Orcon ripped anyone else off?

Anyone else changed from 256KBitstream to 2MbBitstream and been ripped off.

My billing cycle is 23rd of month - 22nd of the next month. Orcon changed me
over on the 1st of the month to 2Mb. But they are trying to charge me $72.62
for the month. More than if I was on 2Mbs for an entire month ($69.95) ? I
have even explained to them the flaw in their bill.

They split it into bitstream access & base fee. They credited and charged at
the new rate for the Bitstream access portion (all fine) Then they charge
for the part period the new base rate but don't credit the already paid base
fee of the old plan.

I have even broken it down and given my ph number for them to call to
discuss it. But they refuse to answer the questions and my explanations, and
multiple people just email me back "we have double checked the billing and
it is all correct" ?

I am writing this just to warn others who may also be overcharged if they
have converted over. They also stuffed up my conversion and I could not log
in for a day until they changed the ip address assigned to me, but I have
yet to see the credit for that 1 day as promised or an apology.

I have given notice to them so I can shift to an ISP that has accurate
billing, and a helpdesk who can understand basic maths.

Brad

 

I had a similar experience with Orcon when I switched to 256k UBS from
my old 128k connection. Telecom was late with the changeover, so I was
entitled to a refund for the unused days. It took three months to get my
$3 refund!

What I thought was funny was the response I got when I asked for my
refund...

"The charge for our 128k service is $49.90 as apposed to $49.95 for 256k
bitstream. It is difficult to offer a refund on for that reason."

The pricing is correct, but what the support person failed to take in to
account was the fact that the old charges were split between Telecom and
Orcon. Orcon had charged me for the unused days at the new rate
($49.95), not the old rate ($19.95) which applied to the service I was
getting.

They credited me for the unused proportions of my new UBS service, so
they should do the same for you.

The Other Guy

 

Yeah, I had the same thing only worse. The plan I changed to was
$69.95/month with a free upgrade and I got charged $84.33 for the first
month. I emailed them and complained and asked for an explaination and they
sent me some gobbledy-gook about partial charges for this period and full
charges for that period etc. I still don't understand what they were on
about, I was going to post the email here to see if anyone could translate
it for me but it has one of those confidentiality thingies on the bottom of
it. May not be reproduced or distributed in part or whole on pain of death
etc. The funny thing is, I got it on the same day as I always get my bill
from them so why am I being charged for part of one month and all of
another? How can part of a month on a cheaper plan and the rest on the
$69.95 one add up to $84.33? They told me I was changed over on my
'anniversary', that's the only way Telecom will do it so the bill isn't for
more than a month.

I do feel ripped off, their bullshit jargon didn't explain it to my
satisfaction either but I paid it. I have a good credit rating and want to
keep it that way. I told them to change me back to the $49.95/month, 256k
plan and that I would expect a corresondingly smaller bill for the month it
gets changed over.

It seems Seeby is getting behind in his Ferrari payments and is gouging his
customers to pay for it.

 

I mentioned in my emails how many other customers are you ripping off as
well, with the same flawed billing. Now your post seems to suggest
everyone. The matter of the telecom anniversary has nothing to do with me.
My contract is in full with Orcon, and there is no mention of it in the
terms & conditions.

 

Mine is also only with Orcon. However, as I just posted in another thread,
an Orcon helldesk drone told me last week that "Not many people know this
but Orcon has a different arrangement with Telecom to that of other NZ ISPs"
(Or words to that effect).

Also, I have been told that changes to ADSL connections (which are all done
by Telecom) will only ever be implemented on the monthly 'anniversary' by
Telecom. (I'm getting sick of that term being used by the ISPs, The 'anni'
part of anniversary refers to a year, as in, per annum). This is done, I
believe, because that is the date around which Telecom bill the third-party
ISP and they are incapable <sarcasm> of billing for part-months. Makes it
even stranger that Orcon bill for part-months huh?

 

orcon is a gay ineternet provider. why would you use a company that will restrict your services if you dont pay your bill within 14 days and then expect you to pay for the restricted service? bottom line... orcon are wankers!

 

They have tried to rip me off twice now

Orcon has tried to rip us off twice now. First time was after we upgraded from 30GB to 60GB. The change was suppose to take effect at the end of the billing cycle, but at the start of the next billing cycle when I logged into our account and it still said we had 30GB. I called Orcon and was assured we had 60GB and it was just a minor error on their website. But then at the end of that billing cycle we had used up 55GB, and when we received our bill it said we had used an excess of 25GB. I called up Orcon, and at first the guy tried to tell me it was a valid charge, so I had to explain it to him a bit. Once he finally understood he said he would fix the problem by crediting our account.

So he fixed the problem and on the website it now said we had 60GB. However later we decided to upgrade to the 200GB plan, and they tried the same **** again. So after we had requested the change, I logged into our account at the start of the next billing cycle and it said we now had 65GB. WTF? I sent Orcon an email warning them that their was an issue with their system again and that they better not try and rip us off again, but I didn't waste my time calling them, because I knew they were probably going to try and rip us off anyway, so it was better to just wait until the next billing cycle and then ring them then.

And just as I expected, they sent us a huge bill for using an excess of 125GB. I called them up today and got it sorted out, but I had to wait on the phone for a while and they didn't offer us any compensation. The girl just told me that it was a system error.

Now the scary thing is we usually don't check our Orcon bill, because we have an automatic payment set up. If we hadn't checked it these last few times Orcon would have gotten away with ripping us off by about $300. I'm wondering how many people they have actually ripped off so far, because it looks like they will only refund you when you notice the error in your bill and report it to them. Also they won't get in any trouble doing what they are doing because they can just claim it is a 'system error'.

I cannot wait to leave this horrible ISP!