Flood Update No 10 from Telstra
Filed under: disaster, floods, natural disaster, New South Wales, Queensland, storms, support, Victoria
As we advised yesterday, we are seeing our network stabilise and returning to a more normal footing. Network and power issues are very much under control and we are moving into a business-as-usual state in regard to these.
However, there is still significant damage to our infrastructure and have very high number of individual service faults – currently at four times the normal level. We ask for customers to be patient with the repair of individual faults and can assure them we are working as quickly as we can to get them reconnected.
KEY AREAS OF RESTORATION:
We have access to more areas, with only 42 ‘red zones’. With greater access we have been able to restore more fixed line, mobile, broadband and Foxtel services for our customers.
Telstra’s priority for restoration today focuses on areas in Brisbane that have a high number of faults such as the Jindalee, Karalee, Rocklea and Oxley areas. In addition to this, we will have technicians working on high priority work across the City, and we are continuing to restore flood affected mobile base stations and damaged roadside cabinets.
With a lot of the urgent repairs undertaken our focus also moves to the task of implementing more permanent solutions to major network damage.
We have deployed portable mobile towers to Murphy’s Creek, Rocklea, Hill End, Fairfield Gardens and Yeerongpilly to improve mobile coverage in these areas, and placed a portable exchange to reconnect landline and broadband services in Chapel Hill.
CURRENT IMPACTS:
Home phone/broadband: Flood affected areas of South East Queensland – particularly along the Brisbane River, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley, Darling Downs, Sunshine Coast, Wide Bay and Capricornia areas. The main reasons for these service impacts include power-related issues, water damage of electrical equipment and fibre and cable damage.
Mobile services: Ongoing outages in the Oxley/Archerfield/Chelmer area with some other areas in southern and western Brisbane suburbs along the Brisbane River. Also, some areas of the CBD. The main reason for mobile service impacts are due to loss of power and water damage to electrical equipment.
Assistance for customers:
A disaster assistance package for Telstra residential and small business customers has been announced for customers in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The packages provides practical assistance for our customers with phone services including free call diversions, and holding of customer phone numbers and email addresses.
We have extended the Queensland disaster relief package to include the areas of: Amberley, Walloon, Marburg, Hatton Vale, Minden, Borallon, Glamorgan Vale, Lowood, Fernvale, Coominya, Mount Tarampa, Kentville, Lake Clarendon, Forest Hill, Blenheim, Mulgowie, and Karalee.
For more information:
Queensland Media Release: Update to Telstra assistance package for Queensland customers affected by floodwaters and storms
New South Wales Media Release: Telstra assistance package for New South Wales customers affected by floodwaters and storms
Victoria Media Release: Telstra assistance package for Victorian Shire customers affected by floodwaters and storms
Other Information:
- Telstra has almost 700 staff in the field directly repairing faults.
- Telstra will be assisted by 30 specialist technicians from New Zealand.
- We have a Triple Three Recovery Plan which outlines three distinct phases aimed at restoring communication services: Immediate short term service: within first three days; Temporary network restoration: within three weeks; Final infrastructure build: three months.
- We have four times the standard level of individual services faults due to the damage caused by flooding.
- More than 100 payphones have been switched to free local and STD calls for people without telecommunications – Bundaberg, Chinchilla, Dalby, Emerald, Parkhurst, Wowan, St George, Tent Hill, Ma Ma Creek, Maryborough, Gympie, Mackay, Condamine, Theodore, Brisbane evacuation centres, Gatton and Ipswich.
- Telstra is promoting the Premier’s Disaster Appeal wherever possible – including on Telstra.com, BigPond.com and TradingPost.com. We will also promote the Appeal on our payphone screens in all capital city airports.
- Satellite kits have been distributed to emergency services organisations. Loan handsets have been provided to many locations outside the designated Evacuation Centres.
- Communication services also available in Evacuation Centres including temporary internet kiosks with laptops, free loan handsets with SIM cards for use by evacuees, free phone cards, Wireless Gateway for internet access, and the provision of chargers for people to recharge phone handsets.
- Telstra Stores have additional mobile and fixed phone stock for customers that may need to replace their mobile or fixed home phone handset.
- Telstra and Microsoft, in conjunction with our partner Productiv, are offering a solution for businesses which have had their email server damaged or destroyed in the floods and need to get their email and collaboration services back online as soon as possible. The offer is a complimentary subscription to the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) for any flood affected businesses, via our software as a service portal T-Suite.
Victorian Update:
We continue to monitor the network closely and can advise that all key exchanges have power, there are no significant landline/broadband network impacts, and that mobile phone towers are operating as per normal in flood affected areas.
We are seeing individual service faults rise in flood affected areas and we will be fixing these as quickly as possible. As such, some customers in the Shires of Corangamite, Central Goldfields, Hepburn, Pyrenees, Northern Grampians, Campaspe, Loddon, Buloke, Yarriambiack, Gannawarra, Ballarat, Ararat, Swan Hill and Horsham that may be experiencing issues with their landline/broadband (ADSL) services.
The majority of these issues have been caused by flood damage to small road side cabinets and local cables. We will be undertaking repairs as soon as we are able to gain safe access.
Important Contact Numbers:
- Residential faults 13 22 03
- Telstra Business customers: 13 29 99
- Telstra Enterprise and Government customers: 1800 815 851
Related Links
- Flood update no 9 from Telstra
- Telstra technology tips for flood affected areas
- Telstra assistance package for NSW customers affected by flood waters and storms
- Update to Telstra assistance package for Queensland customers affected by floodwaters and storms
- Telstra will contribute up to one million dollars to the Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal
- Dial before you dig
Big frustration is that your phone support people have no idea that there is a problem in Brisbane. You mention the floods and they say they know nothing of it.
You ask how long before service is restored and they grab the trusty pre-written script to run you through re-booting the modem.
We obtained a wireless internet connection to run the business (which reminds me of dial speeds from the mid-nineties) and only found out about the system wide issues through hours of searching through Google (Telstra/Bigpond phone support had no idea of the issues).
If you said to us – the exchange in your area wont be fixed for another 3 weeks, we would be happy with that answer – we then know that we have to make alternative arrangements – but all we seem to keep getting is the “We are working on getting everything restored, thank you for your patience”.
Most of us a very patient and understand the difficulties being faced by Telstra in fixing everything, however all we need is a clearer picture to what is really going on rather than a generic ‘We will have services as soon as possible’.
Hi Matthew. I can only imagine your frustration at this time and I thank you for taking time to share your experience. I will make sure the feedback is taken onboard so we can learn from this and do better. Brendan.
G’day Matthew, you hit the nail right onto the head with your comment. you get sent from pillar to post and no one knows anything. i was talking to a lady in the philippines one day, who luckily friendly and she could speak english. another times i spoke with anothter foreign lady, chinese?? she didn’t make any sense whatsoever. no, i’m not a racist. i’m an australian by choice. it seems, these days people only ever talk about communication, but don’t really know the meaning of the word.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve been down the frustration route trying to find out when my elderly parent’s phone was going to be fixed after the flood in Brisbane. We were originally told 19/1/11, so they moved back home that day, but it didn’t get fixed. Then we were told 24/1/11, then we were told 31/1/11. All this information came from the call centre in goodness knows where it is. I kept asking to talk to an Australian, but no-go. All those people are capable of doing is reading from the script they are given. There is no customer service at all. It’s time Telstra abandoned this idea of having call centres off shore. THEY ARE LESS THAN USELESS!!!!!
My parents are in their 80s. There is no point diverting their calls to a mobile, or making the calls from the mobile at local call rates. They simply don’t understand how to use the mobile in the first place. So they have been pretty anxious about not having a working phone because of their health issues.
Finally, when my frustration was at fever pitch yesterday I spoke to a slightly more helpful call-centre operator who put me through to the “flood management section” which *hoorah* is located in Townsville!! It would have been nice if I’d been put through to them 2 weeks ago, but no one told me that section existed. If I could have crawled through the phone to kiss the Aussie lady I would have. Within about two minutes she had the problem fixed, except that there is still a slight buzzing sound on the line, but that will get fixed in the next few days.
So moral to the story, if you are having flood issues, when you get to the call centre in Timbuktu ask for the “flood management section” and they have to put you through to someone in Australia.
Brendan
It would be very simple to list the affected exchanges – along with estimated date.
At the moment no one knows if their exchange is in one of the no-go zones.
At the moment no one knows if their exchange is going to take a couple of days or a couple of weeks.
People dont know if there issues are related to the exchanges or it is an isolated issue at their end.
Your own level 1 support people in Asia dont even know that a flood has occurred and that much of the network is down.
No reasonable person will object if you say their services will be down for another 4 weeks – but if you do it will allow them to make alternative arrangements.
At the moment with our own service we have absolutely no idea when it will be restored – if we knew it was going to be a few more days, we would sit back with our dial-up speed wireless modem – but if you said it would take 4 weeks I would be just as happy with the answer… I would then go visit my local Telstra store and sign up on your 3G network. But not getting any answers from Telstra makes me want to sign up for a rival network when I do get the replacement/backup internet.
We run a business that relies on the internet to get new customers (our website is down and cant fix it). Then there is the online CRM system that takes 30 seconds to respond after making a simple change to a customer address. Then there are the online sale webinars that we cant run.
You say you will take the feedback so that you can learn from this – but its likely to be another 30 to 40 years before another event like this..?
Just put out a list of all the affected exchanges – put an estimated date next to each one, you already have this data – so why not publish it?
I’ve found the latest list of red zone (aka no-go) exchanges on another website. I’ve listed the below:
AUBURN
BUNKER
BUNYA MOUNTAINS
CRACOW
DIRRANBANDI
GLENMORGAN
KUMBARILLA
LUNDAVRA
MOUNT BINDANGO
NATHAN GORGE
SURAT
TIPTON
WEENGALLON
BENNETT
CONDAMINE
CULGOA
DUNMORE
GRANTHAM
KILBEGGAN
LYND RANGE
MOUNT CROSBY
PEGUNNY
TALWOOD
TOOBEAH
WYCHIE
BUNGUNYA NORTH
BOLLON
CECIL PLAINS
CULGOWIE
ESCHOL
HAMPTON
KOGAN
MEANDARRA
MOUNT STANLEY
ROBINSON GORGE
THALLON
VALLEY DOWNS
YETMAN
BALONNE
BRIGALOW
COONDARRA
DAANDINE
GLENHOPE
JIMNA
KUPUNN
MIAMBA
NANDI
BALONNE EAST
THE GUMS
WARRA
It’s gone down quite a bit since the original 281.
–
Not being in the red zones will probably mean that Telstra is working on the problem at the moment. For example, in our case the roadside cabinet our house is connected to was completely covered in water, and two Telstra technicians have been working on it for the last 3-4 days.
Couldnt agree more with Matthews post. Ive had no phone line for 2 weeks now. Was originally told 2 days. I knew it would take some time as i am in the Lockyer Valley, but a realistic apporximation of downtime would be nice. Rang up again the other day and they took my mobile number and said she would send me an SMS when she found out. still waiting. Phone support seems to know nothing other then the generic scripts they are trained with.
What are the symptoms of these network problems?
I am experiencing regular mobile call drop outs – whether inbound or outbound – to any network. The other party suddenly cannot hear me, and seconds later the call drops with “call failed” on the screen.
What is Telstra’s policy regarding call-connection/flagfall charges when I am repeatedly having to dial a person to have a phone conversation?
I should mention, I am in Brisbane CBD.
And what do you know, my call to 125111 to an operator in Mobile Faults located in the Philippines (who I could barely understand) just dropped.
Hi Rhett, If you use this form to send me your account and contact number, I’ll have someone call you to discuss your concerns. Brendan
We have an ADSL2 wireless broadband connection which went down the Tuesday of the flood. Ever since, the recorded message is that Telstra is aware of the problem etc etc but the message has not be changed for nearly 2 weeks. As I work from home, it would be good business sense to, at the least, give an indication of when the problem will be fixed.
I totally agree with Matthew, I have called numerous times to get updates and have been told sorry but we are fixing it and it will be 2 days, 2 days later another 2 days and so on. If your technicians could have been up front on the 13th and said there is a mjaor problem and the cable will not be back on line for at least 2 weeks I could have then made alternative arrangements. Pussy fotting around the issue without any solution is not acceptable.
I went to a Telsta shop on the weekend to see if I could get at least some wireless pre paid internet and found that what was available was very costly and without a solution.
I do understand the issues but Telstra is not offering any support to its customers who are without communication links. Putting information on the internet is not useful when you do not have internet access. a simple SMS to your customers explaining the issue would be helpful.
The technical support is useless in this situation and far from providing assistance as to what is being done.
I agree with the guys above. If you are going to inform people about the situation be honest. 2 days then another 2 days then 2 hours then 7 days, is not good enough.
Everyone in Queensland is appreciative that things are difficult with the floods but inform us what is happening, and don’t use the internet when we are having problems with the internet, worse than useless as a communication medium when most don’t have this working.
Even providing an alternative has not been offered, wireless is working, why not offer those affected a short term pre paid wireless until it is repaired, this way we could still be operating.
The overseas technicians are not at all helpful and when we get put to level 2 support after hours end up with billing, so again not helpful.
Indian Call centres at best are a little isolated, not only in distance.
I’m, on Mt Tamborine so I am not directly effected by floods.
However I find my ADSL+2 speeds are varying wildly.
For a few hours it may be 300 Kbits/sec and another day it may be 2Meg Bits/sec.
(As measured by http://www.ozspeedtest.com)
This did not happen before the floods.
Is this expected?
I live in Tarragindi, several kilometers from the flood-affected areas. My internet/Foxtel services have not been working since January 12th. I was told by the helpline that they would be working on Monday January 17th, then Wednesday January 19, then Friday January 21. The latest advice was that they would be working by Friday January 28th, although I suspect we are being fobbed off, again.
Can you please answer the following questions?
Why, specifically, are my internet and Foxtel services not working?
Why, specifically, is it taking so long to fix the problem?
When, specifically, will these services be restored?
Which other Brisbane suburbs that were not directly flood affected are still without Telstra internet/Foxtel services?
Why did Telstra send me a bill asking me to pay in advance for services that they cannot provide? The bill was prepared on January 14th at a time when Telstra must have (should have) known that they would not be providing the services. I had to purchase a very expensive mobile broadband device, but was told by a Telstra helpline person that I would not be compensated for this extra expense that I was forced to incur.
Is Mr Gordon Ballantyn aware of the poor service currently provided to many Brisbane residents? Perhaps he could take some action to improve the situation?
Thank you very much for your time.
Apologies for the incorrect spelling of Mr Ballantyne’s name.
Julie
Your story sounds just like mine but now I had an added twist, SMS yesterday telling me the service was reconnected but still not working. I made the decision to purchase a non telstra mobile pre paid as it was half the price and twice the download for a month. I am now told that i need a technician who won’t be availalbe until after the 31st, so yet another week to wait.
Poor service is an understatement.
I went to the Telstra shop in Mount Omenney to inquire what Telstras policy was in respect of billing for the 2 weeks that the land line, internet wireless system and Foxtel were down. and the staff had no idea! Telstra what is the policy
I called telstra complaints today and was given a $50 credit on my account and a $10 discount on my bundle, not a lot given I have paid out on a pre paid and for the inconvenience.
We all understand the flood issues but what is most annoying is not being given the whole story when we call or the fact that Telstra is using technology like the internet to provide updates when the issue is we don’t have the internet.
I had a call from Peter of Telstra who advised there would be no rebates or credits for “non provsion” of services for the 2 weeks non provision of landline, foxtel and internet. My simple logic is that if the Supplier fails to provide why should i pay for no serviceat all?
Our phone has been able to receive calls but not make them. We are in an isolated area not affected by floods, it is a radio telephone. We have had this problem twice before and the fault is in the exchange. It will be a week tomorrow and am told that we are in a ‘red zone’ and all our area are affected. I contacted my neighbours and no one else is having trouble. I have spoken to a woman in the Phillipines who did not understand what I was saying and me her either except for ‘fix by 28th…. Like all the other people above here I would prefer fact… I am 80km north of Bollon.. Q Am I really in a Red zone ( I find this hard to believe) if so why aren’t the surrounding places affected and the problem started a week after the flood 200kms away
I’m in the same boat as Julie above although I am based in the western suburbs. My area is high and dry, but we’ve had the same old changing restoration dates. It’s also very clear that no one on BigPond or Foxtel support know what is going on. It’s beyond frustrating as I also work from home.
Cmon Telstra. What IS the real story?
Now, after many calls to both Foxtel and BigPond tech support, both assure me that services are operational in my area. Well, I don’t know how that is the case when our services and my neighbours services are both down. Both cable Foxtel and cable internet. Techs booked but not until next week. Nice. Three weeks it’ll be then. Unreal.
I live on the QLD/NSW border about 50kms from the small rural community of Texas. Our phones went out on 12th January, and we have no mobile phone service out here. What was TElstra’s solution? They diverted our landline number to our mobile phone no. We have to drive 2kms to get mobile service…so is very difficult for our farming business to receive calls at night when most people ring us. We have had numerous hang ups on our voicemail…people just don’t like talking to machines out here.. and we have no way of knowing if they are our clients or our friends.
We understand that Telstra has a difficult situation and are/were quite happy to wait for a return to service if we know how long. We have even identified where our lines are at fault, as there is a pole missing, and broken cable on the ground. I have had a couple of conversations with Telstra’s Fault service to try to get an update, with the same result as the people above. But the straw that broke the camels back, was that when I last rang, I was told there was no fault recorded for my number. I’m sorry but I saw red….with the upshot that the foreign person on the other end became quite flustered and promised that a technician would ring with an approximate date…Gues what! Still waiting!!! Maybe I will be able to say when my bill arrives…”Sorry there has been no bill received for that number!?”
All I can say is that if we had the same personnell on the ground as the electricity companies, who had the power up and running in 6 days, after replacing more than 20 poles and miles of cable, there would be a lot less disgruntled customers. However the Telstra people are very noticeable by their absence.
One very disgruntled Telstra shareholder!!!!!
Hi Cathy. Sorry you’ve had such a negative experience with Telstra lately. I’ve just sent you an email. I’d like to change that and offer you some assistance dealing with your fault. Please reply to the email I sent or use the online form to send me a contact number and account number, I’ll get someone to call you. Cheers, Brendan
I heartily concur with every critical remark made above!
I’m in a non-flooded area of the Brisbane western suburbs. When my phone went down it was before the water hit so I didn’t put it all together. Called faults on my mobile. First report got the automated “problem at exchange will be fixed by 7.30 tonight” – that was January 11. Not fixed by late Jan 12 at which time I was starting to suspect it might be flood related. Follow up call got through to o/s service centre. Accusing tone to response that I’d already reported the fault. Complete blank when I asked if it was flood-related. But offered a redirection (apparently if offered Telstra is absolved of any further responsibility for payment of the teeny penalty per day past 48 hours). Was told it would cost. And as at that time I was without power and means to charge the phone I declined. Was also given to understand it had to be a Telstra mobile.
On 15th, using an internet connection up at Tamborine I discovered via the website that it was flood related.
So went and bought a prepaid mobile broadband USB stick so I could at least get some internet connection. Didn’t go with the Telstra one as twice as expensive for half the download. Slow but at least I’m connected.
Phone rang for the first time late Friday 21 January. A local call. But when I tried to ring out found I couldn’t dial either local or international numbers, though did get through to interstate and mobile numbers.
22nd rang faults again. Got o/s call centre. Explained the problem. Was told there was an outage and my phone would not be back until 25th and asked for a mobile number. I explained that I was actually calling on the affected number. So she told me to hang on while she checked with billing to see if my phone had been restricted. It wasn’t (after decades of prompt payment I would have been ropeable if it had been). Therefore, nothing wrong with my phone. Slightly heated exchange as I reiterated the problem, only to be assured that there was nothing wrong with my phone.
Hung up and redialled. Asked to speak to the most senior supervisor available to complain about virtually being called a liar. More helpful person this time. Checked with technical support and reported that the reinstitution was progressive and would be complete by COB 25 January.
4.20 pm 25 January phone went dead. Stayed dead overnight. Next morning received a call. Hallelujah. EXCEPT, I still can’t call local or interstate numbers. And this update isn’t at all helpful in identifying when the problem might be fixed. Calls to faults tend to be both stressful and unhelpful so am not going to bother. But I will have something to say if I am charged line rental for this period.
After days of not getting a response from anybody about our internet connection I decided to go get a Telstra pre-paid Next-G modem – boy, was that a mistake.
Opened the box, connected it up and called to get it activated – was told 4 hours. 6 Hours went by, no connection so called back, no record of it in their system. Went through process again – this time told 5 hours. Called the following morning, still no access, they still had not done anything. Was now told I had to wait 12 hours. This time expired and still no connection so phone back – this time told that they had made an error and there was no-one to fix it over the weekend so had to wait until Monday morning and to allow another 24 hours on top of that. Guess what, still no connection at which point we told them to cancel the activation so we could return it (was told you are not allowed to return it, despite the box saying we can return within 30 days for full refund if not activated). Since requesting it not be activated we have had 4 follow up calls and not one of them can understand why we wanted to cancel the service despite all of the above.
Matthew
I too went for the mobile broadband option with a competitior. Went to the store they got the device for me, checked it out and even registered it for me and had it activated in teh store so when I got home, plugged it in and off I went. And it was half the price of the Telstra mobile with twice the gbs. Now that was service.
I had a random call from Foxtel’s automated response yesterday stating that the cable issue I logged was rectified and to advise if my service was working. Of course, it still wasn’t working then, and still isn’t now. I await a tech for next week.
As a side note, I had one particular call center operator explain to me that once Foxtel cable is working that internet will be working as well. I know it’s the same carrier but I thought the technologies were a bit more different than that.
It really is beyond a joke. Telstra are showing that the left hand really doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. For the premium price we pay for Telstra services, this is far from premium service.
Once again Telstra excel themselves with their generous offers that amount to nothing in the end.
We have been isolated by flooding from 20 December until 24 January when road access became available again and during all this time we had been surviving on food we had in stock. Pays to keep a well stocked larder in this part of the world. Unfortunately even on 24 January we could not get to town to purchase much needed food supplies, that was the day Telstra claimed they would repair my landline!
About the 5th of January our Telstra landline began playing up, with constant static and at times no service, until on the 15th Jan it quit altogether. I had not bothered reporting the fault as it seemed rather pointless as there was no way Telstra could get here through the floodwaters to effect repairs.
On the 15th Jan I figured it would be smart to report the fault to be in the queue when access became available. The next problem was HOW to report it. We have a prepaid mobile we only use as an emergency backup, and I had no intentions in calling India on it to report the problem, Telstra’s 1300 numbers for the cost of a local call just don’t seem to extend to mobiles.
I searched the Telstra web site looking for a way to report the fault online without success, it was only when I did a Sensis search that I found the site to report faults online, which I then did and was offered the option of having my landline calls diverted to my mobile free of charge till my landline was repaired, which they claimed would be on 24 Jan.
Whilst we were able to manage on the food we had on hand, my wife and I – both of us in our 70s were not as fortunate with the many prescribed medicines we require to keep us from falling of our perches, and had to arrange to have emergency supplies delivered, requiring many phone calls to emergency services to arrange delivery and chemists in three different towns to acquire the medications and sort out prescription problems over the phone.
With this and any other communications dependent on our prepaid mobile, the charges soon built up and recharge was nessessary. We probably ended up spending more on phone call charges over this time as we would over an average 3 month period, Then relief was at hand… today I found this blog and Telstra’s support for flood victims, ie;
Under Telstra’s assistance package, Telstra offers customers who report a temporary loss of their Telstra service due to natural disaster:
Free call diversion from their fixed service to a fixed or mobile service of their choice;
For Telstra customers who have diverted their fixed line phone to their Telstra mobile, mobile calls charged at home line rates as per their selected HomeLine plan for local and STD calls (limited to one designated Telstra mobile per affected household or business);
I had just managed to set up a VoIP phone account and decided to find out why I was still being billed at mobile rates for all my calls, so I called the appropriate Telstra number and after a quick flight arrived in India, where a very helpful lass took all my particulars and listened to my query asking questions at great length, then after a period on hold said she would be transferring me to another department where they would deal with my problem.
After another considerable period on hold I duly arrived at another department where another friendly lass proceeded to once again gather all of my particulars and then enquire as to what my problem was, after another period on hold, she returned and said she would be transferring me to another representative who would see to adjusting my account, she then provided me with a Reference # and said that would give them access to all her notes and that would eliminate the need for me to explain it all again,
I transferred to another number, which rang, and rang and rang——after 10 minutes I had bells ringing in my head and I broke the connection.
I then called the appropriate number again and started the whole merry-go-round again. The Reference # seemed to work as they once again transferred me to another department where I was promptly put on hold once again, during this period my VoIP system suffered a malfunction and became unusable an no further progress could be made.
About a hour later my landline rang… it was a Telstra tech to tell me he had located the problem and my service had been restored. Today is now the 27th of Jan, well not bad – only 3 days late!
Having been reunited with my landline I thought my luck may have changed, during the course of my previous contact I had been provided another Telstra # to call, so I dialled the number and once again found myself transported to India or some other mysterious Asian destination, this time assisted by another lovely lass, who unfortunately I could not understand, nor could I get her to speak loud enough that I may hear her, and at this stage I thanked her for her help and terminated the call.
Enter stage left, wife with bucket of water to extinguish smouldering husband and take control of the situation. She called Telstra Country Wide and spoke to a very helpful lady who provided great help by explaining that Telstra’s generosity did not extend to Prepaid mobiles. I must have missed that bit in the press release, silly me!
So once again I have discovered the great advantages of being a Telstra Sucker – whoops Customer, great things for a telco to have as long as they don’t want anything, particularly service.
Yes Brendan, I know you will come forth with offers of help as you did last time when you handed me off to Elaine to deal with who promised a $50.00 rebate off my account that never eventuated, or the customer service rep who rang me to adjust my plan and promised 50 free local calls per Month… that too didn’t come to pass.
Telstra is full of big offers – most of them empty!
We live at Tarragindi as well, tonight I have spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone to both bigpond and foxtel, with a response of “it is your house connection is the issue” from bigpond with spending more than forty mins on hold, disconnect twice and transferred to different people 6 times. They have also said it could be a local issue but still ca not tell me when we are going to bed reconnected. I was then informed that we could get refund if we buy a 3G wireless modem and I was recommended to purchase the $150 dollar plan which will give me 4gb since I’m using it for work but Bigpond will not assist in the costs for the plan. I have been with Bigpond for over ten years and I can not believe the bad service being provided and the billing person asking me if I wish to cancel my service. Foxtel is saying it’s a network issue and are unsure when it will be fixed.
Update, just had the Bigpond tech out and he says its a network issue. So over the past 6 days I was told it was a house issue and now its a network issue— great. Bigpond will now send out a special Tech to fix it on the 2nd of February. Can still not believe how long this is taking and still no firm answers.
Just a question to anyone with Bigpond cable. Is anyone else getting an enormous amount of junk/spam emails at the moment? My virus software is catching most of them, but I shouldn’t be getting that many in the first place. I never used to. This has only started happening in the last few of weeks or so.
Is this a result of the flooding or is this just an example of the poor service we are getting from Telstra at the moment. I’m seriously considering going elsewhere, although I don’t really want to change my email address, but I’m getting tired of reading how I can buy discounted Viagra or how to make my p**** larger (I don’t have one of those anyway, so I’m not really interested in knowing how to make it bigger…)
I am also receiving the same emails as you (and I don’t have one either) – always from random yahoo email addresses. Also receiving emails about earning so many extra $$ per week. Sick and tired of it and have set up filters both in my email program and on bigpond – to no avail. Not cable, ADSL2.
Frustrating!! I’ve never had junk mail until about the last 3 months and now it is coming thick and fast.
If I have to spell my name one more time I am going to scream, now my account is locked and not recognising my bigpond account what the hell is happening with you guys. I know the stroms, floods, cyclones are causing technical issues but your customer service and technical support is beyond a joke.
Hi Jenny. I’d like to help you get your My Account access sorted asap. If you use our online form to send me your account and a contact number I’ll have someone call you. Brendan
Numerous calls to wherever, quite strident posting to your update comments, and now more than a week since I was assured that my phone would be fixed I STILL cannot make a call to any landline in Queensland, or to overseas numbers. I can call mobiles and interstate. I’ve had the experience of a person in your call centre telling me that there is nothing wrong with my phone, and another telling me that the restitution of phone service in the Kenmore area is progressive, one type of service at a time. And seeing other people who have posted comments to the update blog receiving personal invitations to contact Brendan who will sort things out just makes me even LESS satisfied with Telstra service.
Can someone at least give us some information about what is happening and when it will be sorted out?
That is more than a week since I was assured that the phone would be back to normal. I had no landlines for nearly 2 weeks and since then this partial service. Initially assured it would all be fixed by 21st, then 25th….
Par for the course for Telstra, I recieved no response from my post here, so I have made a formal complaint, a complaint manager was to get back to me within 3 working days to resolve the issue, that time has elapsed and still no help.
Seems to be Telstra’s end game, put you off for a few days and hope you forget about your problem.
I don’t forget, if I don’t get a resolution soon I will take it too the Telecommunications Ombudsman, at least that way you have the satisfaction of knowing that the Ombudsman will bill Telstra for their time spent investigating!
Hi Max, Glad to hear back that James fixed up the billing issue and credited your account. I’m here if you should need me again. Brendan.
After yet another frustrating call to wherever – during which I was told that there was an outage in my area and the now-boringly repetitive expressions of surprise greeted my declaration that I was calling from the phone that has the problem and had to insist that the ‘consultant’ read the notes so he could see what the problem is and how long it has been going on – I decided to try Robyn’s tip of asking to be put through to the flood management section.
Got put through immediately to Andy, a very helpful gentleman in Perth. He told me there is NO outage in my area. And agreed with me that if I can receive calls and make calls to mobiles and interstate numbers, whatever it is that is preventing me calling local/Queensland numbers and international numbers has nothing to do with my line or my equipment. So he went off to request line testing. So far no resolution (I was promised a call from someone when the issue is resolved), but for the first time in weeks I finally got to speak to someone who was using what is between his ears rather than a pre-written script, and someone who could give me some information and who seemed to care enough to go looking for a solution.
While I wait I’m researching alternatives to Telstra services.
Hi Jennifer, If you’d like me to follow up this testing for you can you send me an account and contact number please. Brendan.
G’day,
I notice in the advertisment in the Courier-Mail (dated 9/2/11) and the links to media statements at this website that the Brisbane suburb of Rocklea is not explicitly included in the areas eligible for the Telstra assistance package.
I am aware that the ad states Areas currently covered are flood affected suburbs including which generally means there are others, but given that most of Rocklea was flood affected, it would be appreciated if this could be recognised.
This would prevent any issues arising with Telstra’s customer service staff, who are unfamiliar with the Brisbane suburbs affected by the flood, questioning the bona fides of customers applying for the assistance package who are Rocklea based.
Many thanks.