More fun with scumbags – Telstra

[Ken Gargett]

In fairness, I have had a very good run over recent years. We leave each other alone. They provide what they are supposed to, even if it is a bog average and dodgy reception. I pay them their outrageous bills.

A few weeks ago, had a small issue. Rang and had it sorted. The bloke, and yes, everyone who appears in this story, other than the poor and much put-upon narrator, would be telling porkies if they claimed English as their first language – or 2^nd or 3^rd for most of them, said to me that he could see my account and he was sure he could put me in another plan and it would cost me much less.

I knew I should have said not to touch anything, but foolishly I listened – they had fixed the minor issue and I must have felt weak. I listened for about 90 minutes as he rattled off endless crap and read conditions and so on. I had blanked out after about two minutes. But never fear, he assured me, aside from the first bill, which would be a little bit up as there would be cancellation fees, I would be paying around half from now on. And I would soon get my beautiful new phone.

Hold on, I have a phone. I do not want another phone. I have one. I understand the bits I need to understand, sort of. I do not want to have to learn a new phone and set it up or anything.

Do not worry, sir. It is part of the new package. But do not worry as I can assure you that the phone is free and you will not have to pay for it. It just comes with your new package and costs you nothing. You can still use your phone. And you have a second for free for emergencies or to give to someone.

We went over this is some detail as I kept saying not to even bother sending it. But it is free and part of the deal. I must send it.

So I am on a new deal and the new phone lobs. I do not even take it out of the courier package. It sits on the table for three weeks.

Bill arrives yesterday. I usually pay between $200 and $230. Looking forward to halving that! Yes, fat chance. New bill is $580. “A little bit up”. And I see that I am now paying for two phones. I am as happy as you would imagine.

So an hour on the phone to these thieves and idiots. I am assured that my bill has been fixed. I will now pay $360 first bill and $120 from now on.

Okay, I say, can I have a revised account?

No.

Why not?

We can’t do that. Once issued it cannot be amended.

But you just did.

Yes.

So what the hell?

You only pay the new amount but you cannot have a new bill.

That will no doubt go well.

And what the hell do you want to do about this phone?

I am sent up the food chain to a case manager. Apparently, this is important and the low-level idiots cannot manage it. I was endlessly polite, something whoever has the pleasure of my call tomorrow will not experience (I figure every chance we lose the soccer to France, the Broncs lose to the Sharkies and the Wallabies lose to Ireland so by tomorrow, I will be in such a filthy mood that it is perfect timing to talk to these imbeciles). Add an hour. It is now all confirmed that I have to go to Australia Post and send the phone back (the one I never wanted), but do not be alarmed, we will reimburse you the charges. Again, fat chance, I suspect.

Anyway, my case manager assures me that she will email me immediately after our call with the address and all details for returning the phone. And then she will call me to confirm I have the email and all is well.

Needless to say, 24 hours later, no email and no call. How hard can it be? All this dimwit had to do was send an email with the address but that was too much. Truly dumber than soup. So now I will no doubt have to go through it all again. It is truly impossible to imagine a more incompetent hopeless organisation.

The moral of this story is kill anyone who works for Telstra. The probably slightly more acceptable moral is that as soon as some thieving conman from Telstra tells you he can help, run screaming.

And somehow, I am rather certain that this is far from over.

[oliverdst]

So I guess it's Telstra fault your double posts, right? 

[BellevilleMXZ]

Sounds like Rogers over here!

 

[Ken Gargett]

1 minute ago, oliverdst said:

So I guess it's Telstra fault your double posts, right? 

correct.

correct.

actually, now that i am on rob's vpn-thingee, weird crap happens. every time i post, the machine tells me the site can't be reached. but if i renew, it goes to the new post, which it shows even though it is obviously not unread. and every now and again it double posts. no idea why. i used to fix it but then i thought that it is not my doing so why i am not off doing more worthwhile things. 

[Toast & Taste]

Comcast is the U.S. version. 

Big Al 

[Ken Gargett]

did i mention that it may not be over?

they honestly could not be more incompetent if they tried. took a deep breath and rang again to get the address to send the phone. that was all i needed to do - get an address. i mean, how hard can that be? to get this address (and i should add that even though i have it, no guarantee it has anything to do with telstra - just as likely to be a car yard in woop woop), it took a full 30 minutes of talking, pleading, talking a little louder, pointing out that this is not an organisation bulging at the seams with intelligence. 

the first bloke - well, an address was far too far above his pay grade. although it took ten minutes to sort that out. but he would put me through to people. they did not want to know. on to more people. and so on. the last bloke - he had great difficulty in grasping the concept of providing an address. kept wanting mine. i tried explaining that this was back to front. finally, he seems to get it. but they all have to go off to read things. comes back. but there is already a return order for this. you want to return it second time? ahhhhhhhhhhh.

i finally get given an address - of course, lord knows whether it will be of any use but they are about to get a new phone.

the crowning glory? i'm looking at your account. would you like me to put you on a new plan? oh good god, NO. stay away. do not touch anything.

and then they want me to answer a survey about how helpful they have been and to how many people i would recommend them. priceless. i have to rate them between 0 and 10. here's a shocker. they got 0. and the machine comes back and asks if i really meant that. wonderful. then i get to record a message as to why they got 0. i know they say these calls are used for training but that has to be a lie. because they keep being beyond incompetent. 

sadly, i suspect it is still not over. 

[OZCUBAN]

optus is not much better Ken 

just had the NBN put on and its only running at half the speed that i signed up for so down the rabbit hole we go ,spoke to some one the other day and yes you guessed it some one on the sub continent.this issue isn't over yet would be nice just to speak to someone in your own country,would be a breath of fresh air to hear "G'Day mate how can i help you 

watch this space ......

[Ken Gargett]

1 minute ago, OZCUBAN said:

optus is not much better Ken 

just had the NBN put on and its only running at half the speed that i signed up for so down the rabbit hole we go ,spoke to some one the other day and yes you guessed it some one on the sub continent.this issue isn't over yet would be nice just to speak to someone in your own country,would be a breath of fresh air to hear "G'Day mate how can i help you 

watch this space ......

agreed. i was with optus years ago. often paid the bill 2-3 months in advance to make sure never an issue. one month they did not send the bill for whatever reason. i had paid most of it in advance but there was a little that i had not covered (never knew exacly what the bill would be).

no reminder, no warning, no thanks for being in advance so often that we'd like to remind you...

they simply cut off everything.

i owed a massive $60, as i had been in credit. cost me a heap in many ways. swapped to telstra - no option. will never go near optus again. and optus chased me for years for the $60. only debt i have ever deliberately not paid. i just kept saying, please, bring an action so i can counterclaim for so much more. they wouldn't. eventually, they handed it to a debt collector. they threatened all manner of things. i asked them to do the same thing and i also told them that if there was any mention of this on any credit report/rating i had that i would also sue them for defamation. never heard again. 

as for a voice from your own country - a mate (one of the four pillars guys), rang telstra and got a perfectly friendly chap who was struggling with english and who opened with 'hi, my name is dave'.

my mate just said, 'well, we both know that is not true'. they both had a laugh and everything got sorted. 

[OZCUBAN]

haha sounds like they put you through the mill i think there all as probably bad as each other lets hope we can get this resolved without to much angst i mainly only got hot for Optus sport ie the premier league /world cup 

cheers 

[Fuzz]

The NBN will never be any good unless you have FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) or FTTC (Fibre To The Curb). FTTN (Node) is crap, as you can never really be sure where the node is, how far away from your house, and how many people are connected between you and the node. From the node to your home, it runs on the old copper network. HFC (Hybrid Fibre Co-Axial) is supposedly as fast as FTTP, as the last leg of the connection from the node runs on the pay TV cable lines to your home. Though, you will still get peak time congestion.

Then you have a problem if your area has not fully converted over to NBN. If people are still running cable or ADSL, and you decide to go to the NBN, your speed will be throttled down until the rest of the area converts over. My areas is one of those, and there is no way to tell when the ADSL/Cable service will be completely shut down.

[GrouchoMarx]

On 15/06/2018 at 9:56 PM, BellevilleMXZ said:

Sounds like Rogers over here!

 

I've had my share of problems with rogers, but I've always managed to sort everything out to my satisfaction (and advantage).

Last time, out internet was out for 2 hours (due to a repair being done somewhere) - I called, and "escalated" it as I wanted $200 off my bill due to the outage.

I got it - and that wasn't the first time.

I think there's an art to dealing with these tele-weenies.

[garbandz]

If/when you send this phone back,make sure to get a delivery signature on the package.

The bastards will deny you sent it back anyway,but if you have a signature you can rightfully raise your voice and you will have the proof .

[Fuzz]

3 hours ago, GrouchoMarx said:

I've had my share of problems with rogers, but I've always managed to sort everything out to my satisfaction (and advantage).

Last time, out internet was out for 2 hours (due to a repair being done somewhere) - I called, and "escalated" it as I wanted $200 off my bill due to the outage.

I got it - and that wasn't the first time.

I think there's an art to dealing with these tele-weenies.

A few years back, my internet connection was so bad I complained all the way to the Telecommunications Ombudsman. After the connectivity was resolved (it took a month), Telstra offered me a refund and credit. They were basically giving me free internet for nearly a whole year.

[BellevilleMXZ]

8 hours ago, GrouchoMarx said:

I've had my share of problems with rogers, but I've always managed to sort everything out to my satisfaction (and advantage).

Last time, out internet was out for 2 hours (due to a repair being done somewhere) - I called, and "escalated" it as I wanted $200 off my bill due to the outage.

I got it - and that wasn't the first time.

I think there's an art to dealing with these tele-weenies.

Yes true, .....and I have heard horror stories from Bell also, but have been able to do the same with them.

[gweilgi]

18 hours ago, Fuzz said:

The NBN will never be any good unless you have FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) or FTTC (Fibre To The Curb). FTTN (Node) is crap, as you can never really be sure where the node is, how far away from your house, and how many people are connected between you and the node. From the node to your home, it runs on the old copper network. HFC (Hybrid Fibre Co-Axial) is supposedly as fast as FTTP, as the last leg of the connection from the node runs on the pay TV cable lines to your home. Though, you will still get peak time congestion.

Then you have a problem if your area has not fully converted over to NBN. If people are still running cable or ADSL, and you decide to go to the NBN, your speed will be throttled down until the rest of the area converts over. My areas is one of those, and there is no way to tell when the ADSL/Cable service will be completely shut down.

We're facing this issue right now.

I am wondering ... how expensive could it be for me to get my own bloody satellite?  

I know Australia is a country with a smallish population and vast distances, but does that really mean the only option is to have the state build and roll out a monopoly service?  NBN, I suspect, will be a textbook case for generations to come of how the state should not be trusted with implementing solutions.  My odds of getting good internet would probably not be any worse if I plugged my cable right into the back end of a donkey with diarrhoea.  At this rate, I may end up investing in a herd of carrier pigeons ... it may be a tad slower, but at least I would get the benefit of a decent dinner now and then.  

 

 

[Fuzz]

I honestly would not trust satellite broadband. Weather can play havoc with the reception. And the top speed is 25Mbps download, 5 Mbps upload (peak time congestion will make this plummet).

Instead of your own satellite, go for a business fibre line. 400Mbps (symmetrical) speed, and unlimited usage. A cheaper package will still get you unlimited usage, but only 100Mbps (symmetrical) speed. Mind you, it will cost a minimum of about $8k for the first year (incl installation), and about $6k a year for the next 2 years.

[MIKA27]

Mate... After all these years, I gotta ask, why do you still put up with Telstra? Is it because you're in a rural area?

[Ken Gargett]

4 minutes ago, MIKA27 said:

Mate... After all these years, I gotta ask, why do you still put up with Telstra? Is it because you're in a rural area?

for me, no choice. because others feed off the back of telstra, i'm stuck. telstra, for some bizarre reason, have me listed as in a place (a brisbane suburb) that they cannot provide service to. even though they do. even though it is crap. so if i try and change, i get a response from every other provider that they cannot look after me because they believe what telstra says. it is impossible to connect me. 

i've posted elsewhere about a call i had when i first moved to this spot. some bloke from telstra who had something important to tell me but first, needed to confirm who i was. wanted to ask me questions. i refused. i pointed out that they rang me and could be anyone. but i have to speak to you. this went on for ages with this bloke having to tell me something but unable to do so until i gave him info about myself which i refused to do. he tried to get me to ring telstra to confirm who he was so i would give the info. i refused. i was not going to sit on hold on their machines for him. eventually he said he would tell me this once (still annoyed i didn't report him for breaching privacy). 

he was ringing me, he said, to tell me that telstra could not provide service where i was. i asked if the irony of this had dawned on him (this was a local bloke, not from faraway lands). 

no it had not. he didn't follow.

i explained that he had rung me to tell me that he could not ring me. 

then it dawned. said he better report this. don't you dare. rather this crap service than have telstra "fix" it. but if you cannot provide service, why am i paying your bills? he could not get off the phone quick enough. 

another time, i was so sick of them on the umpteenth call to fix something, i asked some idiot if there was anyone there with any brains. "no sir, we are the technical department".

while i was looking up stuff, came across this oldie. they do not get any better with time. 

Never had great coverage where I am – the mobile doesn't work throughout half the house. I get one or two bars at most on the computer. Friday arvo – zip. No coverage at all. Try everything. Avoid ringing telstra as much as possible (quite possible I was once put on some sort of hit/avoid list a few years ago when I managed to get hold of a manager's direct line and discussed ALL my problems with him in depth).

Saturday, still stuffed. Ducked across to another nearby house and full coverage, no problems. Back home and still zip. I ring. They have a new machine that asks all sorts of inane questions that are completely irrelevant and send you off on the most useless sidetracks (I'm assuming this is what these gibbering idiots call state of the art). You end up screaming at a machine. It finally tells you it will send you to a consultant – apparently even machines get bored. Which it doesn't. Just hangs up. We do it again. Finally get through to someone. then, I have to be sent to a different section. Of course I do. I am certain that scum communications has a section that does nothing except tell people that.

We have to do the address check – a problem as I have been telling telstra for 2 years that I have moved. But we work through that. We do the spell your name – he repeats it. I swear he did not get one single letter correct. Things are going about as well as expected.

Eventually I am assured we have an outage in my area (in other words, go away and when your stuff still doesn't work tomorrow, you'll be dealing with someone other than me).

Then they decide to fix the address in their system. Another department. I tell them that I really don't care if they do or not because they way they are going I won't be paying any bills. I tell them that if I go on to hold, I'll hang up. 'Yes sir' he says, and puts me on hold. Eventually, we do the change of address, after being told by the bloke several times what a difficult procedure this is. Are they kidding?

Seriously, the only people I have less respect for than that grub Sol who came, screwed up, took wads of money, buggered off and left with a pile of abuse, are the complete morons who employed him in the first place

By Sunday, still nothing. I try again. First bloke, after that abhorrent machine, says he has to check things and goes away and hangs up. I try again. Get some woman to whom I feel obliged to explain in minute detail the shortcomings of scum communications. She then says what it the problem. I point out I've just told her in detail. I have to explain again.

She says that I have rung the wrong dept and I need to ring 133933. I explain that is exactly the number I rang. But I still have to be transferred.

'I am James'. Seriously?, I ask. We are off on the wrong foot. We go through the usual crap. He gets two of the letters of my name correct.

He explains I need a new modem.

I point out that it works perfectly two kilometres away.

Yes sir.

So probably not the modem then, James?

Yes sir.

So what then?

I will send you a new modem.

We do this for a while.

Finally, I ask if telstra has reduced strength of signal in my area.

Yes sir.

To which we have a loud one-sided conversation before he realises what he has said. He assures me they have not.

So what then.

I will send you a new modem.

Oh, bloody hell.

James, you are just saying whatever it is that you think I want to hear, aren't you?

Yes sir.

I tell him I have more respect for someone that worked for the Nazis than for telstra.

Yes sir.

I insist on finding out what is wrong. James assures me again it is the modem. He then explains that someone else is also on the line with the same problem so it must be the modem.

I ask what the other call has to do with me.

James explains it is from near me.

Where?, I ask.

Queensland, he says.

Where in Queensland?, I ask.

Victoria, he answers.

I try and have James explain exactly what some bloke with a problem in Victoria has to do with me.

It is the same sort of modem.

Are we the only two in Australia with that sort of modem?

This is all too much for James who says.... 'I will send you a new modem' (maybe James' rellies build the things and he is on commission).

I said that the bloke yesterday said there was an outage.

No sir. I have checked your area. Postcode 4217.

Oh for Christ's, that is from two years ago.

Clearly the 100^th time trying to change an address with these morons has been as successful as the last 99 attempts.

So James, do you have any idea what is going on?

No sir, but I will send you a new modem.

Terrific but is there any chance I could speak to someone who is not a complete gibbering dill?

No sir, it is Sunday and only the technical dept is open.

Bye, James.

Bye sir and thank you for calling tesltra.

[MIKA27]

I managed their main head office in Melbourne for over two years, they were a tenant, NEVER again.
All I can say, is that they have managers for managers, receptionists for their receptionists, treat their staff like rubbish, mass sackings [By their inept, then property director) and no wonder their service is becoming worse each year. It was a vipers nest of unhappy, backstabbing people. Morale was dismal.

No wonder your service is so bad mate, there is no continuity in their skill sets nor their customer service.

[kwsaw63]

3 hours ago, Fuzz said:

I honestly would not trust satellite broadband. Weather can play havoc with the reception. And the top speed is 25Mbps download, 5 Mbps upload (peak time congestion will make this plummet).

Instead of your own satellite, go for a business fibre line. 400Mbps (symmetrical) speed, and unlimited usage. A cheaper package will still get you unlimited usage, but only 100Mbps (symmetrical) speed. Mind you, it will cost a minimum of about $8k for the first year (incl installation), and about $6k a year for the next 2 years.

Glad I live in Singapore. A 1Gbps fibreconnection only costs A$40 a month.

[Fuzz]

I was stuck with Telstra, as my area had no extra spaces at the exchange. If I jumped ship, my place on the exchange would be taken by the next waiting customer, with no guarantee I'd get back in. Now with the NBN, I'm pretty sure I can jump ship with no problems, but I'm in a bundled pack with Foxtel.

[Auspaul]

Reading what happened to you Ken reminds me of similar experiences I have had  rang up once about NBN issues then next thing I know I am being signed up for a new phone via a recording that only responds to yes not no not F$%K or any other words yes  you have to say yes to stop the recording talking to you to get back to talk to the simpleton who is trying to sell you a phone the whole time you hear people cheering in the background . Telstra once was a great company with great training so much has changed

[MIKA27]

On 6/18/2018 at 4:58 PM, Fuzz said:

I was stuck with Telstra, as my area had no extra spaces at the exchange. If I jumped ship, my place on the exchange would be taken by the next waiting customer, with no guarantee I'd get back in. Now with the NBN, I'm pretty sure I can jump ship with no problems, but I'm in a bundled pack with Foxtel.

So...you're STUCK with Telstra!  Don't they own Foxtel?

[LordAnubis]

So here’s my latest dealings. Wife and I pay 89 a month for 15gb of data to share between us. And I get 500 bucks of calls and she gets 1000.

Their new plans are 49 bucks for 15 gigs of data each.

I go to their online chat thing yesterday and say I want to sign up. He says ok. Goes through whole process. I get no confirmation or anything. And my plan doesn’t change.

Go back to chat today and ask what’s going on, apparently there no order int eh system for this change. So I ask to just give me a number to call. He gives me one. I call said number and it’s out of business hours.

Go back to chat and do my usual “listen here you useless good for nothing .....” the person says she’ll change the plan. And give me a bonus of 5gb data per month to use. I say I want 10 gigs of data and I want you to waive the first month of fees on both plans. She says she can’t do that. I say no worries, cancel both accounts then. She speaks to manager and then comes back with an ok.

So now we pay 98 dollars a month (9 dollars more) and get 40 gigs of data a month (25gigs more than before) and we get unlimited talk and text and first month free.

I love Telstra


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ken Gargett]

1 minute ago, LordAnubis said:

So here’s my latest dealings. Wife and I pay 89 a month for 15gb of data to share between us. And I get 500 bucks of calls and she gets 1000.

Their new plans are 49 bucks for 15 gigs of data each.

I go to their online chat thing yesterday and say I want to sign up. He says ok. Goes through whole process. I get no confirmation or anything. And my plan doesn’t change.

Go back to chat today and ask what’s going on, apparently there no order int eh system for this change. So I ask to just give me a number to call. He gives me one. I call said number and it’s out of business hours.

Go back to chat and do my usual “listen here you useless good for nothing .....” the person says she’ll change the plan. And give me a bonus of 5gb data per month to use. I say I want 10 gigs of data and I want you to waive the first month of fees on both plans. She says she can’t do that. I say no worries, cancel both accounts then. She speaks to manager and then comes back with an ok.

So now we pay 98 dollars a month (9 dollars more) and get 40 gigs of data a month (25gigs more than before) and we get unlimited talk and text and first month free.

I love Telstra


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

mus, i am waiting for my next bill because i reckon it is dollars to doughnuts they stuffed everything up and i'll have to go through it all again. odds on.