The Auckland couple are furious a Chorus technician drilled in 15 extra holes into the outside of their house after a bungled ultra fibre installation last month. Photo / Supplied
The Auckland couple are furious a Chorus technician drilled in 15 extra holes into the outside of their house after a bungled ultra fibre installation last month. Photo / Supplied
An Auckland couple say a Chorus technician "butchered" their new home after drilling 15 unnecessary holes into an exterior wall while attempting to install ultra-fast broadband internet services.
The angry North Shore home owner says the bungled installation was then exacerbated by a shoddy repair job.
Adding further insult, thefamily are yet to set foot inside the 240sq m, two-storey home, as it's still under construction.
However, Chorus say they have taken full responsibility for the damage and accept that the installation, and repair job, "was simply just not up to our standards". The company has agreed to pay the couple's builder to fix it up.
The home owner said they built two homes on the section.
Now that they were nearing completion, it was time for ultra-fast broadband to be connected. After being told by Spark that only one home was eligible, a Chorus technician was sent to the property to get the installation underway.
"They rock up to this brand new, architecturally designed home that's been built by builders I just trust my life with," she said.
"He only had to install a little grey box but he ended up drilling and re-drilling three times, so 15 holes, into the outside of the house and then left it."
After trying and failing to get much of a response from Chorus staff, the woman said she decided to email the chief executive directly to point out that the work was "nothing short of vandalism".
A technician was sent out to do a repair job, in which he "slapped some plaster" into the holes leaving it looking patchy, she said.
"So it went from an absolutely perfect plastering job, and for them to have thought what they had done was acceptable was just a joke. It is vandalising our house."
She has since refused to let any more Chorus contractors onto the site, instead demanding their own builder fix the botch up with the specific plaster used on the rest of the house.
The Auckland couple are furious a Chorus technician drilled in 15 extra holes into the outside of their house after a bungled ultra fibre installation last month. Photo / Supplied
The repair job didn't make the couple feel any better. Photo / Supplied
"I told them I don't want them anywhere near the house again. We've agreed with Chorus that we will get our own plasterer in there.
"This is a German plaster system that you don't just go and slap plaster into and hope that it's going to work."
The home owner was now nervous about further work Chorus planned to do, including broadband installation on the second home and the removal of an old telephone pole, at a cost of $1400.
"I just hope that there's no other disaster with what they do... whether they leave a stump of the pole or rip the fence or it crashes into the brand new house. They're absolute butchers."
She accepted Chorus was trying to do the right thing, but said their "poor workmanship" was letting them down.
"They're doing it all over Auckland and it is leaving homes in a state that is no longer weather tight."
A Chorus spokesman said the incident "should not have happened".
"The decision-making here from the technician was not what we would expect and given the difficulties he was having he should have sought support from his manager.
"He has done this work with the best of intentions on the basis of trying to get the customer connected that day, rather than rescheduling to another date, but this was not the best course of action under the circumstances."
The spokesman said while their technicians received "comprehensive" technician training and support, "unfortunately in this instance this has not shown through".
He also accepted there was poor communication throughout as although they were aware of the poor repair job, they didn't let the couple know they were already assessing ways to fix it.
"We agree the remediation that was undertaken was not satisfactory and we had already engaged [the customer's] builder and agreement that we will cover the cost of the repair."
He added the public can still be confident in its installations.
"We agree that this has been a poor experience for which we apologise but Chorus is committed to resolving any remediation that may be required during the course of an installation."
