Telstra Billing Error Apology
Filed under: bill assistance, consumer, customers
When you make a mistake there are a couple of things you can do:
- Ignore it and hope that nobody notices.
- Be upfront and apologise.
When you’re a big company like we are, even the smallest mistake can affect a lot of people. We understand that and we take our responsibilities seriously.
Earlier this week, a number of bills for small amounts were sent out to customers who have cancelled their accounts with us.
We have rules in our billing system that normally stop these accounts being sent – but there was a glitch which impacted on these rules.
It was a mistake and we’re very sorry.
If you’re a customer and you have cancelled your account, and received a bill from us requesting payment of between $0 and $5 please ignore this bill – we don’t expect you to make this payment.
Some other former customers will have received an account advising that they have a credit of between $0 and $10. If you wish to claim this credit, please contact us.
We want all our customers to know that we have reinstated the rule in our billing system to prevent further bills for these small debits and credits being sent.
We can’t undo the mistake, but what we can do is apologise for it, fix it, and do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
So again, please accept our apologies and be assured a fix is in place.
Hi there,
I have just recently received yet another bill at a amount of $3147.70. when i am on a $59 cap. This is the 3rd time now i have had a billing issue. I have used this site before as you can see from previous post but i am wondering why this is still happening. I have only just received the bill via email yet it is due in 2 days.
Please help a angry customer yet again.
Karyn
Hi Karyn. Send me your contact and account details and I will organise for someone to call you. Brendan
I have a business mobile number and have had the service disconnected due to apparent non payment of account, The payment outstanding being a telstra credit that was supposed to have been credited some months ago.
Telsta buisness centre cannot action and calls for getting this sorted out are not getting the required response.
It has been about a week without being able to receive any buisness incoming calls.
Costing me what cannot be calculated in lost business.
Help is required urgently please.
Adam
Hi Telstra,
I am an ex customer now – thank goodness!!!! I was on a home line/broadband bundle and moved over to an Optus bundle a couple of months ago. I was told that I wouldn’t have to contact Telstra to disconnect because my phone would be automatically transferred onto the Optus network. Surprise, surprise, this didn’t happen! I continued to receive bills from Telstra even though I had moved my phone and internet over to Optus. I spoke to a rather rude man from Telstra who told me there was nothing he could do and blamed Optus – Optus blames Telstra! I am caught in the middle and now $280 poorer! I cant afford this!!!!!! Is there anything that can be done to reimburse me?
I rang Telstra to cancel one of our mobiles – we have 24 spread across a few businesses. I spent 18 minutes and 15 seconds waiting on the phone without anyone answering it. David Thodey may have claimed that he was going to improve customer service but it couldn’t be worse! If Telstra wasn’t a monopoly it wouldn’t survive more than a few months. In the past 18 months I have lost hundreds of hours of my time trying to deal with Telstra!
This is the 5th time I have had to resort coming to this complaint site regarding my bill. This is my 5th-6th bill that has been sent to me in error! That is since my 1st bill ever getting this phone!! My last bill was apparently fixed and carried over to the next bill but this bill is just as bad!! $600!!! This is the worse company I have ever signed up with Vodafone was never in error but ever since I switched to Telstra I have been billed extra huge amounts, sent wrong bill amounts every bill and to make or worse since getting my phone on a $59 cap not once have I payed that amt!! A bill that goes from $400-$3000 I received everytime! And everytime I check my emails when I can I have to come through here! A friend suggested I go to fair trading or someone as this is such a burden for me!! This Telstra company is a headache!!! Why should I have to go through all of this just to get a correct bill? Which I still have not received once I have just payed the so called extra charges!! So once again can someone please go through the whole process of correcting this incorrect bill for the 5th time! Thanks
Hi Karyn. I’ll get this investigated for you. Please send me your account and contact details and I’ll get on to it right away. Sorry you have had to put up with this ongoing bill issue. Let’s get it sorted. Brendan
I am fed up and am now taking this to fair trading! as you can see from my post on the 15 May i have been still having trouble with my phone bill. As you can see i had a reply from Brendan saying he would investigate this for me. I was contacted a couple days later by a Manager as she claimed to be by the name of Katarina who gave me the ref number -sr1-94584036844. Who explained that she has wiped all the incorrect billing and this will never happen again and that she would make it so all i had to pay was $59 as per my cap. I was then emailed a correction bill for the amount to be owed $500…and the due date June 13th.. I woke up today to have no acsess to calling out or text messaging. I have had enough of the promises and lies from this company and now they have cut my service due to their muck ups.!!! i am going to photocopy every single bill from the 1st day i got it and take it to fair trading as this is not how a customer should be treated!!!!.
Hi Karyn. I asked Kat to call you. Brendan
How does a mobile phone use 466400kb of download = $911 when I don’t use internet on it and 99% of the time the phone is off and that was in 1 day? I’ve never used that much on phone period… I’ve never had problems with telstra in the past but now have a bill for an outrageous amount of $1600 wtf?
Hi Cheryl. I just sent you an email. Please reply so I can have someone investigate.
After home bundle cancelling my account with telstra in september last year (possibly even earlier) I paid out the rest of the contract ($500+) only to keep getting bills every month of a ($100 or more) emailed to me. And every month I contact Telstra and explain the same thing over and over and over again stating that the contract was cancelled.
The only response I get, is that it is an error on their end and that I will credit your account so you do not need to pay and that it will be escalated and a member of telstra will contact you within 3 business days (yet to hear back from anyone to this date)
Sick of the bills!
Sick of being told it is fixed!
Sick of having to contact Telstra and having to talk to people that I cannot understand, especially when I DO NOT HAVE ANY SERVICES WITH TELSTRA!
Can someone PLEASE fix this!
Thankyou
I also, have no problem at all going to ACCC with the matter either. Not impressed at all with the service, or lack there of I should say
Hi there Immodjen,
Apologies for this, I can appreciate how frustrating this must be. Can I please get you to fill out this webform: http://www.telstra.com/24x7help so that we can get a staff member to contact you and try and sort this out ASAP.
Thanks.
I have a Prepaid mobile phone account with Telstra.
Foolishly, I set up a Direct Debit payment system through the Telstra website for this account – arranged to pay $30 on the same date each month.
For the past 3 months on the set date my credit card has been charged by Telstra for this amount, however the money has not been credited to my account. For the first 2 times this happened, I rang Telstra and the consultants were most pleasant and helpful. They agreed that the amounts had been debited and credited me with the amounts and plus, in compensation, extending the time in which I have to use the credits. However, the same thing kept happening.
On the second last time that I rang, when the payment was again billed and paid by direct debit, but failed to be credited to my account, I was given extra credits and my time to use was again increased, however I was told that I could not have the bonus calls and data to which my $30 + pack entitled me. I accepted this as by now I had $110 call credits and until May 12th 2013 to use them.
I was also told that it would be best to cancel the direct debit arrangement to avoid this problem continuing to occur. I agreed heartily and was assured that direct debit had been cancelled right then on the spot. I was assured of this twice over when I asked for reassurance.
Now, for the third time in a row my credit card statement shows that I have been debited by Telstra without my account being credited, and in spite of being assured that the direct debit arrangement had been cancelled. This time I have been treated quite rudely. I have been told that the consultant could find no evidence of the direct debit having been made and that the history indicates that this could not possibly have been done and the amount not credited to my account. I would say that the history indicates the exact opposite! I was also told that the direct debit arrangement had indeed been cancelled when I asked for it to be done.
In that case, why am I still being charged by direct debit?
I am most offended that the consultant implied that I am lying. I don’t WANT the extra credits compensation. I am highly unlikely to use the amount that it has now added up to in the time available. And I certainly don’t enjoy talking to a consultant every month, no matter how pleasant some of them are!
On the first two occasions, the consultants were able to see the transactions on my account. It seems that the cancelling of my direct debit arrangement has blocked their ability to see the process, but has not blocked Telstra’s ability to take my money and fail to provide the service for which I have paid. Something is seriously wrong with your accounts software, Telstra.
I am also being told that if this is happening, then it is my bank’s responsibility… but it is TELSTRA that is deducting the amount! It is TELSTRA that has been taking my money and failing to credit my account unless I ring very month to complain (and to wait in queues, and get passed around from one consultant to another.) Telstra must have some record somewhere of receiving this money.
I want this to stop! I want to go back to manually recharging my Prepaid account and being in control of it. What I DO NOT want is for Telstra to steal money from my account each month and then deny doing so! (Please excuse my shouting, but it does reflect my state of mind.)
Please help, Brendan!
Sequel to earlier post:
I did a printout of all my credit card transactions for this financial year and I believe I have discovered part of what has caused the problem …
After setting up Direct Debit, I had cause to change the date on which the payment would be made (just by one day earlier). I did this online through My Account. On that occasion I was charged twice, one day apart – on 28 Nov 2012 the transaction was described as a debit to “Telstra Melbourne Vic” as it had been since I originally set up the direct debit; on 27th Nov 2012 the debit was described as “Telstra Bill Dir Deb Adelaide” – (not a name that I could have contributed as I do not live in and have not visited South Australia during this time), and has continued to be described this way since on the 27th of each month.
The “Telstra Melbourne Vic” debit has ceased to appear since that 28th Nov 2012 date and “Telstra Bill Dir Deb Adelaide” has taken its place although on the earlier date of the 27th of the month.
It looks as though in changing the payment date somehow the direct debit/Telstra account linkage was disrupted although the direct debit itself was in fact actioned. So this is why the money has been taken out of my credit card but never is credited to my phone account. It probably also explains why the consultants have not been able to see these payments.
I’m off to the local Telstra shop tomorrow, credit card statement in hand.
Wish me luck
Hi Diane,
Thanks for the comment. My apologies, this is something that definitely should not be happening. If you get a spare moment today, can you chat to our 24×7 Live Chat Prepaid Customer Service team via this link: http://bit.ly/PrePaidChat they will be able to stop the direct debit and hopefully get this fixed once and for all.
Again, my apologies.
Hi Gigi,
Thank you for taking an interest.
I’m not, keen on the Live Chat process as I already went through that and found it difficult to communicate with my slow typing speeds. The consultant was unable to resolve my problem anyway as he could not even see the faulty direct debits on my account. So, since I last posted, I did visit my local Telstra shop with a copy of my credit card records. However, the senior person with whom I spoke, while agreeing upon sighting the records, that my complaint was a valid one and that the faulty direct debit needs to be stopped straight away, was unable to deal with it. He kindly put a detailed comment on my account, gave me a reference number and referred me to the 1258887 number for PrePaid Mobile issues.
Accordingly, I rang this number yesterday, listened to an recorded list of number choices, none of which appeared to be relevant to my situation, and took a stab in the dark anyway.
The person who finally answered the phone put me through to yet another person apparently without informing them of what I was ringing them about and, in spite of using the reference number and pointing out the comment on my account, I had to go through the whole rigmarole again.
This person appeared to have great difficulty understanding the issue and I had to reason strongly with him that Telstra had any responsibility for apparently linking my payments to somewhere within the Telstra organisation that they had no reason or right to be, and therefore had a responsibility to fix the ‘stuff-up’ (can’t think of a more accurate polite expression).
After much discussion, he finally said that he didn’t have the authority to do anything about it and would refer the matter on to someone who does, and this person would ring me today.
I think I have so far remained remarkably patient, but it’s running out about now. If this person doesn’t ring or can’t resolve my issue immediately, then I can see no recourse but to bring the matter to the attention of the ombudsman.
I have to say that Telstra’s strategy of having their frontline staff well-trained to be pleasant and polite is quite effective in the short- term, but tends to add to the frustration of customers when it is not backed up by the ability to take effective action.
Have to go now, I think I feel a heart-attack coming on.
Incidentally, each Telstra representative that I have spoken to (and we’re into double figures now) has said that the next person to whom they are referring me will be able to stop the direct debit and resolve my problem.
I think I’m a fool for persisting.
Hi Dianne,
Please don’t give up because that means that “they” have won.
My major complaint started 15 months ago, has been to the Ombudsman, has been to David Thodey’s office, and still isn’t resolved. There isn’t any customer service! I’m confident that the courts will finally fix my problem. Don’t let them win.
Telstra customer service and services are absolutely disgusting!! This is about my 8th plus complaint! Never ending they are a living nightmare! Same issue every month! I ask them to remove the 5 extra gigs they put on only to have it in each and every month and they are making me pay for it in advance?? Not to mention I turn of my data and they still claim I use over 6GB in 3 weeks! I wish to end my contract but they ask for a pay out! Should cost me nothing after the dramas they put me through each bill. I have to sit on the phone for at least an hour going through how many people to only have to explain the fault again and again! I’m fed up and I really just want to see the end to Telstra!
Latest update:
So… the “Case Manager” who was supposed to ring me back yesterday didn’t. Since I’m confident that my issue WILL be resolved eventually, I didn’t immediately jump to my next escalating action and take it straight to the telecommunications ombudsman, but decided to be super-patient and give them another day.
Just now I have received a call from someone at Telstra.
Had to go through all details over again, but I think the lady finally understood and was, at least, not accusing me of lying this time. She was very sympathetic to my declared wish to have my authority to Telstra to Direct Debit my credit card for any purpose whatsoever revoked immediately.
I have sent her a pdf of my credit card statement which details all the Telstra Direct Debits from my credit card for this financial year. She’s going to do some investigating and ring me tomorrow (I hope).
Not going to use Direct Debit payment for Telstra services ever again.
Thank you Gigi and Nigel for your support. It’s easy to feel quite small and alone when you are trying to negotiate with a huge and powerful organisation.
Many thanks to all here for support.
Today I received a call from my case manager saying that they have stopped the faulty direct debit and I will be receiving a refund of $120 into my credit card.
Big relief!
I think I’m lucky to have my situation resolved so “quickly” if not painlessly.
The best of luck to all others on here.
Di
As far as I am concerned I only have one account with you and on a monthly plan of $50. I have received a bill showing that I have two accounts and I am supposed to pay $100. I find this very annoying and exploitative. Could you please help me on this one.
Customer.
Hi there,
Best thing to do is chat to our 24×7 Live Chat customer service team online via this link: http://tinyurl.com/24×7-service they’ll be able to help you out with this.