Whirlpool

Just curious what other people's experiences are with this...

I've recently spent a bit of time ringing the Adam helpdesk, and I've found that particularly in the 6pm-10pm timeslot, wait times can be atrociously long. I've spent over 30 minutes on hold before having my call answered on more than one occasion.

Couple that with people naving Naked accounts – if you don't have a Telstra home line, all your calls to the helpdesk are most probably via your mobile, which costs through the nose (and offsets any savings via the naked plans).

A dial-back system (where Adam returns your call rather than you waiting on hold) is implemented at Internode support, and would be a very welcome addition here – Adam, can you please consider it?

Cheers,

Gobbo

The few times i have called about 'minor' issues, the longest has been about 5 mins, but usually almost immediately, or within 60 seconds.

For this reason I have never considered a call-back option as a reqirement in my circumstances.

FYI, having been with a few ISPs (including Internode), I consider Adam to have the fastest response times, and in most cases have been more than capable of solving problems..but I understand that each situation is different.

Never had to wait more than 5 mins before.

Besides that Adam is the number 1 ISP in Adelaide in my view.

Hmm I've got to say I'm surprised with other peoples experiences. Once I've gotten through instantly, once under 5 minutes, but the rest have been substantially more.

Aah well, at least the staff do a decent job when you get through to them... no complaints with the job they've done :)

20+ minutes

these days they are getting busy

Internode is No-1 Premium ISP

Adam is No-1 in low cost ISP

lazydesi writes...

Adam is No-1 in low cost ISP

If this was the ONLY thing in Adam's favour, I would not be with them..like I said support and my connection has been first class.

gobbo writes...

and I've found that particularly in the 6pm-10pm timeslot, wait times can be atrociously long

I wonder why that might be..........

The few times I've called, I've never had to wait more than 5 mins (Although normally I call in the quieter periods).

gobbo writes...

if you don't have a Telstra home line, all your calls to the helpdesk are most probably via your mobile

Dont all the Naked accounts come with an included VOIP account? I know mine did.

But I suppose thats hard to use if your ringing cos your net is down.

Called helpdesk twice so far, on first occasion...10 min wait, then in the evening 40min!!!

In the last week i have called Adam around 5 times & call times have been 5 mins or more during daytime not peak times .

Used to be much quicker then that .

Anthony-W writes...

If this was the ONLY thing in Adam's favour, I would not be with them..like I said support and my connection has been first class.

I definitely agree with you wholeheartedly on that one. Adam is #1 ISP in SA without a doubt in my mind.

My call 2 days ago took 15mins on hold. Longest I have been on hold is 35mins!!!!! Another time I have called was almost immediate under a min.

I've had a couple of instances of waiting for over 10 minutes – but these have been at times when (it turned out) there were serious network wide issues (like the outage a few months back that hit everyone). Generally I have been answered in a few minutes.

The thing with Adam, no matter how long I wait in the queue – I have always been answered well – my issue has been resolved quickly and the service has been great.

Ultimately, I don't mind waiting 10 minuites if it only takes 2 min to fix by someone skilled. I've had experiences with other services where you get answered quickly, but then hand-balled from person to person as they each try (& fail) to solve the problem or answer the question, and it ends up being an entirely infuriating 10min+ call.

I think Adam have great, well trained and technically savy staff – keep up the good work.

The longest I've waited is a couple of minutes, and I've rarely had to call.

I have only ever called them twice and both times i was waiting over 10 minutes, the first call was nearly 20 and i had to hang up as i was calling from work :( Not a good start, they could atleast have a message saying sorry for the delay, or let you know when the queue is moving, or get a call back from them which i THINK internode have if i remember from when i was trying ISP's for ADSL (i live in mawson lakes – enough said). And when it was answered the guy seemed extremely casual and didnt really help me until i directly asked him to check my line to see if my account was set up.

libertine writes...

And when it was answered the guy seemed extremely casual and didnt really help me until i directly asked him to check my line to see if my account was set up.

What were you indirectly asking him to do, then?

They're not mind readers, you have to ask them questions before they can give you answers ;)

libertine writes...

And when it was answered the guy seemed extremely casual and didnt really help me

You always have the option to give feedback on this in your Adam member's area after your phone call.

okay I have called three times in the last 2 days and all three times i waited 15-20mins Not very happy about that :(

Normally very fastish :(

AaDiL writes...

waited 15-20mins

Then hung up, or was answered?

You might've been the very next one to be answered and you blew it!

You can't give feedback on such an absurdly high wait time, if you don't let them pick up and there's nobody to yell at if you hang up, either ;)

Try Telstra, 60+ mins (almost 90mins one time).

My gas company, 45+mins.

Yeah, and the list goes on.

Schlampe writes...

and there's nobody to yell at if you hang up, either ;)

Heh thats true, although I'd hardly think its the customer service officers fault for such a high wait time. Ah well... they still have that ad on thier website advertising for more staff... maybe a few guys from here should apply :P They seem to be pro. I would but I'm already comfortable in my job :)

http://www.adam.com.au/about_careers.php

Are you a superior customer service officer? Do you want to work for a company that has been based in South Australia for 20 years? Do you have sound knowledge of computers and the internet?

If you have answered yes to these questions then we want to hear from you!

=]

Darkhound writes...

http://www.adam.com.au/about_careers.php

not much different to your everyday job app.

Even optus/telstra/vodafone advertise in this way, and as we all know, only 1:100 is pro.

Perhaps they (adam), have the perception that after 10mins on hold, a customer will realize that their modem has no power and they plug it in, alas, solving the problem.

Waited 40 mins yesterday 1st time before giving up ,

30 mins before got through in 2nd instance later in the arvo .

Schlampe writes...

waited 15-20mins

Then hung up, or was answered?

You might've been the very next one to be answered and you blew it!

You can't give feedback on such an absurdly high wait time, if you don't let them pick up and there's nobody to yell at if you hang up, either ;)

Didnt hang up i waited thru it

Well after waiting over 35 minutes today my mate cancelled his Adam application when he finally got through .

All this from Adam that i have recommended to friends as a great company with fast help desk service :(

Rotten Ronnie writes...

Well after waiting over 35 minutes today my mate cancelled his Adam application when he finally got through .

During the last month we have experienced above normal queue times, however we are doing everything in our power to rectify this situation. In normal circumstances we would expect your call to be answered under 2 minutes (this is at worst). We have recently employed an additional 10 staff on our helpdesk, invested heavily in our new phone system and products like the Voice Outage system, and in around 3 – 4 weeks will be opening another floor in our building which will give us an additional 56 desks in our call centre to keep up with our expected growth.

Having said that the absolute longest anyone waited in our queue today was 00:15:27 (keep in mind this is the longest spike and average hold time today was less than 2 mins) which is a long way short from 35 minutes. So I find it hard to believe that your friend waited for over 30 mins, please whim me the phone number he called from and I will be happy to verify this.

Scott Hicks writes...

Having said that the absolute longest anyone waited in our queue today was 00:15:27 ... which is a long way short from 35 minutes. So I find it hard to believe that your friend waited for over 30 mins, please whim me the phone number he called from and I will happy to verify this.

And Scott stamps out another keyboard warrior!!...

Scott Hicks writes...

During the last month we have experienced above normal queue times, however we are doing everything in our power to rectify this situation.
Thank$ Scott

Good to see you are aware of it and working on fixing it i have whimmed you .

I wouldn't have worried if it hadn't happened to me a few times in the last few weeks.

Mr.T writes...

And Scott stamps out another keyboard warrior!!...

What do you mean by this ?

Rotten Ronnie writes...

What do you mean by this ?

That ye be nothin' but a blunderin' scallywag and be made to walk the plank to the depths of Davey Jones' locker, arrrrr

Maybe I did a double post

Wow where did that come from ?

I have never been that angry with Adam .

I think all businesses have a high turnover with call centre staff .

My mate had 3 different case managers in a week trying to sort an issue out with Telstra & no they didn't rectify it .

He would have been connected well & truly with Adam by now otherwise.

Mattgnik writes...

There can be many reasons for Adam having long wait queues.

What the heck does this post have to do with help desk wait times!??

BTW, Never had a problem with wait times in nearly 2 years with Adam.

Mattgnik writes...

Maybe I did a double post

You know you did, the other one (on another thread) was deleted by a mod.

If you have a 'personal' axe to grind, don't use a public forum to do this.

I'm debating whether it's worth a new thread or not, but how long have people waited to hear back from emailled support requests?

Yes, I realise you can pick up the phone and call them, but sometimes (at work for instance) that's not the easiest thing to do. That and you get allocated a helpdesk ticket number for your email, so you'd think you'd get seen to kinda soonish (my last two enquiries; one took 11 hours, the other a day and a half).

Anyway, I'm still waiting on a request from Wednesday lunchtime... :P

I Call gets things done faster xD

But if your at work yeah true would be harder to call..

Not sure but I would give em a call when I got home from school/Work or w/e

AaDiL writes...

Not sure but I would give em a call when I got home from school/Work or w/e

So... I crumbled and gave them a call at the end of today (which is currently unresolved). Surprisingly, the helpdesk support guy had no clue about the ticket ID mentioned in the text from the auto-generated email I received:

If you would like to follow up on your enquiry, you can contact the Adam Internet Help Desk on (08) 8423-4000 and quote your ticket ID .

Scott Hicks writes...

So I find it hard to believe that your friend waited for over 30 mins, please whim me the phone number he called from and I will be happy to verify this.

Scott i have recently sent you 2 whims with phone numbers to check can you please reply to them when you get a chance .

umm, i waited on hold for at least 30mins last night. So i wouldnt rule it out. I was watching the timer on the phone.

Actually last Monday I was waiting about 40 minutes for my call to be answered. I will wait to see the phone bill when it comes to see if my call was capped before I jump up and down too much. I did ring at probably the worst possible time though being 6pm. As usual the help desk was brilliant once I got through.

Rotten Ronnie writes...

Scott i have recently sent you 2 whims with phone numbers to check can you please reply to them when you get a chance .

Scott has replied to me .

Thank$ Scott

AaDiL writes...

I Call gets things done faster xD
A week and a phonecall later and I'm still waiting to hear back...

I remember having called Adam helpdesk on three occasions. Two were answered in less than a minute with one being approx five minutes. More importantly though when answered the support staff were, friendly, sympathetic, knowledgable and empowered to resolve my issue.

Now... ( and don't laugh ) I have recently migrated from Virgin Broad Band at home. Let me describe the hellish queues and service there.

1) If you get answered before your phone actually gives up and disconnects you are lucky ie : 90 minutes
2) quickest I recall being answered ( and this is the QUICKEST ) near 20 minutes.
3) average experience 60+ minutes.
4) most of my calls to support disconnected before being answered !!

... and most importantly, while the Virgin Support staff were very friendly there was very little they were empowered to do.

I love the fact that a local Adelaide company can do such a better job !

Rotten Ronnie writes...

Rotten Ronnie...Rotten Ronnie writes...Scott has replied to me .

Thank$ Scott

So... what was the outcome of the call wait times?

aaron-aus writes...

So... what was the outcome of the call wait times?

1st number doesnt show up as it is silent number will let you know when i hear more .

Maybe someone could whim a rep with their number not blocked/silent numbers that has been on hold for a long time in last couple of weeks & get them to check logs

Rotten Ronnie writes...

Maybe someone could whim a rep with their number not blocked/silent numbers that has been on hold for a long time in last couple of weeks & get them to check logs

I thought Scott's point was in relation to a specific day, I didn't see him say no user has ever waited longer than X minutes.

Tex writes...

I thought Scott's point was in relation to a specific day, I didn't see him say no user has ever waited longer than X minutes.

I wasn't meaning ever just recently :)

I have whimmed you.

I think the time you call (e.g. at night) makes a big difference. My wait time was from a few seconds to half and hour – but that was a few years ago, haven't had to call since. Except for that time where there was that big outage and I called Adam to see what was going on but got dial tone – I actually preferred this because I didn't get charged for phone call :-)