iiNet: No 2 for ADSL, No 1 for stuff-ups

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 14 February 2012 08:50

Opinion and Analysis - Open Sauce

iiNet is now Australia's second largest internet service provider as far as ADSL connections go and a technically sound ISP, going by by my own experience. But when it comes to the other sides of its business, like support and sales, iiNet is no better than any other ISP - in fact, in my view it is much worse than many.

The company has been growing by buying other ISPs in various cities. Its most recent purchase was Internode; prior to that Netspace, OzEmail and TransACT were all acquired.

In December 2011, I decided to change my internet connection from regular ADSL to Naked DSL. I have been with iiNet ever since the company bought Flow Communications in 2004; I was with Flow as a result of that company buying iGreen, one of the few ISPs which was offering static IPs to all customers back in 2000. Apart from two years with Alphalink, from 1997 to 1999, I have had a static IP all along, with Telstra, then iGreen, then Flow, and finally iiNet. iiNet charged an extra $30 for this per month, despite my having a business connection. I run my own mail server, my own web server and my own DNS.

When I spoke to iiNet at the beginning of December, I told them I would like to switch to a Naked Business 2 account as it had the necessary download capacity for my needs. I asked to retain the same IP and VoIP phone number which I have had with them. I was told there would be no problem but that if I wanted to avoid any downtime during the changeover, I would need to get a second phone line installed at a cost of $299. I agreed to this, as otherwise it would mean anything from 14 to 20 days of downtime. I also asked the company to make sure the landline at my residence was cancelled as soon as the new account was active.

About two weeks later, I was informed that my application had been cancelled. When I called to find out why, the person who took my call asked me whether I had an Australian Business Number (ABN). When I replied in the negative, he said it was not possible for iiNet to give me a Business account without an ABN. He refused to say why iiNet had suddenly put in place this requirement. As mentioned earlier, I have had a static IP with iiNet right from the time I went over as a customer when iiNet bought Flow Communications in 2004.

As to why I was not told about the requirement for an ABN right at the start - well, it is certainly a good question. I haven't got an answer, despite asking iiNet.

I obtained an ABN and recommenced the process in January. This time, the salesman I spoke to did not seem to be aware that one could avoid downtime during the changeover so I asked to speak to his supervisor. After finalising the details with this worthy, I was once again put back to the salesman who took down all the necessary details for changing my Business 3 account to a Naked Business 2 account with the same IP and same VoIP number. This entire conversation took about an hour on January 8.

On January 16, I received an email which said I had been allotted a Naked Home 1 connection! This floored me - when you ask for fries, you don't expect to be given a raw potato. I called up and was told that this had been done in error. The person I spoke to said reconfiguring the Home connection to a Business one was a trivial thing and it could be done easily. I can only laugh cynically now when I think of the confident way in which he made this pronouncement.