Exetel (Aus) : Best deals on paper, pity about the service

Exetel’s site claims they’re Australia’s best kept secret. They allegedly believe in less hassle, less time wasting and more value.

Let’s have a closer look.

Price?

ADSL packages start at $19.99 for 100GB, $29.99 for 500GB and $39.99 for unlimited. That is clearly the cheapest ADSL package in the country and the reason they allegedly have, according to their website, over 100,000 customers.

What’s not included?

Oh, did they forget to tell you there’s a $100 establishment fee?

Yes, and you’ll need your own modem/router.

Do you want a home phone? $20. Use a VOIP service instead – nobody should be paying $20 per month for a phone line.

But, heh, even after these hidden extras the price is pretty good, right?

The price is still good if you don’t count any time you might have to spend on service calls.

My experience:

I spent a total of about 14 hours on the phone with Exetel support staff over a 12 month period. Well, not really with their staff, usually on hold waiting.

I had problems connecting initially and threatened to withdraw from my contract until they were rectified.

Our home phone NEVER worked properly even after multiple service calls. I stopped using it and kept paying for it because i couldn’t face another call with them to cut the service.

About two months before leaving Exetel, my internet connection became patchy. I lost another 6 hours in unsuccessful service calls trying to resolve the matter before i switched (back) to Optus.

Sigh…

Sometimes if it seems to good to be true, there’s a reason.

Good luck to you if give Exetel a try but i found that my time was more important than any of the savings their plans offered.