I Hate Telstra

All my other "I Hate..." attract search traffic, so why not hate Telstra!  I don't hate everything about Telstra, or most of the people in Telstra, who are good human beings, I assume.

Firstly, I see and read about Sol Trujillo.  Purely my subjective view, but he doesn't look like the sort of person I like, or cares about me as a consumer or small business user.  So I think it comes from the top.  Shareholder value doesn't help me.

Secondly, I believe that Australia's infrastructure is too valuable to be open and let loose on pure market forces.  I'd keep all infrastructure non-commercial, independent or government owned, in spite of the inefficiencies of that, and by all means, sell phones, trains, water, across that infrastructure.

Thirdly, it's taken Telstra 15 days to repair my cable internet.  The job took 10mins to actually complete.  I have been a Telstra cable customer for over 6 years, paying a fairly high premium for that honour.

It started on the 16th Dec, I called on the 17th, they sent someone on 20th.  He identified the problem as a damaged cable up the pole.  But claimed it was too wet to repair.  So did the next guy on 22nd.  On the 24th, fearing it was "too wet" again, I called to arrange a provisional date for 27th Dec and was assured the 24th was still ok, and the 27th was booked.  I called back later, the 24th had been cancelled, and the 27th was wrongly booked, so the 28th was assured.  No show on 28th and no record of the booking, so today on 31st it was repaired, by contractors who reckon it could have been repaired by the previous contractors and it wasn't "too wet".

Here's the thing about Telstra.  Money talks!  All Telstra can do is credit me.  All I want is a repaired internet.  I don't care about the money.  I would willingly have forgone the credits to pay the contractors direct on call to repair my internet sooner.  Telstra several times claimed they couldn't escalate or prioritise my call.  Is this true or are they lying?  Several times they claimed no record of my bookings, and yet I have some proof of the bookings.

Where do I go from here?  In the past 2 weeks both Telstra and Westpac ( I Hate Westpac ) have badly let me down, and they simply don't care in terms of service, some individuals within those organisations may care, but seem powerless to do anything about it.

So what am I to do about these two organisations.  Do they really care about me?  Why should they?  It's just me.  If I leave them, others will join them leaving the companies they're dissatisfied with.  How do we make it hurt when we get shit service?

2008 is my year of Simplicity.  I'm also going to look at price and service.  Telstra and Westpac don't come anywhere near on either price or service, do they?

Comments

[Lovely]

i totally aggree, they are so uselss (telstra) not sure about westpac. i talked to 3 people on telstra about simply registering my simcard with the same number as my previous phone (i can seem to do that online). so i talk to this machine and i get put throgh to an operator. i answered the right questions and assumed the person should be able to help me. i talked to the person and i got transfered back to the machine. i was told to press a diffrent number which made no sense as it was soemthing different. i did press it and was then told to go back to the first option i had chosen. i did this and was just about to be told to go back to the second option i chose when i said i had been there. they then transfered me directly to a employee. its been 3 and a half hours. still no answer!!!!!! it will take 5 mins god dam it
if i was a terrorist (god forbid) i would bomb the shit out of telstra and die very happy (even thogh i would go through an eternity of pain) also the employees were very rude to me

[Ivan]

At least you are considered enough of a person to access Some sort of broadband connection. I live in regional Australia. I am not considered worthy of a broadband connection. Hearing the problems with such a connection, is it really worth it? Bigpond, Telstra and Sol T suck.

[Andrew]

Telstra is a bunch of arseholes! I had to pay them $160 I paid it. Then next thing I know they suspended my accounts. They say I paid on the wrong day LOL!!! Sure thing!! I paid it all before the due date and they still cut me off and want another $59.95 re connection fee! They are fucking arseholes and the next Telstra employee I see in the street is going to get a punch in the mouth! They are a ignorant pack of morons!!

[Unlucky]

Can i start by saying thanks yes most of us workers are good humans...most well maybe some there are quite a few jerks, I work for the place and well i agree we suck there is so much miscommunication between the management and the plebs/gimps such as my self we are always kept in the dark and told half truths of whats going on. Then we have to explain things to the customer to which at times the company wont give us a correct answer to, I cop alot of shit and abuse, i guess thats fair im the voice of telstra when you call in but fuck you know what its not the voices fault, so Andrew if you want to punch someone in the head make sure they are management they are the decision makers not the plebs. oh and we get times toilet breaks which being female i get in trouble once a month for a week as my toilet ventures are high. well i know this is all non sence making and more or less im venting i hate the company.

[bcg]

Cancelled a phone service (to move to another house) in August 2008. Still being billed for it in February 2009. I have been told its been fixed a dozen times. This year, I have made two formal complaints. Complained to the TIO. Nothing. I have been told that a case manager will call me (twice now) - yet to speak with this person. This month they have made it so the high level complaints people can't make any changes to the account as it being "handled by higher people". So its now worse as I can't even get the monthly fee refunded. Still every month the old number is on the bill along with a demand for $19.95.

I actually feel really helpless. Spend an actual day on hold to fix a problem over 5 months without avail and it actually does have a psychological effect. After the last call I nearly cried with frustration. A grown man, a doctor, almost reduced to tears by a telecommunications company.

They should get a gig over at gitmo.

[Paul Hayman]

I have dealt with many phone service providers accross the world and Telstra by far the worst. The biggest mistake I have ever made moving to Australia was to sign up for 2 mobile phone contracts with Telstra. Their customer service is appalling!! Try ringing their billing queries line you'll do well do get a response within 10 minutes and that's after you've managed to tackle the rather frustrating automated phone system of which tends to transfer you to an advisor who asks you all the same questions as the stupid robot did on the phone?!!! It's clearly a way to save on money for telstra, and they claim they have the best network in OZ? I live in the city of Perth and consistently the lines are shite on both of my phones?!! you try complaining! you receive a standard response email from them asking you to ring that robot at customer services wihilst charging you 25cents a minute!! and then you speak to some of these guys who are 9 times out of 10 complete tossers, probably because they are just pi**ed off with the great number of calls they have from customers because their service is shite!

2 months in to my contracts and I am already moving to another service provider as telstra are just amateurs in the communications industry in my eyes or is this just another example of a poorly run government agency??!!!

[lazerzap]

I hate Telstra too.. I have blogged many examples of the frustrations with Telstra. Latest example.. Daughter 16 gets Dad (me) to activate her new Telstra Pre-Paid Starter Kit. (Sim and $30 credit) She wants the new 'too good to be true' plus plan.. So the new sim gets activated on the new + (plus) plan.. But wait.. Somehow the SMS's are costing .25c each? So a call to Telstra's Pre-paid robotic user assisted answering error reveals that you must 'charge' the sim to actually get the plan you selected.. The $30 credit supplied with the sim is classed by telstra as 'bonus credit' that somehow cannot be converted into the 'plan' that you have selected. Basically a blatent ripoff. I wonder how many other 'dumb ozzies' like myself telstra have ripped with this great money making idea? My Daughter, who has read and listened to my previous rants against telstra quietly turned to me and said. They got me? Dad?.. I shook my head and said.. Yeah Sarah.. They got you.. At 16 she learns earlier than I did to dislike corporate greed. She logged into my phpbb3 forum and proceeded to tell this very story to google. Perhaps her generation will have more luck in extracting value for money than mine did. Unfortunately, I think telstra accurately displays everything that is wrong with corporate greed. I see the same 'attitude' almost everywhere I turn in 'business' nowadays. Profit has become more important than a good reputation. Goodwill is simply a trademark that can be swapped at will and re-marketted. It's still cheaper to cut staff while spending Millions of dollars on TV and Radio advertising. That still somehow manages to outweigh the badwill of thousands of outraged customers blogging on the net. But not forever. Short term 'get rich quick' policies by management may ultimately spell the demise of the top heavy telco. (If the rumours of a breakup are true) I think that these 'rogue' corporations can and should be controlled by public boycott. Perhaps through the internet people will demand respect once again from these corporations. Maybe the global 'lack of confidence' in corporations could be restored if the stock buying public saw them behaving responsibly within the community rather than as 'fly by night' profit mongers.

[davidbaer]

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TELSTRA AND THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IMBOSILES ARE A PACK OF ARSEHOLES.... HATE THEM WITH A PASSION. SPENT 4 HOURS THIS WEEK ON THE PHONE DUE TO THEM DISCONNECTING PHONE, DISCONNECTING INTERNET AND DISCONNECTING FOXTEL. YOUR RING TO SPEAK TO THE FUCKWIT CUSTOMER SERVICE REP (MIND YOU BOTH AUSTRALIAN FUCKWITS AND INTERNATIONAL OUTSOURCED FUCKWITS), AND YOU REPEAT YOUR STORY 50 TIMES AS THE PREVIOUS FUCKWIT DIDN'T TAKE NOTES ON YOUR PREVIOUS PHONE CALL..ITSN'T IT ABOUT TIME THAT ALL US AUSTRALIANS WHO WANT TO FUCK OFF THESE USELESS BUNCH OF HALFWITS RUNNING THE TELEPHONY MONOPOLY TO STAND TOGETHER AND REALLY PISS OFF HELLSTRA (I MEAN TELSTRA) ONCE AND FOR ALL? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU AUSTRALIANS??? ARE WE FOREVER GOING TO LIE DOWN AND GET JACKED UP THE ARSE!!!! PEOPLE POWER EVERYONE - PEOPLE POWER.. DOES ANYONE HAVE THE GUTS OUT THERE TO STAND TALL AND TOGETHER?? IT IS STARING US IN THE FACE (LOOK AT EGYPT), EVERYONE STOOD UP TOGETHER AND THEY NOW HAVE MADE A MASSIVE DIFFERENCE.. LETS STAND TOGETHER AGAINST TELSTRA AND MAKE THEIR LIFE HELL....IF THEY TREAT THEIR CUSTOMERS LIKE SHIT, THEN WE SHOULD TAKE A FINAL STAND AGAINST THE FUCKERS.ONCE AND FOR ALL....UNTIL THEN MY FRIENDS, LET ALL JUST KEEP LYING DOWN WHILE TELSTRA DOES ALL THE FUCKING!

[Joe]

All of telstra and employees can Die and miserable cancer ridden death for all i care i get screwed on every new contract with them no customer loyalty what so ever new customer get all the deals while i get screwed after 8 years im finaly done moving on to another network provider