tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57715689201363560352024-03-14T00:14:25.284+11:00Telstra/Bigpond folliesThis is one of several blogs on which I post letters I have written to various bumbling, stumbling bungling organizations that I have had the misfortune to deal with. I just hope that someone one day will learn something from it all. The organizations concerned are all very slow learners but sometimes I get results.jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-35878976492632236412013-08-15T12:35:00.002+10:002013-08-15T12:35:37.013+10:00Telstra in dispute with customer over costly landline installation<br />Would you pay $5931.90 for the installation of a landline in a suburban area?<br /><br />That's what Telstra was attempting to charge small business owner Sonia Turkovic and her landlord son-in-law, Marc Edwards.<br /><br />On February 17 last year the pair requested Telstra install a landline at Mrs Turkovic's new office on Moreland Road in Coburg, Victoria, where she runs a financial planning business.<br /><br />At first everything seemed to be running smoothly, but then the quote arrived: $5931.90 for installation plus a $299 connection fee.<br /><br />To make matters more frustrating, the pair couldn't get a third-party quote from an electrician because Telstra said the type of installation required a Telstra technician.<br /><br />"It blew my mind," Mrs Turkovic said. "The quote was out of this stratosphere."<br /><br />Because Telstra has a monopoly in the fixed-line space, there was virtually nothing she could do about the cost but complain.<br /><br />The initial quote included Telstra digging up the pavement outside her office to run a new conduit to the premises (containing copper wire) and then reinstating the pavement.<br /><br />This confused Mrs Turkovic because about 30 centimetres away from her office's front door was a cable pit with the marking "PMG" on it. PMG (Post Master General) was the organisation which ran Australia's copper network before Telstra.<br /><br />Because the pit was so close, Mr Edwards disputed the installation cost on behalf of Mrs Turkovic and had it reduced to $2639.62. But even after it was reduced, he still believed the cost to be "ridiculous" and unreasonable.<br /><br />Despite this, he agreed to have the installation completed on the condition that he and Mrs Turkovic could dispute the $2639.62 cost with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) and Telstra.<br /><br />But now, almost 18 months after the initial request for a landline, and 14 months since the installation was completed, the two are still disputing the cost and Telstra isn't budging, requesting for payment to be made.<br /><br />In a statement, Telstra said the installation involved more than a standard landline connection, "including commercial works and project management of internal Telstra and civil contractors".<br /><br />"A complaint has been raised and we're following our usual complaint management process," it said. "This is also the subject of an open TIO investigation and we are working with the TIO to reach a resolution."<br /><br />Mr Edwards said the actual work done took a technician just under three hours to complete. He said it wasn't completed until June 18, 2012, about four months after the landline was initially requested.<br /><br />"We had to push Telstra really hard to get a second quote and [it] was a lot lower but it was still $3000 to push one cable through a bit of conduit, drill a hole in the wall and use $80... worth of parts," Mr Edwards said.<br /><br />Because of the delayed installation, Mr Edwards and Mrs Turkovic have attempted to claim compensation worth $12,080, saying Telstra broke its legislated Customer Service Guarantee.<br /><br />While waiting for the landline to be installed, Mrs Turkovic said she was without a business number for at least two months after moving offices in April 2012.<br /><br />She said she had stationery, signage and advertising printed with her Telstra-assigned number and that customers were being told it was disconnected when they tried to call, putting her reputation at risk.<br /><br />The Customer Service Guarantee states that a "new connection without infrastructure or spare capacity" should be completed "within 20 working days (equivalent to 1 month) after request".<br /><br />If the work isn't done within the time specified, the CSG tells business customers they may be entitled to $24.20 for each working day that Telstra misses, for the first five working days of delay. After the initial five working days, they may be entitled to receive a payment of $48.40 per additional working day of delay, it adds.<br /><br />Telstra said that as part of the complaint process it would "be determined if the customer is eligible for CSG payment or compensation".<br /><br />Mr Edwards said he wanted to bring the delayed installation and cost to light so that "maybe someone else won't have to go through this".<br /><br />Mrs Turkovic described her overall experience with Telstra as "exhausting" and "frustrating".<br /><br /><br /> http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/telstra-in-dispute-with-customer-over-costly-landline-installation-20130815-2rxx6.html<br /><br />jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-87883609046561555142012-12-05T15:03:00.002+11:002012-12-05T15:03:27.451+11:00<br />
<br /><b>Another Telstra horror</b><br /><br /><i>I have had difficulties with both Telstra and Optus, though Optus has undoubtedly been the worse. I became an Optus customer in the year 2000 and have only very recently given up totally on them, which could make me qualified as a hero of patience, I think.<br /><br />What the guy below obviously didn't know is that talking to phone hotlines for either Optus or Telstra puts you in contact with some juvenile who knows nothing and cares less -- that's if you can get to talk to a person at all. <br /><br />For real difficulties you have to write to the CEO of the company. He doesn't care either but he does employ people to act as if they do. I have had some success with that approach.<br /><br />But that process is slow and the guy below obviously was moved by the amount involved to regard the matter as urgent. I feel sorry for him. It is obnoxious that he had to go to the media to get help but is very much what I would have expected. Basically they just ignore you in the hope that you will go away.<br /><br />The episode below also shows why I never now give anyone permission to debit my credit card. I always use prepaid services. I am guessing that the guy below will be doing that henceforth as well</i> <br /><br />A man who lost his mobile phone, and told Telstra to cancel his account, still had $28,000 deducted from his credit card for calls he didn't make, after the telco delayed blocking his phone.<br /><br />After months of trying to get a refund, Rayden Crawley finally got his money back from Telstra on Wednesday. But only after he recounted his experience to radio station 3AW earlier that day.<br /><br />Mr Crawley was in Barcelona, Spain, in late September when he lost his mobile phone. He reported the loss to Spanish police and phoned and emailed Telstra later that day to request the lost phone be blocked.<br /><br />But when he returned to Melbourne on October 15, bad news was waiting.<br /><br />"I rang Telstra because I hadn't received the bill, and I nearly fell over when they told me it was a $28,000 bill," he said. The money was automatically debited from his American Express card, $27,385.16 of which was for calls made after he lost his phone.<br /><br />"It wasn't chopped off for some reason until 36 hours later, despite it being confirmed by the Telstra centre in Melbourne East that they would have it barred," Mr Crawley told 3AW.<br /><br />For the past two months, Mr Crawley engaged in "telephone tag" with Telstra trying to get a refund.<br /><br />The Telstra complaints officer he was dealing with said "she was still looking into it" on the occasions he called. After a while, his calls just went to voicemail.<br /><br />"I tried 20 times to get back to her to find out what was going on and there was no reply, just a recorded message," he said. "There was no correspondence back from Telstra whatsoever."<br /><br />After going on talkback radio on Wednesday morning, however, the refund came through.<br /><br />Telstra spokesman Jonathan Rose told Fairfax Media that all of the bill would be refunded.<br /><br />"We have contacted Mr Crawley to apologise and advise that we will waive all charges on the account," Mr Rose said.<br /><br />"We are most concerned about his experience and will review the case, including to determine why the payment was debited while the matter was still under investigation and a credit was in the process of being approved."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/telstra-customers-28000-phone-bill-horror-20121205-2auqv.html">SOURCE</a> <br /><br /><br />jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-16389833621561173462011-11-09T14:02:00.001+11:002011-11-09T14:02:23.853+11:00<b>Ombudsman hits phone companies for a record $28 million as complaints soar</b><br /><br />PHONE companies paid a record $28 million in fines to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman after the worst year for complaints against mobile, fixed and broadband operators.<br /><br />The biggest phone companies contributed $24 million of that total. The TIO's annual report for 2010-11, released yesterday, revealed it received about 200,000 new complaints in the period, an increase of 18 per cent. This was despite a TIO campaign in 2009 to improve customer service, which saw a mild decrease in complaints in 2009-10.<br /><br />Individually, Telstra received 78,950 complaints, Vodafone Hutchison 54,600, Optus 28,323 and iiNet 2974. The increase in iiNet's complaints was attributed to its acquisition of AAPT's residential customers.<br /><br />The Ombudsman, Simon Cohen, singled out Vodafone for increasing the overall number of complaints after it recorded a 222 per cent increase in complaints against it during the financial year, at 35,563, up from 11,040 the previous year.<br /><br />A Vodafone spokesman yesterday said it had improved network performance and service since late 2010 when it was flooded with complaints about coverage.<br /><br />"Some of the network issues at the start of the year, and the ensuing rise in the number of complaints we received, impacted customer service," the director of customer service and experience at Vodafone Hutchison, Cormac Hodgkinson, said yesterday.<br /><br />"This was difficult for our customers to endure, so we changed the way we operate to make things easier for our customers."<br /><br />The company added 300 call centre staff, improved self-help portals and fast-tracked a significant upgrade to its overall network infrastructure.<br /><br />Mr Cohen said he would like more powers to report companies to the communications regulator if systemic issues arose out of customer complaints.<br /><br />Mr Cohen said the TIO was "actively exploring" whether it would report each company's customer numbers, which would give more meaning to the volume of complaints recorded against the company.<br /><br />The Australian Communications and Media Authority may be more successful at tackling poor customer service through its threats to introduce court-enforceable standards if the telecommunications industry does not voluntarily improve customer service standards.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/ombudsman-hits-phone-companies-for-a-record-28-million-as-complaints-soar-20111108-1n5l6.html">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-73889073937553030132011-08-12T11:50:00.001+10:002011-08-12T11:50:13.186+10:00
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<br /><b>Telcos' customers put through the wringer when they complain</b>
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<br />PHONE and internet customers are spending more than nine hours battling their providers to resolve serious complaints.
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<br />Half of them are shunted between four or more departments in the process, an ombudsman's report will reveal today, the Herald Sun reported.
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<br />The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman survey of more than 500 customers who lodged complaints with the watchdog last year found that 100 of them were forced to endure more than nine hours of pleading their cases.
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<br />A third of customers surveyed spent more than six hours trying to resolve their problems. More than half spoke with their provider five or more times before going to the ombudsman, and 31 per cent of problems dragged on for more than three months.
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<br />Findings included:
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<br />MORE than half of respondents asked to speak to a supervisor but 65 per cent were refused and most were told one wasn't available.
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<br />ALMOST 40 per cent said their telco promised to help but did nothing.
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<br />ABOUT 60 per cent were not told when their problem would be resolved.
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<br />Customer service and complaint handling overtook billing and payments as the most common of the 170,000-plus complaints to the ombudsman last year.
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<br />The ombudsman, Simon Cohen, said the time telcos took to deal with complaints was a concern, but nine out of 10 cases could be resolved quickly once customers were referred to the right person.
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<br />"If that happened even more often there would be much less need for consumers to have to come to us at all," Mr Cohen said. "And I think that would be something that would be in everybody's interest."
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<br />Australian Communications Consumer Action Network chief executive officer Teresa Corbin said mandatory standards for handling customer complaints - such as time limits - were needed.
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<br />The measures were recommended in an Australian Communication and Media Authority draft report that is due to be finished this month. "I think the industry almost counts on customers to give up," Ms Corbin said. "They have had years to fix this. Time's up, telcos, it's time to improve your customer service once and for all."
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<br />Industry body Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton said the industry was aware of the issue and working to address it.
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<br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/telcos-customers-put-through-the-wringer-when-they-complain/story-e6frfro0-1226113435812">SOURCE</a>
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<br />jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-72224182601091055602011-05-19T12:49:00.001+10:002011-05-19T12:49:52.453+10:00<b>Another Telstra bungle upon bungle</b><br /><br /><i>Toowoomba mother hit twice with $91k phone bill</i><br /><br />A $91,372 phone bill has Highfields mother of two Kym Ford at breaking point. Kym Ford is tired of getting the run-around by Telstra over a ridiculously large, $91,372 bill.<br /><br />The Telstra bill, comprising mainly unknown SMS charges, is a mystery to Ms Ford. She contacted Telstra's complaints department to have the charges cleared and was told the “simple computer glitch” would immediately be corrected. But a month later she received another bill which this time had an outstanding balance of $91,412.98.<br /><br />Ms Ford again contacted Telstra. “I was told that the first bill would be credited straight away and the complaint was closed,” she said. “But then they told me the second time that nothing had actually been done.”<br /><br />Ms Ford said it just took some simple maths to shed light on just how ridiculous the charges were. At 25 cents a text message, she would have had to have sent 365,488 messages a month or eight messages every minute.<br /><br />The ludicrous phone bills were not the last of Ms Ford's worries. After returning from holidays in January, she found an iPhone waiting for her complete with a bill of $1100. Ms Ford said she had never ordered or signed-up for the iPhone. “I sent it back to them straight away as I had only just signed up for this phone that I have now,” she said. “Now I'm receiving late charges for overdue amounts for this mystery iPhone.''<br /><br />The overdue charges for the iPhone have added up to $340 which Ms Ford said was adding to the financial pressure she was already feeling. “As a single mother of two with a house to pay off, I'm afraid the overdue fees will affect my credit rating,” she said. “I don't understand why it's such a problem; all of the calls were recorded.”<br /><br />A Telstra representative said the charges applied to Ms Ford were still being investigated and she would be contacted shortly. “It appears that the charges may be a result of fraudulent activity,” the representative said. “The customer may have replied to an email or phone call requesting her details.”<br /><br />The representative said all of the charges relating to the iPhone would be waived.<br /> <br /><a href="http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2011/05/19/telstra-91-thousand-dollars-phone-bill-highfields/">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-64368999960163812682010-11-24T13:01:00.001+11:002010-11-24T13:01:25.930+11:00<br><br /><b>Telstra admits to another privacy breach</b><br /><br />Telstra has admitted to breaching the privacy of some of its customers only after being contacted by this website. "Most, if not all, affected customers (less than 3000) have been rung over the past week or so," said Telstra spokesman Craig Middleton.<br /><br />Those affected were using Telstra's Tribe service, a platform which aggregates social media including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Some customers' social networking sites that were accessed using Tribe could be accessed by other Tribe customers, Telstra said.<br /><br />After being contacted by this website, Telstra published a blog post announcing the breach. "This is just so that people who read [the] story can find out info from us," Mr Middleton said<br /><br />Telstra recently came under fire for being investigated by both the communications and privacy watchdogs after it sent out 220,000 letters that contained account information belonging to other customers.<br /><br />It also came under fire in April, when technology website ZDNet Australia reported it breaching the privacy of 700 customers.<br />Advertisement: Story continues below<br /><br />"I’m accountable for Telstra’s approach to social media and all that goes with it. The good, the bad and the downright unfortunate," said Telstra's Kristen Boschma in the blog post.<br /><br />"So I need to tell you something went awry with a service we offer called Tribe," she said. "We found a fault in the security for our Tribe service. Some customers’ pages could be accessed by other customers. We discovered instances where customers would have had the ability to access other customers’ Tribe accounts. In a couple of cases we were also contacted by customers to say that they received a Tribe alert meant for another user.<br /><br />"To Telstra it is unacceptable that a customer’s privacy might be breached."<br /><br />Boschma said Telstra has taken "direct and immediate action" to rectify the problem. "We suspended Tribe for a couple of days while we fixed it," she said. "It’s now back up and working like it’s meant to and we’ve already tried calling most affected customers directly. We’re continuing to contact all remaining affected customers. "Sorry for any inconvenience, this is not want we want for our customers but I’m glad the service has been restored."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/telstra-admits-to-another-privacy-breach-20101123-185h7.html">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-22317228358839224542010-11-23T13:51:00.001+11:002010-11-24T13:02:07.415+11:00<br><br /><b>Phone and internet users lodged millions of complaints in 2010</b><br /><br /><i>As the big gorilla of the industry, Telstra would be responsible for most of these</i><br /><br />MILLIONS of angry phone and internet users with hang ups about their providers are struggling to get problems fixed, new research claims. <br /><br />A staggering one in two customers have had a telco gripe in the past year, a survey has found. And one in three who experienced a problem - equivalent to 2.3 million Australians - were unhappy with how their complaint was handled, according to the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.<br /><br />Technical glitches, sloppy customer service, billing and complaint resolution topped nominated telco problems. A huge spike in complaints to the industry ombudsman has triggered a major federal inquiry that is due to report in early 2011.<br /><br />But ACCAN policy director Elissa Freeman said the record 230,000 annual complaints that sparked the probe were just the tip of the iceberg. Ms Freeman said most frustrated consumers gave up on taking unresolved woes further.<br /><br />Communications Alliance chief John Stanton said the industry was working hard to improve customer service, and was revising consumer protections. Mr Stanton said complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman fell 23 per cent last financial year after a peak a year earlier.<br /><br />The New Galaxy research commissioned by ACCAN polled 1100 people early this month.<br /><br />ACCAN is pushing for new mandatory standards to force telcos to respond to customer complaints sooner, reduce call waiting times, and help customers in financial hardship.<br /><br />Upset customers who have made submissions to the Australian Communications and Media Authority inquiry include a businesswoman who said her Telstra number was shut down and given away because of an ``inexplicable error".<br /><br />She then reportedly spent one to two hours on the line and was repeatedly transferred to different operators in a vain attempt for assistance.<br /><br /> <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/phone-and-internet-users-lodged-millions-of-complaints-in-2010/story-e6frf7kx-1225959280972">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-18933715807044770722010-09-20T11:37:00.001+10:002010-09-20T11:40:38.972+10:00<br><br /><b>Telcos try to shift blame to customers</b><br /><br />TELCOS are blaming technology-challenged customers for the surge in complaints about phone and internet services. The Communications Alliance and the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association - representing the nation's telcos - have admitted to a government inquiry that "there are problems in areas of customer management".<br /><br /><img src="http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2010/09/19/1225926/421712-kim-holley.jpg"><br /><br />Gold Coast software engineer Kim Holley [above] has no trouble keeping up with the technology; her beef with Telstra BigPond is over a simple billing error.<br /><br />Every month since March, Ms Holley has been charged a late payment fee for her internet account, even though her bills are direct-debited to her credit card. "I've probably spent at least two hours per month on this issue and I really would love to bill them for my time," she said yesterday.<br /><br />"It's more the annoyance because I have a very busy travelling schedule for work, which is why I set up direct debit in the first place, and the bigger risk is they could turn off my service while I'm overseas."<br /><br />Ms Holley said call centre staff assured her each time that the problem had been fixed. "Then it happens again, but every time I phone they have no record of me having called about the problem previously. I shouldn't have to explain the entire problem to them over and over and over again."<br /><br />Telstra's director of customer service and satisfaction, Jules Scarlett, yesterday said Ms Holley's case would be investigated urgently. <i>[Isn't publicity wonderful?]</i><br /><br />Complaints against Telstra fell from 31,255 in the three months to September last year to 21,270 in the three months to June, she said. Telstra's share of industry complaints had dropped from 51 per cent to 45 per cent during 2009-10. "But this number is still too high so we're focused on making the improvements needed to simplify our business and better serve our customer," she said.<br /><br />Industry-wide, complaints about phone and internet services fell 6 per cent last financial year, ending a seven-year cycle of soaring complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. The Ombudsman fielded 215,154 complaints from consumers in the year to June, down from a record 230,000 in 2008-09, according to confidential data provided to the industry.<br /><br />Despite the fall, complaints have more than doubled in three years, and quadrupled in a decade. And as customers often complain about more than one problem - such as the failure to rectify an initial billing error - the number of issues totalled 481,418 in 2008-09.<br /><br />ACMA has threatened to regulate unless the telco industry improves its customer service through the existing voluntary self-regulatory code of conduct.<br /><br />More <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/telcos-shift-blame-to-customers/story-e6frg6nf-1225926419634">HERE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-22845854163988045802010-09-06T09:11:00.001+10:002010-09-06T09:11:31.398+10:00<br><br /><b>Telecommunications regulator tackles telcos over poor service</b><br /><br /><i>Telcos are threatened with binding standards as customers make four complaints every minute. And as the big gorilla of the industry, this applies particularly to Telstra</i><br /><br />PHONE companies' slack service to customers is unacceptable and they need to "do much better".<br /><br />The Australian Communications and Media Authority has warned it will impose binding standards for customer service unless the industry improves its self-regulatory code of conduct, The Australian reports.<br /><br />Authority chairman Chris Chapman said the existing poor standard of customer service was unacceptable. Mr Chapman said telecom customers' "exasperation and frustration" was shown by the "unacceptable trend line" in consumer complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.<br /><br />The ombudsman has been receiving complaints about billing, faults and connections of landlines, mobile and internet services at the rate of 1850 issues every weekday - or nearly four per minute.<br /><br />"The banks used to be like this, but have lifted their performance over the past 10 years," Mr Chapman said yesterday. "I'm saying to the telco industry, your time has come." The telcos' customer service "is unacceptable and they've got to do much better".<br /><br />The telecommunications industry is reviewing its three-year-old consumer protection code, which will require ACMA's approval next year.<br /><br />At the same time, Mr Chapman said, if ACMA chose to impose its standards on the industry, telcos could be penalised for poor service. "We will invoke a standard in the event the code didn't provide sufficient consumer safeguards," he said. The standard would "open up telcos to a whole raft of enforcement possibilities". There would be a dramatic increase and toughening of the sanctions that existed under the voluntary code, he said.<br /><br />Mr Chapman condemned the industry for failing to enforce its existing code of conduct. And he called for a "paradigm shift" in the way telcos treat their customers. "At the moment there is a disconnect between the provisions of the code and the outcomes, and the outcomes aren't good enough," he said.<br /><br />"The future communications environment is going to be even more complicated than in recent times. "The industry will have to be even more creative and clever in the way it looks after customers."<br /><br />The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network said yesterday the telcos' existing industry code was "not worth the paper it's written on". "We need a commitment from the industry that it is prepared to comply with the code and issue public reports on its performance," acting chief executive Teresa Corbin said.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/business/telecommunications-regulator-tackles-telcos-over-poor-service/story-e6frfm1i-1225914576084">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-33892012648821166192010-07-28T13:28:00.002+10:002010-07-28T13:31:06.941+10:00<br><br /><b>Telstra fined $19m for blocking wholesale rivals</b><br /><br /><i>The claim that this was not deliberate is one of the biggest heaps of bovine dung that I have ever encountered</i><br /><br />TELSTRA has been slapped with an $18.5 million fine for blocking its rivals from installing broadband equipment at its telephone exchanges.<br /><br />An 18-month long federal court case came to its conclusion this morning after Justice John Middleton found Telstra contravened the Trade Practices Act and its carrier licence conditions on 27 occasions between July 2006 and April 2008.<br /><br />The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was seeking a fine of $34m to be imposed on the telco giant, alleging Telstra’s senior management ranks had knowingly conspired to deny its wholesale customers such as Optus and iiNet access to install equipment in seven lucrative metropolitan telephony exchanges.<br /><br />Under standard obligations, Telstra is legally required to allow access to its telephone exchanges so that competitors can install equipment to provide new voice and broadband offerings for customers.<br /><br />Justice Middleton found that no such conspiracy had existed. “I reject any suggestion that the contraventions occurred as a result of any implicit or express direction from the then chief executive of Telstra to all Telstra employees to make access to competitors difficult,” Justice Middleton said in his judgement.<br /><br />Telstra admitted in July last year that it was guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct in denying competitors access to its copper network -- but said the breaches were a result of the "chaotic bureaucracy" of the business rather than a deliberate ploy to disadvantage its competitors.<br /><br />The contraventions -- of which there were 30 separate alleged incidents -- carried a maximum penalty of up to $10m each but Justice Middleton gave Telstra a discount on each breach.<br /><br />"I have also given a greater discount for cooperation, acceptance of responsibility and for voluntarily implementing a compliance program,” he said.<br /><br />Telstra won't appeal the decision. The telco vowed to improve business processes.<br /><br />"Since the start of the case, we have acknowledged that mistakes were made. We accept the judgment which has been handed down. We will not be appealing," a Telstra spokesman said.<br /><br />"Since these events occurred, Telstra has taken proactive steps to improve our processes in this area, and more generally, to improve service to our wholesale customers.<br /><br />"We have learned a lot as a result of this process and like many changes at Telstra, we are endeavouring to improve our performance."<br /><br />He said Telstra had cooperated with the ACCC on its investigation and implemented improved monitoring, processes and training.<br /><br />As a result, no new exchanges have been capped since April 2008, the spokesman said.<br /><br />Despite Telstra's penalty the telco's rivals were not entirely pleased with the outcome and reiterated the need for the government to pass legislation aimed at curbing the telco's market dominance.<br /><br />"This is an example of anti-competitive behaviour from Telstra that the Government’s reform package is designed to stop at its source," Optus director of Government and Corporate Affairs Maha Krishnapillai said.<br /><br />"Telstra has a very real ability to act unfairly under the present regulatory system, however the damage is done long before Telstra faces any penalties for its actions."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/telecommunications/telstra-fined-19m-for-blocking-wholesale-rivals/story-fn4iyzsr-1225897956936"><br />Source</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-37521239269094723252010-04-21T16:52:00.000+10:002010-04-21T16:53:10.293+10:00<b>Regulator to get tougher on phone companies</b><br /><br /><i>Telstra abuses a big factor behind the change</i><br /><br />TELEPHONE, mobile and internet providers will face hefty fines for breaching tough new customer service standards that will replace cumbersome voluntary industry codes.<br /><br />Amendments to the Telecommunications Act will give the Australian Communications and Media Authority power to write consumer protection regulations and issue penalties of up to $250,000 for corporations and $50,000 for individuals in breach of the standards.<br /><br />At the moment ACMA can issue infringement notices to broadcasters, but only has power to issue a formal warning to telecommunications companies before pursuing matters through the courts.<br /><br />The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said the changes would stem the flow of complaints made to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman; there had been a 118 per cent increase in customer service complaints last year.<br /><br />The chairman of ACMA, Chris Chapman, said he would begin a formal inquiry into customer service in the telecommunications sector to "shine a strong light on complaints handling and the unresponsiveness of the industry to its customers".<br /><br />He said codes developed by the industry took too long to develop and were cumbersome to change, leaving customers exposed to bad or deceptive service. <br /><br /><i>Telstra at work</i><br /><br />An overzealous Telstra salesman nearly cost Sue Abbott, of Scone, $1400 after he convinced her to upgrade her mobile phone last year. But instead of the better deal she was promised, Ms Abbott promptly saw her bills double, including charges for a data plan she did not want or need.<br /><br />Ms Abbott complained to Telstra, which caused her to run up even higher bills as she was "either left on hold or shipped around the world". "I would ring and try and explain my predicament and no-one listened. No one ever rang me back when I asked them to, or even offered to."<br /><br />After a nine-month impasse, Telstra contacted Ms Abbott last week to say the charges would be erased from her account. <br /><br />She said the inquiry was long overdue. "We're so in the dark about what the telcos can do," she said.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/regulator-rings-the-changes-for-telcos-20100420-srrb.html">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-2092009853488175462010-04-19T12:55:00.000+10:002010-04-19T12:56:08.420+10:00<b>Fleeing customers dent Telstra revenues</b><br /><br /><i>And it's no wonder customers are fleeing. Just ask almost any Telstra customer who has had problems with them</i><br /><br />TELSTRA is unlikely to meet its current revenue forecasts, analysts have warned as they highlighted a decline in customer numbers as the company's biggest challenge.<br /><br />Analysts and investors say declining customer revenue is a more significant threat to Telstra's long-term revenue than the proposed national broadband network. They are urging the company to cut retail prices to arrest customer attrition.<br /><br />Telstra's cash flow was likely to be $400 million less than forecast this financial year, at $5.6 billion, a Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst, Christian Guerra, said in a research note.<br /><br />His forecast is based on the decline in fixed-line customers and uncompetitive mobile and broadband plans. "The [first half of 2009-10 financial year] result highlighted some of the most concerning operating trends seen in Telstra's recent history," Mr Guerra said.<br /><br />Its mobile phone plans were the least competitive, and its customer growth declined by 83,000 in the last six months last year. "Telstra's dilemma is clear. It does not want to lower its mobile pricing to accelerate the shift of high-margin traffic away from its fixed network and onto Australia's three mobile networks," Mr Guerra said.<br /><br />Telstra's recent attempts to improve fixed and wireless broadband packages would slow customer attrition rates, but the prices were still uncompetitive, he added.<br /><br />On December 18 Telstra warned sales revenue in 2009-10 would be lower than previously forecast because customers were leaving its fixed phone and broadband services faster than expected.<br /><br />But the long-term trend was a more significant threat to Telstra's long-term profitability than the government's proposed broadband network, said a Perennial Growth partner, Richard Macdougall.<br /><br />Institutional investors could expect Telstra's share price to weaken further if it does not make a deal with NBN Co, because that would add even more uncertainty to the company's future.<br /><br />The government has threatened to forcibly split Telstra's retail network, divest its interest in Foxtel and deny it wireless spectrum if it does not migrate its fixed line traffic to the national broadband network.<br /><br />Mr Guerra said a deal with the government was nearing and this could boost Telstra's share price.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the Federal Court in Melbourne will hear a case this morning between Telstra and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on alleged breaches of the Trade Practices Act and Telecommunications Act.<br /><br />The regulator alleges Telstra denied its competitors access to seven metropolitan exchanges to connect equipment to customer homes.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/fleeing-customers-dent-telstra-revenues-20100418-smlh.html">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-72712793104810305002010-01-16T10:35:00.002+11:002010-01-16T10:44:25.172+11:00<b>UN-bl**dy-believable!</b><br /><br />Telstra is steadily REDUCING its services to its Bigpond customers. First they cancelled the webspace they provided as part of a cable subscription deal. That was high-handed enough but they have now cancelled another service. <br /><br />It was for years possible to access your Hotmail account via Outlook express. But no more. That option has been out of service for months but I thought it must be a result of something I had done. Not so. I eventually got around to emailing Bigpond technical support about it and below is the emailed reply that I got:<br /><blockquote>"We apologise for the inconvenience that you are experiencing and we understand your concern.<br /><br />BigPond email accounts use the Post Office Protocol (POP3) protocol.<br /><br />This protocol is incompatible with Hotmail. Hotmail uses a non-standard protocol for retrieving email, which is not compatible with all providers. Therefore, BigPond Technical Support does not support retrieving email using this method. However, we can refer you to one of our third party industrial partners called Gizmo. They support a wide range of products and services, including the issue that you are currently experiencing. Please be advised that they do charge a fee from a credit card however, will only do so if they fix your problem - if they are unable to then you won't be charged anything."</blockquote><br />Do they run Gizmo? I wouldn't be surprised<br /><br>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-89267068440450932762009-12-06T12:46:00.000+11:002010-01-16T12:47:52.078+11:00<b>letter to David Thodey, CEO, Telstra</b><br /><br />Thank you for your response to my letter to you and Ms Livingstone. You did get me some high-class attention from your staff<br /><br />Sadly, however, most of the problem persists. Your staff did find the conditions under which I COULD upload to a BigBlog photo gallery but they are rather mad. I can upload only if:<br /><br />1). I use the IE8 browser<br /><br />2). I have the latest version of Java loaded<br /><br />There are MANY photo hosting sites on the net and NONE of them have those restrictions. The restrictions are pure BigPond brainlessness.<br /><br />About a third of Australians use the Firefox browser for a start and that is excluded by your very limited facility<br /><br />May I suggest that the BigPond programmers need new blood? Someone should be fired if they cannot even manage a photo uploading facility of normal usefulness<br /><br>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-14607887405827210112009-11-23T12:25:00.001+11:002009-11-23T12:25:32.422+11:00<b>A typical Telstra experience</b><br /><br /><i>I too have got this sort of "service". One overseas helpline operator could not understand what I was saying at all so just hung up on me. Sheer arrogance. I should have been referred to someone higher up, preferably back in Australia</i><br /><br />Like most horror stories, this one begins with an everyday setting where the familiar gradually gives way to the sinister. The first harbinger of the pain to come, not recognised at the time, was a letter sent out to me and millions of other Australians on July 20 by Ramon Gregory, "Executive Director, Customer Sales and Service", at Telstra, Australia's largest service company. This places Gregory at the centre of an enormous commercial machine, with huge databases, thousands of operators in call centres, and billions of customer inquiries recorded with Orwellian efficiency.<br /><br />A study of the conditions in call centres conducted by Ruth Barton of RMIT University, released last week, found high stress levels and oppressive management control, as call centres field an average of 16 million calls a day.<br /><br />Ramon Gregory's letter was also oppressive. It announced that people who paid their Telstra bill by return mail, or in person, or by credit card, would in future be charged a $2.20 "payment administration fee". He suggested various ways to avoid the fee, which actually did not avoid the fee at all. The letter was so infuriating and so poorly drafted that Telstra customers made their displeasure known in an outbreak of spontaneous combustion. Telstra rescinded the fee earlier this month.<br /><br />But the company's latent aggression remains. Last Wednesday, my internet service was cut off by Telstra even though I have paid my bills on time, year-in, year-out, with a Telstra home phone account, and a Telstra cable account, and a Foxtel account. My bank statement shows Telstra banked my latest cheque on October 19. I had assumed I would be treated as a valued customer and notified before any drastic, summary action took place. How naive.<br /><br />Telstra has shown, repeatedly, that it does not grasp the concept of political and consumer blowback. That's why the Rudd Government is destroying Telstra's market value, and why I have the Telstra support number, 133 933, programmed into my mobile phone, because losing service is part of the Telstra experience.<br /><br />When I called Telstra's inquiry number at 9am last Wednesday, I got a "consultant" called Craig. When he turned out to be a drama queen, I began taking notes. When I suggested that Telstra should have contacted me before taking such draconian action, given my long history of reliability, Craig threw a tantrum. "You can't expect us to send out 50,000 notices to people," he said. Yes, I do. It's part of the service.<br /><br />"You have to step up to the plate!" Craig replied. "It's your responsibility!" I asked him why he was treating me like a retard. He directed me to "credit management". I called credit management and got a message: "All our operators are busy. You have been placed in a queue." I was not surprised.<br /><br />A heavily-accented young man came on the line and gave his name as "Matt". I realised I had been directed to a call centre in India when Matt insisted my name was not Sheehan. After he had called me "Mr Goodhope" three times I hung up.<br /><br />The next operator was "Beau". He, too, was Indian, and simply not coherent. I politely abandoned the call and tried again. Next on the line was "Chari", another Indian. He was the first person I could describe as pleasant and competent that day. He set up a direct debit payment system for future bills, took care of the small outstanding amount, and thanked me for the call, the first of the five Telstra operators to do so. He said my service would be quickly restored.<br /><br />It was not. It was still blocked the next day. And so the merry-go-round resumed. I was directed to technical support, because the billing department said there was no problem. A technician told me to switch off my modem and then try again. That did not work.<br /><br />I called the original number again. Another heavily accented operator eventually responded. Her name was "Marie". "Are you in Australia?" I asked. "No," she replied. She told me I could not have my service restored because my account had not been paid. "You need to speak to the billing department." I told her I had spoken to the billing department at great length. She was adamant.<br /><br />I called the billing department and Kirsty came on the line. She was working from a call centre on the Gold Coast. When I explained that she was the eighth person I had spoken to in two days, and my account was fully paid, she put me on hold and got someone further up the food chain. When she came back, she said the problem was a "shadow" payment system, which was showing my account to be inoperative. Kirsty was a pleasure to deal with, and restored my service.<br /><br />The real problem was not the shadow payment system. It was the incompetent Indian call centre operators, and it was Telstra's attitude towards its customers. Nothing of my experience will show up on Telstra's key performance indicators.<br /><br />And Ramon Gregory, it turns out, is yet another American brought in to run Australia's service giant. That explains his tin ear. I received another letter from him on Friday: "Telstra is reinventing the home phone," he proclaimed. He was selling an upgrade called the Telstra T-Hub. I'm interested in going in exactly the opposite direction - getting rid of the Telstra fixed line altogether. And that's just the start.<br /><br />By the standards of global telco giants, Telstra is an efficient, productive enterprise, but you have to ask at what cost to us, the people who used to own the company, and are now the company's serfs?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/your-call-is-important-to-us-20091122-isqh.html">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-76504260597136976772009-11-05T11:31:00.002+11:002010-01-16T10:52:41.778+11:00<b>Bungled computerization worsens service</b><br /><br />TELSTRA chief David Thodey admitted at the company's annual general meeting today that the telco's multi-billion dollar IT transformation project had stymied its ability to change prices on its products.<br /><br />The admission came as one angry shareholder lambasted the board for having broadband prices that were way out of whack with the market.<br /><br />The shareholder said he was no longer a Telstra customer because of the high prices and the company’s policy of allowing excess data charges on some plans to be unlimited, rather than sharply cutting or ‘shaping’ data transmission rates when a customer exceeded their plan’s allowance.<br /><br />Mr Thodey reiterated a statement made last week at the company's update for investors that broadband price cuts were imminent and said the company’s ability to chop and change price plans had been constrained by its transformation project that began back in 2005 under former CEO Sol Trujillo. “For 12 months we have been unable to put new prices in the market due to the transformation," said Mr Thodey.<br /><br />The pricing problems have hurt the company’s ability to grow market share. Fixed-line internet sales growth dropped from 20.5 per cent last year to 13.3 per cent this year.<br /><br />Broadband shoppers don’t have to do much digging to find broadband deals far cheaper than Telstra.<br /><br />A broadband customer after a fast ADSL2+ link with a data allowance geared to heavy use would pay $99.95 a month under current Telstra pricing for a 25GB per month data allowance, shaped to 64K once the cap was broken. Competitors have been offering far sharper pricing. As an example, ISP TPG advertises an ADSL2+ link with a 90GB allowance for $89.99 a month, shaped to 256K if exceeded.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26304628-15306,00.html">Source</a><br /><br>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-82860546608384103512009-11-03T11:11:00.000+11:002009-11-03T11:12:54.924+11:00<b>Marathon gripe heading for Telstra AGM</b><br /><br />A NSW man, tired of waiting more than eight years for a refund from Telstra, will confront the telco's annual general meeting in Sydney tomorrow to demand the issue be resolved.<br /><br />Alastair Marshall has had little luck over the years but with a new Telstra boss onboard, he is feeling confident David Thodey could go where Sol Trujillo and Ziggy Switkowski would not.<br /><br />More than two months ago Mr Marshall decided to air his grievances directly to Mr Thodey, who since taking the hot seat has pledged to focus on customer satisfaction.<br /><br />Mr Thodey says he reads every customer complaint that lands on his desk.<br /><br />Lengthy email correspondence between Mr Marshall and Mr Thodey, obtained by The Australian, reveals that the chief executive has personally intervened in the matter.<br /><br />Since they both first communicated, however, discussions have reached a stalemate and Mr Marshall is frustrated that Mr Thodey has not been able to settle the matter.<br /><br />The story began in January 2001 when Mr Marshall was trying to obtain a residential internet service to his home in the suburb of Hall, on the NSW-ACT border.<br /><br />He was advised he would need a separate telephone line to connect to the internet.<br /><br />After waiting and complaining to Telstra for more than 29 months, the company finally came to the conclusion that Mr Marshall did not require the extra line but still billed him for the service.<br /><br />Subsequently, on August 6, 2003, Mr Marshall was offered a full refund of $1208, but there was a catch.<br /><br />"We accepted the refund offer and agreed to Telstra's promise of our ISDN internet installation within 10 days," he said.<br /><br />"However, Telstra said the amount would be given to us as credit. We paid them hard cash, so this was not acceptable."<br /><br />It took nearly three years before the ISDN service was finally installed as "technical issues with the phone line and exchange" complicated matters, he said.<br /><br />Mr Marshall then continued to push Telstra for a settlement and was offered $3560, but was told it also would be in the form of credit.<br /><br />In 2006, when Mr Trujillo was at the helm, Telstra made an offer of $5000 to settle the matter, but the cheque never arrived, Mr Marshall said.<br /><br />"After David Thodey became the new chief executive in June, he announced a new high priority for resolving customer problems. I thought this was a departure from the old mob," Mr Marshall said.<br /><br />In mid-August, he raised his problems directly with Mr Thodey, who he described as "quite pleasant, humble and even apologetic" in their initial phone conversation.<br /><br />By the end of August, Mr Thodey had made an offer of $8000 but that was rejected as inadequate.<br /><br />"If you miss paying your Telstra account, within a week it's a $30 late fee plus a $20 administration fee and 22 per cent interest daily," Mr Marshall said, choosing to not to comment on an acceptable amount.<br /><br />Mr Marshall has compiled copious amounts of documentation with Telstra and feels the offer is not fair, although Telstra begs to differ. "We have made a genuine effort to reach a fair outcome with Mr Marshall including offering him what most people would consider a very generous goodwill gesture back in August when David became personally involved," a Telstra spokesman said.<br /><br />"We aim to resolve customer concerns as quickly as possible, but not all cases are black and white and in Mr Marshall's situation we feel we've exhausted all reasonable options."<br /><br />Mr Marshall said he had been left with no choice but to pursue the matter at the AGM.<br /><br />He continues to be a Telstra internet subscriber.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26296104-15306,00.html">Source</a><br /><br>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-13710464235172047792009-10-28T13:53:00.001+11:002009-10-28T13:55:14.852+11:00<b>Telstra to cut prices on broadband</b><br /><br /><i>All of the below is good to hear but colour me skeptical about its implementation</i><br /><br />TELSTRA has flagged price reductions for its broadband products and services as it fights to maintain market share in the highly competitive sector.<br /><br />Chief executive David Thodey said price cuts were "imminent" as the telco wanted to compete aggressively on broadband offerings. "In some parts of the market we've gone too far out of line and we need to come back," he told an investor briefing.<br /><br />Telstra's most recent annual results showed a drop in fixed broadband takeup, but its wireless broadband revenue grew by 69.2 per cent to $587 million.<br /><br />A strong focus of Mr Thodey's presentation to investors was improving customer service. "We must focus on our core business and our customers, this is where we create value for shareholders," he said.<br /><br />"At its simplest, the next stage in Telstra's long-term strategy is to focus on satisfying customers, invest in new capabilities, and drive growth in new businesses."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,26271835-31037,00.html"><br />Source</a><br /><br>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-61981644554766022692009-09-28T10:38:00.001+10:002009-09-28T10:39:54.844+10:00<b>Telstra customers need to know this</b><br /><br />ZERO is the hero which can give you back hours of your life by reducing time spent on hold by as much as 70 per cent.<br /><br />Despite dwelling at the bottom of the keypad, it has been revealed that the humble 0 is at the top of the dial pile when it comes to fighting the dreaded automated phone "services".<br /><br />It was in researching a cheat sheet to help readers beat interactive voice response (IVR) systems that The Daily Telegraph discovered the Power of None.<br /><br />We found that when ringing Optus, pressing zero four times reduced the amount of time required to reach a real person to as little as 36 seconds.<br /><br />By comparison, following the menu took more than two minutes. That's a time saving of 70 per cent.<br /><br />The nought (dialled seven times) also stopped us getting caught on the line to St George, cutting the wait from over five minutes to 2 min 44 sec.<br /><br />Whether it was AGL or the Commonwealth Bank, AAPT or Country Energy, "0" was the way to go if you simply wanted to speak to a human being.<br /><br />The revelation is sure to anger big business and government, which have shelled out billions on systems seemingly designed to annoy the hell out of users.<br /><br />But the real aim is to cut costs.<br /><br />Minimising human contact keeps down customer service staff numbers, said Allan Asher, head of ACCAN, the telecommunications consumer organisation.<br /><br />Cheat sheet<br /><br />AGL: Press 0 three times<br /><br />Centrelink: Press 0 at each prompt<br /><br />Energy Australia: Press 0 then wait<br /><br />Jetstar: Press 1 then 1<br /><br />Telstra: Press 0 seven times <br /><br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,26133990-5014239,00.html">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-11050597904980250962009-09-15T20:22:00.000+10:002009-09-22T13:29:07.822+10:00<b>TO: CEO, Telstra</b><br /><br />Dear Sir,<br /><br />I have just spent about half an hour wending my way through the maze that is required for me to recharge my mobile prepaid A/c online. At the end this is the message I got:<br /><br />Mobile Number: 044828xxxx<br /><br /> Thank you. Your Recharge has been successfully processed.<br /><br /> Date: 15-09-2009 12:07 PM<br /> Telstra Pre-Paid Mobile Number: 044828xxxx<br /> Receipt Number: 2582870354<br /> Current Account Balance: $53.93<br /> Credit Expiry Date: 26-11-2009<br /><br />Why was I given only an extra two months to spend the money? The $30 option I selected should have given me a year. Please adjust it.<br /><br />I have tried calling various Telstra help numbers but when I finally got through to an operator he said that there was nothing he could do.<br /><br />I have in total wasted half of my morning on this<br /><br />Yours disgustedly<br /><br />Dr John Ray<br /><br /><b>Update 22 Sept.</b><br /><br />I have just got a call from a PR person admitting that Telstra goofed but she had no idea why the fault occurred and seemed uninterested in finding out why until I threatened to raise the matter with the TIO. I extracted a promise for an investigation and follow-up letter. <br /><br>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-4572725080644107512009-09-15T11:08:00.002+10:002009-09-15T11:11:29.102+10:00<b>Telstra will be forced to split by Government</b><br /><br /><i>Anything that cuts Telstra down to size sounds good to me -- JR</i><br /><br />THE Rudd Government has introduced major changes to telecommunications laws, including the separation of Telstra. "Today we are delivering historic reforms in Australia's long term national interest," Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said this morning. "The Government will require the functional separation of Telstra, unless it decides to voluntarily structurally separate."<br /><br />Telstra has been given the choice of voluntarily separating its infrastructure and retail arms in a manner approved by the competition watchdog.<br /><br />If it chooses not to, the legislation will let the Government impose rules on the way it operates.<br /><br />The rules include making sure Telstra charges other companies a fair price to access its network.<br /><br />Telstra will also be prevented from moving into advanced wireless broadband unless it separates and divests its cable broadband and Foxtel assets. "These reforms will address Telstra's high level of integration to promote greater competition and consumer benefits," Senator Conroy said.<br /><br />The changes, included in an update to the Telecommunications Act, will be tabled in Parliament today.<br /><br />Senator Conroy said Telstra and the Government had already been in talks about the move. "Telstra are very constructively engaged in discussions with us already," Senator Conroy said. "They were very well prepared already when we had our first meeting."<br /><br />The Government was flexible on how Telstra may choose to separate, he said. "The Government maintains an open mind on how structural separation may be achieved," he said. "It may include a new company Telstra that may transfer some of its fixed-line assets to."<br /><br />Senator Conroy said previous governments of both persuasions had failed to address telecommunications reform. "The measures in this legislation will finally correct the mistakes of the past," he said.<br /><br />Telstra has previously strongly resisted moves to separate its infrastructure and retail arms.<br /><br />The new laws will also give more power to the competition watchdog and the communications minister to protect consumers and issue warnings to telcos. A new Universal Service Obligation will ensure "all people in Australia to have reasonable access on an equitable basis to standard telephone services".<br /><br />It will also regulate the removal of payphones and include serious penalties – up to $10 million – for Telstra if it fails to comply.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,26075552-5014239,00.html">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-89215545068947942542009-09-04T16:30:00.002+10:002009-09-04T16:35:55.904+10:00<b>Telstra technical bungle takes a life</b><br /><br /><i>A clear case of a system breakdown. Emergency calls are supposed to be allowed even on a phone that is otherwise limited in some way. In this case the emergency exemption was clearly not operational and she got the normal "piss off" message</i><br /><br />Perth lawyer John Hammond has called for a coronal inquiry into the death of Karl Feifar after his partner was unable to get through to the emergency 000 service on her home phone.<br /><br />Kathleen Clarke today told 6PR radio that her partner collapsed around 10.30pm on May 29, and when she tried to call emergency services three times on her Telstra home phone she got a recorded message saying "this number is not available from this service".<br /><br />She then spent 10 minutes running to a neighbour's house for help, before remembering she had a work mobile phone in her car and eventually getting through to 000.<br /><br />She performed CPR on her partner while she waited for a St John's ambulance officers, who took a further 20 minutes to arrive at their Orelia home. By this stage the 36-year-old "looked dead".<br /><br />He died from a cardiac arrest in hospital later that evening. "I wholly believe that the first 10 minutes did take his life," Ms Clarke said.<br /><br />In a written statement, Telstra spokesman Craig Middelton said: "Mrs Clarke has our deepest sympathies for the tragic loss of her husband and Telstra will endeavour to continue talking to Mrs Clarke about the circumstances.<br /><br />"We have conducted a high-level investigation of the situation and have found no faults with the service to the Clarke home or the 000 service, which manages more than 10 million calls per year.<br /><br />"We also did not find any calls from Mrs Clarke's home phone made directly to 000." <i>[Of course you didn't: Your system was malfunctioning!!]</i><br /><br />Ms Clarke's Telstra home phone is set up on a pre-paid style plan known as an InContact service, but it is meant to allow 000 calls. Mr Middleton confirmed the 000 service should be a free call from any fixed or mobile phone.<br /><br />Her contract states that Telstra would accept liability for breaching their contract or committing negligence if it caused personal injury or death.<br /><br />Ms Clarke is now looking to sue the communications company, but she is waiting for the telecommunications ombudsman to conclude its investigation, including getting a clear explanation from Telstra about their actions.<br /><br />"We would fully cooperate with an independent investigation into the facts," Mr Middleton said. "It would be inappropriate for us to debate the facts in the media."<br /><br />Mr Hammond today lashed out at Telstra's actions, saying Ms Clarke had a valid case to sue for negligence.<br /><br />"Her husband had collapsed on the floor. It was an outrageous suggestion to put to someone like that, and it was treating Kathleen with contempt, in my view, to put it to her that she never actually called 000," Mr Hammond said.<br /><br />Ms Clarke said her partner's eight-year-old daughter just wants her father back.<br /><br />"She's very distressed, she doesn't understand, she leaves him notes around the home everyday asking for him to come back," she said.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Opposition health spokesman Roger Cook has called for a full parliamentary inquiry into the matter, criticising the slow response times to the emergency by St John's Ambulance.<br /><br />"It is clear that St John Ambulance is not meeting community expectations and does not have the resources to do the job," he said.<br /><br />"When a vehicle finally arrived, the staff started to work on Mr Feifar but advised Kathleen that they were waiting for another ambulance crew to come."<br /><br />A Parliamentary Committee hearing has confirmed that at least another 50 full-time paramedics are needed in WA.<br /><br />"Kathleen and her daughter deserve answers and a full parliamentary inquiry is the only way to ensure that all cases are investigated thoroughly and that people are able to give evidence with the full protection of the Parliament," Mr Cook said. <br /><br />Mr Feifar won a gold medal representing Australia at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics in the 4X100m relay and he went on to be awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to sport.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/calls-for-inquest-into-000-tragedy-20090903-f9cc.html">Source</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-56833090125592284242009-08-18T13:40:00.002+10:002009-08-18T13:45:58.867+10:00<b>Amazing impudence: Telstra fined for phoning 'do not call' list</b><br /><br />TELSTRA has been fined more than $100,000 by the Federal Government after it admitted making unsolicited phone calls to numbers on the 'Do Not Call Register'.<br /><br />The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) received numerous complaints after the telco made calls to people on the register in 2008.<br /><br />According to ACMA, an investigation found "inadequate compliance systems, procedures and supervision had contributed to calls being made to numbers on the Register where the consumers were not existing Telstra customers". Telstra admitted to the breaches and was fined $101,200.<br /><br />"The ACMA expects large businesses like Telstra to be leading the way and setting an example when it comes to compliance with the Do Not Call Register – not falling behind," ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said in a statement. "The market leaders in the telco industry should consider themselves soundly on notice – size and complexity are no excuse for non-compliant practice." <br /><br />Mr Chapman said Telstra has since paid the fine. "Telstra has paid the infringement notice, acknowledged that there is work to do, and is now setting about fixing these issues," Mr Chapman said.<br /><br />The Do Not Call Register was launched in 2007 with 3.5 million phone numbers currently listed. ACMA said it had received 12057 complaints between May 2008 and May 2009, a drop from 2007 figures.<br /><br />A Telstra spokesman apoligised for the company's behaviour. "Obviously, we are sorry that it happened, it shouldn't have happened and we have been working cooperatively with ACMA to put in a range of measures to stop it happening again," the spokesman said. "It was a combination of human error and a breakdown of our strict processes." <i>[Strict processes?? That's a laugh!]</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25946624-953,00.html">SOURCE</a><br /><br>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-69051771880384472102009-08-06T10:10:00.004+10:002009-08-06T10:13:29.967+10:00<b>The Gorilla Telco again</b><br /><br /><i>Telstra admits denying access</i><br /><br />TELSTRA could face a fine of up to $300 million after admitting to the Federal Court it was guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct in denying competitors access to its copper network.<br /><br />It is understood Telstra made the startling admission in a defence filing lodged with the Federal Court on July 31. In it, the telco admitted it had failed to comply with its access obligations as outlined under the Telecommunications Act 1997, thereby contravening a condition of its carrier licence.<br /><br />The admission relates to a court case brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in March, which alleges Telstra violated its obligations to users of its unconditioned local loop services and line-sharing services.<br /><br />Under standard obligations, Telstra is legally required to allow access to its telephone exchanges so competitors can install equipment to provide new voice and broadband offerings for customers.<br /><br />The ACCC has said Telstra refused access at seven of its metropolitan exchanges by claiming they were full and there was no capacity left for rivals to install new equipment.<br /><br />The watchdog also alleged Telstra engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by publishing lists of capped exchanges on the Telstra wholesale website.<br /><br />In the March filing, the ACCC said it would seek declarations, pecuniary penalties and injunctions against the telco.<br /><br />The Telecommunications Act says a contravention can carry a penalty of up to $10m per breach. Thirty alleged breaches have been filed, but it is unclear how many of these Telstra has admitted guilt to.<br /><br />The Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday held a directions hearing to gather additional evidence from access seekers before an appropriate penalty could be imposed by the court.<br /><br />The next directions hearing has been set for October 2.<br /><br />Telstra's humbling admission to the ACCC's allegations is in stark contrast to the combative stance the telco adopted under the tutelage of former chief executive Sol Trujillo.<br /><br />But with Mr Trujillo out of the picture, new chief executive David Thodey has moved to clear its legal deck of any embarrassing anti-competitive misdemeanors.<br /><br />Mr Thodey's conciliatory approach has helped mend bridges with the government and comes as the telco is preparing to re-engage the government with its new national broadband network plans.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25890544-15306,00.html">SOURCE</a><br /><br>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5771568920136356035.post-37425360516299029732009-07-21T11:08:00.001+10:002009-07-21T11:08:37.854+10:00<b>The ugly face of Telstra just got uglier</b><br /><br /><i>The new boss of Telstra is clearly no better than the greasy Mexican</i><br /><br />TELSTRA customers who pay their phone bills in person will soon be charged for their efforts. The telco giant yesterday introduced a range of steep fees in an attempt to herd its customers into making online BPAY payments and to eliminate costly face-to-face customer service, The Daily Telegraph reports. <br /><br />The penny-pinching tactic will cost as much as 2 per cent of every bill and is set to save it "several hundred million dollars" a year. From September 14, Telstra will charge a $2.20 administration fee for bills paid by mail or in person at a Telstra Shop or Australia Post. The telco's existing credit card payment processing fee will also rise to 1 per cent of the payment amount for MasterCard, VISA, and American Express cards, and 2 per cent for Diners Club. <br /><br />However, so as not to penalise elderly customers, Telstra will exempt those with a pensioner or disability card from paying the new fees or credit card charges. Telstra Pensioner Discount customers or customers who have already registered their eligible pensioner card details with Telstra for the credit card payment processing fee discount are automatically exempt as are Telstra Disability Equipment Program product customers or those registered for another Telstra Disability Service. <br /><br />All customers who pay their bills through an online savings or cheque account will also be exempt from the fees. <br /><br />The telco said the fees were consistent with industry practice. "Every year we spend hundreds of millions of dollars on billing, which includes processing bill payments, paying third-party billing service providers, answering customers' questions about their bills and operating systems to support billing," Telstra Consumer Executive Director Jenny Young said. "We're introducing or changing our fees for some payment options which incur higher administration costs. "However, Telstra will always be conscious of customers who are experiencing hardship." <br /><br />Ms Young said for customers with more than one Telstra service, the changes represented a chance to move these services on to a single bill to avoid fees if customers choose bill payment options that incur fees. <br /><br />Since taking over Australia's largest telecommunications company in May, chief executive David Thodey talked openly about Telstra's tattered public image which has been crystallised by its increasingly poor customer service. A Telstra spokesman said yesterday the introduction of new payment fees would not contribute to a further erosion of public confidence in the telco. <i>[Who does he think he is kidding?]</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,25810998-462,00.html">SOURCE</a>jonjayrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13363092874281160320noreply@blogger.com0