Third world? Let’s make it 4th world!
The service by Telstra to the ordinary homeowner in Australia, from my first hand experience, is appalling.
This is a tale of how a broken telephone line can remain broken for nine days, including seven normal working days, and still not be working.
It is a story of how all calls are taken in India and that there is no mechanism by which we Australian’s, who pay Telstra for a service, can speak to a Telstra employee in our own country.
It is the story of a run-around that defies belief, where overseas Indian sub-contractors in a call centre have a well-written well-rehearsed speech, have been tutored in how to attempt to defuse an angry customer with a well practiced spiel but have little real impact upon the issue at hand.
Monday March 25th
I was working on material for a national radio program I produce while also updating links on Facebook from the Toorak Times when, no Internet!
I checked my settings on my Mac and there was no connection so I did the first thing we all should do when the network drops, power down and re-power the modem. Nothing! So I picked up the landline phone and there was no dial tone.
I phoned Telstra line complaints and was told that there was a waiting time of quite a while and I chose a call back. Before long received an sms from Optus, my mobile phone carrier, telling me that I had missed a call, yes, from Telstra.
The phone was never out of my pocket and I never left the house. Then a second message telling me I had missed a second call. Now, they only ring three times before you are forced to start the process all over again.
However, I did receive call number 3. What happened with calls one and two? Who knows. “Netaji” was on-line and he insisted that I go through a whole rigmarole despite me assuring him I had checked connections, and was certain the line was dead. He said it was to make sure the fault wasn’t in the house, because if it was inside the house, I would have to bear the cost of a technicians visit.
A somewhat redundant process because what is the homeowner going to do if the fault is in the house, cancel the request for help and be without an active landline?
I assured the call centre operator that the fault was not in the house and he arranged for a visit the following day by a Telstra technician.
Tuesday March 26th
I was told the technician would call in between 8am and midday, and sure enough at exactly 11:57 he arrived. He ran his tests and then took a walk. On his return, he took me to the commencement of the street where it looked to me as it someone had been trimming trees and they had cut a branch that bought down the line.
He told me there was nothing he could do but put in a report and that eventually contractors would be sent out. Contractors? Don’t Telstra fix their own lines?
No!
I was told it could take a week, but being naive I thought, that’s the old story, tell the customer a date in the far distance, fix it before then, and then the customer thinks the service is wonderful.
Wrong!
Saturday March 30th
As there had been no sign of any Telstra person even remotely in the area and we had been without a landline, internet, streaming services into our sixth day, I was getting a little peeved.
I took a walk down the road to discover someone else from Telstra had obviously been and visited because the phone line technician number one had coiled up, was now with the other end wrapped up in a plastic bag and suspended from a tree.
Yes I know – first world problems!
But we are paying rent on the line, this is the 21st century and why was it taking so long to fix a broken line?
Once again I went through the fiasco of receiving an sms telling me that I missed the call from the Telstra call centre, but I did get the second call, and “Raj” in “Mumbai” was most upset that I was still without a line, and he proceeded to tell me that he would have been angry as well.
I’m not interested in “Raj’s” attempt to be empathic I just have one question.
Raj, why is the line not being fixed?
“Oh sir”, he replies, “I have been told that it is scheduled for soon and I will get back to you with more information.
No return call!
Sunday March 31st
I get “Sunjay” on the line and he is soooo unhappy for me and can quite understand why I am shooting sparks from my eyes. No he can’t – he has a landline that works, I don’t.
Sunjay puts me on hold and comes back and tells me that it will, note “WILL”, be fixed between 5pm and 7pm on Monday April 1st, and, as a show of faith in the process he will text me a direct link that I can press if it isn’t working and get straight back to him.
Monday April 1st
Monday comes and 7pm comes and the line is still broken.
I click the link to take me back to my “Indian friend” and . . . up comes a message, “sorry there seems to be a technical issue”.
I like to think I am a man who takes measured steps, and likes to contemplate what the options are with an issue and tries hard to keep calm and discuss the issues rationally.
At this moment all I could see was R*E*D!
Back onto the call centre and now I’m speaking with “Ravi” and by now you know all the process and I am told that there is an area wide outage reported!
Not so calmly I explained whether there was an area wide outage or not, I had no phone, no internet because the ##@#@!!! cable was on the ground – broken, unconnected, dead, dormant and in two pieces.
Outages or not, nothing was coming down this line until it was fixed.
Then he started telling me about getting a technician out, how there were other people in the street affected not just me and nothing, nothing he said or could say, could or did help.
I was past redlining and now heading for critical mass, calling upon all the known and unknown help from the dark side to come and take Telstra apart.
Mind you, when I mentioned the Telephone Ombudsman he asked me if he could put me on hold. He came back and said he had made contact (I assume with Australia but who knows) and that the work would be finished by 7pm Tuesday April 2nd and, that Telstra accounts would call me when the matter was fixed to discuss compensation.
By now he has stopped trying to “sympathise” because I think he knew I was ready to reach across the “ether” and drag his liver up through his gullet if he told me he understood how I felt one more time.
He then told me that he would ring me back later on Tuesday to make sure the work was all done and the line working. I asked when would he call. I was told he had three slots, 5pm, 7pm and 8pm. I said make it 5pm too which he said the repairs might not be done at 5pm so maybe later. OK I said, make it 7pm, no he said, I’ll make it 8pm!
Why ask me when I want the call?
Later Monday evening, around 6:30pm, a call comes in from “Ravi” saying, “It’s me, “Ravi” from Telstra. I said I’d ring back.”
I was stunned! I reminded him that he was to call Tuesday to check if the repairs had been done, at 8pm. “Oh”, he said, “did I say that”!
I hung up!
Tuesday April 2nd
I return home around midday to find witches hats and two unmarked (contractors) vans, but no movement.
OK, it’s probably lunchtime. I went out about 2pm, and, no movement. My wife came home from shopping around 3pm and reported she saw one man trimming a branch of a bush but nothing else. 4pm, I take a walk out and there is a man on the top of a van talking to a neighbour.
The neighbour and i speak and she tells me he has told her, that they hope to have it done by 7pm if it doesn’t rain. Well that’s a good sign as its a sunny day. If they don’t finish they’ll be back tomorrow.
Interestingly, around this time she has received an sms from Optus, who provides her landline service, telling her that their information is that repairs will not be complete until Wednesday April 3rd!
5pm, my wife goes out into the street and reports – no movement!
6:30pm and the street is vacant in regard to contractor’s vans, but maybe, just maybe they have had to move elsewhere to make the connection.
I must say, at this point the “hopeometer” is showing low!
Late that very night when I am certain it will be continued on into Wednesday, I received a call from my neighbour. The phone line is working.
Yes, it is but there is no internet!
I did what we all should do and re-powered the modem – nothing! I rebooted all 3 wi-fi connected Mac computers – nothing and, Macs are excellent at finding a wi-fi internet connection.
I checked my phone – no connection. I checked my streaming service – no connection. I even dug out an old Macbook pro that had the ethernet connection and cabled up – no connection!
Wednesday April 3rd
I call my internet provider, iinet, and they are very helpful.
We start from the beginning and reboot everything. I read off which lights on the modem are alive, he checks the specs of my particular modem, and he checks the line and all seems to be OK, except, the modem will not pick up the signal.
Then he asks me if any connections to the modem had been disturbed and, the penny drops.
The Telstra technician that came out disconnected the cabling where ever possible inside the house while he tested and had he? . . . yes! One line into the modem was incorrect and that one line made all the difference.
Right to the very end I was frustrated by Telstra
I visited the Telstra web site and found this statement.
We believe the more connected people are, the more opportunities they have. That’s why we help create a brilliant connected future for everyone, everyday.
That’s why we strive to serve and know our customers better than anyone else
In the 21st Century, opportunity belongs to connected businesses, governments, communities and individuals.
- Really? We hadn’t been connected for 9 days – that’s some future you are creating Telstra.
- Really? And just how do you achieve this through a call centre that is 9815 Km away from Melbourne exactly? Why it is impossible to speak directly to an Australian over matters that are local? Surely an indicator of customer service is providing the customer to talk with someone who can discuss local issues.
- Really – Connected? Yes please! My street would love to have be connected, and, forget your high tech digital world, could we just please have a simple landline that works and not wait 9 days for one?
I have been promised a call from a Telstra Complaints Manager.
Mind you they did tell me it might be 4-5 days, and if it’s anything like their inability to keep the to the timelines on this fiasco, who knows when or if, it will ever come.
I do hope he or she calls, you see, I have a fair bit still to say.
