Telstra (and banks) -again

[JDNSW]

Very interesting and non-productive morning/lunchtime.

1.Late morning I had phone call from Telstra Countrywide - they got the letter I sent (disputing the bill) with my cheque to pay my account but the cheque was not enclosed when the letter was received by accounts. They suggested I check with the bank and see whether it has been paid and if so to whom.

2. So I call the bank. After negotiating the maze of menus and being on hold for ten minutes, I was told the cheque had not been presented - should have been about two weeks ago, I cancelled the cheque.

3. Called Telstra accounts to tell them that I had cancelled the cheque and that they could pay the cancellation fee. After the ten minutes spent negotiating the voice non-recognition system and spending another five minutes on hold, now told that the cheque had been presented over a week ago, and the account is paid.

4. Call bank again, and after negotiating the menu and another ten minutes on hold, I now find that the cheque has been presented on the tenth. They gave a lame apology for the misinformation, but appear unable to tell me whether they are going to charge for the cancellation or not - if it turns up on my statement, just call them!

As some others have commented here lately - what happened to customer service? Two of the largest companies in Australia, and between them manage to cause me the loss of a couple of hours through both simply telling me facts that are wrong (lying). And quite unrepentant about it.

John

[dungarover]

That's bloody Telscum for you, pack of ********s. Customer service is non-exixtent in the 21st Century :(

This is what I think of both :rocket: :rocket: :rocket: :rocket: :2up: :2up: :2up:

Trav

[sam_d]

I've not had many dealings with my bank here but what I have noticed with Telstra is that they are exactly the same customer service wise as BT (and O2) are in the UK.

I think it must be something to do with being companies that are/were state owned at some point.

For my fixedline the UK I found BT (British Telecom) to be utter ****e so I used NTL. Never had any problems with NTL.

For my mobile I originally went with Cellnet (now called O2) who were owned by BT and found them to be totally rubbish too so I used Vodafone and never had any problems with Vodafone couldn't sort out within less than a couple of minutes.

[solmanic]

There is an old saying (which i have taken the liberty of updating):

If you owe a bank $100,000 - you have a problem.
If you owe a bank $100,000,000 - the bank has a problem.

Just borrow a s%&*load of money then they might pay you some attention.

[William]

I read not so long ago about a woman who after similar cicumstances to yours, sent her own bill to the company concerned. It was something like $75 per hour and she charged in 6 minute blocks. They actually paid her. Maybe you can give that a go too;) :D

[incisor]

my mate charges them $396 per hour and gets away with it.. maybe more now actually as that was 3 or 4 years ago....

[hiline]

telstra :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

them stupid morons sent us a bill for 2cents for years :twisted:
and at the end of each bill it stated this bill is non payable:angel:


many phones calls trying to sort this matter never stop the bill coming each 1/4

mind you i haven't been with telstra for years now :D :D

but after a couple of years of this on going saga
we final get a bill for over$500 to be paid in full :eek:

so back on the phone we go :soapbox: :soapbox:



and eventual its all sorted now


so my thoughts on Telstra :2up: :2up: :2up: :2up: :2up:

[rick130]

I've been having fun with Sensis/White Pages/Telstra for a few weeks now as my alterations and additions for the just released phone book didn't happen ! Our Yellow Pages entries are OK, shame the White Pages people don't work the same way, yet it's the same friggin organisation !
After four phone calls and a two page signed fax back in January, well before the cut-off date for alterations, they claim not top have received the fax, even though I have a record of it leaving my machine OK on the 11th of January. When contacting them on the 3/4, and again faxing them, they now claim not to have received that fax (while every other fax machine I've faxed to seems to accept my faxes ) and now won't return my calls after I asked them to confirm receipt of another fax, or tell me what they will do.
The same mob can't change my address either. We moved 3 years ago, and are about to move again, yet all correspondence keeps going to the address from 3 years ago, even after numerous phone calls, a fax and a couple of online attempts and emails.

#$@&&**^^% frustrating is an understatement. :censored:

[George130]

Last time I had that sort of trouble I informed the Company that I had frozen my account with them and no correspondence would be entered into until they found and sorted my payment. 2 weeks later I got a letter with the correction on it and a phone call to apologise.

[cartm58]

have you had telstra calling you at night saying they want you back they have a cheque with your name on it if you do agree to come back and use them as a home landline.

l've told each of the unfortunate callers l wouldnt go back to using telstra if they paid me for every call l made for the next 100 years. Thata s soon as my imate mobile plans runs out in August 2007 they are losing that as well.

When asked why l think that way l tell them the way they have annoyed me with their poor service and incompetence.

Despite repeated requests to be deleted from their call lists l get a phone call once week from telstra promising me my cheque lve noticed my answers are getting more profane and louder will they never learn not to call and annoy me

[Frenchie]

Telstra stuck a flyer in my letterbox saying that ADSL had arrived in our area. Yay, got all excited. :cool:

Rang AAPT to get connected only to be told my exchange wasn't enabled. :(

Rang Telstra to be told that no, it wouldn't happen for a while, but they could sell me a wireless plan. :mad:

[dungarover]

have you had telstra calling you at night saying they want you back they have a cheque with your name on it if you do agree to come back and use them as a home landline.

l've told each of the unfortunate callers l wouldnt go back to using telstra if they paid me for every call l made for the next 100 years. Thata s soon as my imate mobile plans runs out in August 2007 they are losing that as well.

When asked why l think that way l tell them the way they have annoyed me with their poor service and incompetence.

Despite repeated requests to be deleted from their call lists l get a phone call once week from telstra promising me my cheque lve noticed my answers are getting more profane and louder will they never learn not to call and annoy me

I recently got out of Telscum after 8 years (yes, must of had rocks in my head for sticking with them so long) and they forever harasses me about renewing plans even when I told them to go and get ****ed in those words exactly :mad: :mad: :mad:

Now with Vodafone on my mobile (don't have a landline). Much better deal and nearly $30 a month on avg better off :D :D

Trav

[mcrover]

We have been fighting Telsra Bigpond since last August regarding ADSL access.

We connected with them and got the modem and all the day before we went to Alice springs so I didnt get to set it up.

When we got back I set it up to find that they didnt put in the set up user name and password.

Rang them and they told me they had sent it to our bigpond dialup account, I said thats good we dont have one. They said yes you do as you get one when you sign up so I asked how I could access it they said with your set up user name and pass word.......?Dumb ***es.

After getting that reset after having a 1 1/2 hr argument with some ground floor scumbag I got through to a tech who then reset and set about helping me set the whole thing up.

Waited the 24hrs and tried again and still nothing, tech came out and could log on on his test bed but not with our system, so they reset B codes on the line.

This opened another can of worms as the old codes werent removed properly and when they tried to reset them it wouldnt do it.

They manually reset the line and set new B codes and then still no go.

After being abused and told that I had set it up wrong or was using the wrong username etc etc and me abusing them and getting abused back I called the ombudsman.

Ombudsman contacted them and faxed them all my notes about what time call started and finished who I spoke to and what time etc etc what I was told to do all the user names passwords etc they rang me back while I was out on course and couldnt talk so I asked politly if she caould call me back in 5 and she said "you dont want to sort this out Im not going to bother" and hung up.

I called the ombudsman back...

Got a case worker who recond he sorted it out and offered me 5 months free access so I asked for it in writting that never came.

Noticed on this quaters bill the other day that we were being charged for ADSL access so I rang them and cancelled the whole thing where they told me that I would never be able to get ADSL connection through BP again, my reply was GOOD DISCONNECT ME.

Offered me another 3 months free and I said give me the whole 24 months and I will think about it but they said no so I said CANCEL THE SERVICE.

After 33 logged hours just on this ADSL problem and our line still cant support it.

I should have charged them.

[vnx205]

It's the attitude of banks that annoys me.
When we sold our house about five years ago, we noticed that our balance hadn't changed even though the transaction was supposed to have been completed. When we contacted the bank, their response was that they could not have made a mistake, the transfer of funds had been done, so we must be wrong.
A day or two later, they found that they had taken the funds from the purchaser's account and instead of putting the funds in our account, they put them back in the purchaser's account. I think we got an apology, but their first reaction was that we were wrong.
I heard of an even worse example from a few years before that. A friend was paying particularly exhorbitant interest on some sort of business loan at the time some of us were paying 17% on our home loans. He was finding it a bit of a struggle (as most of us were) and contacted the bank a number of times, but they were unsympathetic.
Somehow he managed to transfer the loan to a local building society and when he contacted the bank to advise them, they asked what his new interest rate was. When he told them, they claimed they could match that. His response was, "Why didn't you offer to do that during the last couple of years when paying your interest rate was killing me?"
I had the same experience when I told the bank I was transferring to my credit union. I told them I was sick of the fees thay hit me with every time I was a few dollars overdrawn. They then offered to waive those fees. So why did they apply them in the first place?

[sam_d]

It annoys me how long it can take the banks to 'process' things at times.

Last week I closed a savings account I had at HSBC and asked them to transfer it to my current account (also with HSBC). I was told this might take up to 7 working days to transfer the money. No explanation as to why.

When I transfered money into and out of the accounts from each other on the internet it happened immeidately.

I just wonder how banks make their profits eh?

[Ace]

I had a nasty incident with them a month or two back, telstra that is. We went into the Telstra shop in lithgow, who actually have great customer service, to upgrade my CDMA phone to the next G ones, free of charge they cancel your CDMA contract with no pay out fee and away you go. Anyway i pick the phone, sit down to do all the paperwork etc and the sales assistant brings up my account on the computer and it says i cant do it unless i pay over $200 to pay out a contract i had had for ages and not cancelled. After some ringing around the call centre (no they couldnt speak english, and yes the telstra shop people cop as much crap as we do when they try and ring) turns out in october last year i cancelled my contract and bought a new phone, must have been my twin cause it wasnt me. My phone broke so i bought a cheapy on ebay outright and swapped it onto the contract but this was well after october so that wasnt it. Now it turns out that i went into phone zone in bathurst, where i initially bought the phone, in octobe to swap to a higher contract cause the call costs were to high. They said no problem we can do that, instead of upgrading the contract she cancelled it and started a new one. In the mean time $20 a month has been added to my bill aswell as paying the new plan fee, i hadnt noticed becuase there was no real need to check the bill, i check them all now. After some arguing the nice non english speaking person on the other end of the line told the telstra shop woman that they would be willing to only half what i had to pay, so now i only had to pay $100, but i wouldnt be getting the $140 odd that i had paid for no reason over the previous 7 months. In the end i didnt get the phone, so i went home rather ****ed off cause this took over an hour.

When i get home i ring back and get someone who can speak english, and who actually is in Australia, and within 5 mins of talking to them the $200 debt has been removed and i have been refunded the money i paid every month as a cancellation fee. Now drive back into town to get the phone, eventually i get the phone and all is sorted.

I would tell you what they did to stacey but i dont have time to type all that. Matt

[Nat130]

I got so annoyed with the phone companies, when we moved into our new house I decided to get a pre-paid home phone. Don't have internet at home so all is good.

I just purchase a recharge card every three months to top up my pre-paid account. I also use pre-paid on my mobile.

The best parts of this arrangement is that:

a) there are no monthly bills.
b) when telephone salesman come to your door it takes them a long time to understand that you don't have a phone bill to show them but you have a phone. They never understand and end up leaving the house very flustered and confused :)

[crump]

My bank story is thus,got a loan about 10 years ago for 25K, a week after it was funded another 25K appears in my account.:eek: I rang them and told them they must have funded it twice,"No Sir, you must have already had that money in your account, which by the way is a lot to have in a savings account, would you like to speak to an advisor?"
"If I already had it why would I need to borrow it?"
Took 6 months of BS for them to take it back, plus I was constantly harrassed by their Financial Planning team, plus I got the interest.
I always wonder if I should have just shut up and kept it.

[neil 90]

My bank story is thus,got a loan about 10 years ago for 25K, a week after it was funded another 25K appears in my account.:eek: I rang them and told them they must have funded it twice,"No Sir, you must have already had that money in your account, which by the way is a lot to have in a savings account, would you like to speak to an advisor?"
"If I already had it why would I need to borrow it?"
Took 6 months of BS for them to take it back, plus I was constantly harrassed by their Financial Planning team, plus I got the interest.
I always wonder if I should have just shut up and kept it.

mate of mine in the uk got a loan for i think $5k to buy second hand car , he put the payments in the account every month for 3 years but they never took them out, after 3 years he got a paid in full letter of them and then spent the money, lucky bugger!!
just been told by my bank it will take 2 weeks to order $1500 of sterling for the lads holiday, why does it take so long??:angel: it is 2007 isnt it??

[jase]

yep, ya should have kept it :o
and if they ever came & looked say "ohh did you ??? no sorry you must be mistaken"
about 20 years ago someone I know (protect the innocent ;) ) borrowed $4 k for a car
it got approved and he went in and picked up a bank cheque for the car, a few weeks later he got a letter asking what account would he like the newly approved loan credited to ?? what the ??
anyway sent back his bank account number, money got deposited in and NOTHING was ever said about it,
$4k was a big bonus for a struggling youngster ;)
J


My bank story is thus,got a loan about 10 years ago for 25K, a week after it was funded another 25K appears in my account.:eek: I rang them and told them they must have funded it twice,"No Sir, you must have already had that money in your account, which by the way is a lot to have in a savings account, would you like to speak to an advisor?"
"If I already had it why would I need to borrow it?"
Took 6 months of BS for them to take it back, plus I was constantly harrassed by their Financial Planning team, plus I got the interest.
I always wonder if I should have just shut up and kept it.

[100I]

I'll throw my hand in here and ask for advice.

We just received a letter from Optus last night informing us that due to uncompetitive rates from their supplier they will be changing our house phone to a $55/mth plan:o . STD & mobile rates would remain the same.
We were dumbfounded as it was when the line rental recently went up dramtically. We use our own handsets.
Last bill we had made $4 worth of calls from home. We would just get rid of the home line but for the www. We jumped on the optus site and saw a $19 basic deal which is more suitable but it is aparently not available in our area (suburban Brisbane). The next one up is $34. I haven't spoken to their call centre yet (I just can't endure the pain) but I can't see reason why they would presume to put us onto a $55 plan, perhaps they are just hoping that we wil not question it and they will get away with it.
I like Nat130's deal but we want the www at home.
No, Dan must have www.
Any suggestions out there of who IS a good carrier will a realistic deal.:confused:

[mcrover]

Bank story.

When me and the x bought our first house all went well until we took possesion and exactly 1 week later were told we owed exactly twice as much.

Each day we rang up to sort it out they told us that we couldnt argue as we had signed the contracts etc etc.

We pulled out the contracts and faxed them to them to proove what we had borrowed and their reply was that it couldnt be sorted out for 30 days from that date.

When we got our first statement we had been charged interest on the whole amount calculated daily of course.

After about 2 or 3 months we sorted it out, the actual amount owed that is but not the interest that was driving us into the ground.

it took 2 years to get the interest out of them and of course nothing to pay for our time or hardship for the previous 2 years.

Telsra is stuffing Mrs Mc around at the moment, they give her a free phone as far as the contract says on a capped plan and then charge for the phone and calls to other than telstra phones were not included in the cap which wasnt in the contract anywhere.

[Grizzly_Adams]

Any suggestions out there of who IS a good carrier will a realistic deal.:confused:

G'day oldzook,

Have you had a look at Broadband Choice (http://bc.whirlpool.net.au)?

You may find more help there...

[Grizzly_Adams]

After about 2 or 3 months we sorted it out, the actual amount owed that is but not the interest that was driving us into the ground.

it took 2 years to get the interest out of them and of course nothing to pay for our time or hardship for the previous 2 years.


One thing I noticed whilst in Switzerland is that the Swiss are very good at giving the interest back! We even got the interest from our telephone line deposits / rental bonds / etc. back. It seems really quite bad the way they hang onto the interest in other countries - having experienced it the other way around! :D