Telstra - The friendly company

[Peter R]

Someone I know asked for an extension on their phone account. They had an account due on the 28th and asked if they could have the extention to the 12th of the following month. No worries, said the operator, "As a matter of fact I will make it until the 13th, the Friday".
All went well, the account was paid in full on the 12th, Telstra was notified that the account was paid (Bpay) and life went on as normal.
Surprise, surprise, the next account had a late fee of $5.00.
A phone call to the credit officer of Telstra revealed that the account was not paid on the due date, 28th so the $5.00 charge is ligitimate.
"Why bother to ask for an exptension?" my friend asked.
"Why, indeed?" commented the credit officer.
"So, what you are telling me", lamented my friend, " is no matter if I request an extension I am still liable to be hit with a late fee?"
"Yes madam, that's the way it is....Thank you fro your call". (hang up)
On behalf of my friend I called Telstra and asked for the credit manager and was informed "On the account it states that Telstra can charge a late fee of $11.00 if and account is not paid on the due date." In my friends case, the 28th.
"Why wasn't my friend told that when she asked for the extension?"
"Telstra does not have to give you that information, it is up to the customer to ask".
I persisted with the issue, and as it turned out, my friend's account was reduced by the $5.00.
The 1IC of Telstra has been given a pay rise, bringing his pay to $3 million per annum, and I knwo where the money is coming from; the poor bloody pensioners.
I can hardly wait until Telstra is fully privatised.

Peter R.

[Sturdee]

The 1IC of Telstra has been given a pay rise, bringing his pay to $3 million per annum, and I knwo where the money is coming from; the poor bloody pensioners.
I can hardly wait until Telstra is fully privatised.

Peter R.

When it is fully privatised no doubt he'll pay himself $6 million and charge late payers with a never ever to be refunded late fee of $ 10. :eek:


Peter.

[Barry_White]

And as my friendly Telstra tech told me if there is no change of government and it gets privatised they will make redundant another 50% of the linesmen and techs and instead of waiting 3 weeks to get a phone fixed in the bush you will wait 6 weeks.

[Interwood]

All my accounting training (27 years) hasn't given me any inkling that privatising Telstra would be beneficial to anyone (politicians wishing to claim they are astute financial managers excepted). Look at what has happened so far. To make a profit, less is spent on infrastructure and service support. Who loses - the customers - continuing poor service levels,

• large number of customers without access to services more advanced than Plain Old Telephone Service,
  
  
  
  
• even less employed. Who wins... .... I need enlightenment

Interwood
PS I'm not a Telstra basher. Last week, during a medical emergency - which co-incided with one of those line faults that are hard to find and fix - I was blown away by Telstra providing free diversion of all our Land line calls to our two non-telstra mobiles. It certainly helped us overlook the other phone outage inconveniences (security system and ADSL out.) Knowing that we could get calls from family and the hospital was excellent. They also had the problem fixed in 24 hours. Would this still be company policy if Telstra is fully privatised.

[vsquizz]

What gets me is that people are worried about selling the rest of Telstra. Too Late Buddy. It all changed when the very first share changed hands. Huge R&D cuts, all the workshops, machinery, hundreds of apprenticeships, widespread industry training all gone, gone, and they aint coming back. Its already happened. Telstra IS run as a business and fully privatised they will be just another business, out to make a buck and doing good/bad in the process. The big changes have already happened. The pollies who believe they will be able to adequatley control such a private organisation are just not living in a the real world.

For mind I think Telstra should get out of the retail/service providing business and just stick to Public Owned infrastructure. At the moment they wear two hats and that can be a problem. MHO

Cheers

[echnidna]

Telstra should be broken up similar to the electricity companies in Vic.
So all the infrastructure is handled by one group without any retail business.
The retail arm would then be on a level playing field withall other telco's.

We, the people, should start a telco boycott aimed at ALL telcos who contract labor only jobs to other countries.

[Peter R]

The idea that electricity and phone users would benefit by the 'open market' policy is a complete farce.
IPART allows these utility giants to, basicly, set their own price within a range that is supposed to reflect the CPI. I do not know what CPI figures that these companies use but I am damn sure that it is not the one that is used for calculating pensions.
As the NSW government is taking a set share of the profits from the sale of electricity in this state you can rest assured that no complaint will stem from that sector on the cost of power to the consumer. I think the NSW government share is around $6million a year. plus what is returned in GST from accounts paid.
Before power and phones were opened up to other suppliers there was a steady rise in Service charges. On your power bill these are usually called Access Service Fees (ASF) or Service Access Fees. Whatever they are called they are a large part of the profits. Providers like Country Energy etc, still get the ASF from those competing providers who then have to compete with the charge per unit. The same applies to Telstra and its service and rental charges.
The monoply still exists, but by stealth and trickery; something that governments and big business are very good at these days.
What can we do about it? Zilch!!
Peter R.

[vsquizz]

The idea that electricity and phone users would benefit by the 'open market' policy is a complete farce.What can we do about it? Zilch!!
Peter R.

Yep, its too late. Our public infrastructure is just going to be like the rest of our Goods & Services.

No doubt about it...This is a sensitive topic. Always stirs up a bit of talk on the BB. Doesn't seem to be that hot a topic in the Fe.....Hang on, this is getting political. I'd better keep my mouth shout or the deletory axe will be swinging. I'll probably score myself another reddy anyway if I keep at it.

Telstra: all public, or all private, either will be better than a swinging D**k in no mans land.


Cheers

[Peter R]

This may seem very deep and meaningful, and I am not espousing any political preferences as the problem is with all governments.
We seem to accept, begrudgingly. the political correctness, anti-discrimination, don't speak you mind 'rules' that has evolved into the Australian ethic over the years.
If you look back in history there has always been a suppression of the masses - Hitler, Mussolini, Starlin, the churches, tribal leaders, despots and tyrants all used suppression of the masses to exert and enforce their power.
Today suppression by governments and others is a bit more subtle, hence the continued attempt to have open and free speech suppressed.
I can remember the time if you called an aboriginal a coorie they would belt the **** out of you, now it is the accepted term for the aboriginal nation, where is the logic in discrimination when words and meaning change. If you are a Greek it is alright for you to call yourself a wog but it is not alright for me to say that. Suppression, that's why. Make sheep of us, follow the leaders who will be led by other leaders who will lead us all into suppression.
Remember: No matter who you vote for, you will be voting for a politician - frightening aint it!?
Peter R.

[jackiew]

When British Telecom was privatised they laid off lots of staff. I have two friends both of whom worked for the public utility since leaving school.

One friend was laid off ( big redundancy payout ) and then they realised they'd laid off too many people and asked her to stay on a contract ( she kept the redundancy payout ) and then when she got pregnant just before here contract ran out they had to pay her very generous maternity pay on top.

The other friend kept his job but was regularly asked to work ( for extra pay )in another region where they'd laid off too many people, meanwhile they were paying contractors to work in his region. Go figure that one out.

He eventually left but before he left he found himself in the ridiculous situation of having to account for why he wasn't meeting "targets" when mainly his job was finding those "hard to find" line faults. They'd decided that you got x hours to do a job.

And instead of looking at the jobs which needed doing and assigning them intelligently where jobs were located near one another they'd be handed out so he'd be buzzing around the county like a blue arsed fly and so were all his colleagues, passing one another in their travel between jobs.

[TassieKiwi]

Yes folks - it's all happened in NZ, with associated dire consequences. "The Market' is supposed to 'set the rates', but the pollies get lobbied to ****** about with the rules, warping the control into the hands of one crowd (Telecom) who then call the shots. Losers? you & me. Winners? mr $4m paycheck for running a monopoly, and pollies' consolidated fund.:mad: