Telstra - why cant we blow them up?

[Dave]

Guys,

A warning for those with Telstra Accounts with an old plan

I have been with Telstra for over 8 years.
Same phone numbers.
Same plan for 3 years.
Wireless Broadband for 6 years.
These two services linked to same bill.
Automatic payment through my on-line account for payment from my credit card.

I get a phone call from Credit Management this morning.
Seems I owe them $102.82 from my old account. wtf

I tell them I dont have an OLD account.

It seems that Telstra have installed a NEW billing system.
My OLD plan is not able to be transfered over to the NEW system and therefore remains on the OLD system for billing.

The NEW system can not include the bill for the OLD plan, but its a NEW system...?????wtf

Finally after half an hour on the phone and some total confusion by a lady who English is not her first language, it finally gets sorted.

Of course to her, I am the bad guy for not paying my bill.
Its never been overdue, especially with the auto payment on line!!!

Now, with the NEW system, my Broadband account is auto paid on line, but I have to now receive a paper bill and then log in and manually pay my OLD bill.

The NEW system....?????wtf

Why can't they get it right? We had to invent technology to get a man on the moon way back when, now they cant even integrate plans into a coomputer system.

So... my advice is, if you are

with telstra
have an older plan
have autopayment

double check your accounts so you dont get behind or you will receive a nasty phone call BLAMING you for not paying the bill. Wouldnt it be customer service to advise of the change to a NEW system?

Telstra is probably a good reason why C4 is not sold in Woolworths....

NEW system my (__!__)

[Pirate Pete]

& here was I thinking that it would be magic when we go to the new ADSL2 plan next month with twice the download limit & go from a 1500/256 plan to 20000/1000 plan

[bushbeachboy]

Thanks Pete,
I'm in that situation. I'll be checking it out pronto.

One of the other things that are pissing me off about Telstra at the moment is that my wireless FRAUDband is running downloads at around 8kb/s. It's bloody nearly impossible to look at anything on the net.

[Doug]

"Telstra is probably a good reason why C4 is not sold in Woolworths...."

Well, is there anyplace I CAN buy it? Cos I'm going to blow them up too. My superduper long range supersensitive Telstra clunker (with an aerial, f'Gawd's sake!) which I had to buy last year when we moved to a new house in the middle of Noosa but where 3G is so faint that you have to stand in the window, on one leg, holding yer lips just right......pause for a big breath........packed up. It won't speak to the computer never mind anyone else. The makers said it's bust so take it back to the Telstra shop. I did, thinking they'd give me a new one. No - they send it off so that someone can make sure it's bust. This will take up to SIX weeks, and if it turns out to be damaged or water damaged then I pay them $50 to be told this!

Dave, Telstra's old billing system was world famous for being totally useless. Apparently it was used as an example in computer software classes around the world. Only in Australia!

[Giffo]

Dave ,I am ready to go postal with Telstra myself.I applied to get a new phone service connected to our new property in Oct 2009 ,the line has been installed into our dwelling and out to the pit on the footpath, 2 weeks prior to Christmas.Still waiting for a phone and won't have one until end of Feb 2010 so they say (that's 5 monthswtf).The property next to us ,(30 metres away) has a phone and a pit on the footpath, so it is not like they have to run things for a miles.Anyway I have sent an email yesterday to the Telecommunications Ombudsman, and had a whinge.Then today I get a call on the mobile from a girl from Telstra, to see how my Telstra service is going(agro)(agro)(agro) I then let her have it, politely though.See you in the chat tonight.

(Ties note to leg of pigeon, and tosses into air in a Northerly direction)

[Doug]

Doug (http://www.polyboatowners.com/2010/vb/member.php?u=17) http://www.polyboatowners.com/2010/vb/images/statusicon/user_online.gif
Post Whore

I DEMAND to know who gave me that post-nominal. While I might grudgingly accept "harlot", "whore" is common and ungentlemanlike.

Management, do something about it before I bring the lawyers in.

[BarryJ]

I don't know who gave you the initial "salutation" Doug but I have edited it as per your instruction.:)

[Pirate Pete]

It reminds me of when we signed up for ISDN only to find out ASDL was on its way & I would have to wait 2 years to change off the ISDN once it was connected. I cancelled the order to connect ISDN before it was connected so we could wait for the ADSL to be fitted & they cut our phone line off. Miss Jane talked to them for about 2 hours on the mobile & they kept telling her it would be a week to reconnect our phone . . . . . . . . . . . she reminded them of their contract to supply us with a phone line as Cate has a rare medical condition & hey presto it was back on before she could get off the mobile. . . . . . . wtf wtf

[chin]

Don't you just love big faceless corporations...(agro)
I had an unpleasant experience with our local electricity supplier, who fried some of our appliances during an "event", to which they admitted.
After I (and 3 of my neighbors) made a complaint to the ombudsman, the bottom line was that according to the terms of their contract with the NSW Govt. they were not liable for the damage.
The working man cops it in the neck again. doh

[BigFella]

For years, decades we have been complaining about the service or lack there of for Telstra or telecom or what ever they were called when you had hassles with them?doh
I dont think its a case of them not getting the message, I recon its more the case of they just dont give a damn, they have the attitude that they have the service WE need?:eek:
Until someone brings a service to rival that of Telstra we will all be treated like numbers rather then customers!
After-all thats all we are to Telstra!
Not customers, numbers on a screen somewhere in "faroutpackaindia" no doubt!

All the other service providers claim to match telstra's coverage?
To date some can match and even better telstra's coverage, or be it in small patches! No alternate service provider can match telstra's broad coverage!

Here in lemon tree passage, we have a bloody huge repeater thingy on the hill, a telstra tower by any other name and yet we still have to balance on one leg, groin pointed to the ceiling to get any consistent serviceability with our mobile phones?wtf

Now the service provider known as "3" along with Optus Virgin and many more have exceptional reception in and around town!
Fantastic so long as you don't want coverage 6k's out of the town limit!laugh1
These alternate service providers lease part of the tower off Telstra, so why cant they get it right?

[Pirate Pete]

Thats the problem with all these utilities. Once upon a time we owned all these things we now call the necessities in life but some idiot decided we had to have "Competition in the Market Place" so we all pay more for less service as they try to cut each others throats to rip more money out of all of us. So they can pay their Share Holders a good dividend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I dont know about most on here but I dont have any "Spare" money to buy shares to get that dividend. . . . . . . . . . .

[Andy]

August last year my credit card expired, got an overdue notice from telstra saying bill was overdue, ok fair enough, my problem. I called them up to get the automatic payments moved over to the new card. After 15 minutes of arguing with a woman at an indian call centre telling her it was telstra that debits my credit card, not the bank I ended up hanging up on her. Called back and got a woman in melbourne, problem solved in 2 minutes.

Just before chrismas I get a call from telstra saying I owe $1000 odd and if I dont pay they are going to cut me off!! Turns out that the automatic payments are not automatic if you start them with outsanding bills. So my 1 month overdue became 6 months overdue, + overdue fees. Idiots. I paid up straight awat, and they gave me back the overdue fees, but still a pain in the rectum.

[Giffo]

It gets better,I just got an overdue notice from Telstra for a service I do not have.And it says if I do not pay they will suspend the service (that I don't have )doh

[BigFella]

Go figure!pointlaugh

[Pirate Pete]

It gets better,I just got an overdue notice from Telstra for a service I do not have.And it says if I do not pay they will suspend the service (that I don't have )doh

LOL LOL LOL

[Dave]

I got a cheque from Queensland Transport for the cancellation of the rego on the Tri.

It was for $0.02 wtf

Being in the Q govt and having a govt purchasing authority with either a purchase order or a credit card, we are continuously harrassed to use the CC rather than the purchase order. We pay $5 monthly processing fee for the card. The purchase order cost $130 each to process.. so we save govt (read public money).

So when you consider the amount of money it would take to produce my refund, cost of printing, paper, postage, wages to produce a 2 cent cheque... ya gotta wonder.

I was thinking of sending it to the local poli with a little note saying wtf is this serious?

Of course I would send it in departmental envelope and postage... obviously they can afford it... well Joe Public can..doh

[Pirate Pete]

How did they workout that they owed you 2c Dave.

Its worth framing. . . . . . . . . . .

Then they will post you out some more letters telling you to cash the cheque.

What about if you did bank it cos you cant get 2c out now any way. . . . . . . do they charge you a fee to process the cheque.

[Giffo]

Well I was whinging earlier in the post about my phone, or lack thereof.Well Telstra finally have my phone connected, 3 days ahead of their date stated,well done fellas2thumbsup.5 months for a land line to be installed,you can't complain about the service, as there is none !

[bugger]

Mate you should try down here at Shoalhaven Heads, we are behind Mount Coolangatta and if you were on a wireless system you have go outside the house for some sort of reception and if the wind blows well bad luck you lose all coverage. We were on wireless but had to change to land line and that took 3 hours to set up with Dodo who uses Optus's line .We were with Optus before we moved down here but were told that Optus doesn't use Telstra's line down here for new customers hence the the change to Dodo. I suppose that if I spoke Malaysian I would have been connected a bit earlier but I don't therfore it took me bloody 3 hours to get connected and God help me when the ADSL drops out .I remember when you had a problem with your phone you spoke to someone who actually spoke english , not these days good luck with those Telcos.
See ya

[Dave]

Congrats Giffo.... lol @bugger, I got the Taco Telstra operator today
They still havent sorted out the problem but F**K em, they can sort it themselves or cut me off I dont care any more