Ausrock Forums
Comments, Suggestions, Discussions => Lets have a Winge => Topic started by: Hector McFreckle on Fri 19 Dec 2008 01:49:04
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A member named xero at DancingMokey aired his frustrations about Telstra today...
A letter I'm sending to Australian Telstra Monday by registered mail. If anyone can make this more ridiculous, please do.
To Accounts Payable
Invoice for inconvenience and frustration on December 12 2008.
Seventy Five minutes on phone to Telstra 132200 4:30pm 5:45pm @ $10 per minute $750
Warning $1000 with disconnection on next redirection starting at 5:10pm December 12 2008 2 x $1000 $2000
Total phone calls to 132200 on December 12 2008 @ $40 per call 5 x $40 $200
Typing letter to Telstra and sending by Registered Mail $1000 1 x $1000
Total amount due $3950
This invoice is due immediately.
To avoid late fees of $4000 per day (Four Thousand dollars per day) please pay by 20/12/2008
Please be warned that any future calls to and regarding the matter of phone number xxxxxxxxxx by xxxxxxxxxx to Telstra on 132200 will be charged at $50,000,(Fifty Thousand Dollars) per call.
Further Charges relating to said call
Answering a voice robot $20,000 (Twenty Thousand Dollars) per answer
Waiting time $5000 (Five Thousand Dollars) per minute
Speaking to human, $1000 (One Thousand Dollars) per minute.
Getting redirected to an office closed, we are not available blah blah blah or disconnected $100,000. (One Hundred Thousand Dollars)
Typing letters to Telstra $5000 (Five Thousand Dollars) per Keystroke.
These charges become effective 12pm on 20/12/2008
On December 12 2008 at approximately 4:30pm I called 132200 to cancel a mobile phone when I noticed the bill had risen from a $20plan to a $30 plan.
In all 5 calls were made between 4:30pm and 5:30pm
First three calls I was redirected to office closed or disconnected.
Fourth call I get a joker who said don’t disconnect the phone we’ll refund the money and change to $10 plan or some such nonsense. This was not to my satisfaction as I had explained to him that these calls to Telstra were being charged at $10 per minute and at that time, they owed me $400 but if he were to give me that as a credit I might accept his offer. He rejected on this saying he could not do that. He redirected me somewhere else and low and behold I was cut off again.
My last call at 5:30pm gets an operator on the Gold Coast whom I explained to in great detail the situation and that I would not be redirected again as I would get Office closed or cut off and she would have to deal with it.
I was put on hold for an eternity and when she finally came back she informed me it would cost me $720+ to cancel as I was on a contract. I was totally shocked by this and explained that Telstra had changed my plan. Did they have a voice recording of me changing the plan or a signature? Her reply to this was, only you can change this with a pin number or your name and birthday.
I explained that I don’t think I have a pin number and then realized, WTF, anyone knowing your name and birth date can ring up Telstra and change your details.
I then said to operator that the system has a major flaw in that anyone knowing this information can call Telstra and change your plan.
She then said I need the fraud squad and would redirect me, and low and behold I get an answering machine with a please leave your name and number as Office closed at approximately 5:45pm.
Now here is the F%^&*()g deal. I have had this phone for approximately 10 years on a twenty dollar plan and as you can see (Check my records) I have hardly ever used said phone (Check my records).
In the past year I would have used it maybe a handful of times, if that. (Check my records).
I live in an area where there is no F%^&*!g reception unless you are on the Next G Network, (Allora Queensland, Check it out,) They don’t work here so why would I change my plan to anything different especially up.
Wouldn’t you go the other way if there were one.
I want this b/s finished with forthwith and will not pay another cent referring to said phone.
You can shove your Telstra were the sun does not shine. Also cancel my broadband connection as I do not use it either. It is on a contract and as you have a very flawed system which starts at the very lowest level 132200 (which should be a free call. Must make Telstra millions a year as it just cost me $2.50) and then we have your useless site Bigpond.com which is impossible to get onto once your broadband connection is shaped to 64k because the first page is so F$%^&*g large. (Check it out at 64k) It’s pathetic.
Please feel free to deduct any monies owing by me from above Invoice.
Signed
I replied with the following...
I had similar problems with Telstra recently, with a mobile phone & plan that i've had for around 15 years. They've been having problems with the new computer system they've installed apparently. I received a $1000 mobile phone bill 2 weeks ago, and nobody could explain what the 'service' charges were for. Apparently they've now reversed it after i threatened to change companies. I went to a Telstra shop & abused them in front of other Customers - that's the only way i got it sorted out. That 132200 number kept dropping out on me too. I'm now anxiously waiting for the updated phone bill otherwise i'll send a similar invoice to Telstra for wasting my time.
You're right though, Xero - Telstra OWN the whole show, so everyone gets raped by them !!
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Communications Ombudsman guys.
Unfortunately you'll have to wait on hold yet again because they are innundated with calls relating to (you guessed it) Telstra's pathetic level of service.
Anyone here wonder why they were cut out of the Governments broadband upgrade plans?
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Thank god I left them and there crap behind years ago , I refuse to use there products or service ever again
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Telcos in Australia are greedy, disgusting predators.
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Just moved off the wallies!
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It seem Telstra just doesn't like sharing "their" network. They just don't like to ackowledge they were propped up for years by taxpayers ......
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Telstra are are pack of greedy , useless thieves.
Rather than keep up to date with all the latest technologies they have chosen to hold us to ransom with all their old infrastructure.
As soon as i can get rid of my landline (needed for internet) , i will be through with them forever.
rest in hell telstra.
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As soon as i can get rid of my landline (needed for internet), i will be through with them forever.
(http://bestsmileys.com/signs1/17.gif)
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Use a naked ISP....and I don't mean going onto the internet in the nude. Like 80% of the current pr0n-watching male population! :)
I mean using a internet service provider that doesn't use a landline telephone and still delivers ADSL2+ speeds. Of course the other alternative is cr@pola wireless but that is like having a freezing cold shower while ripping up dollars notes with a pair of sharp scissors.
Here is a link on the current Naked ISP's.
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=Naked_DSL_ISPs (http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=Naked_DSL_ISPs)
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Use a naked ISP....
Nup; not for me. I checked this out pretty thoroughly not all that long ago. There's only a couple of Naked DSL service providers that I have sufficient faith in, as for service and reliability, and the full package plans they offer suitable for my needs (I won't accept anything less than I currently have) are just about the same or slightly higher cost as I'm currently paying. No real point in shifting. That just reflects my voice/data needs, my service area, and the providers I would trust ... no doubt other people will have very different outcomes.
Cheers
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They're all much the same now as far as service etc.
We switched from Optus toTelstra last June because Optus were always stuffing up and Telstra offered us a great deal because we have Foxtel cable.
They gave us 12Gb per month (compared to Optus 6GB which had peak and off-peak times - use up your peak and you're on dial-uprate).
Also tossed in 2 cordless phones and $150 rebate on our first bill.
All for about $90 a month plus cost of phone calls.
But because Telstra's now all sub-contracted, we kept getting different info every time we rang about it.
Installation was promised on 4th June (and confirmedat least twice) so I cancelled Optus then. But phone wasn't switched over by Telstra was it? So I had no Internet and no landline phone.
Told me they had no record of installing that day. I gave them names and dates, threatened to cancel, and they were here next morning.
Techie was going on info given by sales rep who signed us up. He soon found out he couldn't connect to Foxtel line because it was at front of house, PC near the back. So he gave us Wi-Fi for free because he was sick of their stuff ups LOL.
We were also told he would be bringing cordless phones with him. Not so. I phoned again and it took them a month to send them out.
Then our first bill arrives. No $150 rebate as promised. "Oh, that takes over a month to go through".
Next month, still no rebate. "Still in the works".
Third month, still nothing so I phone again. "You aren't entitled to it - either free phones or rebate." Like hell! I read our contract out to her. She credited it to us one the spot, saying how useless they were and we would probably never had seen the rebate without complaining because there was no record of it!
But, now it's all sorted, I'd never go back to Optus. Geez, they even managed to allocate my user name to another customer! He was getting my mail and me his! (I demanded some compo for that and got 3 months free broadband.)
But Telstra's heaps faster (with my free Wi-Fi LOL), double the broadband, no time restrictions, and never down like Optus often was. Haven't spotted one bit of spam through Telstra either. Optus' filter was so useless I used to check my mail on the home page first and move it.
But it all comes down to them selling off Telstra.
Never, ever used to be problems when support staff, technicians, acounts etc were all under the same roof.
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Me too. Had great pleasure closing all the accounts in the last few months. They struggled to give me a sensible explanation as to why with other carriers $30 in calls means $130 of calls and yet with Telstra $30 gets you $30. At their hellish rates i might add.
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Big Pond - Hah!,, It should be called Big Cesspool.
::)
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I have been waiting since the 31st of December to get a duet line on my existing land line. They first told me it wasn't available, (I had to remind them that it was).
Numerous phone calls to operators all over the country, and still no line. Then they give me a complaint # (I don't want to complain...just give me a line).
I was so close to giving them the flick. But then I would have to change my email and all my stationery, which is just a hassle. But at this rate I might have to.....they just P**S me off.
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Stranded, are you talking a line for the phone and one for broadband cable wall plug?
I believe any electrician can do that.
At least my mate, a sparkie, did it for me no problems.
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Stranded, are you talking a line for the phone and one for broadband cable wall plug?
I believe any electrician can do that.
At least my mate, a sparkie, did it for me no problems.
No, I had a dedicated fax line. I would receive and send maybe one fax a month. It was not worth the $30 a month line rental. So what you can get is another phone number on your existing land line, thats two different numbers coming through on the same line. The cost of that is only $6 a month, or $3 if you have another phone feature with the scums.
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I like it! REVENGE that is.....
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Sheesh . . . it seems that everyone's in the same boat.
I moved from Telstra about 10 years or so ago . . . due to bad service. Which was a big step in itself as I knew many people that were forced to Optus by underhanded tactics when Optus first started; but I decided then that it was time. This was back when Optus didn't have much marketshare and was customer focused.
Probably if I'd never had a mobile with Optus I'd be better off. The customer service and product offered by Optus mobile is atrocious. They don't care if you pay your bill; but you bet they'll care if they don't take the auto deduction on time (customer is wrong of course - this month's special is 'automatic deduction' means 'call optus to verify or be charged overdue fee'). They don't care if you can't use your service as long as you pay your bill.
I barely use my mobile so recently ported my Telstra number from Optus to Crazy John's. . . on pre-paid now so hardly costs me anything and service is fine (except no global roam or competition lines anymore, oh well)
Like everyone else I'm forced to remain with Optus for my ADSL unless I want to change my email address. Something needs to be done about email addresses. They need to be portable like phone numbers are. Remember initially Telstra refused to port their mobile number range to Optus as they "owned" the 0407 numbers? They ACCC forced Tesltra to not be anti-competitive? Same thing with an email address really. You should not have to have the company name in the email address and therefore it could be ported to any company. Makes sense? Oh no, that means that the ISPs can't advertise through your user name!!
I refuse to get cable TV - barely watch the free channels, would hate to think I'd have 30 channels and still nothing on - and paying for it to boot... so can't comment there...
And then there's the whole "contract" saga - let's lock people into contracts but give them mostly nothing to show for it (how about $2 off line rental a month and you're on contract for 24 months - if you leave early there's a $250 payout fee? - ummm no. . . shove your contract). And the bundle savings (lets bundle your home phone and internet together and you'll save $5/month - but if you disconnect or transfer your internet your home phone is disconnected to!). Fun...
And then there's the resellers - sure you're getting customer service; maybe paying a few extra bucks for it, but it's worth it right? Then you have a fault and who comes knocking? Telstra or Optus... why bother??
Telecommunications in Australia is a joke. . . third line forcing, anti-competitive, underhanded tactics and secret corporate agreements. . . "we make no money" but still pay our CEO's millions and golden handshakes when they leave etc. How about delete 80% of the managers and pass true savings onto the customers; then there'd be some customer satisfaction.
PS: Yesterday Optus sent me a survey - I thought "Great, I'll tell ya what I think!" nah, the questions were all geared so you had to answer "well done" - only one free text question (I filled the 1800 character limit with some home truths!). "Well Done" Optus. . . well done.
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(http://i40.tinypic.com/200z4lt.jpg)
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I must be from an alternate universe. I rang Telstra up on Monday to report a line fault. I was connected with an English speaking human after answering a few phone robot questions. I was never put on hold or transferred, and a technician came out and fixed the line first thing the next morning. It did cost me a hundred bucks though. The fault was past the network boundary.
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I too moved away from Telstra many years ago for the usual reasons. But I started up a business 5 years ago and had to free up a phone line when the internet was being used so had to get ISDN as DSL broadband was not available here. Broadband bacame available a couple of years later so now I am on Bigpond broadband.
They are still stupid and a pack of idiots but we actually got a freebie out of them recently due to their ineptitude. I got a new T165i rural mobile phone on the NextG network, (also needed for my business), and it was supposed to have payments taken out on my monthly statements, (to pay the phone off). They lost all records of it so I got my wife a new NextG network phone also and added the payments onto my account. So basically I got my ZTE T165i phone for free.
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i read this thread and had to share some frustration. my wife has a mobile bill that she got via Optus . upon trying to pay said bill she was informed that the account wasn't theirs as the phone number belonged to Telstra and they couldn't accept her payment. Despite the fact that it was an Optus mobile she called Telstra whom informed her that they do indeed own the number but not the account and could also not accept her payment. Optus had listed this account with a credit agency to put a bad mark against her name thus affecting her credit rating so she contacted Optus again only to meet with the same brick wall "not ours so we cant take the money" she pleaded with an Optus manager to investigate and he promptly removed the bad mark against her name but still would not take her payment. It has now been 5 years since we last heard from the credit agency about this matter. the account remains unpaid and we just hope that it doesn't come back again unless someone will take the money.
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This general whinge about customer service also applies to other government owned enterprises that have been privatised, with the two biggest other offenders allegedly being Qantas and Commonwealth Bank.
Along with Telstra, their management and staff still seem to allegedly have a "public service sector" hangover in regards to their customers. They still seem to allegedly have the entrenched attitude that they know what we need better than we know ourselves. They are allegedly all excuse oriented, rather than being results oriented, and they allegedly all think that the word "sorry" solves all technical and customer relations problems.
One of the alleged generalised critisms is that they are more focussed on providing profits for their shareholders than providing service for their customers, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. Provide good service to your customers and profits are the natural result.
Until the alleged near monopoly situation that Telstra has inherited from the old PMG days of nearly 4 decades ago is changed, their culture has no need change for them to remain in business. It also doesn't help that the staff level has allegedly gone from about 90,000 mainly engineering, technical, research and support staff to about 30,000 mainly salespersons in this time.
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Go Hector!!!
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Geez they're hopeless.
Got this email from them last night...
Dear BigPond® Member,
We're writing to let you know that you've just reached 6641 MB for your BigPond Cable Extreme service with username XXXXXXXX
Your usage so far: 6641 MB
Allowance for this period: 8129 MB
Allowance remaining: 1488 MB
Your allowance resets on: Sunday, October 25, 2009
We'd like to remind you that your service will be slowed to 64kpbs after your monthly usage allowance is reached
A monthly and daily view of your usage is available from My Usage when you log in to My BigPond at hxxp://www.bigpond.com/mybigpond
User name and usage are right, sent to right email address..
But:
1) I'm not on BigPond Cable Extreme - I'm on a Liberty package.
2) My allowance is 12Gb
3) My account renews 4th each month.
4) Logged into BigPond and the details are right!
So what gives with this stuffin email?
Sent in a complaint form but don't expect a reply until "office hours".
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i have been owed 35.00 by telstra for 4 months now. I cancelled my bigpond service and there was 35.00 owing to me.
Every month regardless of not having them as my ISP i was sent an account saying i was 35.00 CR.
After ringing them each month and asking them to send me the money i still dont have it. I asked if they could direct deposit
it into my account, they said it would take 90 days to do that, after me asking them how they would like it if it took 90 days for me
to pay their bill, they then said they would post me a check, that was 2 months ago, still havent got it, and every month just
get an account telling me i am in credit.
Even though it is only 35.00 i am determined to get it, but by the time i do will probably end up costing me more than its worth.
In my opinion they are as crooked as can be, i can do a direct deposit in 30 seconds, yet it takes them 90 days, they should be
investigated. :police:
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Quite agree, Telstra are a bunch of pricks, I have not been with them for over 7 years
the best thing I have ever done :D
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Yeah Jaylee, look at my post from 7th Feb and the trouble I had getting $150 out of them?
But what do you do?
If you read that old post of mine you'll see Optus are no better.
Not to mention changing everything over again.
I just wish they'd get going with this new broadband plan (yeah - right!).
But seeing I'm on a good thing moneywise because I have BigPond and Foxtel, I don't like thinking what will happen if Telstra has to sell its part of Foxtel as Rudd and Co want...
Might move to Canada. Net friends talk of incredible speeds, no usage limits, cheap etc etc.
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i have been owed 35.00 by telstra for 4 months now. I cancelled my bigpond service and there was 35.00 owing to me.
Every month regardless of not having them as my ISP i was sent an account saying i was 35.00 CR.
After ringing them each month and asking them to send me the money i still dont have it. I asked if they could direct deposit
it into my account, they said it would take 90 days to do that, after me asking them how they would like it if it took 90 days for me
to pay their bill, they then said they would post me a check, that was 2 months ago, still havent got it, and every month just
get an account telling me i am in credit.
Even though it is only 35.00 i am determined to get it, but by the time i do will probably end up costing me more than its worth.
In my opinion they are as crooked as can be, i can do a direct deposit in 30 seconds, yet it takes them 90 days, they should be
investigated.
I have had exactly the same experience, even the promise of a cheque in the mail, it is for $45 owed for the last 10 months.
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FINALLY!!!!!! got my check today, think i will frame it.
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hmmm Maybe Telstra are reading this thread (psyche!! - I doubt it!). . . I've been arguing with the BigPond Music people since Feb about a credit I'm due - I send them a follow up email each fortnight, and they reply "this has been forwarded to the correct area for you" and I never hear anything from 'the correct area'! Funny thing is, I wrote this off in Feb, but they contacted me and advised I'd get vouchers! . . . and now they won't fulfill their promises . . . oh well.
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Don't get me started on Telstra, i live in a capital city and the best I can get here is 28k dial up...it's bloody 2009 for goodness sakes!
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I have had my fair share of run-ins with Telstra, but I have praise for the telstra person I spoke to on the "nuisance calls" number a few days ago. My wife and I have been receiving abusive phone calls, (we know not to answer when that number calls but they still leave an abusive message, they're stupid, demented, paranoid psychotic, selfish ex-family members).
Anyhow, we called telstra and within minutes and speaking to a very helpful person we had blocked this particular number from being able to call us. He explained everything about how it works and the different dial tone we'd get afterwards and what sort of numbers we could block and how many we could block. He was very helpful and friendly. We didn't get the run-around or the "speak-to-10-people-before-you-find-the-one-who-can-do-what-you-ask" syndrome either.
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I have had exactly the same experience, even the promise of a cheque in the mail, it is for $45 owed for the last 10 months.
Finally got a refund after billing them for it a few times plus $15 a month late fee plus disbursements (same as they charge their customers). Only got the basic refund though, there is no way that payments for being late or for disbursements and costs can be done, so they claim. What a bunch of patronising pricks, they took 15 months to pay up and they even had the cheek to send a letter about a week prior to sending the cheque praising their own prompt service if you contact them via their website, which was the first thing I did way back in February last year. Should have never been privatised, they were a lot more accountable and regulated when government owned.
Two rants in one month....I had better get back out of town.
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I can't stand Telstra - I use OPTUS & have never had any problems - my bills are so much cheaper too
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I used to use Optus but switched when Telstra (BigPond) offered us a much better deal.
But now I'll be looking into that 150BG Optus are advertising for about the same cost as my lousy 12Gb from BigPond. Can't believe the difference when Telstra owns all the infrastructure.
Gotta be a catch somewhere. :-\
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I notice that all the top execs have been boned today!!!
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I notice that all the top execs have been boned today!!!
Have they? Great news.
Another example of how useless they are:
A couple of weeks ago we got our phone/broadband package bill in the mail.
That was fine - amount was correct and we were actually in credit.
Later that day I got an email from BigPond.
Across the top, in large bold print it said "YOUR BILL".
Then it had "Outstanding Balance" and the amount of my monthly broadband (which we paid with the phone bill above).
Then, again in large bold print it said "OVERDUE - PAYABLE IMMEDIATELY"
So I got on the phone to them.
"Oh no, that's just a record of your usage - it isn't a bill."
So I emailed back and asked WTF are they doing sending out a usage advice with "Your Bill", "Outstanding Balance" "Overdue - Payable Immediately" on it??? Why doesn't it say something like "Usage Advice Only" on it???
Got a reply thanking me for my feedback and they would pass it on to appropriate department.
And these guys get paid how much???
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Well, it seems my complaining about the crap in the previous post paid off. Here is what they send out now:
We've attached your latest BigPond Usage Statement. You can view all the BigPond charges that will appear on your next Telstra Single Bill.
This statement is for your information only - it's not a request for payment. Any GST amounts are estimates only and any extra discounts you're eligible for will appear on your Telstra Single Bill.
Wonder if they'll pay me for pointing out their stupidity???
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I hate the idiots - especially what they charge for excess usage. You'd imagine they'd put a cap on it - about 50 to 100 dollars at max - I've heard some sad stories on the issue.
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They still have excess usage fees in some plans???
Geez, thought that was dead and buried with dial-up speed replacing it.
BTW, is it just me or is BigPond the slowest site to get on to?
I have no problems elsewhere but they are disgustingly slow for a telco.
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I switched to TPG - I normally get 350kbps max for ADSL2+, and after 180 gigs it is slowed to 100kbps - No excess charges, and not a lot of difference. They are good cause I can do a lot of uploading towards the end of the month.