Telstra

[weairy]

/startrage

Ok, I'm sure there's other people out there with the similar issue, so I'm going to vent my frustration.

For anyone who's ever had dealings with Telstra, I'm sure you know, they're possible the most useless phone/internet service provider known to mankind.

We converted our home internet into a business plan about 18 months ago. Thought it was all good. Until we got the bill the past quarter. $1100 for 3 months of internet. Turns out they told us we had a 100gb cap that was actually 30gb. And they never sent us one notification of it capping.

When we asked Telstra about this, we got passed to a dozen different nationalities and call centres from Asia to India and back. Turns out they've been charging us by a plan they don't even have on their systems any more. 30gb a month for $110. Which is outrageously expensive.

And so we tried to convert the plan to a 200gb cap for $80 a month. But it turns out Telstra have the internet registered in a business that we had sold about 9 years ago. Which they failed to tell us. And never let us know for a good 3 weeks.

And to top it all off, we're paying for a terribly unreliable service. Even the slightest amount of load on the web is causing it to disconnect. Not good for a gamer when you're being disconnected every 5-15 minutes.

In summary, Telstra would have to be the worst service and worst ISP I've ever come across.

/end rage

[Adamz Ghia]

Re- disconnecting
Ring and ask for a new modem. We had the same issue, we rang and they sent us a new modem and we've never had an issue since.

[weairy]

Originally Posted by Adamz Ghia

Re- disconnecting
Ring and ask for a new modem. We had the same issue, we rang and they sent us a new modem and we've never had an issue since.

Accounts or Tech Support? I've always thought these 2Wire modems were rubbish.

[Adamz Ghia]

Originally Posted by weairy

Accounts or Tech Support? I've always thought these 2Wire modems were rubbish.

Tech. If you do ring them, make sure you stress you are not paying for the new modem as it's an issue with their equipment, not yours, they tried to charge us for ours at first...

[Keepleft]

Use Telstra 3G on iPad, read that 4G in some city locations is even much faster! (Current iPhones to 4S can't use 4G).

Fixed Net; was with Internode for years, but with ClubTelco now, pay $30 for 10gig at one address (you can buy data blocks if needed, cheap) and $50 unlimited. Each plan to fastest ADSL2 speed available.

[xisled]

Ombudsman straight away.

[Dave R]

Totally agree, they are useless. We're on a 200gb plan. For the past 3 months, every time it reaches 25gb they slow us to 56k for no reason, they even send automated emails in advance to let me know they are slowing down my 200gb plan after only 25gb.. major glitch. I ring them up, wait literally hours getting shuffled around different foreign call centres where everyone is reading a script and nobody has a clue.. then some moron in the Philippines tries blaming my computer. I insisted it was on Telstra's end and that it's happened for the last 2 months.. and he intentionally hangs up on me, the call went straight to their end-of-call customer service survey ironically. Can you believe that?! If he wasn't in a hell hole on a different continent I would have gone to the call centre and taught the ***** some manners. I had to ring up again and start all over again.. I was fuming, but hey, he's in a different country so he doesn't care.

As of next week Telstra is gone from home phone and internet. Never dealing with them ever again. As above, ombudsman!!! Then get rid of the suckers.

[1970XW351]

I had problems with them a few years ago where they dropped their awesome bundled package (the only reason I switched to them) without telling me and then put me on seperate internet and phone plans. They kept sending me the phone bill, but the largepuddle account never came... Eventually they cut me off and said I owed in the region of $600... After hours of stuffing around on hold with them I called the telecommunications ombudsman who put through to telstra's "english as a first language speaking division" and it was all sweet within a couple hours... Bill waived, Bundles of credit and a better bundle deal as well
Therefore, get straight onto the ombudsman as they have the power to get things done, quickly!

Cheers, Tony

[Bossxr8]

Hellstra strikes again.

[uranium_death]

At least Telstra's telecommunications network is decent...
I'm with Three where I have no reception at home, and when I call them, I get crappy service from an Indian call centre that does not understand what the hell I am calling about, and I get passed around.

[weairy]

I might have to go to the ombudsman. I tried to talk to the local telstra dealer here and he was about as handy as 'John from Melbourne' who has an asian accent in tech support. Its just the endless calling and getting the 'we'll be back to you in 72 hours' response, to which out of 2 seperate official customer complaints and about 8 hours bashing my head against the desk on hold, have never been replied to.

[onfire]

I know Dodo take a bad rap for a lot of stuff like this, but the only real problem I had was billing, when my usage was being double counted. One email, a phone call from an Indian rep, explained to him the problem and was convincing enough that he believed I wasn't at fault and bam! the guy had it fixed within 2 days.

[Mickxr8]

Can so buy into this fight
Started a thread ages ago about my INTENSE dislike for tel$tra and there total disregard for there customers, be it customer support/billing/enquirys/help of any sort unless you have a spare couple of days on your hands to be put on hold/transferred/cutoff mid chat etc.
People need to start voicing there opinions more often, be it via the ombudsman/publicaly or just plain take your business elsewhere ?..
If you shout loud enough and for long enough even numptys in ivory towers might listen ?
( If the shareholders dont get em 1st )

[DJR-351]

If maximum coverage is a requirement then unfortunately Telstra is the only way to go, just gotta take the good with the bad.......

[Reaper8]

the only fault i have with telsta is there oversea's sales and tech support if thats what you can call it they just read it off the computer screen and click yes or no as you answer then wait for the next question to come up on the screen. im on the 100gig plan for $150 a month that includes my phone calls ( wife use's more than that just ringin mobiles) have had no conection problems good download speed all the way upto the 100gig. both mobiles are with them, they have the best coverage with mobiles.

[mrghia]

I haven't had a issue with them yet (touch wood). We are on a 200gb Internet with a basic home phone set up and it's costing us $88 per month.
But Vodafone is a different story I can't stand using them pay $59 per month for a mobile cap that bearly gets coverage I wish they would actually improve there coverage before advertising they are.

[GT 160]

We were with Big Puddle for years as they were the only one in my area that provided ADSL2 at the time.

Switched to Internode just over 12 mths ago and i can honestly say i've never had a problem.

Can't see myself using anyone else.

[Bundy]

Yup Internode for me too, home phone, internet, nodephone and wireless when out at work. One bill, aussie tech support, no mess.

[Uncle Niceguy]

u know this situation really sucks especially like me where telstra is all that is on offer.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Ive had no end of drama with them over the last 3 years, sadly however having a small business where we travel in rural areas means we need coverage on the mobiles, therefore we continue to use them.

The thing that ***** me about these telcos is they reduce their rates on plans but do not adjust customers prices.. eg. one of my friends was paying $129 for a 10gb wireless plan, his contract was up and they continued to charge him that while at the same time they are offering a better plan (15gb) for only $79 a month. Instead of just changing him to that plan once the contract was up in good faith they just leave him on the dearer one, lucky for him I knew about this scam and changed it for him online.

So I warn any Tesltra bigpond users, make sure the plan your on is current, as they are updating them on a regular basis / discounting them.

[TheSneakiness]

We just FINALLY got rid of Vodafail and signed all our business over to Telstra because we were sick of the constant dropouts, poor coverage and crap branded hardware.

Got a ripper deal at the moment (including cable broadband) however our only gripe has been with the TBox we got. Our first one (new from store mind you) the antenna in port was bent flat so no cord could go in and under the 10 day cooling off period they were supposed to replace in store but put us onto TBox support, to which ended up in the person who told us to ring them getting a formal warning for poor customer service, a new TBox and their current sign up deal of $200 credit for BigPond movies (which we signed up to our deal previous to the offer happening the next month)

The other issue was with porting mobile numbers but that was mostly Vodafail's fault.

[weairy]

I'v ehad other dealings with them than whats mentioned at the top. I personally signed up to telstra when living in Kangaroo Flat (south Bendigo) because it was either that or nothing. Moved into the house and found out net wasnt connected. Gave it a couple of days. Nothing. And after 2 weeks of phone calls to tech support and two seperate technician visits we finally found out they'd connected it to the wrong number. They still sent me a bill for the first month and I called the billing department, told me they'd get rid of it. 3 months later I go to close a bank account and it was $90 in debit. They'd direct debited the bill without my consent. Which is illegal. Still fighting that one.

[flappist]

Just so it is clear to all.

Telstra Business and Bigpond are completely different groups and actually compete against each other (like Ford and FPV or Holden and HSV).

Bigpond is aimed at Private/SOHO with a service level to suit.
Telstra Business is commercial with a much higher service level.
Outside the major cities almost everything is Telstra Wholesale with someone else billing you.

There is always lost of raning and raving by the telstra haters but if they suddenly turned off all their network all of the also rans that you cheer over would suddelnly fall in a big heap.

I have used Telstra commercial/business for decades and have had very few problems either billing or technical and those I have had were always solved quickly.

Bigpond on the other hand is the low end product so you get what you pay for. And seriously, if you were being paid above the award would you ring your boss and tell them to lower your wages?

[Bent8]

Originally Posted by flappist

Just so it is clear to all.

Telstra Business and Bigpond are completely different groups and actually compete against each other (like Ford and FPV or Holden and HSV).

Bigpond is aimed at Private/SOHO with a service level to suit.
Telstra Business is commercial with a much higher service level.
Outside the major cities almost everything is Telstra Wholesale with someone else billing you.

That sounds about right, TEG is currently miles ahead of TB but they also have a much smaller customer base so it's not really a fair fight.

The CVA scores are improving according to Telstra's stats but the stories I'm reading here don't sound good at all.

[mondo_broady]

i have been vehemently anti-telstra for years after being ripped off a few times. i live in an area where telstra hold a monopoly on ADSL2+

i am with a different provider for phone & internet. it's a fantastic deal, but can only have ADSL (8meg)

i got cold canvassed by telstra offering me a very similar deal but with ADSL2+ i was reluctant, but when told there was a 10 day cooling off period before anything would happen and that i could change my mind in that time, i decided to do it.

one day later, a telstra rep rang to say they couldn't provide ADSL2+ to my address. i told them in that case i was not going to go ahead with the deal as it was no different to what i was already on.

skip forward one month. i get my internet bill from my provider. it's significantly less than usual. i phone to query this because i am suspicious of telstra. sure enough, despite telling me that nothing would happen during the cooling off period and me cancelling the contract, telstra went ahead and changed my home phone over anyway!!

several (increasingly angry) phonecalls later they inform me they want to charge me for having it connected and again for getting it disconnected. i took it to the highest level of supervisor i could and eventually after about 4 months of sending me invoices and me threatening to take it to the ombudsman, they finally stopped trying to bill me. by contrast, my current provider waived the reconnection fee straight away because they could see it was telstra's stuff up in the first place.

as for the drop outs. i was getting that and it turned out to be a faulty lightning protection MOV in the junction box on the outside of my house where the lines hook in from the street. the tech who diagnosed it and fixed it for me said it was a common thing. i'd been complaining about it for months and had even bought a new router/modem as they convinced me my old one was the problem...

[flappist]

Originally Posted by mondo_broady

i have been vehemently anti-telstra for years after being ripped off a few times. i live in an area where telstra hold a monopoly on ADSL2+

i am with a different provider for phone & internet. it's a fantastic deal, but can only have ADSL (8meg)

i got cold canvassed by telstra offering me a very similar deal but with ADSL2+ i was reluctant, but when told there was a 10 day cooling off period before anything would happen and that i could change my mind in that time, i decided to do it.

one day later, a telstra rep rang to say they couldn't provide ADSL2+ to my address. i told them in that case i was not going to go ahead with the deal as it was no different to what i was already on.

skip forward one month. i get my internet bill from my provider. it's significantly less than usual. i phone to query this because i am suspicious of telstra. sure enough, despite telling me that nothing would happen during the cooling off period and me cancelling the contract, telstra went ahead and changed my home phone over anyway!!

several (increasingly angry) phonecalls later they inform me they want to charge me for having it connected and again for getting it disconnected. i took it to the highest level of supervisor i could and eventually after about 4 months of sending me invoices and me threatening to take it to the ombudsman, they finally stopped trying to bill me. by contrast, my current provider waived the reconnection fee straight away because they could see it was telstra's stuff up in the first place.

as for the drop outs. i was getting that and it turned out to be a faulty lightning protection MOV in the junction box on the outside of my house where the lines hook in from the street. the tech who diagnosed it and fixed it for me said it was a common thing. i'd been complaining about it for months and had even bought a new router/modem as they convinced me my old one was the problem...

Telstra don't cold call.

You got sucked in by a dealer pretending to be Telstra and the grief you got was because the salesperson and the dealer lose their commission if you back out.

This is the same as a salesman at a Ford dealership signs you up for a car that Ford can't supply so you then abuse and blame Ford when it was the sales guy and the dealer you were your problem.

In future if anyone gets a cold call from someone claiming to be from Telstra ask them for their "C" number.
If they do not know what that is or refuse to give it to you then they are not a Telstra employee.
A "C" number starts with the letter C or D and has 6 digits.

[XR6_661]

Telstra. Liars and bastards.

I signed up for their wireless 3G internet the start of the year…

Couldn’t get it to work at mine, in a really bad blackspot.

Anyway, cue probably no less than 10 phone calls to them over the next 2 months…EACH TIME, cancelling the service and them sending out a package to return the wireless gateway.

Bills kept coming in. And Id ring each time…explain I’m not paying and to look through their records and they’d see I never actually connected. Not once.

Never got a package to send the modem back. Service was eventually cancelled. Just had to pay $420.65 to the bastards for a service I never used.

[LOWBA6]

I've never had any big problems with telstra, when i first connected my mobile through them i had a couple of issues with billing but a simple phone call and it all got sorted out.

Though i have had to deal with them for family members phones & internet and its been nothing but a hassle everytime!

As far as internet goes, i recomend Internode to everyone i know. Have had to set up a few connections now and its been very simple and easy everytime!

[TheSneakiness]

Just so everyone also knows there are still Telstra call centres in Australia too. How do I know?

My wife worked for one on the Gold Coast.

Also what flappist said re: C & D numbers is true, if you ask they are obliged to give it to you. If they don't they get a big wrap round the knuckles.

I had a D number myself... buggered if I can remember what it was...

[kaniSS]

INform the Ombudsman and watch Tel$ra become a little lap dog.