      Telstra would cut it off when told to cut it off, contact Leaptel to escalate.

    • OP should be asking Leaptel
      Nothing we can do at this end.
      Good luck OP.

  • +2

    Telstra business model is to to charge the most and help the least, and take as long as possible, make it as difficult as possible for exiting their claws. Your data will stay with them forever.

    • You're not wrong there! I only really stuck with them due to their 4G backup as my wife and I are completely dependent on internet access due to working from home. But the reality is even that doesn't work - when we've fallen back to LTE, I would struggle to get anything more than 500-600KBps which is not really usable. So time for a change! I just wish I knew what was causing the delay

    • -1

      Telstra business model is to to charge the most and help the least

      Do you have a link to that on their website?

  • +2

    Waiting 3 days is not normal. Changing ISP normally can be done in 10 minutes to a couple hours. There is nothing else you can do but wait until tomorrow.

  • +1

    Is This Normal?

    No… should take a few hours max.

  • +2

    Never taken mare than a few minutes for me, across FTTN, FTTC, HFC. Something has obviously gone pear shaped. As rubbish as it is, there is nothing you can really do. Internet isn't treated as critical infrastructure (even though it is these days). So no one is going to help you. That said, can't you just tether your phones for a day or two?

  • I churned from Telstra NBN HFC to More.

    Took about a day or two. More couldn't give me the reason why but I highly doubt it has anything to do with Telstra.

  • I would be furious if this happened to me.
    Not normal and you should deeeestroy leaptel.

    My churn from Telstra to Aussie took less than 20mins.

  • In terms of the delay its probably a manual process that NBNCo needs to undertake if the automated switch has failed, as others have said it normally take about 20 minutes to a few hours for an NBN churn.
    It isn't Leaptel's fault it will be an NBNCo issue.

    • +2

      yeah well Leaptel should be busting NBNs balls over it.

      • Oh I don't disagree with that.
        Though NBN Co aren't always too quick to respond either so that could well be an issue.
        At least they are direct with NBNCo now so makes the process a lot easier.

  • Churred from TPG to More. Took no more than 30 mins.

  • +1

    I recently changed to Leaptel and had a very quick service. I upgraded to NBN fibre, they said NBN could take up to 3 weeks from sign up and it took less than a week.

    Once NBN was upgraded, Leaptel connected the service straight away. I called their call centre and got help very quickly. So, it's likely your issue is NBN related.

    I did cancel my old provider until I was sure the new service was working well. I just paid 2 extra days with my old provider.

  • +1

    I moved my NBN (HFC) from Telstra to Superloop today. It took only less than 1hr.
    I rebooted the modem from Telstra, then it was all set.
    30 mins later I cancelled my Telstra service.

    • I am thinking of changing from Telstra to Superloop as well. $99 for 1000/50 compared to $140 for 250/20 is night and day. What plan did you change from/to if I may ask?

  • To be fair, you could look at it as next business day rather than 3 days. I've had worse experiences.

    As for Leaptel's service, I'm impressed so far. I tried to negotiate for a week with Superloop to sign up for Flip to Fibre, but didn't want an interim FTTN service (that totally sucks at my location). I finally gave up and tried Leaptel, who within 1 day arranged for my FTTP to be connected the following week.
    (Superloop probably could have done the same - they just didn't tell me that.)

  • Moved from Telstra HFC to ABB HFC, took 12ish hours .

  • @macfudge any news?

  • +1

    Thanks all - I'm up and running with Leaptel! No further explanation from anyone as to what caused the delay but I'm just happy I have internet again!

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