Telstra and the Black Hole. Frypan to Dog Poo.
Boy, when you jump out of the fry-pan you sure as heck can land in the dog poo. And that, my dear friends, is where you find us at the moment. In the dog poo. Confused? Me too. Let’s take a walk and have a chat about it. From my side of things. Biased and slightly apologetic.
It all began some time ago with a house move. A move on to a hill. Our then mobile phone provider, we’ll call them 4 to maintain their anonymity, appeared to offer little or no coverage at our suburban home. Undaunted we fought them in the trenches and open fields until the spectre of the telecommunications ombudsman smote them. When the smoke had cleared we found that we’d been released to continue our mobile journey across to our savior. The bringer of coverage. The charger of premium prices. But that was okay with us, for coverage is what we desired. End dramatic monologue.
Bright eyed and filled with the joy of new SIM cards we headed home. But 4 was to have the last laugh. Poor coverage continued at home.
I’d say it’s now been nearly 2 months of communication with Telstra. Twitter, email, in-store and on the phone. From what I’ve gathered we’ve been given a $20 credit for our troubles so far. The poor customer service representative, we’ll call her Roxy, has been patient and a delight to speak to, but is obviously working within a very restrictive set of rules that has led only to a stalemate and frustration.
So as it stands our options are:
- Pay Telstra $965 to exit our contracts (2 x BYO mobiles, homephone, Cable internet).
- Put up with poor coverage and pay the premium Telstra prices for the privilege.
- Buy 2 new “rural” or “Blue tick” phones to see if that will fix the problem.
Each of these options is abhorrent to me. Who can honestly afford $965 to be released from a contract?
The second option is nearly as bad. In this scenario we’re using old phones on a premium network, paying premium prices for coverage equal to the carrier that we’d just escaped from. Madness and truly maddening.
The last is the most frustrating. Go out and buy 2 new phones and this “should” fix the problem. My issue is that by getting new phones on a new contract essentially has us gambling with our own money that this will fix the problem. Roxy had told us that the Telstra technicians had labeled our home as a black spot yet Telstra can’t even send us a couple of phones to try out. How simple a fix would that be?
So here we are. Caught between a stubborn and unhelpful carrier (excluding the X-Box expert Roxy) and a wallet destroying exit fee. To be truthful why would anyone pay the fee? And besides I’m really unlikely to change providers again – my heart just isn’t in it – the complications are too great when you throw home phones and broadband into the mix. Perhaps Telstra realises this. Who am I kidding, of course they know this.
So what would I like to be the outcome?
Fix the black-spot Telstra. Simple as that. You’re continuing to charge me premium fees on a contract we had to sign to join your network. Now I expect you to fix the issues – the issues we pay a premium to avoid. If you want me to get new mobiles you’ll have to come to the party too. We signed up with the mobiles we have and because of these issues I’ve missed out on work costing me at least $400. If you won’t help us in that way then put a femtocell in the area.
End of rant. I bet 4 and Vogalphoene are laughing at me now.
Another option would be to get a dual-mode mobile phone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_mode_mobile), and get Telstra to subsidise the cost of your landline. Tell them you’re saving them money because they don’t have to install a new tower!!
Thanks for your comment Knee-Deep.
The Telstra rep on the phone had spoken to the techs and they felt the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S2 would both fix the issue. On the other hand when we went into the Telstra store the sales-person wasn’t so convinced by the iPhone’s abilities. He was also confused by what had been organised for us with regards to contracts and the like.
Needless to say we’re back to square one with Telstra only willing to gamble with our money or by having us cut our losses with a $965 exit fee.
So we’re still stuck with the phones they were happy to sign us up with but they’re not meeting their “premium” network responsibilities.
If it was me I’d be getting rid of them somehow. The service with Optus would probably be the same but cheaper.
They should have at least given you a discount or something.
Not good form from the “best”.
Thanks for your comments Mobilow.
I reckon they realise that I’m unlikely to move all of my services. That said I still think it’s poor that they expect us to gamble our hard earned on their services. I’d love for them to show some good faith.
At this rate it’s not looking good.
Is there a tool that will tell you what the signal strength is going to be on the various carriers? That way you could make some objective decisions about who to go with.
So there is!
http://www.mobiledata.com.au/Product/ProductDetail.asp?lngProductID=19674&lngCatID=45&lngSubCatID=826
$2000+ Crikey!
Still waiting on a solution from Telstra – and still paying a premium for the pleasure…