I talk to telstra often and don't have any probs...they're suprisingly good...
GQ
(and no, I don't work for them)
Printable View
I talk to telstra often and don't have any probs...they're suprisingly good...
GQ
(and no, I don't work for them)
I don't think it is restricted to Telstra (or Optus). Mind you, Telstra is pretty bad - they expect me to pay their bills within a fortnight but they can't get them to me within that time and they also take nine months to reply to a letter despite numerous phone calls and assurances that they will reply soon - and then deny that they ever received the original letter despite the fact that they acknowledged the receipt of it. Also they screw up the billing and deny anything they want to that they have said over the phone.
However! My experience is that this is not unique to Telstra, nor to the telecommunications industry. The concept of customer service seems to have become so rare that we are pleasantly surprised when we really get some! The reason for this is probably a result of the customer in general putting price above everything , so that cost cutting becomes an easier way to keep business than to improve service.
Oh! The whingeing pom bit - I note from any UK publication or forum that BT gets a very similar reputation!
John
Well if you thought things are bad now.. give it a couple of years until the privatised Telstra is off the leash. :O
Telstra's entire website is down this mornning - or is for me.
I used to have a lot of time for Telstra when they just provided a phone line but recent experiences with "broadband" has used up all the goodwill they ever had and then some.
I raised some fairly major issues with Telstra regarding safety and risk to life after a power surge took out my ISDN box and it took 15 days (and about three visits) to replace it. The problem was not the loss of the internet connection but that we could not use the phone in that period since the phone line had been converted to digital for the ISDN to work. My main concern was the inability to phone emergency services in the event of bushfire, or other emergency, if the power was off or if the ISDN box had blown due to a surge - as they are very prone to do. Before you ask, my mobile service (Telstra) is totally unreliable where I live.
I (eventually) got a call from the Telstra Regional Manager who essentially tried to belittle my concerns or denied that they existed. "A spin doctor weaseling their way out of everything" is probably the best description I can give of his response.
Eventually they grudgingly installed a surge protector so the damn thing didn't blow up every time there was a thunderstorm.
I also enjoy their appointment system where they make you swear you will be available all morning or all afternoon to allow access for their technician and then no-one turns up. :mad::mad::mad: (Happened more than once.)
Sorry for hijacking your thread Reeds - I think I needed to vent too.;)
Hey no worries nice to know i am not the only oneQuote:
Originally Posted by DiscoDave
Ali, wait till you ever need to ring the ATO.....hehehe:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
Sorry "don't get this crap with BT" - boy them must have completely metamorphed since I left the uk.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reads90
............but then again that was about the same time as the cable boys started running cable to 98% of the population, so maybe they got their act together after finding that they had competition.
Prior to that though they were absolute stinkers to deal with.
Nah when i left BT we good and had got their act togetherQuote:
Originally Posted by ladas
But you are right they used to be crap. But still not as bad as Optus have been. BTW Still not go my home phone working yet
This email was sent to me years ago and I have kept it for obvious reasons.
Take your time to read it ..... its well worth it
Could have even been written by Reads
*******
1) Americans and Canadians are not the only ones who get poor service from their ISP, cable and/or alarm companies. (NTL is a cable operator in Britain).
2) The Brits probably write the world's best letters of complaint.
WARNING: some adult content
Dear Cretins:
I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for your four-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, telephone, and alarm monitoring. During this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional prerogative and seek to rectify these difficulties -- or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office.
My initial installation was cancelled without warning, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat **** waiting for your technician to arrive. When he did not arrive, I spent a further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful website. HOW? I alleviated the boredom by playing with my testicles for a few minutes -- an activity at which you are no doubt both familiar and highly adept. The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools -- such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum.
Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After 15 telephone calls over four weeks my modem arrived, six weeks after I had requested it -- and begun to pay for it. I estimate your internet server's downtime is roughly 35% -- the hours between about 6 pm and midnight, Monday through Friday, and most of the weekend. I am still waiting for my telephone connection.
I have made nine calls on my mobile to your no-help line, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals who are, it seems, also highly skilled bollock jugglers. I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off); that I will be transferred to someone (and then been redirected to an answering machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be transferred to someone and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot woman. And several other variations on this theme.
Doubtless you are no longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important testicle moments to attend to. Frankly I don't care. It's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold music.
Forgive me, therefore, if I continue.
I thought British Telecom was ****; that they had attained the holy ****-pot of god-awful customer relations; and that no one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't anyone else, is there?
How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of bastards you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of distended rectum incompetents of the highest order. BT -- ******* though they are -- shine like brilliant beacons of success in the filthy mire of your seemingly limitless inadequacy.
Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver. Any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief and will quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps bemused rage.
I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cat's litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit -- they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and its worthless employees.
Have a nice day. May it be the last in your miserable short lives, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of twits.