Thread: Telstra - can you believe this?

Don't get me started with telstra (truckin telstra)
every time it rains (ok not very often lately) we loose our phones (have 2 lines) we call in the fault, go through thier crap unplug this, check this ect (I know it by heart and normally check B4 I call anyway)
after half an hr on the phone they say they'll send someone to look at it and quote somethig like 5 days , every time before the get there it drys out and phones start working again
I've explained this over and over (come while it's still wet or raining) but they don't get it, some of my neighbors have same problems, it's obvously water getting into something but they are to hopeless and can't be bothered to find it, so we just know if it rains more than 10mm no phones for a few days makes it hard to work from home

You and I could be brothers.

7 years ago I moved into Fitzroy. The previous tennants had an Optus landline. I wanted to go with Telstra because my boss at the time had the root around from Optus. That's fine, make the calls, "yes sir, we'd be delighted to have you join". I feel all warm and fuzzy. "We'll connect the phone next week".

Then I get a call to say there aren't any spare lines in the street. WTF!!!??? Use the one that the Optus line was connected to I say, but they tell me they are not allowed to connect it because Optus lease it. We end up with a mobile base unit the size of two yellow pages phone books that the normal phone plugs into. For about 10 truckin weeks! Biggest problem was that it was a brick terrace house with tin room so it kept dropping out.

Finally they installed the phone line, and then a few months later I end up starting a business and need another phone line. Luckily they can install one immediately, but as soon as it rains the office line drops out. They fix it, then next rain, BOTH lines go. I end up getting very crabby because I have to make all my calls from my mobile and can't recieve faxes. Initially they suggested I use the neighbour's phone! That was not well received and that was made very clear. They fix it again. It rains, they both go. They fix... You can see a pattern here. Over the space of 5 years I lost count of the number of faults and I ended up with the VIP complaints number that goes to the same person each time and I get faster service to NOT fix the fault properly.

The funniest bit was that after each fault I'd get a survey call to see if I am happy with the service and in the end I just stopped being polite. "Look at the fault history, look at the answers from last survey regarding incapability to supply a stable connection on not one but two lines. I have better things to do with my time than answer your survey again with the same responses (crap service!) KNOWING that next time it rains I'll have no phone.

In the end, we moved, I avoided Telstra like the plague, I set up Optus DSL, landline and mobiles and everything was much smoother. The only issues came from the pimple faced students working at the Optus shop where I tried to get the right plan for the mobiles, but I sorted that in the end. They got their billing wrong two months in a row and I had to call them twice - one of the mobiles was left on the old shafty plan and racked up $90 worth of calls. They ended up scrapping ALL mobile bills for that month and sorted it.

SWEET!

Every time someone from Telstra comes to the door trying to sell mobiles or landlines or internet, I just politely tell them that it's best they just walk away!

STOOOOOOGES!

John,

Obviously you need to switch carriers - see http://www.glumbert.com/media/switch

Ron