Holding on for council

The new Supercity call centre for council services compares unfavourably with its predecessors. Photo / Natalie Slade

If you're having a hard time getting through to the new Auckland Council, don't worry - you're not the only one.

This week the Herald on Sunday tested the Supercity's call centre, comparing wait times with the largest of Auckland's old councils - Manukau, North Shore, Auckland City and Waitakere.

In all but one of the examples, the new council set-up took longer to respond to a series of set questions than its former counterparts which we tested before they went out of existence.

Councils were asked how much a rates bill was, whether water prices would rise with the new council, how to speak with their animal control department, whether the rubbish collection days would change in the new council, how to make a complaint about noise control and how to query a parking ticket.

It took nearly three times as long to reach someone at the Supercity council for information about rates and rubbish, and the waiting time for making a noise control complaint was four times longer after the change, which came into effect on November 1.

Two minutes passed before council staff took the Herald on Sunday caller off hold and directed them to the Auckland Transport website compared with an average of 55 seconds to connect with the right person previously.

The quickest response was seven seconds, from both the old Manukau and Auckland councils, in regards to a rates query.

The quickest Supercity response time was 23 seconds.

The longest wait was four minutes and thirty seconds to talk to a super city staff member about a noise complaint - more than double the average wait among the former city councils.

Council spokeswoman Lisah Henry said there had been 12,500 calls a day in the call centre's first three days.