So frustrated are business owners they have turned to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman for help.

In early January, Merton Living general manager Shani Mitchell agreed to join the NBN through their provider, Telstra.

First the internet went down.

“We are a healthcare provider in aged care, we cannot afford to be offline,” Ms Mitchell said.

 “All our accounting is online, we had to pay our staff and our suppliers.”

Merton Living was told it could take 25 days for the problem to be solved, so Ms Mitchell took matters into her own hands.

“We put a complaint in to the Ombudsman on Thursday afternoon and received a call on Friday saying they had agreed to help.”

Telstra then “fixed” the problem the following Tuesday but the business couldn’t receive calls, despite staff being able to make outgoing calls.

“Fortunately that was an easy fix but there have been a few problems with email as well,” she said.

Ms Mitchell said without the help of the Communications Ombudsman and a high-level Telstra employee they would still be “going round in circles”.

“The NBN rollout is a bit of a schemozzle I think,” Ms Mitchell said.

She advised other business owners not to “just take the situation” but to keep going up the chain.

“The people you ring don’t seem to care and no-one will help, so you need to go above, and once you get the right people you’re right, I can’t fault the Telstra lady who helped us out.

“It was a stressful few days but in some ways I feel we were lucky; for other businesses it would have cost a significant amount of money and customers.”

One such business is Sheryn’s Beauty Spot a few doors down Ogilvie Street.

Owner Sheryn Wolfgang is particularly frustrated about her phone lines since connecting to the NBN four months ago.

“My phone lines have been an ongoing issue ever since,” Mrs Wolfgang said.

“Sometimes they just drop out, I’ve had to purchase a new mobile to divert calls to and a new eftpos machine to connect through the new mobile.”  

When the lines drop out customers have to go to the local ATM to get cash out.

“They just don’t come back,” Mrs Wolfgang said.

“I contacted the Ombudsman and was told to document everything. I’m out of pocket and they owe me.

“I definitely haven’t recommended anyone in business to connect to the NBN.”

An NBN spokesperson said speeds achieved over the NBN network were determined by the service provider, the chosen plan and the technology over which services are delivered to premises, as well as equipment quality, software, broadband plans, signal reception and how the end user’s service provider designed its network.

Mrs Wolfgang is also frustrated by the time wasted playing phone tag or being placed on hold while trying to sort the problem out.

A spokesperson from Telstra, Muswellbrook, advised people with NBN connection problems to keep “escalating” the complaint and to get a tech out to inspect the connection.

The spokesperson listed variables like compatible handsets, an issue in the lines or a fault in the premises as possible causes of problems.​