You won't believe this.

[rrich]

I worked for the precursor to Verizon, a.k.a. GTE. I stopped at a small market in the company truck to purchase a soda to go with lunch. While I'm eating, someone from the petrol station next door comes over to me and asks if I can fix the pay (coin operated) phone on the petrol station property. He says that they have been trying to get the phone fixed for months.

I look at the phone booth and can see (from 15 M away) that the drop wire is broken where it enters the conduit to the phone. I mention that and ask what had happened. Well there was a tree near the phone booth and a limb had fallen on the booth during a wind storm.

So I grab the ladder, tool belt and with sandwich in my mouth I spliced the wire. The phone now worked. I made note of the number and reported it at the end of the shift.

The next day I was called in on the carpet. I was told to stop looking for trouble and just do my job. I explained what had happened and that I was on my lunch break. Then I was told that if I did something like that again I would be sacked after being kicked in the bum.
Corporate America at its best.

[silentC]

Well, you do have to maintain standards, even if they are mediocre.

[TermiMonster]

I can see kicking Telstra whilst it's down is the order of the day, but I'm going to change the rules. This is a current dispute I'm having with Optus (just to balance the boards).
Early Feb a door to door salesman from Optus comes around, spinning a yard about the much better deals he can give me on broadband, phone and mobile. 'Count me in' I say. (Aware that I had a 10 day cooling off.
My previous ADSL connection had 500MB / mth limit, he offered me cable (faster) with 6 gig for slightly more. Plus the other deals were comparable.
After he had gone I checked the fine print (as you do), to find that I could only use it between mid night and lunch (as I don't). Useless to me. (I've left out the fine details, but that's the gist of it.)
He gave me a cancellation form, list all 3 services, to post in.
The next day I duly posted the cancellation form.
Low and behold , on day 11 a new sim card for my phone arrived....I thought I'd better ring to check they got the cancellation. I spoke to a bloke after about 30min wait. He said it should be OK, bin the sim and forget about it!
A couple days later I got a call form the landline dept saying they had got my cancellation and just to confirm I didn't want the cable connected. I said yes , that was correct, and mentioned the sim. They said that was a seperate dept, and they would transfer me just to be sure. Strangely, I spoke to the same guy as the other day, who basically assured me that all would be ok.
Naturally, couple days later, my mobile stopped working. I rang my provider (AAPT) who told my Optus had ported the number, and I would have to talk to them.
I can't be bothered telling the full story, but basically, I got a completely new number from AAPT, a verbal apology from Optus but little else...in short, I feel that Optus is no better than Telstra.
TM

[oldbob13]

Termite
The simple truth was that originally the telephone connection was probably made by your wife and therefore she became the legal owner of the service.
To change ownership of the service you only have to complete a "Change of Lessee" form, no cost and pretty painless. No physical disconnection of the line just paperwork.
My comments do not however excuse the ignorance of the "Customer Service Rep" who miss informed you.
BobT