Troubles with Telstra

[Grumpy John]

Generally I am very happy with the service I receive from Telstra, that is until there is an administrative issue.
A little history:
Back in December last year we went in to the local Telstra shop to try and get a better deal on our phones/internet. The guy in the store was very helpful and put a good deal together for us. Only problem was that we had to drop the business plan we were on and go on a residential plan. This involved us having to get new phone numbers, 2 mobile and 1 fixed line, plus the internet deal changed too requiring a new modem. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we get our new landline number, however we now have no internet. I rang Telstra to find out why and apparently the phone and internet connection departments are two totally different entities and do not coordinate connections. I was advised that it would be at least 2 weeks before we had internet, not happy Jan. We went in to the Telstra shop and spoke to the manager who was very helpful and gave us a loaner wireless broadband of 50G/Mnth for free. Of course we had to fill out a contract. We returned the loaner unit mid January and got the manager to sign the contract that the unit had been returned to the store.

Fast forward to the end of January when the bill comes in there is a charge on it for $150 for the wireless broadband. Rang the Philippines and explained the situation to the person on the other end of the phone and I was assured that the charge will be credited on the next bill. I will point out that we have most of our bills set up as direct debit as we travel quite a bit and are not always home to collect the mail and pay bills in person.
February bill comes in with another $150 charge for the wireless broadband plus $15 charge for late payment. Apparently there weren't enough funds to cover the bill. There were enough funds if the erroneous $150 had not been charged. Rang the Philippines again explaining the situation telling them they now owed me $315.

The March bill comes in with another $150 charge on it (this will put me $465 in credit) this time I contact the TIO and explained the situation to them.

Today I received a call from the Philippines saying we will be credited the $315 on the next bill. I asked for an amended bill to be sent so that I could see the credit had been applied before the next direct debit went through. I was told this was not possible, but an email confirming the credit would be sent.

On checking my emails this afternoon I see four emails from Telstra:
At 2:04 PM "Just letting you know we’ve applied a credit to your account for the amount of $228.387 on 06/03/2017. To avoid a late payment fee, please pay your total bill minus the $228.387 credit by the due date"

At 2:07 PM "Just letting you know we’ve applied a credit to your account for the amount of $150.000 on 06/03/2017. To avoid a late payment fee, please pay your total bill minus the $150.000 credit by the due date."



At 2:09 PM "Just letting you know we’ve applied a credit to your account for the amount of $101.610 on 06/03/2017. To avoid a late payment fee, please pay your total bill minus the $101.610 credit by the due date."

At 2:59 PM "Just letting you know we’ve applied a credit to your account for the amount of $1809.700 on 06/03/2017. To avoid a late payment fee, please pay your total bill minus the $1809.700 credit by the due date."

It will be interesting to see which of these credits will be applied, maybe all of them.

When this gets sorted I'm going to start asking when they are going to apply my aged pension discount, which I applied for back in December.

As I said at the start of this post I don't have a problem with Telstra's service, nor the team in the Telstra store, but in the behemoth that is Telstra the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I take that back, the left hand doesn't even know that the right hand exists.

[A Duke]

Hi,
When trying to to sort the account of my late father in law we were billed $15 late payment on a $3.60 credit bill ie. $15.00 - $3.60.
They take some beating.
Regards

[Grumpy John]

I've just got off the phone from Telstra. They rang to explain the credit amounts in the four emails I received this afternoon.
The credits in the first 3 emails add up to $480, being 3 x $150 + $15. That is the wireless broadband and late payment taken care of, the remaining $15 I'm not sure about as my Filipino is not strong :roll:. The $1809.70 credit is for the disconnection of the 50G wireless broadband package.
After they explained the emails they asked if the complaint was now closed, I told them the matter would be closed when I saw a bill with the credits applied. they were not happy to hear that, I explained that I'd been told 3 times that the problem was sorted and I was not going to believe it till I saw the next bill. I guess I'll know when my bank balance does not change on the due date. My current bill is for $457.10, including the disputed $150, my next bill should be in credit for $22.90
They were a bit upset that I didn't believe the credits had been applied. I asked why I had to go to the TIO to get this resolved, there was about 30 seconds of complete silence (I wasn't going to speak first) before I got a big apology for my inconvenience. I said it wasn't personal, I was just sick of the incompetence of the Telstra billing department and a company that won't listen to the customer.

[Kuffy]

Telstra is a very weird company. So many sections which none of them communicate with each other. I signed up for ADSL for my place which meant getting a home phone line enabled. So They activated the phone line and then told me that there are no spare ADSL ports in my area so I can't get internet. I shrugged my shoulders and said cancel the whole lot because I don't want a landline without internet...So everything got cancelled and it didn't cost me a penny.

Then months later I get my mobile bill from Telstra and it is in credit by about 600-700bux. There was no reason for the credit, and being the good fella I am, I rang them to explain that my account was credited and there is no reason for it to which I am aware. The girl on the other end kept telling me "yes, your account has been credited", to which I replied "why?" which seems like a reasonable question. The girl couldn't see why, only could see that a credit had been applied to my account. So I said "well, I don't want to be receiving a massive invoice in a few months time to repay this wrong credit". She said that the issue is now finalized and there will be no chance of receiving a invoice to repay. This was years ago.

So I didn't have to pay my telstra bill for about a year because I only spent about 40-50bux a month :D winner winner chicken dinner!

ps: oh and I tried to get ADSL again a few weeks ago in the telstra shop down the road. I had my licence, name, address, telstra account "name" etc. but I didn't have my telstra account "number", so the girl couldn't pull my account details up on her computer...

[Grumpy John]

..........................
to which I replied "why?" which seems like a reasonable question.......


There's your problem, you asked a reasonable question. Also they don't like it when you ask "why".

[A Duke]

My Gran had the answer to that "because why is a crooked letter and you can not make it straight."
:wink:
Regards

[crowie]

My Gran had the answer to that "because why is a crooked letter and you can not make it straight."
:wink:
Regards

And "Z" is no better; that's the end of the alphabet, so too the end of this conversation.... that's how my dad put a stop to useless or otherwise issues being discussed were "why" was the reply!!

[Chesand]

A letter to Andrew Penn, CEO of Telstra brings pretty quick results. Suggest that you are taking it to the Telecom Ombudsman if not sorted in 14 days.

[Grumpy John]

Dd you not read the part where I said that I contacted the TIO? :)

[groverwa]

This thread reminded me that I still have a cheque from the then Telecom Aust dated 090690 for 10 cents. If I remember correctly it was for the difference in stamp duty on a travelling allowance payment. I worked. yes I did work not like a lot of the staff, for the PMG / Telecom / Telstra as a Tech Officer for just under 34 years all over the country regions of WA.

Technology did me out of a job and the way Telstra was going I had had enough of the BS that was going on and so called team leaders that were promoted because of their tecxhnical inabilities and crawling abilities. The only equip I did not work on was Morse Code and the latest digital exchanges and power generation equip.

The last week we had a late bill that did arrive by post mail with a 15 dollar fee for an account that we never recd. The local garage/ post office tells us that the account could not be paid as the account number did not have enough digits in it which it did. So into Bunbury I go to sort this out and lo and behold there is another account in their system with a late fee attached that we never got. Paid both and queried why we did not receive the accounts via the post mail system which we have used for all time - no explanation.:o

We have had the 30 dollar late fees credited and hopefully this will be used on the next account.:~

Mike B

[NCArcher]

Wait till you try to close an account. :rolleyes:
My wifes phone had been out of contract for at least 2 years. We were sick of the billing stuff ups from Telstra so decided to go with another carrier and close the account.
They tried to charge us $800 for early termination of the contract. When I pointed out that the contract ended 2 years earlier they apologised and said that would be the end of it.
Well we received a bill every month for varying amounts ranging from less than $2 to several hundred. All stating a fee for early termination. I started documenting my conversations with Telstra billing. Who I spoke to, the date and the outcome. When the next bill arrived I would tell them of previous conversations and the outcomes. They would all invariably apologise and say the matter was closed. Of course another bill would arrive next month.
Finally they sent me a bill for, I can't remember exactly but it was around $38,000. I rang and said I would be making a complaint to the Ombudsman. Never heard from Telstra again. Except to offer me great deals on a new mobile contract. You can probably guess what I tell them. I'm not allowed to say it on this public forum.

[A Duke]

Hi,
If it is a deceased account it gets even more interesting. My previous post was trying to sort one out. I could not help wondering if it was being sorted by a lawyers firm if some junior clerk would just keep paying the bills with out question until they ceased.
Regards

[Grumpy John]

It seems to me that the only way to get an acceptable result from Telstra is to get the TIO involved. The only two times we have had billing problems with Telstra we have had to resort to getting the TIO involved. It is a sad indictment of that organisation that a third party has to become involved to sort out what are usually one department not communicating to another.
On both the occasions when the TIO became involved I tried, unsuccessfully to get the recordings of the recorded conversations, as they would prove beyond a doubt what I was being told by the Telstra representatives. No can do they said, can't even get a transcript, I think I might start recording my conversations with Telstra, after notifying them of course.

[rrich]

OMG! I always thought that dealing with telephone companies was the same world wide.
My dealings with Time Warner / now Spectrum
and
Verizon / now Frontier are a Sunday School picnic compared to Telstra.

[crowie]

It seems to me that the only way to get an acceptable result from Telstra is to get the TIO involved. The only two times we have had billing problems with Telstra we have had to resort to getting the TIO involved. It is a sad indictment of that organisation that a third party has to become involved to sort out what are usually one department not communicating to another.
On both the occasions when the TIO became involved I tried, unsuccessfully to get the recordings of the recorded conversations, as they would prove beyond a doubt what I was being told by the Telstra representatives. No can do they said, can't even get a transcript, I think I might start recording my conversations with Telstra, after notifying them of course.

Don't be too discouraged John. We've had an ongoing 18mth battle with internet issues with TPG who keep blaming Telstra's infrastructure for the problems. A number of customer service staff and techs have promised to sort it, but alas we still are paying for a dodgy service....Gets worse as even the TIO wasn't much help so I'm just resending the request to sort it weekly.; hoping that eventually the "squeaky wheel will be oiled" so to speak... Heard on the TV yesterday that the ACCC was getting involved in the NBN fiasco of service speeds; hopefully not a PR exercise..
...

[Grumpy John]

Sorry to hear of your problems Crowie, it shouldn't have to be like this. Your case is worse than mine as you have obviously have two companies each blaming each other for the problem.
Good luck mate.
Hopefully my issue has been sorted.

[smehere]

Having worked for them, I would not use Telstra if you held a gun to my head - were I to treat a dog the way Telstra treats it's staff I would be in jail.

Iinet are a serious alternative to Telstra, inspite of the issues they have had since being taken over by TPG they are still great.
The other advantage of Iiinet is that many staff (I know this because I worked for them too) are cross trained in tech and billing and can handle both queries, but even if you get a tech only rep, all iinet staff have credit/refund authority up to $50 and the team leader sitting ten feet away has a $500 authority.

[Grumpy John]

My latest bill came through the other day and good news. all the credits have been applied and the wifi broadband has been removed from the bill. Too bad it took 3 months to fix a simple problem.

[crowie]

My latest bill came through the other day and good news. all the credits have been applied and the wifi broadband has been removed from the bill. Too bad it took 3 months to fix a simple problem.

Great news John... I'm still awaiting TPG to fix my internet.
I had a phone call yesterday saying it'd been escalated and a tech would call me between 10 & 11am today and again nothing.
Cheers, Peter

[Grumpy John]

Great news John... I'm still awaiting TPG to fix my internet.
I had a phone call yesterday saying it'd been escalated and a tech would call me between 10 & 11am today and again nothing.
Cheers, Peter

Have you put you compliant to the TIO?

[Tonyz]

I used to have a personal acc with telstra, ie just home line, internet and mobile. Please Ia, not being racist here but I have difficulty hearing these accents, so each time would ask to speak to Australian, I would get the usual rabble etc etc etc, I solved that and ot quick results by saying, 'connect me to an australian person or I complain to the ombudsman".. Bingo got changed over every time.

Now I have a small business and deal with a Telstra business centre, cant praise them enough, even took a bunch of flowers in last week. If a shop or business centre gets lower than a nine in surveys they get rapped over the knuckles and re trained.

Also recently had a telstra service survey asked of me verbally not computer generated. I told them its a joy to speak to australians that I can understand and also these staff actually realise that Australian does not finish 50k outside of Melbourne or Sydney. I then asked the serveyee if head office got rapped if its record was below a nine.....that brought on a happy conversation about how good that would be.

[old1955]

Great news John. Nice to see someone eventually have a win with that mob.

Ross

[Chris Parks]

We have a very noisy phone line at the moment so I rang Telstra on it to prove a point and instant action was the result. They sent me a mobile free of charge to have all my calls forwarded to and the tech showed up in two days which must be some sort of record. He fixed what was the obvious problem but it is still not solved and the problem appears to be in the house. All in all I was surprised at the instant response I got after the hassles I had last year with no land line for over a month on two separate occasions. What he fixed today Telstra installed last year and it was hanging off the pole already, good old Aussie workmanship I don't think.

[woodPixel]

Perhaps I could suggest Telstras desperate attempts at business services extend to the fact that they will be nothing more than a reseller of NBN services soon.

As a customer, you will simply be choosing a provider. Telstra, Optus, Joey Bloggs Internet.... All the same underlying service. As a consumer you can churn to a new provider in 20 minutes, the same as on mobiles now. Telstra simply couldn't give a rats about consumers, on any level.

Business, however, is a totally different story. They will attempt to contract you into a "bundle" for 5 years and will do anything possible to prise what little profit there will be in that ever stiffening corpse.

The NBN will be a master stroke of destruction to Telstra. A broadsword directly to their head, and it's about time.

Consumers and business will benefit from (ever increasing) new suppliers and be completely free of the old tyrannies and bastardry that are Telstras old bread and butter.

[Grumpy John]

...............................not being racist here but I have difficulty hearing these accents, so each time would ask to speak to Australiane
............................

This is one of the main issues I have with "off shore" call centres. If I am having trouble understanding what they are saying, how can i be sure that they have understood what I've said. I have no confidence at all in O/S call centres. Of course you could get the same situation from someone here in Australia.

[Twisted Tenon]

I used to have a personal acc with telstra, ie just home line, internet and mobile. Please Ia, not being racist here but I have difficulty hearing these accents, .


This is one of the main issues I have with "off shore" call centres. If I am having trouble understanding what they are saying, how can i be sure that they have understood what I've said. I have no confidence at all in O/S call centres. Of course you could get the same situation from someone here in Australia.


It's not racist. I expect as an Australian customer of an Australian firm to be able to speak to a person who understands the Australian idioms and speech patterns. I don't care if they are Calathumpian, Rastafarian or Eskimo's. Our home was zapped by lightening a few months back and I struggled with the call centers as they work through their set speech trying to find the problem. I didn't take it out on the people I was talking to as they are just trying to make a "quid" ( try saying that to a call center). I did fill out some sort of online survey stating that Telstra should train/hire competent English speakers before they let them loose on the public, which was probably sent to the electronic dust bin.


TT

[woodPixel]

Perhaps it is done deliberately.

First, if I speak with an unusual accent you are more likely to listen carefully to me (as I'm harder to understand) plus you are more likely to be polite (you don't know my culture, so you fall back on your manners)*

Second, you are more likely to go away and not ring back (!!!). If you were brickwalled the first time, why would your second attempt be any more fruitful?**

Personally I think huge companies very deliberately make their resolution centres only 0.2% better than absolute necessary to retain you as a client. If you are belligerent, you'll go elsewhere and that suits them jjjuuusstt fine! By doing this, they inflict their "worst" clients on competitors (excellent strategy!).

This is why we have a race to the bottom.


* where if I was Aussie profanities would flow freely.... And Aussies can be rude buggers.
** they already have your money, so you can now politely get knicked.

[Twisted Tenon]

Perhaps it is done deliberately.

First, if I speak with an unusual accent you are more likely to listen carefully to me (as I'm harder to understand) plus you are more likely to be polite (you don't know my culture, so you fall back on your manners)*

Second, you are more likely to go away and not ring back (!!!). If you were brickwalled the first time, why would your second attempt be any more fruitful?**

Personally I think huge companies very deliberately make their resolution centres only 0.2% better than absolute necessary to retain you as a client. If you are belligerent, you'll go elsewhere and that suits them jjjuuusstt fine! By doing this, they inflict their "worst" clients on competitors (excellent strategy!).

This is why we have a race to the bottom.


* where if I was Aussie profanities would flow freely.... And Aussies can be rude buggers.
** they already have your money, so you can now politely get knicked.

You may be over thinking this woodPixel. Firstly you are right, I do listen carefully when I am talking to a foreign call centre . However Telstra is for me the only show in town so I have to ring back. That is why Telstra can outsource their client service without fear of losing me. Yeah Aussies can swear a bit, there is good swearing and bad swearing :)

TT