Telstra Tales

[Peter R]

Why me? I ask.

I started to look around for a phone and internet provider, getting prices and looking at different plans. I was recommended to IPrimus but when I rang the number the operator said welcome to Kooee. I voiced my suprise and was told that both IPrimus and Kooee were managed from the same place, and in a confidential voice, 'Kooee is the better option'.
I had been with Telstra for 40 years (or its various names) so to change was no easy decision.
The kooee operator suggested that if I would do the voice recording set up that if I make up my mind to go with Kooee all I had to do was ring and give them the go ahead.
Here is a very important aspect of this story: I was told that my connection could and would not be done until they had an authority to direct debit my bank account, which was to occur, if I went Kooee, in 11 days time.
That suited me as I was going to look further anyway, and I told the operator this fact.
On the following Saturday ( 2 days) Kooee contacted me and said that they were going to set up my internet account. I said that I hadn't decided yet and anyway the conditions were as above. "No worries, we can do this if you wish". OK, I was having trouble with the other ISP and had told them to discontinue my account with them.
A couple of days later I noticed that all of my Telstra services had gone, and on inquirey discovered that Kooee had taken my phone service as well, still more than a week before the authority would have been sent. I still hasn't been sent, a month after it all started.
I decided that the Kooee deal was worse than Telstra phone and bigpond net, by about $20 month. and I asked Telstra to take my service back. I also told Kooee that I was amazed at their takeover and that I was going back to Telstra.
As you know if you ring Telstra you have no way of knowing where your call will be directed.
Now, I spoke to a Telstra girl (WA) and she did a voice recording so that I could get back. When nothing happened I again rang Telstra (Melb) and did another voice recording because the WA one was not sent through. Nothing happened and I rang Telstra (Bathurst NSW,) and did a voice recording because Telstra had only taken back my STD service. Nothing more happened and I rang again (Melb.) and was told all the other voice recording information taken by the other Telstra staff was written onto the wrong form and that, you guessed it, I had to do another voice recording, and was assured that this operator would get back to me in an hour to tell me that the service would be back with Telstra today. 4 hours, no phone call so I rang him - "I am having trouble getting through to the department to organise your reconnection. This was Telstra to Telstra mind you. He will call me back tomorrow "Promise" I have his ID.
I spoke to the Communications Ombudsman's office and they said I have to speak to Kooee and then get back to them and they would take it from there.
I didn't have to do a voice recording with the Comm. Omb, at least.
I think that it is all terrible funny, although the laugh is more of a maniacle cackle by now. It is not possible for a multi-million dollar organisation to stuff up like this, is it?
Peter R.

[Shane Watson]

This was Telstra to Telstra mind you. Peter R.

just as a side note (before the pancake recipes appear ;) )

I deal with telstra tecs onsite regularly connecting our services on new store fitouts. When they need to liase with a telstra service person they ring the same numbers we do and get put in the same waiting line as you or I do. I have had tecs waiting for over an hour just to confirm and ISDN linkup....Blew me away when I first saw this happen, and believe me some of the tecs get rather heated when they finally get through, remembering they have to make them sort of calls regurlarly EVERY day of work whereas you or I only have to make them when neccessary. ;) :D ;) :D

Right, now we all know that piklets are better anyway!

[bitingmidge]

Well firstly I have found using plain flour with a pinch of salt.....

Actually I pay Telstra bucketloads of dough each month in the vain hope that I won't ever have to phone a service type person.

This is OK, because they will never ever contact me except to send a bill.

This month, I discovered they have produced a whole number of new broadband options including one which gives me the same speed of connection and unlimited downloads for TEN DOLLARS LESS than my 2 gig account.

Of course they have a policy of not telling anyone, so if you have a contract with the big T, check out their new rates, log on, and save a bit!

Cheers,

P (who DOESN'T have shares in Telstra, but spends enough each month to pay their CEO) :D :D

[Cliff Rogers]

I go along with Midge 'cept I don't use salt....

Nah, I got over being sucked in to 'Alternate Carrier' deal a long time ago.
It's just not worth the hassel.

I do sub-contract comms jobs for both Telstra & their oppositions.
I can tell you that the Telstra work gets done sooner & better.... believe it, or not. (not my part, their part)

Mind you.... Telstra know who I am.... when I ring them & they go to my account, you can hear them reading all the notes & warnings & their tone of voice lets me know what sort of an understanding they get from the notes... if I get the 'wrong' tone change, I ask for their name & where in Oz they are, this usually changes their attitude in a hurry.

I the glossary of terms on the Telstra internal help page under the 4 letter c word, the 4 letter p word, & the 8 letter a'ole word, there's a picture of my smiling face.... I think I'm also on the squeaky wheel blackboard (whiteboard)

I've been inside a Telstra call centre several times, they have a white board with the names of 'difficult' customers on it.... I do my best to be near the top of the board.... HOWEVER.... I'm still with Telstra because if I wasn't with them & I had a problem, they'd ignore me to death.

[RETIRED]

a liittle sugar in the mix for me.

You hit a nerve here.

6months and 18 hours of phone calls and sitting in Telstra shops to get massive stuff ups, disconnected phones, over charges, disconnections and a refund cheque.

The reason: I wanted a single bill for 6 accounts. Inept operators give me the horrors.

[Cliff Rogers]

Yeah , I know what you mean, I have had a fault open on one phone number since March this year, that's why they know me. Every time they try to close it, I open it again. :mad:

Given all that, I stay with them 'cos I have to go to them to have the hardware fixed.... if I was with another carrier, I'd get nothing from them. :rolleyes:

This 'may' change now that Telstra Retail & Telstra Wholesale are to be split apart into 2 different entities but, in the end, the entities will still be owned by the same company & I bet that Telstra work will get better attention than opposition work. :cool:

[ozwinner]

Search here for Broadband ISP (http://www.whirlpool.net.au/)


Al :)

[ozwinner]

Looks like Mr Google likes cooking too.

This apeared at the top of the BB screen.
http://www.boofheads.com/

Al :D

[Zed]

dummy spit - commence.

Ok i'm going to go in to bat for the Carriers, ISP's & Service providers here, lets call them "telco" for the sake of clarity...

1) I realise that service can be difficult to organise at times - especially when you want to port away to another telco - they can seem aggressive - guess what ? they want you money too - just like woolies or bunnings or holden or that bastard real estate agent down the road.
2) I realise that sometimes you stay on line for hours trying to get through to an operator which can be frustrating - so does everyone else - planet wide..
3) I realise that sometimes it takes forever for your service to be delivered as promised
4) I realise that sometimes that what you order is not alwasy what you think you ordered (ditto for pricing plans)

Please realise this :

1) telecommunications is one of the most heavily regulated industries on the planet not just Austraila...
2) the telco's are generally bohemoths with many many people over distributed geographic locations all trying to get thier **** together for you
3) You may scoff at this but "The employee's of the telco's and the telco's themselves are trying to provide you with a service as best they can - 99.9999999999998% of thier employees do not sabotage your service deliberately"
4) the telcos spend millions and in some cases BILLIONS of dollars on IT systems trying to get it right. Anyone with an ounce of computer savy should know that getting a customer care system that spans australia and now some other countries is a very difficult thing. I wont bother to list all the variables - you know them as well as I do, besides it would take hours to list them all.
5) all telcos are in a market that is steadily diminishing in value - what I mean is you now get more for your money than you did last year and so on. this makes it more expensive to conduct business and in the times of cost cutting sometimes services suffer. how about the recall from toyota the other day ? I dont remember a single whinging post about that....
6) the vast majority of users get what they want with bugger all dikcing around. think about it.... you call the carrier on the phone and want them to connect you instantly with no hold time and installation straight away or tomorrow - as does every one else - this is in an industry that churns services faster than a preist hands out wafers. what do you think this is going to do sometimes eh ? a few bodies are going to get ******... guess what ? corporate objectives of saving bucks and getting the most out of gear is not just a topic in your industry, in fact its more prevalent in the telco industry than just about anywhere else.
7) if you buy a new car or you order something from carbatec sometimes you have to wait weeks or months, but you gladly wait dont ya ? you dont moan to the sales wanker behind the counter because you realise that **** takes time... well I ask you ???? wheres the difference with telcos? I've been waiting for a $90 vice from carbatec for almost a month - do I whinge ? No I just wait until they call me and say "its here, come get it" I certainly dont get there and demand a discount because I had to wait for it - however under the ACCC regs and the cust service guarantee's you are entitled to get one with your phone line.
8) bombasting, haranging and abusing staff (cliff rogers!!!) in call centres makes S.F.A difference - it just makes some poor call centre chickie get stressed out and makes the next customer have a less happy experience because you've upset her.

to all of you who bombast telcos - I give a big finger and a raspberry - get over yourselves, I hope your kids grow up to work as customer care staff and are insulted to the point of tears and come home to you - lets see what you think then....

you all know someone who works for a telco either as a techie or a cust care person - guess what its not their fault - they are just normal people trying to pay the mortgage - just like you.

If you have a genuine complaint or a real problem by all means report it but spare a thought for the poor bastard on the other end of the line - it aint their fault - they really do want to help you!

dummy spit - end.

[silentC]

Telstra cut my phone off the other day. No warning. One minute it was connected, the next minute "the service you are using has been disconnected. Please call 13 blah blah to have it reconnected". How am I supposed to call them if my phone is disconnected? Oh yeah, my mobile. Like I'm going to sit on hold for an hour on my mobile.

I found a contact email for service difficulties, so I email them. Should be good for a laugh. Meanwhile people are trying to ring.

I email my boss and tell him the phone is disconnected. He rings Telstra for me. The problem is that my boss paid the last bill online and he stuffed up when he typed in the amount. Paid $14.86 instead of $148.60. So they cut the service off. No phone call to say "is there a problem". Mind you, they are quite happy to ring me at all hours of the day to ask if they can sell me something.

My boss pays the bill and within half an hour the phone is back on (even though they said it would be 4 hours). Three days later I receive an answer to my email: "if you are having service difficulties you must contact our service department on blah blah so that they can obtain from you important information required to diagnose your fault". A simple check would have shown the problem, they didn't even look.

I replied that given they are the largest ISP in the country, I'd have thought email would be a suitable alternative for communication when your phone has been disconnected.

I don't see any point in tearing strips off people on the helpdesk. In fact when I have actually been able to get through to someone I have usually found them helpful. They are streets ahead of Optus in that department. However they do have some serious problems and I can't see its going to get any better so long as the government is hell bent on flogging it.

While we're on the subject, can anyone comment on the veracity or otherwise of this, received in my email yesterday?


>
> For anyone contemplating using the Sensis directory service number,
> 1234, DON'T!
>
> Sensis, as you may or may not know, is a subsidiary of Telstra.
> The 1234 number is replacing the Telstra 12456 directory assistance
> number, but this time with outrageous costs attached: 40c to call
> the number, then 4c A SECOND!
>
> With this sort of pricing structure in place, it's no wonder so
> many Australians hold Telstra in the same regard as the major banks.
>
> By law, Telstra have to provide a FREE directory assistance number,
> because they are still majority owned by the government.
> They choose however not to pass this number on to the public.
>
> What's the number? 1223.
>
> Thumbs up to Telstra for finding a way to charge for a service
> that is supposed to be provided for free.
>
> Of course, feel free to forward this on.

[bitingmidge]

you all know someone who works for a telco - guess what its not their fault - they are just normal people trying to pay the mortgage - just like you.

Well spoken Zeddie, except for one curious thing. No point in blaming the person on the other end of the phone, (and goodness me don't they hurry along when you ask for their staff number "for future reference"), but someone a long, long way below board or CEO level comes up with these completely dishonest plans. Someone with a husband and kids and a dog all those other things, (maybe even a chimp!)

The ones where all plans are discounted, but we won't tell our existing customers they could save a packet...lets' just keep taking $10 per week from a million people and see how much "we" can make! Sadistic little turds that they are...they may have a mortgage, and they may look normal, but I have to tell you: They are definitely NOT just like me!

P (In business for 35 years believing the only quality control I need is that my customers won't come back if I dud them!)
:D :D

[echnidna]

Hey Zed are you after Ziggy's job?

[Cliff Rogers]

...8) bombasting, haranging and abusing staff (cliff rogers!!!) in call centres makes S.F.A difference - ....

Woah zed, don't get me wrong there... I don't get abusive at all, not even when I have taken a half a day off work to be at home for the man to come & fix my phone on a Friday arvo & when he doesn't show up I spend another 55 minutes on hold on a mobile & then when I did get a person on the phone they look at the job & say that the tech was out there at 3pm today & he says there was no one home so he tested the phone from the pit & couldn't find anything wrong with it so he closed the call. I spent another half an hour getting his name & making an official complain about him because I reckon he was lying & didn't show up at all 'cos it was a rainy Friday arvo & he wanted to go home early.
I don't get abusive, I just won't stand for bluff & bluster & I won't be fobbed off by people who give lame ass excuses for poor porformance for a crap system that we have to pay the same amount of dollars for as the poor bugas in the big city.
Zed, I hope you are not trying to make excuses for poor performance, 'cos I won't stand for it. :D
Zed, do you really thing that it is OK for some one who lives 100kms from a city but only 12 Kms from an exchange to have a problem with their telephone lines for 9 months? :rolleyes:
Zed, if it was your telephone, what would you do? :cool:
Mate, the reason that they know who I am is because I have a problem with my telephone & they can't (won't) fix it.
The problem is that the lines in the ground up our road are all old & buga'd.
The local techs all know this & they can't have them replaced 'cos there's no money left in Telstra for replacing existing infrastructure.
There's money for advertising & junkmail.
There's money for call centres to bug you into switching to them & to ring 9 times if you a week late paying your bill 'cos you were away for 3 weeks.
There's money to send a tech out to look at it & say, "yeah sorry, the lines are buga'd & need to be replaced but we can't do that for you, someone else does that" :mad:
They did replace some of it, about 1 km in the middle of a stuffed 5Km piece.
There joined the nice new stuff onto the old rotten stuff.
They also cut out a couple of redundant pits in doing so but then they had all the pairs crossed up & it took about 10 days to get everyone back on the right pair on the right number.
The local techs that had the job of sorting out the mess couldn't believe that the dopey bloke that they sent to do the splicing job could be that dopey.
We had our neighbour's number for more than a week & when they fixed ours, they just cut him off 'cos he was away for 3 months & couldn't log the fault. He had a bloke minding his place but because the phone wasn't working & he didn't have a mobile, he moved out.
When the neighbour came home & logged the fault to have it fixed, it took 2 weeks for them to get there & when they did get there it was a Friday morning... guess who's phone wasn't working when we got home from work Friday arvo. :rolleyes: No telephone & no internet all weekend 'cos they don't work on the weekend, not even to fix their own stuff ups. We didn't get our phone back til Tuesday arvo & it was so noisey that we couldn't get onto the intenet for almost a week.
The lines are still noisey & crackle (like a frying pan full of pancakes.)

Hey zed, do you work for Telstra?
Maybe you could come & fix it for me. :rolleyes:

I'll ask you again, Zed, if it was your telephone, what would you do? :cool:
There's no excuse you or your telco mates can make for poor performance.

[Zed]

HI,

I dont work for telstra, I have in the past.... let me tell you you should be grateful telstra is not the org it used to be when I was employed there.... they have come ahead in leaps and bounds... the whole industry has a way to go, as does the transport industry, the health industry, the IT industry, etc etc etc.....

this board regularly has members slag off the carriers so I thought I'd wanted to show the other side of the argument for a change.

If it was my phone I'd contact the carrier, progress the fault, escalate the fault to conclusion or the ombudsman as required. maybe you're just unlucky to have ****** service techs and ****** old cable! why not address this with your local pollie instead of flaming this board ?

I realise regional areas are sub standard. this is a know issue and is being addressed - for gods sake just look at the media and the election coverage this topic generates.

you're right slackness should not be excused, rather addressed.

[Peter R]

Yeah , I know what you mean, I have had a fault open on one phone number since March this year, that's why they know me. Every time they try to close it, I open it again. :mad:

Given all that, I stay with them 'cos I have to go to them to have the hardware fixed.... if I was with another carrier, I'd get nothing from them. :rolleyes:

This 'may' change now that Telstra Retail & Telstra Wholesale are to be split apart into 2 different entities but, in the end, the entities will still be owned by the same company & I bet that Telstra work will get better attention than opposition work. :cool:May change: It is a difficult situation, Telstra owns the lines and equipment and before contestability came in the government allowed them (and electricity suppliers) to raise their service charges until it made it almost impossible for other suppiers to compete on a level platform of charges. If Telstra services and equipment is allowed to go along with the general sale of Telstra they will dictate the market against what the ACCC is supposed to stand for.
Whatever happens the federal government will still get 10% of every dollar spent with Telstra, so Costello is laughing.

Now the result of my story is as follows: Kooee is acepting no liability however they are saying that I will not be billed for very much. This will be notified in January and I am told that that bill will be credited by some amount. I have to wait and see. As of now I am back with Telstra and Bigpond.
Be assured,Zed, Having worked at a front desk I am usually polite unless I feel that the operator is being condescending. I still think that Kooee acted in an improper manner in taking over my service under the conditions that I previously stated, as did the Communications Ombudsman's office.
Peter R.http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Cliff Rogers]

...I dont work for telstra, I have in the past....

...this board regularly has members slag off the carriers so I thought I'd wanted to show the other side of the argument for a change.

If it was my phone I'd contact the carrier, progress the fault, escalate the fault to conclusion... why not address this with your local pollie instead of flaming this board ?

I realise regional areas are sub standard. ...you're right slackness should not be excused, rather addressed.

Touched a nerve did I? :D

I have been escalating the fault, are you NOT paying attention?
That's why they know who I am & where I live. :rolleyes:

And, I'm NOT flaming this board, the topic is "Telstra Tales" & it in "Nothing to do with woodwork" I'm meerly adding my Telstra Tales.
If you had read my story carefully before you fell off your high horse you will notice that I was advocating staying with Bludy Telstra 'cos if you (or anyone else) have a hardware fault & you are not with Telstra, you have F'n buckleys of ever having it fixed.
I have a problem & I know that if I stay with Telstra & bug the spit out of them for long enough, they will eventually fix it. We, the neighbour & I that keep having our phone lines swapped over, have been on their case & the neighbour has taken it to the pollies 'cos he's been having trouble longer that I have. I'm still at the point where I have a Complaint & a Fault & a case officer.

Now I'm off to kick a few 'front desk' heads :cool:

PS. I bet you used to work for them when they were PMG.... ;)
Who knows what PMG stands for? :D

[johnmc]

snip
Now the result of my story is as follows: Kooee is acepting no liability however they are saying that I will not be billed for very much. This will be notified in January and I am told that that bill will be credited by some amount. I have to wait and see. As of now I am back with Telstra and Bigpond.


From what I gathered in your earlier posts, Kooee began charging you for a service for which you did not ask. Why then would you even contemplate accepting their bill even if it's not for very much ? Make a stand - don't pay.

[Toggy]

I'm with you Cliff.
I'm sick to death of reporting the faults on this line. Days on end with no internet access due to noise on line. Hard to hear on the phone because of noise. All because of cost cutting. Because most of the lines between here & the exchange have crapped themselves they have installed some Ram8 doohickey to use the only servicable lines. I know where I would like to ram it. Would you believe that the standard practice around here is the hang new bits of phone line off the farm fences. doesnt handle cows chewing it & burn offs too well. They finally put it underground and the service is worse.

Couple of months ago had a big lightening strike nearby. (Line was underground now) Fried the new crap8 and a lot of the exchange. Now every time it rains, off the air again. This is for a service I pay good money for. All I want is to have the service I pay for, which is a clear useable phone line. NOT a continuing fault. Some shineybum rang the other day wanting to know how wonderful the last repair job was. Crap was the answer, I was about to fault it again.
Some supertech rang the Mrs today to say they would be working on the line again tomorrow. She told him it seemed fairly good at the moment, but don't ask hubby when he gets kicked off the internet for about the fifth time. The tech tells her that from where he is (probably outer Gondwanaland) that he is monitering the call and the line is exceedingly poor, with constant multiple faults showing up. And this is from new equipment supposedly replaced several times.

And ZED; if you're going to fall out of your tree with this post, please try not to hurt yourself when you come a gutsa on landing. All most people want is fair service for fair pay.

Rant off.

Ken

[Cliff Rogers]

.... Having worked at a front desk I am usually polite unless I feel that the operator is being condescending....

Bludy hell, don't start me on the 'front desk' help/support/fault logging desk & call dispatch operators........ :mad:

This topic could end up being closed by an administrator. :D

One of the most useless 'occupations' (for want of a better word) in this country or on this planet is the bippy that most organisations pay to answer the phone, especially the phone number they hand out for people to ring if they have a problem, STRUTH.

And Zed, before you start on me again, I'm coming from BOTH sides on this one. :)

I'm a techo, have been for 27 almost 28 years now. For the last 26 of them, I've had a 'fault report/job card' handed/faxed/e-mailed to me.
I do get lucky sometimes when I actually answer the phone & take the fault report direct from a customer/client/user/whatever so I know the difference.

Anyway, I digress, back to the main grizzle/moan/whinge/complaint.
By & large, all the 'front desk' help/support/fault logging desk & call dispatch operators I ever met bar about 3 in the entire world are not worth feeding.
I do not know why the companies that employ these guppies do so.
It does zip/zilch nothing for their public image. :cool:

Of the 3 that were any good, one retired last year, one is now the head philosopher of new religious order in Nimbin & the other still answers the phone for a company in Melbourne that is having troubles paying it's bills & I fear he will be unemployed by Easter next year. :rolleyes:

INVARIABLY, when I contact the customer/client/user/whatever to say I have the job of looking at their delinquent piece of electronics, the details on the 'fault report/job card' are NOTHING like the problem. :(
I also do not believe how many times I find that a call has been passed to a Techo when the 'front desk' help/support/fault logging desk & call dispatch operator could have told the poor silly customer/client/user/whatever how to get it going again.
Sure, I could go out there, turn it up the right way or whatever & charge them for their own stupidity but it's NOT the right way to do business.

Now, by & large, I'm talking about the ones on the public helps desks, not the internal help desks, there is a higher percentage of intelligent life on an internal company help desk to that of the ones who talk to poor silly old Joe Public.
If you are a member of Joe Public & you happen to score the number of the 'Internal' guru, cherish it, it's like gold.

Anyway, enough now or I'll start on the 'message taking' ability of the average 'dumbass blond receptionist' next. :D

[journeyman Mick]

Zed,
you live in the largest city in Australia. I doubt you understand just how poor services are by comparison in regional areas. As you say, the problems are being addressed, that is the companies are spending a lot of money on PR and advertising and a little bit on repairs/maintenance. Everytime we do a controlled burn with the rural fire brigade I ring Telstra to let them know so that they know to expect some burnt cables. A friend of mine works for telstra in the office that has all the cable plans, but his plans don't show any exposed or aerial cables because they don't "exist". Of course every time there's a fire or lightning strike consumers discover otherwise. Likewise, Ergon has a totally crappy network around here, we had two fires about 500 metres from my place on wednesday caused by fallen lines. They won't actually fix things properly, just repair stuff when it falls down. The unwritten policy is to just keep patching it up and hope that it gets wiped out by a bushfire or cyclone so that they get government money to upgrade it.

Mick

[barnsey]

Hmmm - very heated here aren't we :confused:

Lets face it if we encountered a service organisation serving the likes of this forum we would collectively put them to the wall. ;)

Not so easy in this situation. Amcor management have now been asked to answer charges of collusion - funny that - those in the industry have been putting up with it for years. :confused:

Now I'm not sure how long memories are but before the telco freedom I moved house. I rang the gas co - they did it! I rang the electric co - they did it!! Rang Teltra or at least their forebears - sorry you'll have to put it in writing :mad: :confused:

Now I don't care what argument you want to put up - telco services in this country are terrible :mad: There's a theme through this whole thread that agrees with that sentiment yet there's a lot saying don't move from Telstra it's even worse :rolleyes: Well let's just stick with something below mediocrity - that makes good sense :cool:

The competition is forced into using a network that was terrible from the start and the ones who created it are the ones still administering it - ask an Optus employee what they think :o

Don't worry - little Johnny is going to sell the whole lot to the public and let them bear the brunt of 50 years and blame the new owners :eek: Ask the family investors of the Telstra floats what they think of their investment :eek:

Still there is a record of success there - look how the number of drop outs on your mobile has reduced :rolleyes:

Not sure of the remedy and I sincerely feel sorry for the customer service people but start aiming the criticism where it is deserved I say ;)

That soap box comes out and gets me everytime :rolleyes:

FWIW

Jamie

PS Sorry Shane it was late :D Took me nearly an hour to wade through it all and it had me all fired up :o

[Barry_White]

This is my Telstra tale.

I live 18klms from the exchange and when I first moved here 25 years ago from Sydney and applied for a phone they told me there were no lines available. All the lines where then overhead on poles and once the phone line crossed your boundry fence the people here had to maintain their own phone lines and if you complained about a fault and it was on your property you paid.

I pestered them for six months for a phone and only because of Telstra putting in the microwave link between Tamworth and Armidale they were able to provide a line by utilising the old overland trunk lines.

After about five years they came through with a D9 bulldozer and buried the lines underground and put elevated joints about every 250 to 500 metres which where more suseptable to lightening strikes and in the storm season we would be calling them out after every storm but that was in the days when they had techs to burn and they would be out the next day.

After the first sell off of Telstra that was when you then had ring these call centres and you had to talk to a dumb blonde;) (Just kidding). Before that you just rang your local centre whereas now when you ring up you don't know where they are. Usually they are on the other side of the country.

But things have slowly deteriated since then. This is mainly because so many where offered redundencys and there just isn't the staff to service the areas and some of these guys might have to travel up to 150km in a day from one job to another and if you are lucky you might get an appointment in a fortnight.

You could call this fortunate or unfortunate but about 2 years a go I had a couple of mini strokes and by being fortunate I am on Telstras Medical Priority List.

What does this mean. If you have a fault it usually means that it will be attended to within 12 hours and a maximum of 24 hours including Saturdays and Sundays.

Because I put ISDN on for the Internet just over 12 months ago you ring a different number for faults and it means you don't hang on waiting. You get to talk to an intelligent person within about 2 minutes and because when my phone number pops up on their computer screen it says "MEDICAL ALERT" and they say we will put you through to the medical alert team and when they say JUMP every one says how high.

Since I put the ISDN on, because of storms and lightening strikes I have had about 15 callouts and had the ISDN Modem replaced seven times all at their expense.

They tell me ISDN is not much good over 15 km and as I am 18 km from the exchange they have had to put in a relay half way to regenerate the sine wave and of course this has been zapped a couple of times.

They suggested to me "Why not put on 2 way satelite for the internet". I said you want too much money for it. They said "No you can put it on for $129.00 and $69.00 a month with the HiBis Subsidy"

This will give me a 500m download/upload at 256k and 15c a meg over the 500m. As I only average about 400meg a month. So that happens in January.

As far as changing Telcos I really think out in the bush for what little you would save leaving Telstra would not be worth the hassels because I have heard so many war stories from friends that have changed and i always reckon the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know.

Well thats my Telstra tale for what its worth.

[barnsey]

Barry,

I like your logic and at least, at the moment anyway, Telstra and the government are sensitive to the remote ones because ..... not going there :rolleyes:

But as is mentioned earlier in the thread, Telstra have this policy of telling anyone as little as possible. Somewhere, here I'm sure, was a tale of someone going to broadband and their usage went up significantly and they had a bill bigger than Clinton. :eek:

You have probably done your research ;) - motto is don't trust 'em :confused:

Jamie

[echnidna]

Who knows what PMG stands for?
__________________
Catchya,
Cliff

It usta be Paddy McGinty

[Zed]

post master general.

cliff, I aint that old mate. :D

[Barry_White]

I used to be a Telegram Boy working for the Post Master General.

Who knows what a Telegram is.

[jackiew]

someone once sent me a telegram and I'm not THAT old!!!

Is anyone else having problem with bigpond's revamped webmail. I've gone from being able to read my mail ( and sort through the copious amounts of spam they let through because I won't pay for their filter) fairly easily to 9 times out of 10 not being able to even see whether I've got mail - and then when I can see it I can't open it or delete it or even swap from one page of mail ( down from 20 per page to 10 ) to the next. Some improvement - NOT.

It was annoyed enough when they moved the webmail link from the main page and you had to scroll through a menu to get at it ... this is even more of a retrograde step.

why do they need to tinker with these things. I just want to read my mail - I don't want all the flash bits they want to provide me with.

[ozwinner]

Im with Bizmail, I get no spam and no viruses.

I get notification the viruses have been deleted.
All in the price of the deal, which is $59 per month for 8 gig, no uploads.

Al :D

[Peter R]

Who knows what PMG stands for?
__________________
Catchya,
Cliff

It usta be Paddy McGinty

Parramatta Monkey Gang

Peter R.http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon7.gif

[journeyman Mick]

PMG = Pig's Meat & Gravy,
at least that's what a bloke who worked for them for ever told me!

Mick

[Toggy]

Well; the technician spent the day working on the line. Impressed he was not with all the shoddy patchups by previous workers. Replaced all the fancy new gear (which was faulty) then found faults in pits which had been filled with gel (this I think is to waterproof the joins; but destroys the plastic coating on the wire. Great fix eh.) Then finds major problems at the exchange which has not been properly updated to take the new equipment. Apparently work starts tomorrow to revamp the exchange.

Finally it appears that things may be done properly. This is the service that we pay for and should accept no less. It is obvious that with the correct type of person the job can be done properly.

Because of so many complaints; the fault response has been "upgraded" and I can expect a call on a regular basis (probably until the sale) to see that the service is adequate. If not; ring the direct line and bypass the complaints desk and report the fault that way.

The service appears to be quicker tonight & has only dropped out once which is probably due to the approaching storms.

Ken

[Cliff Rogers]

Who knows what PMG stands for?


post master general.

cliff, I aint that old mate. :D

nuh, it's Pigs, Monkeys, & Goats.... :D

I just thought you might have been the bloke in the middle there but if you aren't that old, I guess that lets you off the hook.

The cable markers & pit covers up our road still say PMG.

At least the techs that come out our way aren't still driving around in Red Combis. :rolleyes:

[adrian]

The phone service from Telstra is brilliant these days. When I was a trainee in the PMG we were allowed to have a 2% failure rate before the 'Network Police' would start sending nasty letters to you. Since I left Telstra in 1998 I have only had one call that didn't return a tone of any kind after dialling. That was a common occurence in the old electro-mechanical days.
The people I have a problem with are the ones who answer email queries at Bigpond.
If you want to test them just send them an email with 2 very specific questions. The first reply you get might answer the first question but invariably the other will be ignored.
I have the cheap broadband service and on a 24 month contract so I asked them if I could upgrade to a 12 month contract on a better service and whether I had to pay for any additional installation costs. The website for the upgrade had a 12 month option and said I would have to pay nearly $200 for installation. So what is their answer ......."go to the website."
I send back an email saying that they didn't answer my question because the website gives me the 12 month option blah, blah.
So they answer the first question and completely ignore the second question about install costs. So I email them again and this time I inform them that I worked for Telstra for thirty years and trained and worked with one of the present Directors and that I would email him and ask him if he knew why his staff couldn't answer the email.
Next email I get "We're sorry for the misunderstanding......."
Telstra's customer Service sucked in the sixties and seventies, was brilliant in the eighties and has reached rock bottom now that shareholder value rules. Maybe when they are fully privatised......???

[adrian]

All most people want is fair service for fair pay.

Rant off.

Ken

I'm not surprised that you are peeved. Telstra should should stop burning off, sending their cows to chew the cable and they should definitely stop causing lightning strikes.

[Toggy]

Well; I won't be too sarcastic in reply.

My point is; that if they had of done the job properly in the beginning; no cow nor fire problem.

lightening is a different matter. Obviously repairs for this type of damage is catered for in their pricing.

The point is; I pay top dollar for the service, so expect a top service.

I suppose you are prepared to pay big money for substandard food (rotten meat for instance) Yeah; I bet. Pigs might fly too ( and I am not talking about the police helicopter).

Ken