Duplex NBN Installation Complications

[Rebecca]

My partner and I have recently moved into a newly built duplex and organised to have NBN installed through TPG to our new property in the week leading up to us moving in.

We are now a month later and our unit still has not had the NBN equipment installed into our property despite us forking out $300 New Development charge for being the first tenants in the new property, and despite the landlord forking out the $600 to subdivide the NBN lines to the property.

TPG is registering our service as active and we have already paid for the first month of service in the initial setup process. Today we were invoiced for a second months service despite not having any NBN equipment yet fitted to our home at all as the TPG system keeps registering our property connection as active (despite a multitude of phone calls to TPG customer service to report that we have still not had NBN equipment installed).

What appears to have happened is that the second unit on our land has been fitted with the NBN equipment in the garage and TPG has this recorded as our property in their system. Therefore our connection being detected as active is actually the connection for the other unit on the property.

Despite numerous phone calls over the past month one day after another, and despite explaining multiple times to agents over and over again that we are in a subdivided property in which there has been a mix up when registering our neighbour as active, and despite having an NBN technician coming out to take a look and forwarding through confirmation to NBN and to TPG that we do not have any NBN equipment in our property and require an installation appointment, this issue is still nowhere near being resolved and we are still being invoiced for a service that we cannot access and is completely unable to be active in our home.

We are growing quite tired of the constant chasing up we have had to do, only to have to explain the whole situation over and over again as the notes on our file are apparently insufficient despite the numerous phone calls we have made and assurances that we have been given.

We are looking for a solution to this problem and we do not understand why we are being charged for a service that is not active despite this whole situation being a problem because we are not connected and the information in TPG's system for our property is incorrect.

This post is my last attempt to find a resolution from TPG before we look at moving our service elsewhere or even taking this to the TIO.

I would appreciate any suggestion of resolution, especially from anyone that has experienced this issue themselves as this appears to be a massive issue with subdivided properties and applying for NBN.

Regards,

Rebecca

[Anonymous]

Hi @Rebecca,

Welcome to the community!
 

We would love to help and see what happened on your service installation. There is a possibility that the equipment for NBN service that was installed in the premises is only available for 1 user. We tried to use your Community details to pull up the account unfortunately it does not show any matching records on file.
 

To better understand the situation, we would like to get your account details (Username/Customer ID together with the  complete address).
 

In case you need a reference:

How do I private message (PM) in the community

Cheers!

[Rebecca]

Update: We have been contacted by the Provisioning Team this morning with no further help provided at all.

After being scheduled for a phone call between 4.30pm & 5.30pm to resolve at least some part of our issue, only to be once again forgotten about until I flagged this once again privately with the Mods on here, to then being rescheduled for another phone call this morning, to finally be told "we cannot resolve any part of your issue" and to be spoken to in such an appalling manner over the phone - we are reaching the point of no longer wishing to engage with a company that has absolutely zero level of over the phone customer service and care.

Whilst we understand having to wait for NBN for the next stage to progress, the absolute refusal to cancel the creation of any invoices to bill us for our "monthly service" despite the whole issue being that THIS SERVICE IS NOT ACTIVE, and to have been informed that our only solution to being charged for a service that is impossible for us to have is to have a "restriction placed on our card" and that we will be liable for the payments that have been invoiced once the service is actually active and the restrictions on the card are removed (this does not appear to be entirely legal to invoice us and charge us for months of service that we are physically incapable of accessing/using).

We will be seeking legal advice on this matter and we are going to have a think about whether or not we want to cancel our account entirely.

Thank you for trying to help us out Shane.

It looks like once again we have come away with nothing from TPG in the form of a resolution, even to the simple task of not billing us whilst our service is inactive.

The sheer lack of customer service over the phone is absolutely appalling. To be repeatedly interrupted, talked over and to have someone representing TPG sigh and try to argue with us over the phone was both distressing and unprofessional to the highest level.

Should we decide to proceed I shall send through updates to this thread to keep a track of this whole mess, just in case someone else unfortunately ends up in the exact same mess as we have.

Regards,

Rebecca

[Rebecca]

Update again for anyone that might see this post and be in the same position as we are:

So we received a phone call on Monday morning from the complaints team at TPG as they had apparently spotted my previous post.

After making a formal complaint about our current case manager and after informing them that we will not be paying any bills whilst our service is inactive (as stated in our contract with TPG "you will not be billed until your service is active) I was then advised that our account may be cancelled altogether if we didn't pay the bills that we are absolutely not liable for.

After once again stating the obvious, the gentleman on the phone from the complaints department finally agreed to "handle this for us and explained that we will not be billed whilst our service is inactive.

Of course I was skeptical of this promise after many many failed promises over the past few weeks and so I requested this information in writing in the form of an email.

We were also informed that our case was being moved on to an NBNco service case manager and that they would be in touch that same day.

Of course we received no such phone call (although I'm willing to understand that the public holiday may have played a part in this).

This morning my partner has found an email stating that once again our Bond Lodgement form sent to TPG to pass on to NBNco has been rejected for the 3rd time in proving that our address is in fact 100% subdivided and we are living in one half of it.

Please in future (a small recommendation from a very unhappy customer) have a criteria checklist for people going through the same issues with duplexes and subdivided properties. To have our documentation rejected 3 times without any further clarification as to why and how we can resubmit with the correct documentation is absolutely ridiculous and we are not mind readers.

Also claiming to have been trying to call our mobile (which we have never had an issue with service the entire time that we have had it and we have used it to make and receive calls this morning ourselves) when clearly they haven't even bothered is absolutely ridiculous.

Once again I shall post any further updates here in case someone else is going through the same situation.

Regards,

Rebecca

[kimba5834]

Hi Rebecca,  just found your post on this forum (after 6 attempts to register) and was hoping you had a successful outcome?  Could you let me know as I am experiencing something similar - although our new build is not a duplex (doesn't share a party wall) and has been given a different street address by the local Council.  

Cheers

Nicole