No Telecom quake refund - unless you got knocked offline for more than 24 hours
UPDATED: Company says it will now offer a week's free calling from the time of the quake for its residential Christchurch residents.
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Budget 25
UPDATED: Telecom and all other telcos offering fixed residential landlines have announced they will credit their residential customers in Christchurch for calling for fixed periods after the earthquake. Please see this story for more details.
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Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said today that the company’s automatic billing system would stay in place for Christchurch citizens.
This meant, he said, that those landline and cellular customers without service for more than 24 hours would be credited for this month.
Those with sustained interruptions to service less than 24 hours would be welcome to call Telecom to discuss their bills and the company would listen “very attentively”, Mr Watts said.
“An event like this, you could say it tears up all the rules.”
He said the company was involved in discussions with thousands of customers in Christchurch about their needs and how to achieve this. He said the company was focussing on solving service issues by providing four to five thousand free analogue phones and diverts for landlines to another number.
The company was trying to do the “right thing” by its customers affected by the earthquake, Mr Watts said.
Telecom has yet to give any public assessment of the cost of the second Christchurch quake.
At its recent half-year report, the company put the cost of the first quake, on September 4, at $4 million.
Alex Walls
Mon, 28 Feb 2011
Mon, 28 Feb 2011
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No Telecom quake refund - unless you got knocked offline for more than 24 hours
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