Introduction:

The recent storms in Queensland affected many, causing widespread havoc on the 25th. In the aftermath, I find myself compelled to share my experience, hoping it might assist others in making informed decisions amid the lingering challenges. The internet is nowhere near as important as a roof over one’s head, but a month after the storms, and something as simple as replacing a broken modem is crazy.

The Kogan Conundrum:

Despite the internet outage, Kogan, my service provider, continues to charge me. Their assurance of reimbursement post-NBN restoration offers little solace as the days without connectivity accumulate.

Communication Struggles with NBN:

In my pursuit of answers, I’ve made numerous calls to NBN, only to discover a disconcerting revelation. NBN claims that Kogan is recording the service calls as the wrong type, exacerbating the delay in resolving the issue. Kogan doesn’t seem to know what NBN is talking about. This really demonstrates that something is fundamentally wrong with the system. There is no escalation point, and therefore the service remains in a state of purgatory.

It seems like many areas of business have service level agreements in place, these help all parties know what their commitments are and help ensure the business can provide what it is obliged to. In the case of Kogan (perhaps other ISPs are the same) they don’t really seem to have any solid arrangements with NBN around timeframes etc. This rasises the question… what is an acceptable outage timeframe? 1 Day? 1 Week? or 1 Year? So far, we are at 1 month with no real change.

Survival Mode: Temporary Measures:

As an IT professional, a functioning internet connection is not just a luxury but a lifeline for my business. Faced with the prolonged downtime, I had to take matters into my own hands. We procured a 4G unlimited SIM and implemented adjustments to our home internet infrastructure to keep the wheels of our IT business turning. If you find yourself in a similar situation, feel free to reach out and I’ll do my best to assist. 😊

Conclusion:

The storms may have passed, but the aftermath continues to disrupt daily life. My intention in sharing this account is not just to vent frustration but to shed light on the challenges faced by many in the community. It seems the squeaky wheel gets the grease, I’m just not sure how squeaky it needs to get!

Ill update this page with any updates I get. In the meantime, I hope your having more success than me!