The Informal Guide to New Zealand Dialup ISP's (Internet Service Providers)

This page details the subjective (technical support responsiveness, dodgy-ness, ease-of-use and subjective speed etc) aspects of various ISP's (internet service providers).
For objective aspects like pricing, and time-limit information, see consumer.org.nz's excellent ISP Price Guide.

• Orcon: Pricey but ok- on par with Ihug, at least.
• Raider: Cheap, fast and excellent customer support - my no. one pick (2006).
• Telstra-clear: Some reasonable unlimited-hours packages, plus some more expensive ones, fast, good customer support.
• Paradise: Average prices, no flat-rate accounts but very good service from what I've been told. This has (from what I've been told) been subsumed into telstra-clear, and they no longer have separate tech-support ph numbers.
• Telecom(xtra): Fast but horribly expensive.
• Fastaccess/net4u: Dodgy bunch of bastards. See articles here and here, lied to their customers when they "changed hands" (got shut down by telecom for not paying fines and for stealing bandwidth). Overcharged me by $142.95, an 'excess data fee' which was never detailed in terms-of-service or the signup. Removed $152 from my mastercard via an unauthorised transaction, which I eventually got back through mastercard. No customer support via either phone, answering machine, or email. Their 0800 number is virtually never manned and the operator (when it -is- manned) is unpleasant.
• Ihug: Good speed and a solid company but quite expensive nowadays, at least compared to the other companies around. Also- long weird (10-20 second) pauses on dialup connections, which doesn't seem to be dependant on the end-user's computer, but on their server.
• Freenet: From all reports, pretty crap - reduced bandwidth at peak hours and slow speeds. It *is* free for people who only use 200 minutes per month (i.e people who check their email once a week or so) but you have to give them $14.95 in advance for even that.
• Kwiknet: This is the same company as freenet, sortof - possibly different servers, but same parent company (compass communications) and the same services. They've even copied the help section from freenet's site. Fast. But. No real technical/customer support except for the 1.97 dollar-a-minute 0900 number. They purposefully don't respond to emails for weeks in order to get people using the 0900 number. Which is unfortunate because their system is buggy as hell. Bizarre charging system. Almost impossible to connect. Avoid like plague-rats.
• Slingshot: Haven't heard anything particularly bad about these guys; not as cheap as some of the other unlimited-access packages from other companies, and apparently their email technical support is quite unresponsive. Online payment service for anything *except* credit cards (Bizarre). Quite fast. A good choice if you're looking for unlimited access
• PCnet: While their other account-types are reasonably expensive they have a very cheap off-peak (1am->5pm) flat-rate account, and have been very courteous to me so far - technical support responded within the day i.e good. Flexible and responsive. Some weird little pauses in connection...

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Defamation disclaimer: The above are opinions gathered from friends and family, as well as my own - they are not necessarily representative of the service as a whole, just of our experience of the service.