Telstra–a ratbastard company.

Posted on October 5, 2011 by KG

A “senior tech” will get back to resolve a problem “within three to five working days”.
So what’s the customer supposed to do, stay by the ‘phone and the computer for three to five working days, waiting for the effing call?
And how come it’s only possible to contact these shitheads via email or ‘phone, and those to very low-level employees? The real managers (if that term’s not an utter misnomer) are completely insulated from the customers who pay their fat salaries.
Modern corporate practices, eh. What a bunch of greedy, unacccountable, arrogant fuckers.

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24 Responses to Telstra–a ratbastard company.

  1. KG says:
    October 5, 2011 at 20:13

    I’m not blaming the help desk people–they can only operate at the level they’ve been trained for, and most of them do their best. But the company’s policies stink regarding customers with problems which cannot be resolved by the first to third level of tech help.

  2. mort says:
    October 5, 2011 at 20:40

    i always find that amusing, you have a problem with your phone or email, and the only way to contact them is with your phone or email…. go figure

    • KG says:
      October 5, 2011 at 20:54

      I’m feeling more murderous than amused right now, Mort. Yesterday I was passed from one person to another–then another and each time had to go through the whole ID verification bullshit.
      Bloody hopeless.
      What’s more, in an effort to fix the problem I went and bought another expensive Telstra “Elite” modem. It says “suitable for Macs” on the box, right? Well, in the course of some fairly heated conversations with a helpdesk person, it transpires that they know the modem won’t install the connection manager in the latest OS X version.
      What a fucking useless company it is.

      • Ciaron says:
        October 6, 2011 at 06:00

        Same procedure this side. Very tempted to uninstall their modem and hand deliver it up the backside of the first person I find in their call centre (I work on the next street over) FFS, they have Sales, “help”, installation & retention departments. I had a very heated argument with the first person (sales), the first thing I said was we want to take our custom elsewhere, then after a long exchange he said he couldn’t action that. I asked why the fuck he let me explain it all if he couldn’t do anything, he had no answer except “only retention can close an account”. Fine, I said… try as you might, you wont be retaining us.

  3. KG says:
    October 5, 2011 at 20:54

    The upload speed is 0.38 Mbps! :shock:

    • Darin71 says:
      October 5, 2011 at 23:11

      Is it just your connection that’s FUBAR or is anyone else local having trouble too?

  4. Katie says:
    October 6, 2011 at 01:43

    Could be worse. You could have to wait a month.

  5. Bruce says:
    October 6, 2011 at 05:09

    Is there a small(ish) wireless broadband provider in your area? Give them a call; get off Telstra and pay about half (after one time install of wireless receiver) the monthly charges you do to Telstra. Their lack of service motivated me to review options and happily I no longer have to deal with them. I’ve provided a link to one such small company just so as you can get an idea of rates and charges (may differ in your area). Worth checking out whilst you’re “waiting” for service.
    http://www.ewc.co.nz/internet.html

    • KG says:
      October 6, 2011 at 07:38

      Sadly, no, Bruce. In any case, we travel in rural and remote areas and Telstra is the only company with adequate coverage.

  6. Ciaron says:
    October 6, 2011 at 05:36

    Now’s good.

    Yeah fucking right. cunts still haven’t showed up to pick up their faulty modem.

  7. KG says:
    October 6, 2011 at 07:34

    Another irritant, of course is that some of the tech help people are barely understandable. Ask for somebody who speaks better English and you’ll be put on hold forever….as befits a closet Klansman who has the temerity to request service from somebody he can understand.
    Apparently it’s our obligation to decipher their words, not theirs to make themselves understood.

  8. KG says:
    October 6, 2011 at 08:53

    hmmm…where’s Bruce? I just got a message that I was disconnected due to a “PPP reset” and to re-connect.
    That sounds like Telstra fixing a problem at their end to me…….

    • Ciaron says:
      October 6, 2011 at 08:56

      wait till you get the bill…

    • Bruce says:
      October 6, 2011 at 19:42

      …more like investigating the problem. PPP reset “infers” your broadband modem or router has undergone a string of tests, usually instigated from a remote location. During these tests, certain diagnostics may have temporarily modified the configuration of your modem / router. The PPP reset, in theory, should return your modem / router back to the configuration that existed before the tests began. So, I’d guess Telstra are having a peek to see where their network is falling to bits; they don’t yet have a clue but are doing their best, by trial and error to nail it down to something you did! These guys are blameless. Incidentally; isolating network problems CAN be tedious; especially where there are many subscribers hang off the same piece of wire. I can only surmise; you are not the only one in your locale with similar issues. (You didn’t say what your original “technical complaint” was; I understand the service issue). :shock:

      • KG says:
        October 6, 2011 at 19:56

        Thanks Bruce, that’s very informative and I appreciate it. The original complaint was about having almost zero upload speed.
        We still have very, very slow upload speed but at least sites are loading faster at the moment. But we’re still having to disconnect and reconnect several times a day when the ‘net slows down.
        I haven’t heard of anybody else here having the same problem–mainly because I don’t talk to anybody else here. :mrgreen:

        • Darin71 says:
          October 6, 2011 at 22:31

          Well get to it then,walk around town and ask everybody in sight if their wireless is F–ked too :oops:

          Telstra probabl got a tower or two that’s on the fritz and they don’t want to let that fact out,because then everybody will want a rebate-try asking them for a rebate-since it’s their fault ;-) and see what happens.

          • KG says:
            October 6, 2011 at 22:53

            I don’t talk to strangers unless it’s absolutely unavoidable, Darin. It’s one of the attractions of buying a boat and living on it.
            Telstra have had problems in the past and only admitted to them when forced to, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this turns out to be something similar.

            • Bill The Bunyip says:
              October 7, 2011 at 11:40

              We had a similar issue here in Leonora. Despite telling the muppets that a shitload of “refugees” and the associated bureaucrats (all using Telstra mobiles, as that is all that works out here) had moved into the area, we were continually asked to repeat the same meaningless reboots etc etc.
              With no alternative to Telstra I played the game and continually complained, asked for names and quoted back to them the details of the last “service person’s” solution to the problem.
              Eventually I got told that it was an overloading issue and it would be resolved with a scheduled upgrade. They actually did it and now we enjoy third world internet service rather than the complete lack of any internet.
              By the way Mr Wabbit, if you are on a Bigpond device, it will be on a lower priority level than a Telstra one. Yes I know that it is owned by the same pond algae but that is what they do to annoy us just for giggles.
              Aunty Julia could actually use the Service levels of Aussie Telcos as a deterrent for Boat people. They would get better service back in the shitholes they came from.

              • KG says:
                October 7, 2011 at 11:52

                Bunyip! Good to see you. :smile:
                Nah, it’s a Telstra device. But the difference is academic, I suspect. It’s just wall-to-wall crap service.
                Oh, and by the way–isn’t it nice to know we’re paying for the illegal immigrant’s ‘phones and their calls home? (as well as their cigarettes) grrrrrrrr…….

  9. Cadwallader says:
    October 6, 2011 at 12:37

    Never forget the pre-decessor of Telecom NZ:
    On Thursday 2nd April 1981 I ordered an additional telephone line from the NZ Post Office to be connected to my office. The order was acknowledged on Friday 5th June 1981 and the the additional line was completed and installed the following year on Friday 2nd April 1982! For all the faults of today’s telco’s they are never that atrocious. (I retain the records of this sad experience as I wrote a letter to the ODT on my lack of service to quell the whining of unionists when the PO was dis-established!) If Labour and/or the Greens ever get power again and try to wind-back the years, as often nostalgia ridden lefties try to do, we can again bask in this “Public service” mire!

    • Darin71 says:
      October 6, 2011 at 13:15

      Cad,public service is increasingly becoming self-serve.If you want something done,you may as well do it yourself.
      My 75 year old father had been asking our city council for a new sidewalk by his house since he was 71.They finally put it in a couple months ago.Yesterday I noticed they have a section stripped out to be sawn to fix a water leak in the 100 year old pipe that runs underneath :roll:

      • wake up says:
        October 7, 2011 at 08:34

        “public service is increasingly becoming self-serve”

        Damn right. After waiting forever, I finally got some paving paint and some boards to use as guidelines, and went out in the dead of night and painted the correct parking lines outside our place. They’ve never noticed the difference :cool: