Cyclone response by telco and council leave small community in the dark

A nine-day telecommunications blackout was bad enough but the farcical response by the telcos was worse, writes GARY STEEL.

The day after Cyclone Gabrielle hit the small settlement of Baylys Beach, our 82-year-old neighbour set out for Dargaville in his 4WD, gamely taking on the floodwaters, ending up unconscious in his 4WD in neck-high water. When a group of 16-year-olds made to retrieve the car, they had no idea there was a body inside. An ambulance was called and he was lugged off to hospital suffering from hypothermia. Later, he had no memory of the incident.

This was about the most dramatic incident that happened out our way. A few roofs partially blew off, a number of trees fell down, some of them across roads. The beach and dunes were a mess and there was degradation of the cliffs. Our garden shed flew across the section. Power was off for two days, and both phone and internet connections were down for nine days. Hardly significant compared to the tragic deaths and the vast amount of damage the cyclone caused down country.

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What was significant about our situation, however, was the pathetic response by Civil Defence, our local council (the Kapaira District Council) and especially, the telcos. With a complete communications blackout, no one here knew what was going on. There was no Civil Defence action out here, and it was left up to a few kind residents to go door-to-door checking up on the elderly and infirm. Anxious relatives – many of them overseas – were desperately trying to get hold of their loved ones to find out if they were okay, but were unable to. For nine days.

No one out here was ever told anything. For several days, flood waters prevented locals from driving to Dargaville and it was through sheer luck that we eventually discovered that there was a passable alternative (though much longer) route into town. Three days after the flood our family figured this out and found out that Dargaville itself was carrying on pretty much as usual, though other outlying areas like Pouto had severe flooding.

Unsurprisingly, school and kindergarten were cancelled for the week, because both the families of the children and many of the teachers were grappling with flooding issues. In some ways, it was great having the kids home. And with no phone or internet, I could easily accept that my workload would just have to wait. Ironically, just a few days after the cyclone, the sun beamed down on Baylys Beach and the sandy soil quickly soaked up any traces of flood waters, so that it was hard to accept that any major weather event had occurred. Except that there was still no mobile phone or internet coverage available. While the power came back on a few days after the cyclone, we barely knew the horror parts of the country were facing as we couldn’t watch, hear or read the news.

I soon figured out that if I drove for about 10 minutes towards Dargaville I could get just enough mobile phone coverage to send some texts and recover some Facebook messages. It’s no one’s idea of fun sitting in a hot car on the edge of a thin rural road with cars blatting past watching your phone’s battery quickly deplete while you’re trying to get some sense out of a telco that simply won’t respond with anything other than repeated idiotic nonsense, but several times each day I would join hundreds of other Baylys residents in this desperate procedure.

Spark’s infuriating “response” meant that when I sent a message, regardless of whether the relevant info was in my message or not, their automatic reply was to demand that I repeat my name, date of birth and account number. After a laborious process, I would be able to send my query. The trouble is, I couldn’t sit around on the side of the road for hours, so inevitably, I’d have to tootle off. When I’d come back half a day later to continue the conversation, I would answer whatever question or half-arsed statement they’d left with me, only to find that I had to start the whole process again. No matter what, I could never get anywhere. And whenever I did get a real person in real time, they wouldn’t answer my specific questions; questions that to me, felt very reasonable. I really just wanted to know 1. What had happened at Baylys. 2. If they had an ETA for reconnection. Fairly simple, really. And yeah, I know all the telcos would have been really busy at this time dealing with emergency conditions, but!

By the Sunday after the cyclone, I still hadn’t been able to get anything remotely useful out of Spark (my telco), but I had heard that the KDC (Kaipara District Council) had opened their doors during the emergency to anyone who wanted answers to pressing issues. So, when the family headed into town for supplies, I popped into the KDC offices where a couple of young women were stationed and ready to answer my questions. For a few seconds, I felt optimistic that they might have their fingers on the pulse of the area and that they might actually be able to answer my questions about the telecommunications blackout at Baylys. Not only did they not know about it, they even resorted to Googling the websites of Spark and Chorus to try and find information. And of course, there was just the usual generic bullshit. It would be fair enough to say that I already knew more about the situation at Baylys than they did.

Seven days after the cyclone I received a text from Spark informing me that my mobile phone and internet had been restored and everything was now working. So did many other people at Baylys Beach. It wasn’t. This was infuriating, and when I asked for a reason for this having been erroneously sent out, I received no response.

After mobile phone and internet was restored nine days later, I tried vainly from the comfort of my home office to get some answers. It was the same old same old. Endless automated responses, lame generic answers, no real information. Playing tag with automated telco systems.

A month after Cyclone Gabrielle I’m STILL waiting for official word from anyone about why telecommunications to the Baylys Beach community went down. Fibre is supposed to be modern, robust… and it’s underground. How could that go wrong? A rumour had gone around about a big tree falling over and the roots having cut through the fibre. But that remains a rumour. And what about the cell tower? How many cell towers do we have here? Just the one, which all the different telcos use? And why was it so vulnerable to a weather event? Once again, rumours swirled around about the cell tower being reliant on the fibre cable. Someone said that when that was cut, the cell tower only had a few hours of battery life before it too went dead. But that’s just a rumour, because no one’s been direct and honest and simply communicated what happened to the local community. A month later!

“I’m not going to fill in all that crap again. Please just answer the question.”

It turns out that after the cyclone, emails were sent to the local campground here asking if telco and emergency flood relief workers could stay there. An email, of course, that the owners of the local campground never saw, until nine days later, because internet was down. This small fact says a lot. It rather proves the point that neither the local council, nor civil defence responders, knew that we had a complete breakdown of communications out here after the cyclone. For nine days.

I get that everyone was busy dealing with the emergency and that there were areas harder hit than ours. But that doesn’t excuse the ineptitude of the situation. Had the situation here been much worse, would the authorities even have known? Would they have expected to be able to phone or text or message or email to find out?

The one positive that’s come out of all this is that our local voluntary community group, the Baylys Beach Society, is now determined to make sure we’ve got a Civil Defence plan specific to the area for next time. But it makes me wonder how many other small communities around the country have been left high and dry, and whether corporates like Chorus and Spark will even have to justify their appalling lack of communication during the disaster. And after.

One month later and where prior to the cyclone cell coverage beamed four bars onto my mobile phone, now I’m lucky to get two or three bars (it varies), which means that in just a few hours each day after charging, my phone is drained of all its energy. Yay. Similarly, the supposedly blazing fast fibre internet in my all-you-can-eat plan has slowed to between 200-300Mbps. It’s shit, and once again, no one’s telling the truth.

Perhaps it’s time for businesses to rethink their call centres. There are constantly huge customer queues on phone and online for just about any so-called communications corporate and even essential services like doctors. I seem to remember that in the late 20th century this wasn’t a problem, and that most of the time you got to speak to real people who actually lived in Aotearoa.

“Oh sweet Jesus. This is like an endless loop of asking the same questions and having to repeat my info over and over again. I just can’t do it again.”

Here’s a small sample of the Spark bullshit I experienced:

18 Feb 2023, 12:15

You sent

Hi, just wondering if there is any info as to when cell and internet might be restored at Baylys Beach? Thanks.

Spark

Hi there, thanks for messaging us. I’m Spark’s Virtual Assistant. To get you through to the right team I’ll ask you a few questions.

Which type of account or service are you messaging us about? Enter the letter that corresponds to your choice to get started. A. Business account B. Mobile C. Broadband D. Landline E. None of the above

You sent

B and C

Spark

A team member will review your message and get back to you as soon as they’re available. Any extra details you can enter now will help us respond as quickly as possible. This is not live chat, so no need to wait on this screen. You will not be disconnected, and you’ll get a notification on your device when we reply; you can reply at any time. Our team are available 24/7.

You sent

I’m about to return to Baylys where there’s no service but will drive again to a road where I can connect later today, so hopefully you have some good news!

18 Feb 2023, 14:29

Spark

Kia Ora Gary and thanks for messaging Spark. My name is Bianca Marie. Your message has been routed to me and I will take it from here. I do apologize for the delayed response and sorry for the inconvenience if you are still having issue with your mobile and broadband connection. I understand the situation is not ideal and you have been trying to get this issue resolved. I totally understand how it is very essential for you to have this issue fix. But no worries, I will do my best here to resolve your issue. Before we continue, we’ll need to verify your identity against our records. Could you please confirm your full name, date of birth and Spark account number? You can find your account number on your Spark bill or from the billing screen in the Spark App.

18 Feb 2023, 16:44

You sent

Gary Steel, date of birth, account number

You sent

I just need to know when internet and cell phone will likely be restored to Baylys Beach, as I work from home and these services have already been off for 6 days.

18 Feb 2023, 17:33

Spark

Hi Gary I apologize for the late response due to high volumes of messages. Your message has been routed to me and I’ll take it from here I understand that you want to know when the mobile and internet services will be restored at your address? Looking into that for you now. You don’t need to reply or stay in the app, and you will receive a notification on your device when I reply.

Spark

Hi Gary there is no ETR at the moment, and upon checking the Outages page on line, there is no latest update yet. Dargaville Kaipara District Outage Reported at 12 Feb 2023, 8:16am Internet Customers in Dargaville Kaipara District may be experiencing a loss of Internet service. The outage started 12th Febuary 2023 at 08:16. Our techs are working on it and we’ll show a green icon on this map when it’s back up and running.

21 Feb 2023, 11:13

You sent

At 9.18 this morning I got a text from Spark saying that “the outage that was affecting you is now fixed, so everything should be back to normal.” I only got this text because I was in town at the time, not at Baylys Beach. Why is Spark sending out factually wrong texts to its customers? I got all excited and then found out that neither the cell phone nor the internet was working.

Spark

Hi there, thanks for messaging us. I’m Spark’s Virtual Assistant. To get you through to the right team I’ll ask you a few questions.

Which type of account or service are you messaging us about? Enter the letter that corresponds to your choice to get started. A. Business account B. Mobile C. Broadband D. Landline E. None of the above

You sent

I’m not going to fill in all that crap again. Please just answer the question.

Spark

A team member will review your message and get back to you as soon as they’re available. Any extra details you can enter now will help us respond as quickly as possible. This is not live chat, so no need to wait on this screen. You will not be disconnected, and you’ll get a notification on your device when we reply; you can reply at any time. Our team are available 24/7.

21 February at 11:54

Spark

Hi Gary, it looks like this text you received is in relation to your broadband at home. We do still have Dargaville and Baylys Beach listed as an outage on our outages page. Our teams are continuing to work to get the last few impacted sites across Northland, Gisborne and Napier back up and running. When you are back home can you please check to ensure that your Fibre box (ONT) which your modem connects to is plugged in and can power on? It’s currently showing as powered off on our end.

21 February at 14:27

You sent

Yes, modem plugged in and powered on but no internet.

Other Baylys Beach residents on the local FB community page are saying the same thing: that they received the Spark notification that it was back up and running but it isn’t.

Spark

Kia Ora, and thanks for messaging Spark. My name is Kenny. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do over messenger we just have to wait until the teams have repaired eveything.

You sent

There is something. 1. Instead of a black hole of no information, residents could actually be told what happened to their internet and cell. 2. Spark could own up to sending us false notifications that gave us hope that we would soon be connected. 3. Spark could give an ETA. 4. Spark could have withheld the sending out of invoices when we haven’t had use of the services for a week.

Spark

Due to the cyclone the damages are both extensive and complex. This is why we can’t give a ETA on when services will be active again. SPark is also not directly in charge of repairs. We work alongside councils and other contractors.

You sent

I appreciate that but none of my points have been answered. Spark is the communication gateway for the likes of Chorus who don’t deal directly with the public. Councils are reliant on information from telecommunications co’s as much as the general public. In this case it’s very simple… a fibre cable out to the beach, cellphone tower at the beach community. We’ve still had no info at all after more than a week.

21 Feb 2023, 16:04

Spark

A team member will review your message and get back to you as soon as they’re available. Any extra details you can enter now will help us respond as quickly as possible. This is not live chat, so no need to wait on this screen. You will not be disconnected, and you’ll get a notification on your device when we reply; you can reply at any time. Our team are available from 8:00am – 9:00pm every day.

Tues 17:45

Spark

Kia Ora Gary and thanks for messaging Spark. My name is Bianca Marie. Your message has been routed to me and I will take it from here. I do apologize for the delayed response and sorry for the inconvenience if you are still having issue with your broadband connection. I understand the situation is not ideal and you have been trying to get this issue resolved. I totally understand how it is very essential for you to have this issue fix. But no worries, I will do my best here to resolve your issue. Before we continue, we’ll need to verify your identity against our records. Could you please confirm your full name, date of birth and Spark account number? You can find your account number on your Spark bill or from the billing screen in the Spark App.

22 February at 12:24

You sent

Gary Steel, date of birth, account number

Spark

Hi there, thanks for messaging us. I’m Spark’s Virtual Assistant. To get you through to the right team I’ll ask you a few questions.

Which type of account or service are you messaging us about? Enter the letter that corresponds to your choice to get started. A. Business account B. Mobile C. Broadband D. Landline E. None of the above

You sent

Kia Ora Gary and thanks for messaging Spark. My name is Bianca Marie. Your message has been routed to me and I will take it from here. I do apologize for the delayed response and sorry for the inconvenience if you are still having issue with your broadband connection. I understand the situation is not ideal and you have been trying to get this issue resolved. I totally understand how it is very essential for you to have this issue fix. But no worries, I will do my best here to resolve your issue. Before we continue, we’ll need to verify your identity against our records. Could you please confirm your full name, date of birth and Spark account number? You can find your account number on your Spark bill or from the billing screen in the Spark App.

Spark

A team member will review your message and get back to you as soon as they’re available. Any extra details you can enter now will help us respond as quickly as possible. This is not live chat, so no need to wait on this screen. You will not be disconnected, and you’ll get a notification on your device when we reply; you can reply at any time. Our team are available 24/7.

Spark

Kia Ora, and thanks for messaging Spark. My name is PRI

Spark

Before we continue, we’ll need to verify your identity against our records. Could you please confirm your full name, date of birth and Spark account number? You can find your account number on your Spark bill or from the billing screen in the Spark App.

You sent

Gary Steel, date of birth, account number

Spark

Gary Steel Good Afternoon how may I Help you?

You sent

Oh sweet Jesus. This is like an endless loop of asking the same questions and having to repeat my info over and over again. I just can’t do it again.

Spark

I apologies for this.let me have a look to the account

Spark

A team member will review your message and get back to you as soon as they’re available. Any extra details you can enter now will help us respond as quickly as possible. This is not live chat, so no need to wait on this screen. You will not be disconnected, and you’ll get a notification on your device when we reply; you can reply at any time. Our team are available 24/7.

22 February at 13:53

Wed 13:53

Spark

I understand you have been trying to get this issue resolved. I’m sorry you’ve had the runaround; I am here to help you. Unfortunately, your connection is currently impacted by an outage in your area. Spark and our partners are currently working to restore all services as quickly as possible. I have created a trouble ticket for your connection linked to the outage. You will receive SMS and email notifications as updates on the outage become available and when the outage is resolved. You are eligible for Spark Connection Promise to help you stay online during the outage. You can nominate a primary number to receive 20GB of mobile data and up to three secondary numbers that receive 5GB of mobile data. Would you like to activate Spark Connection Promise now? If so, please confirm the primary Spark mobile number and any secondary Spark mobile numbers.

Friday 17 March:

Hi there, Just over a week ago (Thursday 9 March) I received an email from Spark telling me that my issue has now been resolved. I received a similar message via text. But while it’s true that 9 long days after the cyclone internet and phone were restored, I can’t agree that my “issue has now been resolved.” (Apparently, my case number was (case number). My name is Gary Steel, of (street address), Baylys Beach, Dargaville 0377, and my account number is (account number). I realise that the recent events were extraordinary and that the workload for Spark must have been immense, and complex. But a month later I’m still waiting… waiting for answers, waiting for action. So here are my concerns: 1) I had no internet or cell phone at Baylys Beach for 9 days. When will I receive a refund for the days during which I wasn’t connected? 2) At no time during the frankly farcical, endlessly repetitive online conversations I had with Spark at the time did I get any kind of answer as to the reason/s for the 9 days the whole Baylys Beach community was without phone and internet, despite asking repeatedly. I thought that after the event, Spark might actually bother to outline to its customers here the problem, together with possible ways to protect against both internet and cellphone coverage being taken out again during the next big storm. There has been no assurance coming, no information given. 3) Prior to the cyclone I got a reliable and strong four bars on my cellphone, but since the problem was fixed 9 days later, I’m lucky to get 1 or 2 bars, which drains my cell phone’s battery in no time at all. Is this lamentable issue going to be addressed, and if so, when? I look forward to your response and hope that you will consider the points I raise. Thank you, Gary Steel

Spark

Hi there, thanks for messaging us. I’m Spark’s Virtual Assistant. To get you through to the right team I’ll ask you a few questions.

Which type of account or service are you messaging us about? Enter the letter that corresponds to your choice to get started. A. Business account B. Mobile C. Broadband D. Landline E. None of the above

You sent

B and C

Spark

A team member will review your message and get back to you as soon as they’re available. Any extra details you can enter now will help us respond as quickly as possible. This is not live chat, so no need to wait on this screen. You will not be disconnected, and you’ll get a notification on your device when we reply; you can reply at any time. Our team are available 24/7.

Today at 14:46

Spark

Kia Ora Gary, and thanks for messaging Spark. My name is Lee-Ann. I understand that you need help regarding your internet and cellphone that is not working. Before we continue, we’ll need to verify your identity against our records. Could you please confirm your full name, date of birth and Spark account number? You can find your account number on your Spark bill or from the billing screen in the Spark App.

You sent

Gary Steel, date of birth.

Hi there, Just over a week ago (Thursday 9 March) I received an email from Spark telling me that my issue has now been resolved. I received a similar message via text. But while it’s true that 9 long days after the cyclone internet and phone were restored, I can’t agree that my “issue has now been resolved.” (Apparently, my case number was (account number). My name is Gary Steel, of (street address), Baylys Beach, Dargaville 0377, and my account number is (account number). I realise that the recent events were extraordinary and that the workload for Spark must have been immense, and complex. But a month later I’m still waiting… waiting for answers, waiting for action. So here are my concerns: 1) I had no internet or cell phone at Baylys Beach for 9 days. When will I receive a refund for the days during which I wasn’t connected? 2) At no time during the frankly farcical, endlessly repetitive online conversations I had with Spark at the time did I get any kind of answer as to the reason/s for the 9 days the whole Baylys Beach community was without phone and internet, despite asking repeatedly. I thought that after the event, Spark might actually bother to outline to its customers here the problem, together with possible ways to protect against both internet and cellphone coverage being taken out again during the next big storm. There has been no assurance coming, no information given. 3) Prior to the cyclone I got a reliable and strong four bars on my cellphone, but since the problem was fixed 9 days later, I’m lucky to get 1 or 2 bars, which drains my cell phone’s battery in no time at all. Is this lamentable issue going to be addressed, and if so, when? I look forward to your response and hope that you will consider the points I raise. Thank you, Gary Steel

Fri 16:46

Spark

A team member will review your message and get back to you as soon as they’re available. Any extra details you can enter now will help us respond as quickly as possible. This is not live chat, so no need to wait on this screen. You will not be disconnected, and you’ll get a notification on your device when we reply; you can reply at any time. Our team are available 24/7.

17 March at 17:32

Kia Ora Gary, and thanks for messaging Spark. My name is Catherine I understand your service have been affected by the Cyclone Gabriel and you have lost your service for days. Let me arrange a credit for you. This will reflect on your next months bill. Many areas have lost heir service during the event. Some has been restored completely and some are working on a temporary service due to the severity of the damage and will require further work. This may result for some degration of service on he area.

You sent

Hi Catherine. Thanks for that. It would be nice to know how much credit, when it will apply from, and also, whether this will automatically apply to other Spark customers at Baylys Beach. It would also be nice if Spark could explain whether the cell tower at Baylys Beach is one of those that requires further work, and if it does, when we might expect to get decent coverage again? Oh, and I would appreciate it hugely if the other two questions I asked could be answered. That might really encourage me not to move to another service provider.

Spark

As per your second question, Baylys Beach Community is one of the area that has been affected by the Outage. We have posted updates on our website and other media information about the affected areas and what Spark was doing to fix the issue. Regarding your third question I can see that he Network on the area has been completely fix. I can refresh your network and you can restart your mobile to test.

You sent

I would be very interested to be pointed towards any Spark-generated FB or news media information specific to what happened at Baylys to cause 9 days of no internet and no cell. I asked repeatedly but never received a satisfactory reply. Did the fibre get cut by the roots of a falling tree? That’s the rumour, but I haven’t seen the facts anywhere. Was the cell tower dependent on the fibre, or was it damaged independently? No one here knows. But let’s get to the current situation. I see that my cellphone is varying between 2 and 3 bars right at this moment. Sometimes it gets down to 1. This means, as I wrote before, that the battery drains quickly. Before the cyclone, it was always 4 bars. I’ve also noticed that internet is very variable in speed since the cyclone and maximum speed seems to be around 300mbps, whereas before it was often substantially higher than that. So yes, if you think it will fix the problem, by all means do your fix, as long as it’s painless at this end: I’ve got kids to feed and get to bed so can’t spend hours sorting out technical problems tonight.

Spark

Thanks. There has been multiple updates on the Northland area on our Facebook Page. We need to clear your current mobile connection from the network and force your mobile device to reconnect. I’m resetting the network connection to your device, and I need you to complete the following steps on your device. Let’s get started: 1) Please turn off your device and eject the SIM card for at least 5 minutes. 2) Place the SIM card back in your device and power it back on. 3) Allow your device to reconnect to the network and check your connection. If the issue persists, repeat steps 1 – 3 with another device to rule out an issue with your device. Let me know how you get on. I will leave this conversation open for the meantime. You do not need to reply. This is not live chat, so no need to wait on this screen. You will not be disconnected, and you’ll get a notification on your device when we reply; you can reply at any time. Our team are available 24/7.

[I tried the procedure. It didn’t work.]