AGHHHHHHHHH, the frustration!!!

[V8Ian]

I've been on the phone to my phone and internet provider. :mad:
My wi-fi modem is 3 1/2 years old and has died. I got onto the provider's web page but there is no price or information on an outright purchase. :mad::mad:
I got onto a SMS thingy within the web page and was connected to a fellow whose native tongue was LOTE. He simply couldn't grasp that all I wanted was a modem, not a plan. :mad::mad::mad:
My next move was to call the 1800 number, after asking what I needed I was transferred to customer service who persisted in trying to sell me a new plan and contract. They then asked me to hold while I was transferred to sales. :mad::mad::mad::mad:
After another long wait with painful 'music', the phone was answered by another LOTE person from..............wait for it...........customer service. :confused:
After yet another long wait with painful 'music', the phone was answered by another person from sales, at least this fellow was Australian and undestandable. However, his news wasn't good; customer services handle hardware sales. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Transferred back to LOTE-land and this bright spark decided to off-load the problem to tech services. :confused::confused:Despite my protest that I had the device in my hand and it was old, wouldn't charge or turn on, I was promptly dispatched. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
By the time I got to speak to the technical LOTE my blood pressure was on the up. The techy probably picked up on this after explaining to him how many times I'd been punted from pillar to post. He pronounced my modem FUBARed, :censored: then asked my details, which I gave for the six millionth time during this phone call. After checking my file he told me that as a long standing customer he could replace the modem FOC. :)
Yes, beat that Telstra. :p
Although I couldn't get anyone to sell me a modem, I did get three quotes during the call; $72, $78 and $178. :confused::confused::confused:
I would have rather spent $72 than waste almost two hours after a day at work.

[ramblingboy42]

That sounds absolutely normal for any company or business you try to ring these days.

[V8Ian]

More joy, not! :(
I got an email from yes today with a tracking link which I followed. According to the AP tracking site delivery was attempted at 10.28 today and the delivery made at 13.29 (I must have an incredibly long driveway). Wonderful, except it's not here.
I contacted AP and got nowhere as AP subbied the freight task to Startrack.
I contacted Startrack and got nowhere as the AP reference numbers I have mean didley swat to ST.
I contacted LOTE yes who confirmed my details and asked me to confirm the delivery address, which they had correct. Somewhere between the order desk and the dispatch desk, my two digit street number was transposed. The device is now on its way back to Yennora. On the bright side, my account has been credited with $30 and the modem will be here next Friday.

[discovery39]

You do have fun Ian...........:)

[disco gazza]

I would have gone down to dick smith/harvey norman etc and get a wifi modem off them.
Be around the same price and you dont have the hassle of speaking LOTE. :D

[V8Ian]

I would have gone down to dick smith/harvey norman etc and get a wifi modem off them.
Be around the same price and you dont have the hassle of speaking LOTE. :D
I tried, they don't have mobile (3G) devices.

[superquag]

I took the easy way out when my (Netgear) optus - modem died. -Let my #1 son drag me down to Dick Smiths...and we came home with a bigger/faster/better one for under $200.
In fairness, Optus eventually agreed to replace it free of charge, but the unit offered was just that, a current equivalent model, not the super-duper one we ... sorry, "I" bought.

All done & back on-line in under 2 hours.

- And it didn't get lost on the way home.... :wasntme:

[Ausfree]

Having a good day, are we Ian!!!!:p

[scarry]

That sounds absolutely normal for any company or business you try to ring these days.

Exactly.

After five calls,each around an hour,and they can't even understand what you want,and i can't understand half of what they are trying to say,i gave up.:mad::mad::mad:

The reason for the five calls was they kept cutting me off,then when you ring back you have to tell them everything again,i kept telling them i feel like a parrot,they had no idea what i meant.

You would think they would ring you back after they have cut you off,as they do have your phone number,but no that is to helpful.

Eventually i went to the local telstra shop,spoke to the tech onsite,all sorted in 10 minutes.
I didn't realise the local shop had a tech who was there to help customers.

[ramblingboy42]

I have found the telstra shops to very be pleasant and helpful at face to face contact.

swmbo just bought a new dual sim phone which uses micro cards and telstra don't sell dual sim.

we walked into the telstra shop and asked if she could change her cards over , expecting a fee etc , but the staff there smilingly gave her new micro cards for free...part of the service they said..

she purchased the phone from a vodaphone shop who wanted her to take out plans if they provided the sims but its for her work and o/s.....they kind of wouldnt take no for an answer , so we paid for the phone and bugged out.

[V8Ian]

Still not arrived yet. :mad:

[DoubleChevron]

Out of interest. Has anyone EVER managed to get $elstra to EVER do anything, no matter how minor without you spending hour and bloody hours on the phone 'cos the useless sack of assholes have screwed up again. I have NEVER had them manage even the most minor task without screwing it up :( Guess who I have spent about 3hours on the phone too over the last few days ... with absolutely not sucess.

seeya
Shane L.

[87County]

Out of interest. Has anyone EVER managed to get $elstra to EVER do anything, no matter how minor without you spending hour and bloody hours on the phone 'cos the useless sack of assholes have screwed up again. I have NEVER had them manage even the most minor task without screwing it up :( Guess who I have spent about 3hours on the phone too over the last few days ... with absolutely not sucess.

seeya
Shane L.

OK, DC, a tip for improved service .. ring the Tel$tra complaints line (so long as you genuinely have a complaint - like you alluded to above).

[DoubleChevron]

OK, DC, a tip for improved service .. ring the Tel$tra complaints line (so long as you genuinely have a complaint - like you alluded to above).

Hee,hee,

You should see the history on our landline .... You can almost hear the intake of breath and the "oh ****" from the operators if you ring up.

For a couple of years we have been getting letters in the post saying we have NBN availabe via radio .... But it took so many years of fighting with Tel$tra to get the appalling ADSL service we have on now my wife kicked up a stink anytime I suggested moving to NBN ( $100 bucks a month for patchy ****ty adsl and a modem that overheats and dies constantly).

Anyway, with the rain the last few weeks, the connection has been up and down like a yo-yo ..... sick to death of it I rang Tel$tra. They agreed to move us over to the NBN, I booked it in for this week for the antenna install them modem setup Friday.......................................... This is Tel$tra though ................... sigh..............

The following day our ADSL died .... luckily after I downloaded the NBN emails. The times they gave me for NBN install were 8->12:00am 25/06 and 27/06 ..... I open the NBN emails, they say the install in sometime in july ....

so I ring up .... yep and hour down "No sir, your adsl is not disconnected, you have just entered the wrong password" (yes bloody bull****, it's never been changed). finally they decide to re-send a new password. Nope, that doesn't work. "Please you rign back tomorrow"..... So I do that, next guy tells me yes the adsl line is flagged for disconnection. It appears they have tried to merge my existing email address (so system login) over too the NBN killing off the ADSL and obviously the NBN is not working yet. He gives me the NBN contact details and says I need to call them and cancel my connection, then create a new one with a new login ................ AARRRRRRRhhhhh... another hour on the phone.

Alright, ring NBN ... they have no bloody clue what my issue is, so I ask them to at least verify the install date, if it's the 25th I'll just forget about the ADSL. They find yes I'm setup to have NBN installed, no appointment time/date has been made there end though ........... "Please hold" ... NBN rings tel$tra .... Nope no time/date has been setup there end either... "You will have to ring tel$tra back".....................

I really don't understand how tel$tra exists as a business. There god dman expensive and absolutely bloody hopeless..... They Have NEVER managed even the tiniest change EVER without completely screwing it up. It simply defies belief.

Now I've got the boss women ****ed off "I told you not to change anything" .... "I could have told you this would happen" .....

This is a task tel$tra must be doing thousands of times a day. How can they comprehensively stuff it up, every single time?

Guess what I'll be spending another hour doing as soon as I get home tonight. Gues how much I enjoy dealing with the useless sacks of **** at tel$tra :censored:

seeya,
Shane L.

[Fatso]

Over the 12 months I have had 3 issues/problems with phone @ I/net and had all 3 resolved promptly and to my satisfaction with Telstra . I cant complain .

[DoubleChevron]

Yep, another hour wasted on the phone too the useless sacks of **** at tel$tra.... It sounds like they haven't even booked in the nbn, and they can't figure out how to re-able the adsl....... I have another "case manager" though..... Only tel$tra could screw every simple thing up this bad. No doubt in the world I will now get sent two bills from them now.... While having no connection at all for god knows how many weeks.... They'll be happy to fix the bill though the 5 times I have to spend an hour on the phone trying to get them to fix it again and again. ( yes I've been here before ) ......

Maybe I'm not in a 'Telstra only' area know with the nbn, so can tell them to stick there unbelievably hopeless phone/internet where the sun don't shine and go through someone else. Surely the cheapest crappiest provider I can find could never be as hopeless as tel$tra :censored: :censored: :censored:

Seeya
Shane l.
Ps: my wife telling me "I told you so" constantly helps.

[Pickles2]

Well, like any company, Telstra ain't perfect, & whilst we've had a few issues with them, to date we've always been able to resolve them.
A big plus for us, is that with Telstra, one always has the ability to go to one of their centres & sort out issues personally.
Pickles.

[DiscoMick]

I recently had a major meltdown at iiNet, but despite that I must admit they did eventually fix the problem and they did have a system to be able to book a callback and they did call back within the specified time periods.

Sent from my D1 using overweight hamsters.

[Basil135]

The house phone (land line) and cable internet are both with Telstra.

Occasionally we get problems, but knowing how to talk the talk, I can get faults fixed fairly easily & quickly.

Yes, I do take a bit of delight in upsetting their robots, oops, operators, but, once they have done their obligatory tests, I ask for the fault to be put out to second level support. This gets you to a linesman. :D

As soon as he calls me, I direct him to either the street pillar, or the junction box down the road. ;) Yes, they will test from the exchange, and confirm it, but that's where the faults occur. ;)

Just another trick for you. If you find that you are being transferred from Sales to Support to Faults to The Bathroom etc, ask to speak to a supervisor / team leader. Once they have this request, they cannot refuse it. Generally speaking, this person has English as their first language. It also means that as your complaint has been escalated, it will be logged as such, and must be followed thru.

And document everything. This is important, as WHEN you ring the ombudsman, you can relate your tale of woe accurately. Don't be tempted to embellish the truth, as you will be caught out. But, stick to the facts, and you will find that your problem is resolved quickly.


This has been an AULRO community service announcement brought to you by me. :D

[DoubleChevron]

Another hour down.... They have started the bouncing me from operator to operator trick. 4 different operators explaining the same **** over and over 4 times. Each one trying to madly transfer me anywhere. I've worked out they haven't actually placed any order for nbn..... (It was supposed to be installed) yesterday, nbn have no record of them setting it up.... Obviously the pathetically unreliable adsl is still not working either. Seriously how in the hell is this company still in business?

All I get now is a voicemail box of a case manager. :censored: :censored:

[V8Ian]

They were supposed to phone me today, but didn't. :mad:

[noj44]

Another hour down.... They have started the bouncing me from operator to operator trick. 4 different operators explaining the same **** over and over 4 times. Each one trying to madly transfer me anywhere. I've worked out they haven't actually placed any order for nbn..... (It was supposed to be installed) yesterday, nbn have no record of them setting it up.... Obviously the pathetically unreliable adsl is still not working either. Seriously how in the hell is this company still in business?

All I get now is a voicemail box of a case manager. :censored: :censored:

I sympathise with you, been there done that with Telstra and a few other ISP's.
However I am probably missing something here. If you have no NBN and your ADSL is not working then how are you able to post here?

Doh! just thought you may be using a mobile phone.:o

[DoubleChevron]

I sympathise with you, been there done that with Telstra and a few other ISP's.
However I am probably missing something here. If you have no NBN and your ADSL is not working then how are you able to post here?

Doh! just thought you may be using a mobile phone.:o

Post here? Either at work or my wifes IPAD. The IPAD has nothing to do with the useless sacks of **** at telstra.... This is how hard life is if you don't deal with telstra. Go to ALDI, get a $15 sim, install in IPAD.... following bouncing ball instructions. Done IPAD is working on the internet.

I think the easiest way to go about this given my wife is insistant she wants to stay with the useless sacks of **** at tesltra is to ring up .... CANCEL EVERYTHING. The ring new connections and say "please connect me" and start afresh. At the moment I'm no longer a "normal" install 'cos they screwed it up, so no-one wants to deal with me or fix it.