Problems with Telstra anyone?
Telstra are like a crazy girlfriend. They just keep picking at the insides of your head.
The Telstra saga continues (read the first instalment here). I left Telstra in April. Their service was awful and I’d seen problems Mum was having with Bigpond’s erratic line, so I wasn’t going to go naked with these guys. Too many modem reboots during heavy downloads and slow upload speeds. So I went with Iinet. They don’t try to get inside your head like Telstra does.
I got a bill from Telstra a month after I left them. Three months line rental. On the phone I tell them there’s been a mistake and they agree to check. I get another bill. The same bill for $100+. “Hi guys, I called you about this. I’m not with you anymore.” They apologise and send me the exact same bill, but this time threatening to cut me off. No problem there, I thought. But I’d best be polite and give them a call.
Five bills and six prologued phone calls later, they finally send me the exact same bill – but now threatening to take legal action and directly affect my credit rating . . .
I actually had to get in touch with iinet who sent me evidence that I hadn’t been with Telstra for 3 months. Can you believe that? Apparently my call was not uncommon. “Telstra just don’t want to let customers go,” was the Iinet explanation. I got on the phone for a 7th time – Iinet contract evidence at the ready. They finally stopped asking me for 3 months line rental when I quoted the evidence. What the hell is that company about?
I recorded the phone calls, call staff Ids and dates because I could feel a horrible legal thing brewing. These phone calls lasted between 10 minutes and 45 minutes and I was often in in 5 – 10 minute queues. I should thank Uniden for their wonderful hands-free phone!
Leave Telstra is all I can say. This may look like a lone BLOG, but do a search for Telstra problems and see what comes up. When your contract is up – leave them. I’m doing you a favour.
You can thank me later.
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the reason why I use my .mac account as it’s the only one that works seamlessly! I have the misfortune of being with telstra business, yep we’re a business, a small printing shop so we’re about 90% reliant on our internet connection…..I’m finally giving telstra business the flick at our residential address after 2 years of non response to queries thru ‘mission control’ (or mission out of control as I call it)…countless outages for email..and the same billing problems you mention here…I’m beginning to hate telstra with a vengence, but who do I use as an ISP without compounding the current problems that I have with telecommunications and the internet?
Cheers
Dan
After mths of dealing with telstra, lies on the phone, overcharges on bills, false information about contracts and clauses, I finally thought I was finished with them…I was slugged with a $1200 extra charges with telstra for leaving a contract early cause they lied. Telephone calls upon telephone calls, 2 and a half hr calls, lines dropping out, over and over again saying ” I hope this is the right department, I do not want to go through this one more time, Can you please explain everything to the next person You have to put me through too….. Are you the right department? cause i need to go to the highest management as this is an ongoing detailed dispute, can you please record this call as I am sick and tired of explaining it….No I’m not going to go through it all again, I have just said it to 5 different people who promised me they were the last one.. just read through my notes…. Finally I thought it was resolved and the girl on the phone told me to disregard and letters I got for money as a telstra resolutions manager was going to call me back in a week and I didn’t have to do anything else…and I also didn’t have to fill in a complaint form as she was doing it over the phone…. a nice letter from D & B arrived giving me 2 days to pay $1257.47 otherwise my credit rating will be affected.
After being on line to telstra yesterday for another 2 departments and 1 1/4 hrs, I was credited with $1138.73 cents. When I asked about my letter from D & B, and if there is proof to give them or a reference number, telstra said sorry, I haven’t dealt with that before, I think it will be OK, just call them and tell them and your file will be transferred to a liason case officer who will then get in touch with telstra.
Yesterday I was very angry after I rang D & B to tell them telstra had just credited that amount and I was calling to tell them, the indian on the phone told me I will have to call them tomorrow, with the details again…. No I do not want to call again… this is telstras f*** up.. why should I be making all these calls, he told me to send an email to telstrasupportdnb.com.au, otherwise It will affect my credit rating. The email address wasn’t recognised, so I google it and ended up here.
This has been a 500 hr resolution campagne, and If you only knew how much money I have spent with telstra over the last 3 years…. Never wanted to go back to them,
Now I still have to fill out another complaint form to get $300 back from bigpond which they made me pay to terminate contract before I could complain… By the end of all this, they should owe me about $150 which if I didn’t feel so strongly about persuing all this… By the way D & B said on the phone straight away would you like to pay the whole amount now or just Half today? I said “I’m not paying any of it “……. My advice.. from the very first moment of a dispute keep a diary & write down your details
Hi Melanie, it sounds like you might need to speak to the Telecommunications ombudsman over at http://www.tio.com.au/ (it’s not one guy – it’s an organisation) and lodge a formal complaint there. From what I’ve heard, Telstra and other companies react quick smart when contacted by these guys. Consider it your way of sending THEM a credit rating notice. Some companies do ugly and unfair business. Telstra is one of them. A long time ago I was pretty much against Telstra going private and maybe this is why. It’s the private side of Telstra that’s giving everyone the headache. They own the lines right now, but it sounds like the government is about to change all that. We have Sol to thank for the ugly transition from government to private. And he was much hated :
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Telstra-confirms-Trujillo-s-departure
the thing is I did my very best to pay all my bills, and finish up with telstra on a good note, but yes I agree, I must of paid them thousands over the three yrs I was with them, and just when I thought I was finished with them….. I wished I had recorded all my phone conversations with them because I bet If I asked for the notes on my account… theres no way they would give me a copy!
We are in a small town in WA Telsta hasnt the equipment to handle the load most evenings . Our internet wont work from 6pm till 9.30pm most days.When contacted they gin about with all the wireless resets known to man and then tell you its your computer get some one local to see why its not working properly (why then does it work any other time of the day or night)Josh the latest but by no means the only Telsta Indian accidentally mentioned CONGESTION when he was going thru his usual list of fix it bullshit ,then realising what he had said jumped back to my computer has an issue blah blah blah..this has happened three times and as soon as i mention im paying for a service i cannot use when i please they all speak in an ever hard to understand accent.Help me Optus!!