Yangebup man frustrated over NBN runaround

ROSS Sinclair has spent the last two months without a home phone or the internet.

The Yangebup resident signed up for a home phone connection and NBN internet with Telstra on February 8, but two months down the track, he is still without both.

Mr Sinclair said he was given installation dates of March 10 and 28 but nobody attended either, and has now been given another connection date of April 5.

“All I want is an answer as to why and a connection for my phone and internet,” he said.

“I’m annoyed, frustrated and angry, mainly because of the lack of service and lack of contact.

“As for reasons, Telstra has said the phone number hasn’t been released, it is an NBN problem affecting the whole area and that they don’t know why it hasn’t been installed, none of which seems credible to me.”

When the Gazette contacted the NBN Co, a spokesperson said that because retail service providers had direct access to the NBN they were “ultimately responsible for investigating service issues on behalf of their customers”.

“They are the one point of contact for all service requirements for their customers, sometimes working with NBN directly if the service complaint is found with NBN network infrastructure,” she said.

“Our team have been in contact with Mr Sinclair to get his services connected to the network shortly and we will also continue working with Telstra to resolve this issue, as we do with all our retail service providers.”

However, Telstra area general manager Boyd Brown said the delay was an NBN issue.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience this customer has experienced, unfortunately it appears that NBN Co has missed appointments, causing the delay,” he said.

“We are in contact with both the customer and NBN Co to resolve this and get this customer connected.

With parts of O’Connor, North Lake, Samson and Coolbellup switched onto the NBN network last week and most of the rest of Fremantle and northern Cockburn to be switched on in the next few months, Federal member for Fremantle and deputy chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network Josh Wilson said there needed to be a better system in place for dealing with complaints.

“I believe the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) should track complaints according to the type of technology used to deliver the NBN because that’s the only way to properly compare the different options being used,” he said.

“NBN and retail service providers must take mutual, coordinated responsibility for the services that they both have a part in providing.

“The agonising saga of Mr Sinclair trying to get his phone and internet service connected is a perfect example of the unacceptable buck-passing undertaken in the telecommunications industry.

“In this still unresolved case, the astounding lack of accountability displayed by both NBN and Telstra has resulted in the customer running back and forth between the two and even after contact by my office both entities persist in pointing the finger at each other and failing to deliver a connection to Mr Sinclair.”