Telstra - How many times do they have to be told!

[Guest Brett Campany]

They never cease to amaze me on how useless they can be.

 

Basically the wife and I have moved house so I called Telstra to disconnect the old number and connect us with a new one. everything was booked for 4pm yesterday. come 4:30pm I called them to find out where he was and they've told me that he's now not due till the 14th......that's a problem cause I'm on leave at that time.

 

So I now have no home number and no internet for..... well who knows.

 

Fingers crossed I'll be able to get online every now and then through my iPhone.

 

Have a happy and safe Easter everyone!

 

 

[shafs64]

I feel your pain mate. The phone i can live with out but no net that would kill.

 

They call me all the time and say we have a great deal if you change over from optus to telstra.

 

No thanks

 

 

[skydog]

Give them the flick or go wireless

 

The buggers.

 

Thats the trouble with monopoly`s so I am glad to hear about the new Government initiatives for broadband.

 

Your case is a good one to go laptop wireless on 3G. Costs a bit more but good for pilots as you can log on anywhere and submit a flight plan, get weather, get & send email etc.

 

At home just plug the laptop into a big screen and keyboard for convenience sake..

 

 

[Tomo]

Interesting... We don't seem to have much trouble with telstra, we've certainly had trouble with the others though...

 

Maybe its something to do with being a business or something... I don't know, we do tend to pay a fortune for our wireless broadband, but it's definitely cheaper than some of these satellite dish internet companies...

 

I've found with Telstra, you've got to practically tell THEM what you want, within reason... because some times they have the special deals, but there not advertised... so you've got to pester them to give you what you want... and if you've got proof of another carrier doing cheaper things for a cheap price and they can't match it... well what's the point of you. A bit nasty maybe, but the customers always right, ain't it!

 

But I sympathize with you, we had a similar problem with our phone line when it got accidentally dug up, we where going to be out for a couple of months they said... but somehow when we rang up on a progress report a while later, and we got accidently transfered to some big boss, we told him our problem, and he was amazed at what was happening... so in the next few days we had it all fixed up. So the moral to the story, try and get the big boss...............!

 

 

[Gibbo]

TELSTRA!! AGGGGHHHHH. :yuk:

 

I have just got my complaint sorted after a five month battle.

 

Telstra will not admit to any problems with their new Billing systems. I have spent 9 hours on hold trying to resolve a problem that could have been fixed in just a couple of minutes if someone was willing to listen.

 

I spent five months without receiving any bills after changing address. I rang them on eight occasions and the problem was never resolved until they disconnected my phone for non payment and I then had the pleasure of a physical protest in the HO foyer at 4:45pm on a Friday night. I simply refused to leave until my phone was reconnected and the problem sorted. A very unhappy board level member was forced to deal with me as I made it clear that I was not leaving under any circumstances including staying the entire weekend.

 

Three weeks later I have finally received a Bill in the mail and had the other emailed to me as they couldn't actually print them. No one will take ownership and all they cause is more grief without offering any solutions. Not a single Apology was offered and it rubbed salt into my wounds as I had to pay for the calls while I was bounced from one person to another all day. The concept of them making money from me while I tried to resolve their problems has left a very sour taste.

 

Optu$ are in the process of rolling out their new 900mhz system (American phone's will now work here soon!) with a combined Sat / GMS based system at a reasonable rate with no more 'no service' issues ANYWHERE. The Phones are fairly small and best of all have a GPS built in that will automatically (based on time sections) send a SMS with the co-ordinates, ground speed and track.

 

I have one in my greasy big hands at the moment as a test phone for them and will happily provide a report on the service quality after my trip across the Simpson this weekend (if the weather clears in Queensland :( ). So far it has been fairly good.

 

Next'Rip off' should be the advertised trademark. Funny how optus have offered to let the Federalizes have access to their fibre backbone when Telstra has been playing hardball. Bring on some real competition in the rural areas.

 

Gibbo

 

 

[Yenn]

Telstra. The ultimate stuff up. In the beginning the government (us) owned Telstra. Then they sold off 49% to us and proceeded to run it with their 1% controlling vote. Then honest John sold that to us. Now Telstra pays Sol vast amounts of money, service goes to pot, the dividends go down and in fact they had to borrow to pay one dividend.

 

Now the government wants to break up Telstra and is also in the process of setting up in opposition.

 

Don't whinge yet, wait until the government tries to sell you the new Telstra after they have screwed the existing shareholders.

 

 

[Relfy]

I had the same problem with Telstra bills not being directed to the correct address time after time and then with Optus after they continually billed us for services we had disconnected.

 

If you have dramas, lodge a complaint with the telecommunications ombudsmen online and you will get a result fast. The telcos hate them because it causes them so much extra work and they have to adhere to certain time frames or you paid for the inconvenience. I lodged a complaint re the deduction from our bank account on a service we had cancelled and they weren't going to send the money back for 21 days. I lodged a complaint and got phone calls from reps and the money back the next day. The telco ombudsmen also kept in contact to find out how they were doing.

 

Bret, I hope they offered to divert to your mobile line at no expense due to the delay? They did that with us when we moved out west here.

 

 

[Guest Brett Campany]

Wow that's unbelievable how one single company can do so many wrong things to so many customers. I'm hanging to have some words with them once this long weekend is over. I like the idea ofthw free diversion, I'm sure they'll love giving that to my Optus mobile!

 

Sorry guys you'll have to excuse the spelling, I'm doing all of this on my iPhone until we get Internet sorted.

 

 

[Thx1137]

hehe. I disconnected an optus mobile because I no longer wanted the phone number. 8 months later I get a final notive bill, I rang up and said I had disconnected. The optus bloke says no you didn't and that I must pay. Now, I have had it with these guys so I said, you can take me to court but you no getting one **** cent!.

 

A week later I rang again, the woman (after some mucking around) says "oh yes, you did try to cancel but we rang to up to see if you really wanted to do it". hahaha. The rang me on the phone number I disconnected and didn't answer the phone. So they decided to to do what I told them to do. This time she agreed that it sucked and fixed it up.

 

I used to LOVE optus. But slowly they became exactly like telstra.

 

My telstra troubles. ghod. you name it. These days they often ring to try an get us back. My wife has been telling them 'no' so they really did it when last time they asked to speak to me instead of her! They did end up getting me one day. This bloke didn't say where he was from but tried to sound like some long lost mate. When he ased about maybe getting back with telstra he said "yeah, I know you have said that before". I hung up on him. I do not care what they offer, even if it is the best of the best. They can get stuffed.

 

It takes 3 major stuff-ups before I switch. Virgin, Teltra and Optus are in the no-fly zones for me and family.

 

HATE EM.

 

Now that I have that of my chest (sort of :-)). Have a good Easter :-)

 

Steven.

 

 

[Guest Brett Campany]

Yeah I've tried nearly all of them, Virgin, Vodafone, Telstra and now Optus. Telstra's been the worst for customer service now. I only went to them because when I was flying in Broome, Next G was the only service that was decent.

 

Either way, we as customers are always going to get screwed.

 

 

[winsor68]

Contact the Ombudsman's office...You will not get any help with your problems but at least if everyone puts in their complaints there will at least be a record of the way the company has been raped of its good name...

 

I too have had problem after problem with Telstra from the day I signed up with them...they are completely incompetent. One of the operators I spoke with told me that the original people I had been speaking to should not have their jobs...when staff at the company are saying this you know things are truly dire...

 

 

[wanabigaplane]

some good

 

Some Marysville residents told me that, after the fires, Telstra handed out mobile phones to those who previously had landlines. They also connected their previous land line numbers through to their mobile phones.

 

Jack. :thumb_up: :thumb_up:

 

 

[Steve L]

Your right winsor the Ombudsman's office is the way to go. Before christmas I lost my internet connection but my fax (which was on the same number) still worked fine. Called my comp guy who tested everything, told me a connector at my local exchange had blown prolly due to a recent electrical storm. So I called Telstra and spoke to a lady with broken english who was offshore, she virtually told me what would my comp guy know and said a telstra tech would address it asap. Waited one week and called them back, they couldnt find records of my prior conversation and said they will sort it. Waited another week, called them again and was told it was fixed, bullXXXX it was. This went on for approx 5 weeks, many phone calls to telstra (offshore) and still was getting the run around, every time I called them I had to go through the same checklist, - modem numbers, which modem lights were on, areas in the comp (which I couldnt find again now) etc... on one day I had 7 calls to them of which they hung up on me for half of them lol ... still no comp so I called the ombudsman who gave me a direct phone number and a code to quote. This call I got an aussie who sorted it out in 2 days, when I asked what the problem was, A BLOWN CONNECTOR !!!!!

 

Buckleys trying to get reimbursed for the many times my comp guy came here. But all in all I still think Telstra is the best way to go.

 

HEY ISNT THIS AN AVIATION SITE LOL ;););)

 

Steve

 

 

[Guest travis]

telstra what a joke

 

dont want to skare you but i moved in november , i contacted them about disconecting my old phone and getting a new one put on . it took one phone call every month till march to get my old phone disconected and i am still waiting for my new one but they gave me a sat phone at the end off march wich i was supposed to get in december that is useless . i didnt even bother with telstra for the internet .ps i live in rural area but there service should be a lot better than that .

 

 

[Splitty]

Phone

 

Hey Gibbo how did the phone GPS thingy work?

 

 

[Renaissance Man]

Just to add my bit...

 

For an industry that specialises in communication, phone companies are REALLY bad at it!!

 

Optus has certainly been our nemesis, on many occasions.

 

Chris.

 

 

[Gibbo]

Hey Gibbo how did the phone GPS thingy work?

Phone went fairly well.. Strong signal as long as line of sight was maintaned. Much better than the old Telstra sat phone system. Basically didn't need to stand on top of the ute with one leg stretched at some weird angle.

 

The system doesn't work so well when used to call VOIP phones as there seems to be an issue with digital systems. GPS tracking via SMS worked very well and the boss was able to track my flight path in 15min increments.

 

GMS side of the phone worked as expected. I was unable to test the data functionality as it has not yet been turned on by OPTU$.

 

Going to have a go with one of the GPS tracking modules on my next remote trip in June.