Kiwis rate Genius Go - Orcon, look away now…

Pulling no punches, Kiwis have offered their thoughts on the new Genius Go app, and it doesn't make for pleasant reading.

Revealed in Auckland on Wednesday, CEO Greg McAlister described the ISP developed smartphone app a New Zealand first - a claim quickly questioned by one user.

"A New Zealand first? Really?," gurumeditation wrote on TechDay.com.

"I have been using 2talk's iPhone App for the last 4 years which has always given me Simultaneous Ring on my landline numbers to my mobile and allowed calling over 3G/4G and wifi. www.2talkconnect.co.nz.

"Another tall story from Orcon's marketing dept…"

Orcon said the app allows Kiwis to take their home phones anywhere - bringing down the cost of national and international calling.

Yet after downloading the app immediately after the launch, an enthusiastic user was quickly put off.

"Its extremely 'buggy'," wrote Bryan Paull.

"Crashed multiple times and once loaded and set up it failed to pick up my contacts or allow me to use it, and the normal IOS touch screen capability failed.

"Perhaps some testing would help...I'm actually quite keen to use it as I have genius at home… but sort it out first fellas."

Following up from his original post, a mere half hour later Paull posted: "Now deleted :("

Unfortunately for Orcon the bashing didn't stop there, with Tba branding the release "more marketing bullshit."

"A game changer what a joke, these have been around for ever," the user wrote.

Moving away from Genius Go and more onto the company's overall performance, Telco Guru stuck the knife in further, posting:

"Really.....Orcon need to improve their service first (Customer service and billing) and then innovate. I hope that the cowboy period is finished."

Backing up Telco Guru's claims, Paul D also criticised Orcon's service, claiming he was glad to have switched providers.

"I was with orcon for little over a year and apart from the massive missed calls or when people ring me, it say no such number, and discounting, there help desk and service and billing was also a joke, I am glad that I have swapped over to flip."

In Orcon's defence…

Of the collated comments from Wednesday's story, Paul Baylis did provide some ray of light for Orcon however, branding the app "fantastic, in theory."

"Come on Vodafone, Telecom, 2D, time to start providing 'data only' mobile deals, with large enough Caps to allow mobile VoIP calling/messaging using the popular services. How long are you going to hold out?"

Responding to the critics, Orcon's head of Brands and Communications Quentin Reade told TechDay: "We've had almost 2,000 downloads since the launch and only two calls to the call centre asking for help.

"But if people do have any issues with the app they can call our support line and we'd be happy to look into their issue and sort out any problems."

Despite the negative comments, at present TechDay is not a position to rate the app given we have yet to use it, so in the interests of fairness we have put our resident app expert on to the case - so watch this space…