Thread: One of those Telstra days!

We are in suburbia and have been without a reliable phone/internet connection for over 5 weeks.
Some days it works some days it doesn't some days it's at dialup speed (or slower) some days it's OK.

Part of the problem is that the supplier we use has to call Telstra out for any line issues, but first they want to send a technician to confirm that it really is a line fault before Telstra are called.

So far two technicians and 4 Telstra contractors have failed to resolve the issue ! They have found spurious voltages on the line (which was apparently resolved) and the last one (clutching at straws) suggested changing the cable from the router to the connection point on the wall !

Another Telstra contractor is visiting next week so fingers crossed.

It's working OK today.


Colin

Where I live in Canberra, the telephone wires are strung up along the power poles owned by the electricity company and these poles are inspected regularly and if coming up for replacement have a red X painted on them - now these may not need immediate replacement and just go into the replacement program - maybe up to 3 years later.

However Telstra technicians will not climb/ladder the poles with red Xs yet the electricity company says it is Ok - so if there is a fault nothing happens unless you can kid a telstra technician to climb the pole - the fault is always in the junction box on the pole - usually just some corrosion on the contacts - take 5 minutes to fix.

I only live 6km in a straight line from Parliament House - not out in the boonies.

Garry

Originally Posted by garrycol

Where I live in Canberra

..........

I only live 6km in a straight line from Parliament House - not out in the boonies.

Sorry, Garry, I have visited Canberra a few times.
It is out in the boonies.

Canberra is the centre of the boonies! ...An outer suburb of Melbourne and Sydney with a bunker, a fake lake, too many malls and a big bogun flagpole! Sounds like the boonies to me!
...but then Telstra / NBN see the whole continent of Australia as the boonies, the way they treat their customers.

Originally Posted by garrycol

Where I live in Canberra, the telephone wires are strung up along the power poles owned by the electricity company and these poles are inspected regularly and if coming up for replacement have a red X painted on them - now these may not need immediate replacement and just go into the replacement program - maybe up to 3 years later.

However Telstra technicians will not climb/ladder the poles with red Xs yet the electricity company says it is Ok - so if there is a fault nothing happens unless you can kid a telstra technician to climb the pole - the fault is always in the junction box on the pole - usually just some corrosion on the contacts - take 5 minutes to fix.

I only live 6km in a straight line from Parliament House - not out in the boonies.

Garry

Back in the day when I used to do this for a living (in Victoria) white X's on a pole meant pole needs replacement but safe to climb, red X's meant pole needs replacement AND dangerous/unsafe to climb. Sometimes there was a single white slash / or \ , ie half an X to denote safe to climb. Only a fool would climb an unsafe pole and the employee/contractor was/is strictly forbidden from doing so.

In the current era of litigation though with scumbag lawyers and CYA where everything is always someone else's fault and where responsibility is pushed as far down the food chain as possible I couldn't blame the pole inspector for putting red X's on everything just to cover his own arse.

Where the pole box connection is a possible fault source (you'd be amazed with the variety of 'critters' and their corrosive excrement that make these home) it is only one of many potential points of failure and is often the first and highly visible place a contractor will go to prove a fault in or out of the customers premises often giving a misleading impression that this is where the fault was.

Deano

isnt technology wonderful....

After reading all your adventures you have just reaching home John,, I'm amazed you have a phone line!!

I've had a phone line ever since moving here nearly 25 years ago. While the phone has had faults from time to time, almost all issues have been in the exchange or trunk lines, not my line. Generally very reliable.