421 Comments on Telstra

Telstra calls on customers for help

Comments at 6:47PM on December 7th, 2009.

See my main post.

If you think these comments are biased, too negative, you can check these 182 comments from Adelaide, same day.
 

Comments on this story

• tc Posted at 1:41 AM Today

  Well Telstra's monthly billing has totally killed my cash flow, and I've lodged numerous protestx with them

  Comment 1 of 421

• Emilio of The Internet Posted at 1:46 AM Today

  lol

  Comment 2 of 421

• DB Posted at 1:56 AM Today

  Every time I ring up and ask for assistance about my mobile plan the call goes overseas. Stop it!

  Comment 3 of 421

• Steve Posted at 1:58 AM Today

  Telstra is wasting its time. There's now a whole generation of people who will never use Telstra services again. It rorted us for years, we got shoddy customer service in return, and what now? It thinks that we'll forget? Never.

  Comment 4 of 421

• Mystery of Perth Posted at 2:03 AM Today

  Telstra isn't keeping up with its competitors. The standards have been raised by other smaller companies offering better deals, with more texting and call time for less money.

  Comment 5 of 421

• Ex Customer Posted at 2:13 AM Today

  Telstra should put customers first and basically fix up problems on the first call and if a service call is needed than it should be fixed within two hours as the telphone is the vital link for emergencies. Wake up Telstra, start giving local free calls as VOIP is degrading your call networks. I use VOIP all the time it is cheaper than using the landline...

  Comment 6 of 421

• Gary of Perth Posted at 2:14 AM Today

  I had a boss once who decided to do something about the monthly losses of around $8000 though staff errors. He announced that any month in which these losses dropped below $4000 he would pay out the difference as bonuses to all staff. It saved him thousands, and made us some nice bonuses.

  Comment 7 of 421

• steve of perth Posted at 2:21 AM Today

  Its Philippines not India, and they are shutting down the Manila call centre. Thank god. Now shut down the voice recognition IVR and we'll all be happy.

  Comment 8 of 421

• Joe Posted at 2:22 AM Today

  Ha ha new this was comming. How about paying your customers for advice since they will be doing the ceo's job. Telstra and and its CEO is a JOKE.

  Comment 9 of 421

• Sonia Posted at 2:43 AM Today

  Have been trying to fix my online billing for 3 months.... Have been trying to change a mobile plan for 1 & 1/2 months. They keep promising to do it but it's still not done. Cannot see my calls as new billing system does not show them & as I said, online billing still not working. Have tried calling & have tried logging webform complaint form. What the hell am I supposed to do????????????????????????

  Comment 10 of 421

• Elias Posted at 2:47 AM Today

  Stupid automatic voice system!

  Comment 11 of 421

• Sonia Posted at 2:51 AM Today

  How do I sign up for the My Telstra Experience program?

  Comment 12 of 421

• Chris of Perth Posted at 2:52 AM Today

  I don't think offering cash bonuses is going to help improve customer service. For a long time call center operators have been under pressure to lower their average handling time, wrap time and maintain their work schedule. Each department is under pressure to lower costs but then responsibilities get shirted from one department to another. Customers find that they have an issue that may cross boundaries between different departments but few consultants will help negotiate problems of this nature especially if they tend to be complex. This may be because they don't know how to or they are under pressure to deliver good stats. In fact a consultant is penalized for helping a customer resolve and long and complex fault as it increases their average handling time. It can be even more difficult if the customer is already furious because of previous hours wasted trying to get the issue resolved. There is usually a correct procedure to follow for such problems but if the correct procedure was not followed in the first place.

  Comment 13 of 421

• alex of nsw Posted at 2:52 AM Today

  and what are the chances they're fix the problems?? try zip and nil. they ALWAYS say they care about the customers yet time and time again they show we're the least of their concerns.

  Comment 14 of 421

• WhineWind of Kingsford NSW Posted at 2:54 AM Today

  Because Telstra has a monopoly with the copper network, it has not spent money on maintenance, and it is unreliable for all the other layers of ADSL, Internet, streaming services, etc. Voice is okay if you speak slowly and wait out the noise bursts. My Greek neighbours are using pigeons to keep in touch with their relatives.

  Comment 15 of 421

• Andrew of Sydney Posted at 2:55 AM Today

  Very simple - after making Telstra a brand that people want to work for, ensuring the the staff are proud (not defensive) & happy (not just paid more): 1) Put the call centre in one giant place & train everyone to the same general level. 2) Develop several specialist teams to handle very specific complaints. 3) Authorise more people per representative to make refunds and good will gestures. 4) Completely re-write the billing engine. It would be worth dropping a month's revenue to fix this - set everyone to $0 and start again

  Comment 16 of 421

• Jen of Adelaide Posted at 2:57 AM Today

  Same as Steve, I will NEVER be a customer again & I will tell all who are interested....and EVERYONE has a Telstra horror story.

  Comment 17 of 421

• Briarne Manley Posted at 2:57 AM Today

  I don't think Telstra would know good customer service if they walked into it. Their competitors are providing better service with more affordable, realistic and up to date packages. Perhaps Telstra should stick to providing bad service to like minded multi-million dollar corporate enterprises.

  Comment 18 of 421

• Susannah Bear Posted at 3:05 AM Today

  Dear Telstra, My mum went into a Telstra shop to get a dongle so she could get mobile internet. A staff member thought it was a good idea if my 76yr old mum would get a 500mb recharge for $40 "every few days". With the amount of money you must be raking in with your exorbitant prices, you can afford to have a call centre in each capital city and a good training department in each one. You would need this to sell your overpriced products, people will put up with crud if they aren't slugged for it. Why would a sane person take your service? Your opposition uses your copper and can give huge download limits and very very fast broadband speed yet you slug your own customers more money for less download and slower speed?! And you wonder why they complain?

  Comment 19 of 421

• Paul of Perth Posted at 3:10 AM Today

  Too expensive! 20 calls from mobile on a $20 plan will cost $27.50 Broadband dongle at $99 ! Are you crazy? The most expensive band in the civilised world. No wonder Telstra can offer 40m in bonuses: they are skinning their customers. Should have never have been privatised. Telstra is as kind as the our banks. Both should be regulated immediately.

  Comment 20 of 421

• Damen Ferguson of Sydney NSW Posted at 3:13 AM Today

  I was a loyal Telstra customer for over ten years, with mobile, home phone and internet. They were making good money from my patronage. A few months back I changed my credit card details with them to continue automatically paying my account every month. Month after month they would not take the payment out. I made contact with them every time to rectify it each time without success. I was finally told the payment will happen on the set date. Sure enough it didn't happen. Each time they also kept sending my nasty overdue and disconnection notices. All this through no fault of my own. No one bothered to take an interest in the way I was treated so I voted with my feet. I don't have a kind word to say about Telstra, I would not recommend them to anyone, they have appalling customer service and they are also a rip off.

  Comment 21 of 421

• Sam Brereton of Queensland Posted at 3:13 AM Today

  Stop Outsourcing Customer Service to other countries. We want to speak to an Australian Person. As for getting rid of the automated voice system, replace it with a standard number system, not a voice guided system.

  Comment 22 of 421

• Nick of Sydney Posted at 3:21 AM Today

  Close the company down, it is beyond repair. It is not just the awful attitude toward the customer, it is the incredible incompetence you witness in every interaction with the company.

  Comment 23 of 421

• Polak of Brisbane Posted at 3:22 AM Today

  insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource insource

  Comment 24 of 421

• R1981 Posted at 3:55 AM Today

  I for one am only a Telstra customer because I live in very remote Australia and they are the only company that service out here. I am moving back to the city within 9 months and the 1st thing I will do is close down my Telstra account and take my business elsewhere. They won't see my $500 a month ever again, they are totally useless. I despise having to deal with them.

  Comment 25 of 421

• Andy of Melbourne Posted at 3:59 AM Today

  They have like 20,000 staff or something so not sure how you could realistically expect one call centre in one place? what a stupid comment. I would rather be a customer of telstra than an overseas company like optus. All telcos have pretty poor customer service, not just telstra.

  Comment 26 of 421

• Andrew of Balmain Posted at 4:05 AM Today

  Outsourcing is what infuriates most - while Im not racially prejudiced, I prefer to speak to someone who is in Australia rather than India, pretending to be an Aussie

  Comment 27 of 421

• Belinda of NSW Posted at 4:19 AM Today

  Last year Telstra tried to bully and intimidate me into paying a $3000 mobile phone bill that wasn't mine (and I proved it), I will NEVER use Telstra again. I don't care how hard they try to change. Too little, too late.

  Comment 28 of 421

• RNock of Perth, WA Posted at 4:19 AM Today

  How about stop harrassing your customers to upgrade their plans? I kept on getting calls from Telstra 3-4x a week to join them with one guy saying we will pay you to join Telstra and one smartass said why wont you join? I said because Telstra is a complete piece of sh*t and I get a better deal elsewhere and the customer service is bad, they were stunned and I slammed the phone down, repeaded calls and assurances from Telstra saying they wont call again and then they said that they had no control over the calls as it must be a 3rd party person? I said yep and you gave them my details as how would they know that I was a former customer and have every detail of my use only available if you call you guys up. I had to end up changing my phone number because of them!

  Comment 29 of 421

• Andrew Posted at 4:39 AM Today

  Split yourselves up into fully independent retail and wholesale companies; it is a logical and fair division. Also, the level of technical skill of the frontline IT support personnel is such that they might have been freshly recruited from McDonalds; they have scripts in front of them but little depth of experience. As a tech myself, I have had many experiences of knowing they were on the wrong track, but patiently going through useless steps until they slowly came to that realisation themselves, rather than upset their apple cart and make the laborious process even harder. Also, there is something terribly wrong with your phone system. The number of times I have been connected, then cut off ... well, it is quite significant.

  Comment 30 of 421

• Allan Williams of Brisbane Posted at 4:43 AM Today

  Well, after moving to dodo some months ago, I couldn't be happier - if Telsta need to ask customers about service, then Telstra needs to get out of business.

  Comment 31 of 421

• Garry Burke of Brisbane Posted at 4:43 AM Today

  The haven't/wouldn't listened in the past and I expect no difference this time.

  Comment 32 of 421

• Jay of brisbane Posted at 4:53 AM Today

  Am sick and tired of Telstra........Have been offer a phone and internet bundle two months ago and never been honored.Every time i ring,put on hold and then hang up.Get out of Telstra.

  Comment 33 of 421

• Chris Slapp of Cairns Posted at 5:12 AM Today

  Is a bit too late now isnt it? We complained 6 years ago about things that were wrong eg, bills, problems with the landlines, you name it.....You wouldn't listen, what now all of a sudden you want to!! I say to late TELSTRA. Customer service should always have been number 1 from the start. We have 4 lines at home and 3 mobiles, and thank God none of them are with you, cos its been smooth sailing since we kicked you out of our life!!

  Comment 34 of 421

• Frank MacGill of Queensland Posted at 5:15 AM Today

  Telstra should promote its fabulous automatic voice robot to CEO. That machine is so skilled, so insightful, so in tune with customers, so capable of excellence, it deserves to be in the executive suite instead of wasting its time talking to ungrateful customers on the front line.

  Comment 35 of 421

• Gary of Perth Posted at 5:17 AM Today

  Is pretty funny. Get a call from them, tell the truth how much they suck... and the caller asks me what they should be doing with their home plan :P Next 30 minutes putting them on the right plan. Rinse and repeat every month :( Please stop calling me !!!! You waste are time.

  Comment 36 of 421

• Telstra who? Posted at 5:17 AM Today

  Time to shut shop Telstra and leave this country we have been ripped off and treated like mongrels!....It's time to go Telstra you are not welcome here any longer!!!

  Comment 37 of 421

• Cathy of Sydney Posted at 5:31 AM Today

  As most are using mobile phones, Telstra's phone and ADSL system is now obselete. I use Optus cable for Internet and my Virgin Iphone for ALL communications. Paying line rentals for a copper wire system based on technology from the 18th century, is insane. Telstra annoyed the hell out of me when I tried to pay a 4 cent bill. That's right four cents. They stopped after 5 years when I moved address and stopped forwarding my mail. Who knows, they are possibly still sending them to me. The laugh is on them.

  Comment 38 of 421

• Neil Poyner of Wirrulla. S.A. Posted at 5:32 AM Today

  On many occasions when trying to get a land line connected in the country of South Australia, verifying the address would become too hard and I was put on hold. The call would then end up up at Faults and Repairs or time out. This was an address that had previously had a phone connected. I was put in the position where I had to ring around and finally an address given to me by the Council was accepted. Wireless Broadband is a problem and the connection quite often would show "No Signal" and if I walked outside I could quite clearly see the Phone Tower and the shed at its base. The only thing I am able to say positive for Telstra, was the efforts put in by Telstra Countrywide at Port Lincoln, but even their Receptionist is on another Planet and has given the impression you are interrupting her private thoughts. I do not rate her phone or customer skills very highly at all.

  Comment 39 of 421

• Dave Posted at 5:36 AM Today

  if Telstra cared about customer service, they would do these surveys regularly.. not just when profits are degrading.. they care about one thing, money. Gouge gouge gouge till it starts to cost money then back it off a bit. That is how Telstra operate. I would hate to have telstra shares. they are like Australia Post. Their customer base is shrinking every day as their services become expensive and largely obsolete.. Soon the telstra shops will be selling cheap chinese weather stations and bunnings gift cards too

  Comment 40 of 421

• mick of perth Posted at 5:40 AM Today

  thats "nice" !. just exactly how we join this thing TEL$TRA ??????. should i just ring,talk to machine for 1/2 hr, get transferred between 6 different dept,s,not being able to understand any of them then get cut off and get charged for my trouble ! ????????. i think not !

  Comment 41 of 421

• David of Brisbane Posted at 6:09 AM Today

  Get me an Australian on the phone. That's right, an Australian, with a brain, who doesn't 1) not understand me; 2) read a script over an over; 3) transfer me from idiot to idiot.

  Comment 42 of 421

• Greg Posted at 6:09 AM Today

  Stop sending your migrant worker "army" to my door on a fortnightly basis trying to win me back with their opening line "We would like to inform you there is an upgrade to your telephone exchange" only to try and sell me telstra products and services. When politely told I am not interested, I am them interrogated about who my carrier is, how much I pay etc etc. EVERY FORTNIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

  Comment 43 of 421

• Telstra customer of Brisbane Posted at 6:16 AM Today

  I think Telstra needs to look at it's software. In the past year we've moved twice and despite receiving the welcome letter at our new address our bills continued to go to the old address. The time before that when we moved we applied online and the company disconnected our phone a week before the requested date (we even had an email confirmation with the correct date) and we had to spend 4 hours on the phone trying to rectify their mistake. I think it's policy, procedures and software need to be looked at first. Staff working with inadequate resources are likely to be unhappy as they know they will be getting complaints due to the system errors. Replace voice system with number system much less frustrating pressing a few numbers then trying to get a machine to recognise your voice.

  Comment 44 of 421

• Hal Posted at 6:18 AM Today

  How cynical can you get, to turn your own massive corporate failings into a marketing opporunity. If they were serious they would have the CEO head this exercise, not the 'market management' director (ie, PR Dept). If they really want to fix what's wrong, just bother to actually do something about the 104,000 complaints already in their in-tray.

  Comment 45 of 421

• KZoubari Posted at 6:19 AM Today

  SOS, Mr. Thodey, I am residing overseas. I sent Telstra 14 termination requests in the last 20 weeks, only to be told again & again, you must call 125111 and physically go to a branch. I was in Australia for 5 days in November, I went to Telstra branch in Adelaide but was told, “Account is frozen due to software upgrade, come back next week or call 125111” when called the number employee said the same “Account is frozen please call back next week” DO THE TELSTRA EMPLOYEES ENJOY TORTURING THEIR CUSTOMERS??? I am begging Telstra, Ombudsman and Mr. Thodey “PLEASE TERMINATE MY ACCOUNT” “Account–2000155237363”

  Comment 46 of 421

• Jon Posted at 6:23 AM Today

  well Telstra, 'all the best' I never want to become your customer again, the last time they really screwed it. Numerous of calls, got transferred to the wrong departments, spoke to someone who doesn't know how to speak English properly, no resolution ever....until I had to refer my case to the Telecommunications Ombudsman, the... matters are immediately fixed! should have done it from the first 2 out of 6 calls I made :|

  Comment 47 of 421

• Peter Brown of Brisbane Posted at 6:24 AM Today

  Stop HATING your customers Stop promoting executives that hate your customers. Have a ONE CALL phone resolution for complaints - stop the mandatory five transfers within Telstra, empower employees. Ask the TIO for advise. They seem to be able to resolve Telstra problems in 2 hours! A new board may help!

  Comment 48 of 421

• Barbra of the bush Posted at 6:28 AM Today

  Lose the robot with the speech impediment that answers the phone and talks you through half an hour of mindless drivvle to get tech support. Just lose the damned robot and bring back Aussie operators that give a damn.

  Comment 49 of 421

• glenn of canberra Posted at 6:32 AM Today

  Hey Telstra, here's a hint. Just provide customer support. Stop thinking about nothing but money. Pretend your customers are like shareholders, cause funnily enough, some are.

  Comment 50 of 421

• NoTelstraNeverAgain Posted at 6:35 AM Today

  I sacked Telstra (to the best of my ability) about 9 years ago when they failed to discontinue service to an address when I moved house. Despite my protestations, they kept sending me bills for the discontinued service; they even listed me with credit reporting agencies until I reported them to the TIO... but I had to threaten to sue before they nullified the acct- but never once apologised. I switched to Optus to try to escape. However, Optus do not maintain the copper that they lease from Telstra. When I recently had an intermittent line fault causing probs with both voice & ADSL, it took *FIVE* visits to my home (each involving me sitting at home waiting for a techie to appear 'between 8am & 5pm') from Telstra field techies before the buck stopped being passed back & forth from voice to ADSL depts before the line was fixed- this took EIGHT MONTHS (March-November 2009). When a faulty service drop cable from the pole to the house was replaced- a 30 minute job- the problem was finally solved.

  Comment 51 of 421

• Mahhrat of Hobart Posted at 6:35 AM Today

  Yeah Telstra, we could tell you what's wrong - for $25 an hour, 40 hours a week, for 3 years. If you want that kind of help, then drop me a line. This website has my email.

  Comment 52 of 421

• Tracey of Queensland Posted at 6:43 AM Today

  Stop outsourcing - bring the call centres back to Australia and have Australians answering the calls. Try to solve the problems and not stonewall the caller. Have real people answer the calls and get rid of the automated system.

  Comment 53 of 421

• Penguin of Brisbane Posted at 6:46 AM Today

  I sent a message to Telstra about a billing question/problem it wasn't urgent and I received a reply in under day. So what are these people who complain doing?

  Comment 54 of 421

• Hollie of Inverell Posted at 6:46 AM Today

  Try to get a problem sorted out, they don't understand the problem, then they hang up on you! That's a very good approach to customer service. You have no way of contacting the same person again for help with your problem. I guess that's the key word ----- it's your problem.

  Comment 55 of 421

• hummingbird of queensland Posted at 6:52 AM Today

  its not just telstra that needs to get rid of its call centres, electricity, optus, everyone who uses them.... we all end up angry and frustrated after a call because they never solve the problem... they have a set speech in front of them and any problem outside of that they say "thats all I can do for you today and thank you for calling have a nice day" I want to go and hang myself every time I have to speak to a call centre .... I believe it is a way to just stop customers complaining about anything because we end up with no avenues to get help.....

  Comment 56 of 421

• hummingbird of queensland Posted at 6:52 AM Today

  its not just telstra that needs to get rid of its call centres, electricity, optus, everyone who uses them.... we all end up angry and frustrated after a call because they never solve the problem... they have a set speech in front of them and any problem outside of that they say "thats all I can do for you today and thank you for calling have a nice day" I want to go and hang myself every time I have to speak to a call centre .... I believe it is a way to just stop customers complaining about anything because we end up with no avenues to get help.....

  Comment 57 of 421

• newsgirl Posted at 6:53 AM Today

  If you want to improve service, employ more support staff who are actually trained in HELPING CUSTOMERS...Stop that annoying automated voice response answering system that would have to be the most frustrating and time wasting service ever known to man. Employ people who you can understand and who can understand you when you call. Make sure those at the call centres are able to react to and resolve your problem, not just use a question and answer sheet to get through the issue. If David Thodey is truly interested in making Telstra a better company, the emphahis has to move away from outsourcing call centre staff and start putting customers, rather than shareholders first. Remember. shareholder are in many cases shareholders and they want the company they've invested in to excel, not treat them like morons.

  Comment 58 of 421

• Carz of Eagle Vale Posted at 6:58 AM Today

  Stop out sourcing!

  Comment 59 of 421

• adrian of Bris Posted at 6:58 AM Today

  Can they really be that stupid that they don't know what is good customer service? Looks like those at the top must grossly overpaid and not care!

  Comment 60 of 421

• JohnBoy of Sydney Posted at 6:58 AM Today

  At least Telstra are trying to fix their problems. Others like Optus do not care and will most certainly not insource their call centres in India. I have business with both companies and think their customer service is a joke as you get transferred from operator to operator before someone hangs up on you. At least some of the operators with Telstra are Australia based unlike Optus who are all offshore. Yet I cannot see how Optus escapes scrutiny.

  Comment 61 of 421

• observer of Sydney Posted at 6:58 AM Today

  I worked for Telstra for over 11 years. I and the people I worked with told our many bosses, and there were lots of them, what should be done. But they were in charge and they didn't want to listen. Glad I left when I did. Dear Telstra managers, when you see rats jumping ship you know it's sinking. This ship has been sinking for years.

  Comment 62 of 421

• Ex-customer of Sydney Posted at 7:01 AM Today

  Train your staff. Insource your customer service centres. Make staff accountable for customer satisfaction. Get everyone onto an ITIL course and OWN your business!

  Comment 63 of 421

• oldefellah of myspace.com/oldefellah Posted at 7:01 AM Today

  You blew it by bringing that junior telco in from the mid-west of America, paying him millions more than he was worth and sending him home with a big fat super payout. Trujillo Trashed Telstra.

  Comment 64 of 421

• Chris of Bundaberg Posted at 7:04 AM Today

  I'd have to agree with the comments on how horrible it is to talk to India when you want help in Australia (Telstra never realised just enormous the small cultural difference gets in the way of customer satisfaction)... so outsourcing customer support was a very bad mistake. Outsourcing technological operations and development, generally, is bad for business in the medium to long term. Next, there has to be value in customer plans for mobiles, Internet... you name it. Customers are not as stupid as executives think. No value = no customer.

  Comment 65 of 421

• Kristie - Haigslea of Haigslea, 4306 Posted at 7:04 AM Today

  How about providing fast broadband to rural areas for a start and not charging extra just because people choose to live in a rural area! Make land line calls cheaper and also get some better package deals on mobile and wireless internet! Telstra are way behind the times especially with competition. I can't wait till Iinet gets up and running at Haigslea 4306! I'll be getting rid of my Telstra home phone and mobile then!

  Comment 66 of 421

• Judi of Adelaide Posted at 7:05 AM Today

  Bring customer service back to Australia. Customer service is no good if I can't understand the representative & they can't understand me. Also, I've been fighting the online bills battle with Telstra on & off for a number of years now. I have had online billing since it came in, but won't stop my paper bills because every couple of months Telstra don't bother emailing my bill. Also, I've been fighting another problem with them for over 3mths now. I get the emails from them stating someone will ring me within 2 working days, but they haven't rung yet! And they removed a discount from my account without notification, & without telling me that there was something else available. Now I'm also fighting to get them to backdate the "new" discount. David Thodey, you can start with finding out what's wrong simply by reading these comments & all the others that have been left about Telstra. Whirlpool is another good place to look. It will also tell you what your competitors are doing!

  Comment 67 of 421

• Peter of Holden Hill Posted at 7:06 AM Today

  They could try communicating within departments at telstra. One department fixes your problem and then another department decides to create the problem again. Ugh - what a disaster! Online billing - either fix it or scrap it all together.

  Comment 68 of 421

• Sarah of in a cubical.... Posted at 7:09 AM Today

  How about fixing the scorecards to enable employees to help Customers??? It's not that there aren't highly trained Reps or that they don't want to help - it's that they can't! If you've got to help 6-7 people per hour, that's less than 10 minutes each. Added to that a Quality system which expects 'First Contact Resolution' which is impossible on complex issues. Simple balance enquiry, fine. Your Online Billing is shagged, your DSL has been botched or you've got a fault? It takes time and it's time consultant's aren't given. Go back to the old way of doing things - if we have to contact a Customer 10 times to get it sorted, but it's handled by one Rep doing the leg work, so be it. Reward on outcomes - namely fixing the job and having a good outcome for both sides. Trouble is, so many people who knew what they were doing have gone and the rest of us are waitingto leave. It leaves Reps with less than 18-24 months experience and there lies the problem.

  Comment 69 of 421

• Susan of Sydney Posted at 7:17 AM Today

  NOOOOoooo..calling us is a BAD idea. Good lord. Don't you get it? We've had BAD experiences with Telstra over the phone and the call you get after a connection to check if you're happy has clearly never had any effect PLUS the questions aren't open to additional feedback. So, if the questions are phrased badly or too tightly they are fairly useless. I'd love to give feedback but whomever chose this method of data collection is a fool. You ring me I'll object and hang up.

  Comment 70 of 421

• mangajack of Petrie Posted at 7:18 AM Today

  Stop outsourcing everything and get back to inhouse business, especially for CEO's. Sol was the worst possible move Telsta could have made. He changed the figures on the books yes but lost the company's credibility. Try being competitive for a change and STOP harrassing us with calls trying to modify our accounts. Offer the bottom line rate for every customer up front and leave it at that.

  Comment 71 of 421

• Bob Bourke Posted at 7:19 AM Today

  Re establish the country call centres. We would get to talk to Australian who understand our references and accents. Use australian voices for marketing any foreign voice only gets "No thank you, good bye"

  Comment 72 of 421

• jas of Sydney Posted at 7:20 AM Today

  how about making the person you speak to be the person to solve the problem, every time you call you get bumped to 40 different departments, of course explaining the problem 40 times to each of them, ONLY afterwards do they say 'oh no this isnt the right place you need to speak to...' then you get cut off

  Comment 73 of 421

• Graeme of Mordialloc Posted at 7:21 AM Today

  Maybe they could go back to using meaningful statistics to find ways to improve their service and take some notice of grass roots employees, if there are any left.

  Comment 74 of 421

• Harry of Norwood Posted at 7:24 AM Today

  One complaint one service person to deal with it. I had a complaint that took 6 months to resolve because I dealt with a new person each time I rang. Eventually the Ombudsman fixed it.

  Comment 75 of 421

• robcik of Gawler SA Posted at 7:25 AM Today

  After reading this article I went straight to the Telstra website (ready to offer my hand having just recently jumped ship from them, both in phone and internet, for all the reasons for the article)... and wouldn't you know it, no mention of any problems there, no mention of any survey...

  Comment 76 of 421

• peter sayer of perth Posted at 7:26 AM Today

  if the problem happens in Australia get an Australian in Australia to fix it. how simple is that.

  Comment 77 of 421

• Ex telstra and optus customer of Sydney Posted at 7:27 AM Today

  How about not sending people to my door to dictate to me that my landline and broadband should both be with the same provider. telstra & optus sent people to my door also and now i am with neither provider. And when it comes to calling you guys I don't want to press 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 I want to speak to a person straight away to a human being who is based locally, and is not trying to pull off a netural accent (*cough* outsourced call centres).

  Comment 78 of 421

• muzza of Melbourne Posted at 7:28 AM Today

  Broken Mobile Card... Telstra Shop wanted to charge >$300 to replace! Walked out. Called Telstra tech support but had great trouble understanding their accent along with poor line quality, although patient and helpful. Eventually found out card would be replaced under plan. So part of the problem is outsourcing. Poor customer service at shop! (Card still hasn't arrived, will have to follow up)

  Comment 79 of 421

• Peter of Queensland Posted at 7:29 AM Today

  I worked for Telstrain a Telstra shop & all the good smart people left. Why? Beacause no managers or anyone above us listened or cared. All they cared about were profit margins, keeping staff levels to a bare minimum, managers saying we have to look after the shareholders. We were always a step behind the market place with what was available to consumers. You have inexperienced casual workers with no training offering mobile plans to contracts for customers. The managers & highly paid staff at Telstra country wide were patting them self on the back for delivering great profit margins. This is your problem Telstra & this is it in a nutshell.

  Comment 80 of 421

• Pete of Coffs Harbour of Coffs Harbour Posted at 7:32 AM Today

  What they should also be doing is approaching some of the hundreds of thousands who have left Telstra due to their amateurish service and overpriced products.

  Comment 81 of 421

• maximus of Sydney Posted at 7:34 AM Today

  Change the name. Telstra just means bad everything to me.

  Comment 82 of 421

• Proud Telstra worker of NSW Posted at 7:35 AM Today

  As someone who works for Telstra and faces the pissed off customers on a daily basis, I know the main problem issue is in the call centres. Whether its because the staff there are under trained, under pressure or just don't care, the issue is that following through with a problem rarely happens. Time and time again i have had to rectify issues for customers, sometimes within 30 minutes and sometimes i have to follow up, that the customer has been trying to get fixed for months. I always call the custoemr back when the issue is corrected. Telstra products are world leaders, but until this call centre issue is fixed they are worthless.

  Comment 83 of 421

• Telstra Sux Ass Posted at 7:35 AM Today

  i find if you swear at those automated phone prompts really loud - you go straight through to an operator :)

  Comment 84 of 421

• jacq of murrumbateman Posted at 7:37 AM Today

  i recently had landline failure. telstra technicians are on a time limit to fix problems. each one had to leave the job without fixing it. i was forced EACH TIME to lodge a new complaint, join the waiting list for a technician, see a different technician start from scratch then walk away without fixing the problem. this went on for months until a supervisor & whole team came & approved extension of time for the technician to see the job through to a resolution. did the supervisor get $$m bonus?? they wish!! telstra sux!! i hate their outsourcing & their penny-pinching customer service!!

  Comment 85 of 421

• Tony of Central Coast Posted at 7:38 AM Today

  WHAT TELSTRA CAN DO TODAY - Don't call people AFTER they've left Telstra to try and get them back by offering more competitively priced services - it's too late then! Offer all your customers competitive prices NOW - you'll be presently surprised that hemorrhaging will slow right down. Then get to work fixing customer service and billing. One call centre operator assigned to a customer's issue and they are responsible to follow it through to resolution. That operator also gives the customer their contact details.

  Comment 86 of 421

• Business Owner of Not Importantsville Posted at 7:39 AM Today

  Learn to think of EVERY customer as important. I went to the Tel$tra shop to enquire about our two business mobiles which both have stopped working. We have a 2 year contract, but the phones have a one year warranty. The lady pulled up our account on the screen and one column had a "Customer Importance" heading. Under it for our company it said "Not Important". So the lady couldn't help us. We obviously don't spend enough to be important ($800 per month) and have our faulty phones replaced.

  Comment 87 of 421

• NQ of NQ Posted at 7:40 AM Today

  I was with Telstra post paid mobile, with the same number for 10yrs, increased pricing with decreased service, both over the phone in store, young inexperienced staff that actually spoke me out of upgrading my phone (out of contract!?) and staff that simply don't want to listen forced me to churn my number over to Optus - so far, so good. Decent 3G service in area - admit signal isn't always as good as Telstra, but don't care...After 10yrs of continual service to Telstra, not even a simple Thank You or incintive to stay with them. One of the worst companies I have had to unfortunatley deal with!

  Comment 88 of 421

• NR of NSW Posted at 7:41 AM Today

  Put customers first, profit second. It'll go a long way. How about changing the CEO too?

  Comment 89 of 421

• Jeremy of Gosford Posted at 7:41 AM Today

  For 2 years now Telstra has been sending me a bill for -1c since I changed to another carrier. Thats cost them $20 or more, gotta love Telstra.

  Comment 90 of 421

• Too Expensive Posted at 7:42 AM Today

  They simply RIP off their customers... largely the elderly and those who can least afford the ridiculous Internet plans; they try to sell you the worst deal package, lock you in for ages (and yet have the equipment to give you what you want, but prefer to sell you the more expensive, less useful plan); they terrorize communities with vans going round in pairs (to deal with customers I suppose); they lie about what is possible to try and get your business; they phone you up again and again to "check you're on the right plan" and are plain rude when you have questions they can't answer - like "why are you calling ; we're on the do not call list"; they force ridiculous 1 month billing randomly changed to 2 months on customers; you can't stop the pieces of paper coming and do it on-line; you get shoddy service that is SO expensive - I really pity those old people who go with Telstra because they don't know you really shouldn't be paying at all for uploads... and they just seem really greedy and lazy compared to other companies offering internet.. plus why do people still pay $10 for a 3 minute phone call overseas when with the right internet provider and IP phone you can speak for 100 years for that price.... same equipment in one case Telstra makes its millions in another case you get a fair deal..

  Comment 91 of 421

• brunos Posted at 7:44 AM Today

  Easy. Invest in local infrastuctute, local people, listen to and quickly fix customer issues, dont wory about the shareholder or the CEO- they will get bonuses when the company is doing well. Offer exceptional pricing to the community and get rid of the mentality that Teltra owns the communications network as most of it was actually paid by tax payers when Telstra was Govt. owned and do this quickly. Should be the greatest company in Oz and can be if arogance is ditched....become humble!

  Comment 92 of 421

• dc of cairns Posted at 7:46 AM Today

  As a ex telstra customer and current shareholder you need to do 1) (as Chris from Perth stated) Get rid of performance stats for your telephone operators. A call comes in and the operator sees the call through to the problem is resolved. 90% of problems can be solved by the initial operator. 2) Lower your prices and offer more bang for your $. Recent announcements have not gone far enough. 3) You stupidly missed the iphone craze. That should never happen again. You should be a forefront of new innovations. 4) Selective use of voice recognition. Not addiction. 5) Let your staff have some bloody fun. They all seem so stiff and bored. Good kuck

  Comment 93 of 421

• David of Melbourne Posted at 7:47 AM Today

  I just had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn't April Fools Day. :-)

  Comment 94 of 421

• Jules Scarlett Director Cust.Service&Satisfaction of Telstra Posted at 7:47 AM Today

  The service that many of you have been experiencing has not been up to standard. Your experience clearly shows that we have some way to go in improving. I apologise for the inconvenience and frustration you have experienced. If you have any outstanding complaints or issues with your service, please call 13 2200 and say complaint.

  Comment 95 of 421

• Dave of Darwin Posted at 7:48 AM Today

  if the problems when customers ask for help , not just wasting the customers time and when they ask there telstra rep to call back , actuallydo it ive been trying to sort out my home bill from the old system o new one , called about 10 times to sort out obmanson here i come , maybe they can sort it for me

  Comment 96 of 421

• Richard of Sydney Posted at 7:50 AM Today

  TElstra's problem is HOW the handle customer complaints - they do everything they can to stop you making a complaint. You have to tell 6 people the same series of facts and they have no centralised complaints group. The operators don't make accurate notes of conversations and then others don;t bother to read them before they speak to you. They need someone in there who knows how to set up and manage an effective customer complaint system otherwise there is no point in complaining. Also their operators should tell the truth - i spoke to a man once who was obviously in India, but said he wasn't he was in Melbourne. So I said to him what a nice day it was in Melbourne - he agreed, lovely day. But in fact it was freezing cold and pouring with rain. Hmmm ... of course he was in Melbourne ... NOT! Tell your customers the truth Telstra and then admit sometimes it is your fault - sorry is an important word!

  Comment 97 of 421

• Hukia of Sydney Posted at 7:51 AM Today

  Would be more valuable to ask those who were pissed off enough to have already left... Dont you think?

  Comment 98 of 421

• Paddy McHugh Posted at 7:52 AM Today

  Start again, give real service and stop ripping us off. I was charged for 3 years for a phone I never had, it took a letter to the editor and one to the minister before some one rung me that didnt want to know what colour underware I had on.. Sevaral hours later my phone bill went from $1300 to $300, even though I was still not happy I agreeded to pay...now heres the good bit 2 weeks later we recied another bill of $400 more dollars for unspecified extras....and then when I shifted all my accouants to other far better providers. I get some absloute smartarse from telstra ring me saying that he would like to get our business back because they own all the lines anyway...excuse me Telstra who do you think you are...I am dying for them to take me to court now as its going to become the most expensive bill they have ever sent out.

  Comment 99 of 421

• Steveof QLD Posted at 7:52 AM Today

  Change your ADSL plans, give more data. $30 for 200meg data is a joke. Maybe Woolworths should buy out Telstra , they will run it better.

  Comment 100 of 421

• terry Posted at 7:52 AM Today

  Even the online survey does not work. If you signal that your complaint has not been resolved you get sent to another screen which assumes that it is.

  Comment 101 of 421

• Ray of Queensland Posted at 7:52 AM Today

  Bring customer service back to Australia, 100%. We want to talk to Australians. Drop the prices, make SMS's on mobiles fractions of cents, drop line rentals, drop port rentals on ADSL ports. Give the customer service reps instructions to "FIX THE PROBLEM" not "FLICK THE PROBLEM".

  Comment 102 of 421

• Greg Wall of Bathurst Posted at 7:53 AM Today

  We all have horror stories about Telstra and my wife and I are certainly no different [Telstra cancelled my wife's mobile for twelve months almost to the day. Admitted it was their fault yet even with the support of the ombudsman we could not get them to fix it. In my experience the greatest frustration is that no one you call has either the knowledge or authority to fix any problems and can hide behind the anonymity of the corporation by transferring you to another department to let them handle you. Generally we like to think of ourselves as loyal and friendly customers but every time we have a problem with Telstra, and unfortunately the frequency is increasing, we are immediately on the defensive as we know it will cost us at least an hour on the phone with a very poor chance of a resoloution. It's a sad reflection on Telstra's customer service that I would much rather do it online if there was an effective way to do so. Telstra appears bent on confusing and annoying their customers at every turn. Reading the comments already posted, it would seem in summary Telstra needs to; 1. Ditch the voice automated system. It doesn't recognise words like 'Bathurst'. 2. Locate the call centres in Australia. It would be a boon to both Telstra and the country if you decentralised to Regional areas like...Narrabri, Blackall, Katherine, Port Hedland, Ceduna, Swan Hill and say Devonport. 3. Authorise one deprtment in each centre to fix the problems. Local problems, local solutions.[Westpac are putting bank managers back in branches] 4. Catch up with Technology. We are currently paying a premium for a poor product. 5. Remember the Golden Rule. They who have the gold [customers] make the rules.

  Comment 103 of 421

• mati tamme Posted at 7:54 AM Today

  overseas staff are rude,agressive,totally out of the way your customers have been used to.Get rid of them you will solve your problem.

  Comment 104 of 421

• Andy In Oz of Tamborine Qld Posted at 7:57 AM Today

  We would like to comment but there is not a single phone number that we can get through on to talk to a real person in Australia. Layer after layer of embedded menu's FAQ's all designed to make sure that we spend hours in your system but never getting a straight answer. Get rid of the automated menu's and answer the phone!

  Comment 105 of 421

• Former Line tester of wollongong Posted at 7:59 AM Today

  Give LOCAL employees incentives based on how many faults they fix without a repeat fault. Make the prices more competitive. Hire people as casuals ONLY until they prove themselves and do everything you can to keep employees that perform. Introduce one system for faults and sales. Train LOCAL staff to use it properly and give them authority to change things if its in the customers interest.

  Comment 106 of 421

• Chris Posted at 7:59 AM Today

  Stop gearing company goals at achieving high share return. The goal should be to provide best possible service for customers. In turn, this will create more customers which will boost the share price anyway. Good product = good business. Now get focusing.

  Comment 107 of 421

• Nay Posted at 8:00 AM Today

  How about having "customer service"? I still can't get the voicemail time on my mobile to be changed to the timezone I now live in. Only been trying for 4 years, this time. BigPond doesn't have customer service on the whole, they have duck shoving!

  Comment 108 of 421

• DaZZa Posted at 8:00 AM Today

  I'll give 'em two hints - 1) Keep your customer service in bloody Australia, instead of sending it to India to save money and 2) Stop including pressure sales targets and call length targets in performance requirements for customer service staff! That'll gio a long way to fixing what's wrong with your blighted organisation!

  Comment 109 of 421

• Mark of Brisbane Posted at 8:01 AM Today

  I stopped using Telstra because they started to rip me off. I was on a $50/month plan for a couple of years. I never used up my quota. They then changed the rules and/or the fee structure and suddenly I was always over quota. I switched to another supplier and I use around $20/month.

  Comment 110 of 421

• Morgan Hearst of Canberra Posted at 8:01 AM Today

  Nick of Sydney - Amen, Telstra is archaic. Put it down.

  Comment 111 of 421

• JJ of Canberra Posted at 8:02 AM Today

  Have always paid my bills but recently had issues when changing the way our payments are made due to their various charges. They're website continually comes up with error messages and we somehow missed a payment. So they slug us with a $5 fee (yet both our rental fee for the phone and mobile are paid in advance). We raised this with Telstra and some prat told us issues with their website wasn't a valid reason to not make a payment. Enjoy that $5 Telstra because in my line of work I've been able to transfer various customers away to cheaper alternatives, in one instance that's a loss of $90K to your revenue. And I'm going to continue to help people see the savings they can make by moving away from Telstra.

  Comment 112 of 421

• Mahmoud Yazdani of Brisbane Posted at 8:07 AM Today

  I am trying to ring Telstra but I am on call for day's. The problem is all the foreinger's. We need more Australian's. Maybe will not be the same again, but we must try.

  Comment 113 of 421

• Not happy of adelaide Posted at 8:11 AM Today

  I find they are the only company who you call with an issue about your account and the phone line cuts off mid way through. Then you have to call back at least another 3 times and speak with another 3 diff people, who all cant assist and no manager is avail. What a waste of 90mins of my time to sort out their stuff up. I will never go back to Telstra.

  Comment 114 of 421

• Kay of Adelaide Posted at 8:11 AM Today

  After years of disappointing and frustrating service from Telstra, I am happily with another telephone provider. Telstra calls constantly trying to woo me back, but I always say that they could give me free calls for 12 months and I STILL wouldn't use their service again! Close them down.

  Comment 115 of 421

• Dexi of ACT Posted at 8:13 AM Today

  Poor customer service starts with poor management decisions about the installation and maintenance of its equipment. Staff losses, cost cutting and outsourcing to inexperienced companies have created an unmanageable system that ultimately leads to poor service. Nothing will change until you fix installation and maintenance.

  Comment 116 of 421

• Steve of Brisney Posted at 8:13 AM Today

  Telstra is SO CONFUSING to use. I have two degrees in Engineering and cannot decipher their mumbo-jumbo. Turn it into an Australian, efficient, understandable, innovative company and we will all use it.

  Comment 117 of 421

• iceyone of Brisbane Posted at 8:15 AM Today

  Stop milking your customers, lower your rates, lower your disconnection fees, train your staff more, pay them more and get more helpful staff. Stop being anti-competitive! After receiving and paying off a $3000 bill for mobile internet charges which I knew nothing about!, I will never go back to Telstra.

  Comment 118 of 421

• SS Posted at 8:15 AM Today

  Have worked there recently. Never seen such a big mess before. What a bunch of not professional people earning a god money.

  Comment 119 of 421

• Angel of Melbourne Posted at 8:15 AM Today

  employ people that know what they are doing, employ people that care, you people seem to not give a s*** about anything when you ring, and telstra is always damn right!!!!!!

  Comment 120 of 421

• Graham Posted at 8:15 AM Today

  Whilst Telstra definately has flaws, but coming from a call centre cust service background i can tell you the attitude of the customer has a huge impact on the end result. I have seen people where i used to work delibrately not do things a customer asks or doing them incorrectly/half-heartedly because a customer was rude or abusive. I'm not condoning this, but a little bit of respect and politeness regardless if the operator you talk to is Australian, Indain or whatever can go a very long way. Good on Telstra for trying to fix something that most people believe is beyond repair.

  Comment 121 of 421

• Ryan of Sydney of Sydney Posted at 8:16 AM Today

  Telstra is so stupid that they dont even know why they are crap and have to ask their own customers. How are they still in business? As for their customers, stop complaining and just use another service provider. There are heaps and they are all cheaper and better. I did this years ago - its fantastic not having Telstra in my life!

  Comment 122 of 421

• Michael care of melbourne Posted at 8:17 AM Today

  I receive wrong bill every now and than, last month was $ 32. for the oversea call that I never made. MC from Melbourne

  Comment 123 of 421

• john doe Posted at 8:17 AM Today

  stop telling pork pies to the customer, start honouring the contracts, stop price gouging. if we pay premium price we expect premium service.

  Comment 124 of 421

• Chris of NSW Posted at 8:18 AM Today

  Where to start? Insourcing would be a start, teaching reps to take responsibility for all action points on a call and actually placing the onus on them to resolve the issues, not taking more than 12 months to work on billing disputes and crediting (no joke, I had 3 customers in my business portfolio wait over 12 months while Telstra owed them in excess of $10k in refunds), get rid of the voice activated system that guides you to the wrong queues......how about just burning the company and starting fresh? It's just too far gone and I will never be a customer of theirs again

  Comment 125 of 421

• toolate of Brisbane Posted at 8:19 AM Today

  I recall suggesting to a Telstra representative that they introduce a $2 monthly fee to guarantee that my bill would be accurate when issued and save me the half hour of my time every month chasing them to get it fixed (this was after 6 months in a row of incorrect bills!). It's too late for me now, I celebrated the day I cut my ties with Telstra, never going back.

  Comment 126 of 421

• stellar of adelaide Posted at 8:20 AM Today

  voice recognition is pathetic! get rid of it!!!

  Comment 127 of 421

• Enigma of Qld Posted at 8:20 AM Today

  Here's some suggestions: Do a 100% audit of he accounts and close those not active. Readjust the computer billing program to NOT send bills to anyone with a balance below $2.00. Do audit on work orders and immediately focus on the oldest. Create a ready reaction team in each city to tackle any outages. Lower your internet charges or increase the download limits. Take responsibility for problem and not pass the buck. That should do for the time being but there are plenty more.

  Comment 128 of 421

• John of NSW Posted at 8:21 AM Today

  First thing to do would be to half their prices..

  Comment 129 of 421

• James of Tweed Posted at 8:25 AM Today

  I tried to change my plan about 4 times. After many failed attempts at talking to someone in the Phillipines....I went to a Telstra shop. 30 minutes later I was assured it was OK. It wasn't.

  Comment 130 of 421

• Rayo of Hobart Posted at 8:26 AM Today

  We need to be actually able to SPEAK to a real person-one we can understand clearly-and one who shows some sympathy with our particular problem-and then get it FIXED!

  Comment 131 of 421

• Sean Posted at 8:26 AM Today

  It would start if they had an actual email and postal address we could send our complaints. Truth is they dont want to fix the problems and they dont care for our complaints.

  Comment 132 of 421

• Jason of Brisbane Posted at 8:27 AM Today

  Like there's ANY chance whatsoever they will actually listen to complaints and/or suggestions and fix anything. They never have before and there's a less than zero chance they will now. This is just a PR exercise to get some exposure. Funny how it appears it's backfiring reading all these comments, seems once you've burned a customer over and over there's just no way you'll get another chance with them. I've been with Optus for many years now and yes, they have their issues but it's so much less painful in general than dealing with Telstra. I'd rather shave my head with a rusty cheese grater than go back to Telstra for any kind of service.

  Comment 133 of 421

• Mark W of Adelaide Posted at 8:28 AM Today

  Stop allowing third parties to charge things to phone accounts & ripping our naive kids off by stealing their phone credit. This will save 2 hours on the phone to Telstra trying to sort it out.

  Comment 134 of 421

• Andrew Cairns of Cairns Posted at 8:28 AM Today

  When you ring the 1223 number, get a HUMAN. 99% of the time you waste our time and put a human on anyway. No wonder we get annoyed when we finally DO get a person. And, IF we change ISP's DONT make it complicated, just get your staff to pull out the telstra chord and put in the new one, so we are reconnected.

  Comment 135 of 421

• Addry Gam of ACT Posted at 8:30 AM Today

  Well, it's a terrible start if they pretend not to know what's wrong and start asking us. And Gloria Farler's remark is gloriously disingenuos - "we haven't lived up to our own standards". What sort of standards do you expect when you deliberately measure your performamnce by the NUMBER OF CALLS you handle rather than how many PROBLEMS YOU SOLVE and you instruct people to hang up as soon as a call reaches a certain duration????!!!!!!!! When you are not oriented towards solving problems, it doesn't even matter whether your people cam make themselves understood in the language we speak in this country ..... They're already showing that they're not fair dinkum about this. It's an organisation that does not know how to make an honest living, and it attracts and retains only those staff who fit the mould.

  Comment 136 of 421

• Troy of Sunshine Coast Posted at 8:31 AM Today

  I have just been charged $225.00 for going 1.5 Mb over my broadband cap, that's pure gouging. My usage meter showed that I was close but not over. Telstra is the only ADSL 2 on the Sunshine Coast but as soon as another company can do ADSL 2 here I will swap and NEVER AGAIN go back. I spoke to an Australian call centre and they just said bad luck, pay it.

  Comment 137 of 421

• SC of Adel Posted at 8:31 AM Today

  What a joke, you dont know what to do to improve customer service, i thought you had 104,000 customers last year who could give you an idea, just an example of the fact that youre NOT LISTENING so why will you listen to people who complete your on line surveys, TELSTRA you are a total loser

  Comment 138 of 421

• SHVRS of Melbourne Posted at 8:33 AM Today

  I tell you how Telstra could have fixed thier customer service, they should have just asked the call centre agents what needed to happen. I used to work in a Telstra call centre. I couldn't sell anything to save my life, my stats were consistently terrible but I found some salvation in continually spending hours on the phone with customers doing to shuffle through other departments to get problems solved. I left after it was clear that unless I was selling plans I was wasting time and money fixing accounts and getting to the bottom of things. A new database would probably solve a lot of the idduse because the current one is a joke.

  Comment 139 of 421

• Girl Friday of Brisbane Posted at 8:37 AM Today

  Don't waste you're time complaining here people. Send your complaints to Telstra. It actually works but here is the correct way to do it. By Phone: When you call to sort out your issue(only to be met with further issues because of the non english speaking people they hire despite their insistence that they don't use offshore call centres) Insist on speaking with a supervisor. Continue to insist that you want to speak to someone who has English as a first language because you are struggling to understand the operator's accent-no offence to them of course. If you can be patient enough to be insistent you will eventually get some one to help you. I also found threatening to disconnect my services and take my account to another carrier motivated them to help me. By email: if you go to the Telstra website under the tab "Contact Us" there is a section for complains. Write your complaint outlining the issues, number of times you have tried to resolve these issues and that if you do not get resolution you will take your money elsewhere. Seems to motivate them. We had to contact Telstra 18 times in one week to sort out issues and eventually they called us to see what the problem was :)

  Comment 140 of 421

• Vince of Melbourne Posted at 8:37 AM Today

  The outsourcing of customer service has not worked for years. One would think that the money spent on customer survey by Telstra would have been betetr spent on having local call centres. Keep jobs in Australia is a big drive from most Aussie business, why can't Telstra follow suite.

  Comment 141 of 421

• DD Posted at 8:37 AM Today

  Actually FIX THE PROBLEM instead of saying it's fixed. My parents should not have had to wait 10 years, with constant phone calls, to get a crackling phone line sorted out! For that matter, why have I been waiting 11 months with many contacts to have my crackling line sorted out?

  Comment 142 of 421

• Sir Ronald Bradnam of GC Posted at 8:38 AM Today

  11 months to sort out a double billing mistake that kept increasing every month with threatening letters and letters from debt collections for what was their mistake. Billing me on the legacy system and the new system. This is only one of a number of issues. They need to empower staff and accept responsiblity for their actions would be a start.

  Comment 143 of 421

• bigal Posted at 8:39 AM Today

  Telstra, talking to robots and listening to elevator music......

  Comment 144 of 421

• Internet User of Cyberspace Posted at 8:40 AM Today

  1.How about some competitive pricing plans? 2.How about removing the Pair Gain you installed on my and 1,000,000 other properties through the 80's and 90's preventing any ability to receive ADSL2 (or ADSL through anyone except Telstra - see point 1) 3. How about giving me back the 3.5rs I spent on the phone to you on Friday?

  Comment 145 of 421

• Ben of Brisbane Posted at 8:42 AM Today

  Stop overcharging, it's ridiculous. With all this money saved by outsourcing, we, the customer, the life blood, get nothing, no savings, just reduced services. I'm shutting my 8 year Telstra Bigpond account down this month for good, sick of getting ripped off, adios amigos!

  Comment 146 of 421

• CharlieC Posted at 8:43 AM Today

  I am not sure what the problem with their service is. I do find the pre recorded answering messages annoying however I have found their service to be exceptional. On all occasions where I have been overcharged or had problems with my phone or any other query they have either met my expectations or surpassed them. As for charges I find the cap plan I am on to be reasonable for my needs as their staff had given me logical advice on a plan best suited for me. I am not sure whether I am in a minority who is pleased with their service but I will say that I will not be changing my phone carrier. I find that if I as a customer are logical, reasonable and calm mannered with call centre staff instead of angry, they are more than willing to find an answer or go the extra mile. In some cases I think it is not just the people who work for the company who need to look at how to better serve the community, but also whether they are given any respect for the work that they are doing. I just feel this discussion needs a different point of view, other than complete opposition to a service. At least they're not calling during dinner!!!!

  Comment 147 of 421

• Fed up of Tasmania Posted at 8:44 AM Today

  Another pathetic PR exercise by Telstra? A good start would be: 1. Start acknowledging and acting upon written complaints addressed to the CEO. 2. Train sales staff to not tell lies. 3. Train staff/operators to actually do what they say they will do. 4. Start acknowledging service faults (which are Telstra's responsibility) and stop blaming customers' equipment for faults. 5. Simplify plans and contracts. 6. Eliminate billing mistakes and put customers' correct address on bills. I have been a Telstra customer for 40 years. Telstra, please attend to all of the above matters and demonstrate improvement before my contract expires in June 2010. I have had a gutfull.

  Comment 148 of 421

• Josh of Brisbane Posted at 8:45 AM Today

  Hasn't Telstra answered its own question? LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS! Telstra provides a very poor, unreliable and expensive service...(Fix it) To be able to fix your customer service you actually need to have something to fix!...The whole system is years behind the rest of the world. Stop treating us in Australia like a bunch of idiots....we are not the ones asking for help!

  Comment 149 of 421

• Codie of Ulladulla Posted at 8:49 AM Today

  They need to hire individuals who can speak english for one, I am sick of speaking to people who cant even help, their service is horrible!! They need to TRAIN their employees on GOOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE - NOTE : Telsta the customers meant to hang up first not you, and you cant speak to the caller like they are an idiot and know nothing - thats speaking down on us. Telstra 3G is crap, better service? I would like to see it. You's need to fix it soon or there will be many customers walking, me being one of them.

  Comment 150 of 421

• Anna of Melbourne Posted at 8:49 AM Today

  If "TELSTRA has admitted it doesn't know how to fix its woeful service standards" then you guys are beyond help... It is so obvious! 1) Customer service representatives with very good English AND very well trained; 2)Much-much better deals: better priced and simply structured; 3)Your contractors actually having good understanding of the communication networks and fixing the problems on the same day. What is so difficult to understand??? And Telstra management has 7-figure salaries...

  Comment 151 of 421

• SandDollar of QLD Posted at 8:50 AM Today

  it is good to see telstra finally takes these steps. However I just wonder why there was never any intervention? The Ombudsman does not seem to have any power. The only other company I had so many overcharges and issues with was Onetel and see where that ended up.

  Comment 152 of 421

• Ros of Perth Posted at 8:50 AM Today

  It took six months to fix a billing problem that was all due to Telstra changing its billing system. We found ourselves on two billing systems and one where the bills were generated and sent to an address that we hadn't lived at for 10 years. We were disconnected twice for not paying a bill that we had never recieved (and were not ever meant to recieve as we were already recieving another bill) and everytime we thought we had fixed the problem it would happen again. The stress of having to repeat the story to every new operator, who had no idea what I was talking about and as our problem was too hard for most operators to deal with we would just be hung up on, was huge. Finally we spoke to someone who could actually fix the problem and was horrified enough about our story to give us her direct line. AFter six months of stress the problem seems to be fixed, however we no longer have some of the extras we used to have, but there is no way I am ringing to try and sort that out and when I have recovered enough to call again, I will be changing companies.

  Comment 153 of 421

• Sally Marks Posted at 8:50 AM Today

  That's reminded me, I still haven't paid my monthly landline bill. I went on to the website to check the amount and looked in vain for a pop-up of the Customer Satisfaction survey. Isn't that a logical place to put it? Otherwise, if it is a real "recruitment drive", I agree that participants should be paid - not go into a draw. Another big ugly black mark against Telstra, in my opinion.

  Comment 154 of 421

• Al of Adelaide Posted at 8:51 AM Today

  Who would have thought that Telstra now actually wants to listen to what their customers have to say? After dealing with massive overpricing and impersonal, incompetent customer service, who could blame people for leaving. It's a shame, Telstra should be great. I suppose it's just another example of a public company gone private failure. I can live without the Next G network if it means I don't have to deal with Telstra.

  Comment 155 of 421

• ex customer of Sydney Posted at 8:51 AM Today

  Insource . Employ enough people to promptly answer the phone and give them adequate time to record the problem or enquiry and empower them to action the solution. re employ re employ linesmen and technicians Survey the ex customers

  Comment 156 of 421

• Paul Anderson Posted at 8:53 AM Today

  I discovered Telstra had been overcharging me on my mobile and after unsuccessfully trying to sort it out with them went to the Ombudsman. After 3 weeks it still wasn't sorted despite many calls to Telstra, they would continually say it was sorted and then I would receive another nasty overdue notice through the mail. Nothing seemed to work until I received a letter from Telstra addressed to my family offering condolences on my demise and drawing their attention to my overdue bill!!! After that the ombudsman sorted them out in about 2 hours. Suffice to say I'm no longer with Telstra.

  Comment 157 of 421

• virginia Posted at 8:53 AM Today

  Train Them!

  Comment 158 of 421

• saver Posted at 8:53 AM Today

  stop complaining.. god knows that telstra people are always trying hard how to solve all ur problems...hope everyday you can see what telstra people doing to their customers....god bless!!!specially people in the philippines...

  Comment 159 of 421

• Nick of Melbourne Posted at 8:55 AM Today

  I actually had many more problems with Optus than Telstra. So long as I don't have to talk to someone overseas who I can't understand then I will be happy. Howeve....Telstra didn't offer a warranty on their mobile phone deals. That is not a good way to keep up with the competative nature of the mobile phone business.

  Comment 160 of 421

• Alex McMuoragh of Mebourne Posted at 8:59 AM Today

  One of the things they could try is to use their profit to fix the infrastructure instead of paying the CEO's multi million dollar bonuses for causing the problems in the first place

  Comment 161 of 421

• Rage against the Machine of Melbourne Posted at 9:00 AM Today

  'Interactive' Voice Recognition - unacceptable. I am with a telecommunications company where every phone call is answered by a person. If they are ever mad enough to change that, I will change company again. Possibly the last straw for Telstra was when they had the GALL to get their COMPUTER to ring me with an automated customer service survey...WTF?!? I cannot bear speaking with a computer while there are still actual people in the world who could do with a job. End of story.

  Comment 162 of 421

• PJ Posted at 9:01 AM Today

  The truth is that the call centre operators were not paid high enough and were given inadequate training on products. Because of this they did not perform very well and Telstra has let this things gone far too long and created lots of dissatisfaction to customers. I am a Telstra consultant by the way and I can tell this. There are lots of misunderstandings and we are getting lots of disgruntled customers calls. This customer service improvement should've done long time ago and all they care was ripping customers off, not just expensive but their products are totally unattractive.

  Comment 163 of 421

• id Posted at 9:02 AM Today

  how about don't hang up when we want the persons details to put a complaint higher up

  Comment 164 of 421

• Isn't it obvious? Posted at 9:04 AM Today

  Maybe if you didn't close down the highest ranked for customer satisfaction call centres like Bendigo?

  Comment 165 of 421

• Bob Firth of Sydney Posted at 9:05 AM Today

  I just want to speak to a real person that gives a damn

  Comment 166 of 421

• Sean of Sydney Posted at 9:06 AM Today

  Stop sending door-to-door salesmen to my house on weekends. Is there a Do-Not-Visit register I can get on?? Doorbell rings, dog barks, baby wakes up and starts crying and there's this poor Pakistani guy there trying to sell me Telstra. Not only am I extremely unreceptive at this point, but I'm already completely Telstra!!!

  Comment 167 of 421

• Ytn Posted at 9:06 AM Today

  Simple. Take sales roles away from non-sales departments (or remove AHT KPI's). That way they can actually spend time on helping out customers, rather than worry about their AHT levels and transferring customers or releasing the calls. And yes, the commission they get are dependent on their AHT. Also, introduce consultant responsibility. If a consultants accessed your account, you should be able to get in contact with them. Follow Amex's customer service methods and you can't go wrong. (I've worked for both companies)

  Comment 168 of 421

• nam nguyen of Condell Park Posted at 9:06 AM Today

  get rid of Stupid automatic voice system. No wonder a lots of non english speaking customers hate telstra

  Comment 169 of 421

• Lisa of Melbourne Posted at 9:07 AM Today

  stop offshoring. make it a government asset again. hire more staff. make the terms and conditions and services and charges of the products transparent. take away unrealistic sales goals of sales staff. make business unit exectutives responsible for the poor decisions they make. make CEO and exec terms longer so they have to see the fruits or lack there of of their decisions. Give the workers a union collective agreement that is fair. Stop huge executive salaries when they do not perform. Give shareholders the ability to sack underperforming execs.

  Comment 170 of 421

• Ann Gill of Melbourne Posted at 9:07 AM Today

  I cannot handle the automated voice system, I always end up shouting at it. I was charged for something I had not used, I was reimbursed but a young overseas call centre person told me "I need to be more careful" even though it was NOT my fault.

  Comment 171 of 421

• Customer of qld Posted at 9:07 AM Today

  Hope they will solicit feedback from me. But it will not happen as I am not a Telstra customer for donkey years already. If they ever do, then I will be most happy to provide "Sorry I am currently busy with other matters, your call is important to me, please hold. Oh you have moved up on the queue, your call is important to me, please hold or alternatively you can contact the Telecom Ombudsman."

  Comment 172 of 421

• Empower & Insource Posted at 9:07 AM Today

  Empower & Insource - Simple

  Comment 173 of 421

• Nathaniel Posted at 9:12 AM Today

  Sorting problems - provide info over the web and you get a ticket number then you're roundly ignored, or you get a canned response days later - often asking for the information you've already provided. When you phone (if it gets desperate) 9/10 times it goes overseas where explaining things gets tough if the issues is ANYTHING off the provided tracks. You'll get passed around or put on hold and then just hung up on. Unbelievably frustrating. Moreover, when you provide background I'm not sure the call centre chap records it, because when you ring for a follow up you have to start from scratch! It's an exercise in frustration from the web or on the phone!

  Comment 174 of 421

• resi of ACT Posted at 9:12 AM Today

  If I go overseas and ask for international roaming to be installed on my mobile phone I only want to do one visit to Telstra and speak to one client representative to get this service done. When I am overseas I expect international roaming to work and not having to spend my holiday ringing Telstra from overseas because international roaming is not working. If I purchase a new mobile phone at Telstra shop I wish to go home and use the phone and expect things to work, not having to ring back because somebody forgot to make things happen and the phone still doesn't work after a couple of days.

  Comment 175 of 421

• Jay of Hobart Posted at 9:13 AM Today

  Maybe they should be asking the people that have left Telstra why they've walked.

  Comment 176 of 421

• tt of melbourne Posted at 9:14 AM Today

  simple...just charge less. far out greedy telstra.

  Comment 177 of 421

• BC of Perth Posted at 9:14 AM Today

  Telstra is well beyond repair. Horrible customer service, operators who's English is absolutely atrocious, they also have the most expensive plans for mobile phones and still, after many, many years haven't come good with the promises made to country customers. Shut Telstra down, build it back from scratch.

  Comment 178 of 421

• Homer J Posted at 9:15 AM Today

  Clear the debt Telstra claim I owe! Refund to me the $740 I had to pay for premium SMS's that I did not ask for! How Telstra managed to stuff up bill after bill but still insist I owed them money! LOSERS!!!!

  Comment 179 of 421

• Gandalf of Melbourne Posted at 9:15 AM Today

  We paid a fortune for an idiot to revamp our telco. Having not done our homework on his past efforts around the world. We got exactly what we paid for. Shafted.

  Comment 180 of 421

• Steve of Melbourne Posted at 9:17 AM Today

  Wow. If Telstra was offering every customer free money some of you people would still complain. Telstra has made mistakes in the past - no argument, but its making a solid effort to fix them now. Give your hyperbole and rhetoric a rest for just a moment and see how/if it works out before you starting spitting out your bile.

  Comment 181 of 421

• Bob of the Gold Coast Posted at 9:18 AM Today

  as soon as the complaint reaches the proven stage ( up to twelve months and nine different "complaint managers" later ) they pass it onto their "legal department" and another six months prevarication. Then the offer arrives to settle at less than ten percent of the true losses claimed. They act on the premise that all complainants are dills and if they can string out the delay, the complanant will go away. Don't even try to fix it. Blow it up and start again !!!!!

  Comment 182 of 421

• andy of Sydney Posted at 9:19 AM Today

  I ditched Telstra years ago and it was rightful decision. Incompetitive phone and broadband rates. I was asking to investigate why I being all of sudden charge alot more than my usual monthly bills by unknown calls, they could help but just repeated poor customer service. To my experience, Telstra is ripped off while providing poor customer service and how it is repaired is seemed mission impossible.

  Comment 183 of 421

• hunter Posted at 9:19 AM Today

  if telstra are wholly incapable of internally recognising it's service issues they have the wrong people in management. start from the top and cull the whole way down to the bottom of the telstra internal food-chain then rebuild from the bottom up.

  Comment 184 of 421

• Andrew of Gold Coast Posted at 9:19 AM Today

  We've been telling them for years how to fix things, but they just don't listen. What makes anyone think they will now just because some new top dog says exactly what the previous ones did.

  Comment 185 of 421

• jc of BNE Posted at 9:21 AM Today

  My mother has sent countless letters and phone calls and is yet to receive a response for the difficulties and dramas that she has encountered. Telstra your customers have been telling you for years what the problems are - but you won't even acknowledge receipt of the letters and feedback. She even tried the new chair and CEO...still no one on the line...now why do I think it is a hollow request??

  Comment 186 of 421

• Steve of Melbourne Posted at 9:22 AM Today

  Telstra's not going to stop outsourcing overseas, saves them too much $$$. This "forum" is the chance to promote value added services to existing customers. Touche' Thodey, these people actually think you care about them.

  Comment 187 of 421

• Alex of sydney Posted at 9:22 AM Today

  Lat week I spent 1hour and 20mins in a Telstra T Life Store where I was signing up for their $98 home and internet deal. The following day I recevied a phone call from the store syaing "sorry - but there is no internet avaialable on your street??? I then used "web chat" to their call centre who did a check on my current phone line who confirmed I do have ADSL access?? Then 2 days later got another call saying I dont have access , then 45mins later told I do and to expect a further phone call from their technical area. Needless to say, I never got the call and I have walked away from Telstra....Why on earth did I even consider signing back up with them again!! lesson for EVERYONE.....let this company DIE!

  Comment 188 of 421

• Andrew Posted at 9:22 AM Today

  Priority number one really ought to be the quick and painless end to the telephone tree. I think I and my fellow customers really cannot emphasise this enough. Simply put, to call your telephony provider only to find their own telephony services are run via computer, then offshore, speaks volumes about how much they care about you and your query. Really, how much money could it possibly save? Real people first, then we'll work on a person in our timezone.

  Comment 189 of 421

• Nathan of Toowoomba Posted at 9:22 AM Today

  My housemate took over 70 separate phone calls to fix a problem. This carried on from March this year. Despite the fact they said they would give him a personal case manager to fix his problems, they failed here also. After complaining one night 5 mins later he received a phone call from a Telstra telemarketer. You can imagine how well that went down. On a separate occasion he even had to argue with the customer service officer from Telstra about how many megabytes were in a gigabyte. The person from Telstra was firm in their stance it was 1000. Epic fail.

  Comment 190 of 421

• Ian Clifton of Perth, Western Australia Posted at 9:23 AM Today

  Management should trace back through their recent history and research the changes in customer and public attitude to the company. The damage that "the American" team did to the brand name was unprecedented. The service operators, when one is eventially put through are usually very good. Which sector is receiving the bulk of the complaints? Do customers really feel they are being listened to.I think they feel the decision makers are too remote from the customers to allow them to influence the outcomes. Perhaps the team should watch what is happening to the Coles remodeling by Westfarmers as an example of customer recearch by an experienced team.

  Comment 191 of 421

• Flatter of Canberra Posted at 9:24 AM Today

  They havnt listened to customers for years. I am now a happy ex customer that will never return with my 80K per annum.

  Comment 192 of 421

• Gary of Noosa Posted at 9:26 AM Today

  This guy must absolutely love a challenge :-) Where would you begin, lousy customer service or the total ripoff for those services in the first place. It was faster, easier and cheaper for me to get broadband internet in rural northern thailand than it was in Noosa

  Comment 193 of 421

• Elena of QLD Posted at 9:26 AM Today

  Maybe customers will gain a bit more respect and control - i hope Telstra will listen. Basically though - give your staff more extensive training on the products and services so they can increase the knowledge, and pay them more - they just might give customers some caring customer service!

  Comment 194 of 421

• Ian Kentish of 3555 Posted at 9:27 AM Today

  Telstra have been sending me a 2 page credit acknowledgment for 4 yrs , have they responded to my plea's to credit it to my current account , gosh no , they can't do that ! I have ADSL connection , it's a pretend ADSL connection , its a sometimes connection , sometimes it loads Google in one second most times it takes 3 to 15 minutes sometimes it will not load at all !! its a come back tomorrow service . When I go to the Telstra Shop they take down all the details then the Manager comes over and says we can't fix it from here you have to phone Telstra yourself , I say I already did and nothing happened , well you need to be patient he says and persist , yes That's what I have done since I signed up . I even tried screwing them up by paying odd amounts and making them wait , hey I got a response , a response was achieved albeit a very nasty and expensive one with a plethora of fines , then they combined all my services then canceled all my services despite me paying all the account on the day they demanded !! This indicates they are good at demanding but non achievers service providers , none of my services have worked since Aug. 15 reconnection occurred 2 days ago another 2 pages

  Comment 195 of 421

• Mick of Adelaide Posted at 9:30 AM Today

  I needed to make s complaint concerning a simple matter that had to be re-worked 4 times by Telstra. I wanted to get a phone number to make a complaint. They said there wasn't a phone number for a complaint and I would have to email it. If I can't get resolution from a complaint made over the phone, how the hell will I get a response from an email that would get lost in the millions of email complaints that would flood Telstra. Who in Telstra would want to work in the Telstra complaints department when there is enough pressure from disgruntled customers in general call centres. And while I'm here and I'm sure Telstra is reading this .. .. ALL call centres should be in AUS, I hate having an O/S call centre asking me for my 4 or 5 points of ID before speaking to me concerning an overdue bill and refusing to say what country they were from. I hung up ! . You know why they won't say . . its because of the consumer backlash. Telstra, you damn well know that; so in order to give good cust service give them what they want. And if the cust wants AUS call centres give it !! Putting more money and effort into customer service doesn’t mean just more and better c/centres (all in AUS).

  Comment 196 of 421

• Shane Hewage Posted at 9:31 AM Today

  If you are with Telstra you need to have your head examined, Optus can give you a land line and 20 GB internet for $99 with unlimited Local, STD and mobile calls including line rental. For the same price Telstra can over you 12GB with timed STD and mobile calls. I guess they have given up on being competitive.

  Comment 197 of 421

• Pavlo of SA Posted at 9:32 AM Today

  I had such an awful experience with Telstra some years ago after experiencing problems with my second business phone line at home. I remember calling and receiving such woeful service: e.g. being hand-balled to at least half a dozen people only to end up back where I started... only to be hand-balled again. Added to that was the inordinate amount of time (many hours) kept on hold by Telstra staff, their arrogance, incompetence, lack of care, and let me say it -STUPIDITY. Plus denial of the problem and totally insufficient compensation for my non-functioning business phone line service (and this was before the call centre was outsourced O.S.) This is just the tip of the iceberg - it just about drove me nuts dealing with these imbeciles and their incredibly bad process for dealing with service problems. I vowed I would NEVER EVER use Telstra service again. Just to be sure you got it CEO Thodey: NEVER AGAIN!

  Comment 198 of 421

• Meg Posted at 9:32 AM Today

  For a start get rid of the crap that can't provide customer service, don't turn up to training, and don't know how to operate the systems. High Level management need to understand what the issues are and be in touch with what is happening and focus on improving customer service first. While focussing on customer service and getting rid of people who are incompetent, you will increase numbers and profits!!

  Comment 199 of 421

• missmelina of Adelaide Posted at 9:33 AM Today

  It's too late Telstra, I wouldn't contract with you if you were the last Telco on earth.

  Comment 200 of 421

• Ryan Posted at 9:35 AM Today

  Outsourcing is the death of customer service for any company in Australia, typically your customers takes it as being treated with nothing but contempt.

  Comment 201 of 421

• Codie of Ulladulla Posted at 9:36 AM Today

  When a customer rings wanting to disconnect their plan because its not worth it anymore, sick of being stuffed around - allow them to do so even if you charge them telstra will get money! When we ring listen and actually help. Dont say you will credit $50 to your bill and not do it, its lying. Dont hang up when we want your details for HORRIBLE customer service. We are Australians, we want Australian service not some offsore place where they are paid only $2 an hour while the CEO's earn billions doing nothing, honestly telstra needs to lift its game. Get rid of your overpriced phone with lack of insurance - note: Phones that you pay $700 for which breaks within 2 weeks get replaced not sent away to be "fixed" only to take 2 weeks to get it back to have it break again as soon as its returned to its owner, for it to be gone AGAIN 4 weeks. Replace your lemons.

  Comment 202 of 421

• chartsy of Melb Posted at 9:36 AM Today

  Um, start by listening to their customers and not yelling at them..

  Comment 203 of 421

• jl of Canberra Posted at 9:37 AM Today

  ummmmmm I tried to give them some advice, did not listen, even got the ombusman involved. I suggest hat management look at their complaints and cut through the 'crap' and give customers real service.

  Comment 204 of 421

• oxg Posted at 9:37 AM Today

  The "My Telstra Experience" is an empty public relations stunt to pull the wool over people eyes. Telstra knows what it needs to do to change but it won't. Its too painful to put customer first instead of itself. Simply good value modern telco services like in other countries (Europe, Asian, US) sounds too much like competition and customer focus value to implement.

  Comment 205 of 421

• Joanne of Victoria Posted at 9:38 AM Today

  What a bunch of negativity I have just read. Understand a lot of you have had a bad expirience with Telstra, I have too. However I applaud the company & CEO for going back to basics & involving their customers & utilising direct customer feedback on how to improve the company service levels.. At least it ian opportunity for customers to be heard

  Comment 206 of 421

• Dan of Melb Posted at 9:41 AM Today

  I just received a 20 cent bill from Telstra..God bless them..

  Comment 207 of 421

• Dr Sam of Sydney Posted at 9:41 AM Today

  The problems is that they know exactly why people are dissatisfied but have no real intention of actually changing the situation. My personal favourites include being given a corporate client service manager for my account. I called him after he sent me a letter and he demanded to know who I was and how I got his details. Second favourite was being asked my Citizen number from Bangalore call centre. Third favourite was being asked for my password and then locked out of my account when there was actually no password. Fourth, being cold transferred endlessly around the world to reconnect a service that had nothing owing. Their service is utterly shameful.

  Comment 208 of 421

• lily of sydney Posted at 9:41 AM Today

  Too late Telstra we are happy with optus and will never go back.

  Comment 209 of 421

• Angela Foley of Sydney Posted at 9:44 AM Today

  Interesting that this article appears today. Telstra has just called me to discuss my landline phone plan for my small business i.e. a sales call unsolicited by me. When I posed some general queries about the numbers she was mentioning as they did not correspond with my current phone bill she hung up on me. I don't think Telstra needs to look beyond their call centers if they wish to find ways to improve service.

  Comment 210 of 421

• lynne of Orange Posted at 9:45 AM Today

  To Late will never use Telstra again after being a loyal customer for 30 years and I have no hestition expressing my Telstra horra stories to others

  Comment 211 of 421

• SimonG of Adelaide Posted at 9:46 AM Today

  Stop sending australian jobs overseas where they do not understand either "us" or any resemblance to customer service! I've spent 6hrs on the phone with Telstra overseas operators just so I can combine my mobile and home phone account and it's been 6 months and it STILL hasn't been done - even though they PROMISED it was!!!!!! This is utterly CRAP service!! I have NO intention on renewing my mobile with Telstra!

  Comment 212 of 421

• Gary of Mackay Posted at 9:46 AM Today

  Does anyone really think that telstra will take any notice or advice from these "surveys and discussions"? I requested that my land line and mobile bills be seperate, and my mobile bills be itimised, for over 9 months because my work and safty required use of a mobile phone. The only way I could be reimbersed for my job related calls was to submit an itimised bill from telstra. This did not happen. I no longer use telstra for mobile calls. the last 3 months I have been reimbersed over $250 in job related call because I have been able to submit an Optus itimised bill to my employer. I have to maintain my telstra land line because Optus doesnt service my home area. Trying to communicate with telstra and it's "outsourced off-shore" call centers that I couldn't understand, or couldn't understand me went from painfull to frustration to homicidal. My advice to telstra stockholders is to employ "Qualified " management and board members and send the current overpayed, self indulgedent bunch back to their normal menial jobs.

  Comment 213 of 421

• Adam of Canberra Posted at 9:48 AM Today

  It seems amusing that Telstra elected to try to reduce the average call time for customer complaints to try to deal with the high volume of complaints. The end result was that they actually managed to increase the volume of complaints by trying to palm of customers too quickly without resolving their issues. Maybe they should try recording your complaint electronically, giving you a reference number, and internally managing the resolution of these in a timely manner. They could email to complaint job ticket to you when it is opened, when it is updated and when it is resolved. This is pretty standard practise in a lot of other places and allows management to see if complaints are taking too long to fix. Secondly, get some Aussies into your call centres and make them take ownership of the problems i report and its resolution. DONT EVER TRANSFER ME! You write up the problem, you fix it, just tell me when its done!

  Comment 214 of 421

• Peter Brown of Brisbane Posted at 9:49 AM Today

  Send a copy of this blog to TELSTRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Comment 215 of 421

• Glenn Posted at 9:52 AM Today

  How about you stop encouraging your staff to get people off the phone as fast as possible and make the person you talk to the first time deal with your problem from start to finish. In one experience with hellstra I got passed back and forth between departments that claimed they couldn't help me a dozen times. It was only a dozen because I gave up and hung up the phone.

  Comment 216 of 421

• Eze of Sydney Posted at 9:52 AM Today

  I was Telstra customer but switch to Optus because everytime after the rainny day the line got dirty because the pit full of water I had to call the service. So I give up I had this practical advise for Telstra 1 install opti fiber to home 2 go lower than optus in pricing 3 being an Australian Co why should we pay Optus and made all our money to Singapore Keep down your profit margin as people are really cash- starve Lastly maintain your service standard I am willing to come back to TELSTRA once day when things get better

  Comment 217 of 421

• Julie of Brisbane Posted at 9:54 AM Today

  I have Foxtel thru Telstra. Joined with Foxtel transferred to Telstra June, 2008 for ease of payment. Telstra finally transferred the account from Foxtel in September 2008 and since then I have not paid for Foxtel. Have made numerous calls to Telstra to have this fixed and have had numerous promises that it would be, but it hasn't. Even sent a complaint email to Telstra about it. Still not paying enjoying free Foxtel and have given up trying to have it fixed.

  Comment 218 of 421

• SayNo2BigBusiness Posted at 9:55 AM Today

  So Telstra want to appear like they actually care? Well first of all start by cutting the salaries of the bosses.....And crazy bonus structures & massive pay outs figures!!!! (Sol' did a great job didn't he) Hire people who actually care... Not just people who don't really give a S***. Train them to 100% into actually caring not just fleecing people into signing up to ridiculous 24 month contracts that they wouldn't actually sign up to themselves... Perhaps instead of having their call centre's off shore, why not address the unemployment here in Australia & employ the 1000's of people who can't get a job here (I thought Telstra was supposed to be a big Aussie company that actually wants to care), thus saving us the tax payer millions to fund Centrelink payments... (its really not that hard) Next actually get in touch with reality & start to offer pricing & plans that all the competitors can offer (most using Telstra lines - funny that???) Lastly stop fannying around and actually do something about (be PROACTIVE as we all like to say these days)....

  Comment 219 of 421

• Bob Posted at 9:55 AM Today

  How about putting the customer first... seems to work in all other customer service industries. Telstra is well known for locking people into contracts on the flimsiest of pretences and then making it inordinantly difficult to get out. That is where I would start. Customer service = customer focussed.

  Comment 220 of 421

• MG of GC Posted at 9:56 AM Today

  Actually, I'd just be pleased if they could find my account without putting me on hold 4 times and passing the buck onto all their different departments only to be told they'll have to call me back and then no-one ever rings... RUDE.. clearly it was just too difficult so they couldn't be bothered. Pathetic! It's only an account! How stupid can you be? have lost count of the amount of times this has happened... and get no straight answers when I tell them about it.. something about an old system and a new system... what the?

  Comment 221 of 421

• Doug Graves of Karrakatta Posted at 9:57 AM Today

  I have 150K Yelstra shares and my phones thru optus. They charged for using CC, was on 3m statements - moved to monthly x 3 different accounts. The workload tripled, the fees increased but not with Optus. I will take the dividends but not the pain.

  Comment 222 of 421

• Trevor of Brisbane Posted at 9:58 AM Today

  I agree that their service is woeful, but have had the same experience with other telcos including optus. What is laughable is reading comments by people stating they have not been a customer for years and yet they seem to know so much about the current situation and also by comments by people in remote areas whereby they are forced to use telstra because they are the only telco that service these remote areas. Perhaps Telstra should not service these remote areas and then you won't be able to complain about them. Have you ever asked yourself why other telco's don't service your area and perhaps you should give some thanks to the fact that Telstra provide a service at the very least. If it were left to the other telco's you would have nothing.

  Comment 223 of 421

• TC of Sunshine Coast Posted at 9:58 AM Today

  The solution starts at the top. If the top levels of managament do not lead the way, then the workers will not follow.Or better yet, they will follow their leaders. If management only wants to fleece the people, then the workers who deal with the customer will treat the customer as sheep to fleece. Get rid of all the upper management. Find people who are committed to customer service. If the new people are not committed to customer service, then fire them staight away. By the way, we do not care about Telstra and its management becasue they do not care about the customer. If you care about us, then we will care about you. As for everyone else, move to some other telecom. Telstra will get the message in about 2 seconds once they see profits going down the drain. One more thing, customer service is easy. Treat the customer as you would like to be treated

  Comment 224 of 421

• Tesltra Victim Posted at 9:59 AM Today

  Moved from Melbourne to NSW; Telstra stated we could keep our long established email address. Wrong! They closed our accounts and we were forced to use a new email address. Moved to a nearby suburb; Telstra promised we could keep land line numbers and email address. Wrong! Billing issues; A bill would arrive and we would pay it, three days later a new bill for a greater amount would arrive and Telstra would insist it was accurate! Hours spent on the phone only made the situation worse and caused further confusion and a flood of new bills (once we received four different bills in a week). As the TIO and Telstra took months to sort out the mess, inaccurate bills kept arriving and eventually 14 months later the TIO forced Telstra to release us from our contracts but Telstra still claim we owe them money. Outrageous!

  Comment 225 of 421

• Allan Howard Posted at 9:59 AM Today

  Thanks for a change of CEO, hopefully Telstra can stop antagonising the public by such comments as "I would not advise my mother to buy shares in Telstra" curtesy of Burgess or "Australians are racist" The ex CEO. The truth is Telstra needs to be PROACTIVE in it's business plan, previously they were REACTING to competition, subsequently those clients who were locked into, or loyal to Telstra, experienced dissatisfaction at their pricing & conditions as the competition offered better pricing etc. The wake up call has been heard. Allan Howard

  Comment 226 of 421

• Come on Telstra of nsw Posted at 9:59 AM Today

  There is nothing Australian about Telstra anymore, it is an overseas company, that is where their customer service (if you can call them that) are situated. All the other phone service providers are no better they outsource also with profits going directly overseas. As Australians we shouldn't have to put up with having to repeat ouselves continually due to a Telstra worker's poor understanding of the English language, overseas workers may be cheaper but you get what you pay for. Cheap cost, inferior customer service. Get Real Telstra! in Australia, the English language is spoken.

  Comment 227 of 421

• Terry of Canberra Posted at 10:00 AM Today

  Unfortunately For Telstra They've not only damaged their relationship with me and many other burnt customers. But they've pissed off companies they supply to that access Telstra's lines. I totally back the government breaking up telstra because everyone wins. The way Telstra treated my phone company and my family when I last moved house was appalling given we gave 3 weeks notice advised them of a priority connection on medical grounds and then still had to wait another week to have a line available. Mr. Theody Telstra WILL NEVER EVER EVER get me back! I would rather be incommunicado than use what you call service. Your Problems are so ingrained that no amount of customer service improvements will save you. Save face and separate your businesses and try to forget the train wreck that Telstra is.

  Comment 228 of 421

• Ex-customer of Sydney Posted at 10:00 AM Today

  Stop outsourcing call centres to other countries and using voice recognition. Last year when I had a Telstra phone number I was harassed by unwanted sales calls from Telstra. Then when we moved house and wanted to transfer our phone number and internet access with Telstra it apparently could not be done - in a central Sydney suburb. Then when we got an Optus number and internet access we suddenly got Telstra salespeople knocking on our door encouraging us to sign up to Telstra and insisting there would be no problem connecting us. Pure frustration - and we couldn't get a local number because of using Optus.

  Comment 229 of 421

• Jeff of Mt Waverley Posted at 10:01 AM Today

  My to do list: 1) Rehire Sol & his amigos as call centre operators (they're brillant at spin) 2) Rehire Ziggy and also put him in a call centre (he can bore a customer who dares to complain to death ) 3) Recruit Conroy to join the call centre to head kick any customer try to step out of line

  Comment 230 of 421

• Malcom of NQ Posted at 10:03 AM Today

  A somewhat humorous attempt to find out what customer dissatisfaction is,you should already know!!. Telstra has a customer service department and a media department perhaps you should be sacking all of them and find someone who can do the job properly. As with alot of major Australain companies once you are sold the product the after sales service, support and backup are woeful.Customer service is about the whole experience and repeat business and with Telstra's case keeping everything "In House" would perhaps be a good start.What i find laughable is that you can be recorded or not when you ring up and complain or even ask for assistance.So i'm wondering has anyone at Telstra listened to these recordings to find out about "customer dissatisfaction"...Perhaps the CEO should employ himself on the frontline from time to time to actually find out about customer service rather than sit in an ivory tower and run useless surveys about "Customer Service" which you should already know about!There are many wonderful hardworking people at Telstra perhaps The CEO might want to find out off them how to make the Customer experience a better one for all.

  Comment 231 of 421

• Kika of Brisbane Posted at 10:05 AM Today

  I'm the opposite. I hated the service I got with Optus. Yeah they are cheaper. Yeah they're all helpful when it comes to signing you up. But do you reckon we had a functional landline phone for the entire 2 years we were with them? NOPE. We'd finally get through to customer service. They'd tell us they're not sure what the problem is and would send someone out. Next day it would work. Next day it wouldn't work again. We're onto Telstra and are probably spending a little bit more, but we've got a much faster service on our wireless, we can get through to customer service faster, and our landline phone works. I'm more than happy with Telstra. I'll never go back to Optus again. The day the line was cut in SE QLD convinced me to swap. Turns out the entire SE QLD Optus telecommunication systems were reliant on 1 line which was cut by an excavator or something. No phone, internet, email, fax for an entire day. Sorry, that kind of service is not good enough for an entire region to go offline because you're too cheap to put the infrastructure down

  Comment 232 of 421

• Daivid Fletcher of Perth Posted at 10:05 AM Today

  I've just had to fight Telstra for tying to force me to pay a 12 month contract on a month to month mobile account. They are useless and damned rude. I've changed everything to another carrier.

  Comment 233 of 421

• Charity Box of Canberra Posted at 10:06 AM Today

  Telstra lost me years ago,the only way you would get me back is by,putting down your prices,be more flexable with service choices,most people these days dont want a landline,but want high speed internet,I dont want to pay $49.00 a month for a phone I dont use,and how about good old fashioned service,that means someone coming to your door,and fixing the problem,also drop the overseas customer service people.Also I asked a question about 6 months ago..still waiting for a responce.

  Comment 234 of 421

• Heather Posted at 10:06 AM Today

  So.... they admit they haven't been listening to customer complaints and suggestions thus far. No wonder they're clueless.

  Comment 235 of 421

• Ben Lawrence of Point Vernon Posted at 10:07 AM Today

  $43,000 bill here. Then being told that I live in upwards of five different addresses. Being hung up on by a customer service person after an hour of being on hold, by accident. The same, but instead of by accident, was for daring to say that I couldn't understand one person's thick-as-mud accent. Being told that Telstra never makes mistakes when I am holding a $43,000 bill, and if I want to make a payment plan to avoid debt collection. Just a sample of some of the fun I've had...

  Comment 236 of 421

• Ex Telstra Employee of Victoria Posted at 10:07 AM Today

  For a start employ people in Australia who understand english would be good. Secondly drop your expensive broadband plans for pre paid customers.

  Comment 237 of 421

• Shane of Sydney Posted at 10:07 AM Today

  Already Moved to Optus, Should have asked my thoughts when i logged my 5 complaints prior to leaving.

  Comment 238 of 421

• LisaMary of Adelaide Posted at 10:08 AM Today

  I just tried to join the survey - and still my opinions are important - just not important enough! Here is the response I received... "Your opinion is very important to us, but unfortunately we have had a strong response from people who share your profile. At this time we are not able to include you in our panel but if this category opens again in the future we hope you remain interested in joining."

  Comment 239 of 421

• Ms Brisbane Posted at 10:08 AM Today

  Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, surely they can gather from the complaints they have been receiving what the problems are? Actually probably not, they are so badly managed that its no surprise they have 'no idea' what to do.

  Comment 240 of 421

• Alex Armada of Sydney Posted at 10:08 AM Today

  Probably they are missing on quality control.

  Comment 241 of 421

• Oxenford QLD of QLD Posted at 10:09 AM Today

  Telstra is the most frustrating company. I don't want to speak to a machine waiting for prompts. I want to speak to a person. All Telstra numbers should be 1800. How much extra are they making when you call them?

  Comment 242 of 421

• Jody of Qld Posted at 10:09 AM Today

  Perhaps a little less greed might help Telstra. It's not a bad service but it is, by comparism, quite expensive.

  Comment 243 of 421

• Adam of Brisbane Posted at 10:09 AM Today

  How about spending some of that $40 Million on the infrastructure so you don't get the complaint's in the first place. I live approx 30-40 minutes from the Brisbane CBD and I cannot get ADSL internet of any type, thanks to Telstra's sub-standard infrastructure.

  Comment 244 of 421

• Kelly of Sydney Posted at 10:09 AM Today

  I used to be with Optus and was happy with them but for a change I went with Telstra and spent the next few years waiting for the contract to end so I can get out of Telstra again - I will never return.

  Comment 245 of 421

• James Carthew of Adelaide Posted at 10:14 AM Today

  up the bandwidth limits on accounts. $99/month should get a customer a minimum of 100GB. I AM a Telstra customer (forced due to crap phone line I'm on cable) until the download limits are raised I refuse to recommend Telstra to anyone.

  Comment 246 of 421

• BB of Newcastle Posted at 10:14 AM Today

  I have been a loyal customer of Telstra for many years. Ignorance kept me there thinking I was getting a good deal. A friend of mine brought the bill to my notice and encouraged me to look elsewhere. I now have a better plan for landline, mobile phones and bigger faster internet package. The big news is I now save, wait for it, between $200 & $250 a MONTH. What was I thinking. I was loyal but you have lost me Telstra.

  Comment 247 of 421

• Irving Chin Posted at 10:14 AM Today

  For the past two years I have been trying to ask Telstra to cancel an old account with a credit of $18 to be paid out to me. Someone took my details and promised to do it. To date I'm still receiving a 4 page statement every month ....

  Comment 248 of 421

• Francesco Posted at 10:16 AM Today

  Telstra, Big behemoth with so many layers of staff that they can afford to offload your issues to 'another department' and after 5 or 6 of these diversions you are still hoping and seeking from Telstra to solve your problem while Telstra has made more money from the timed calls you have made to get a Testra department to own up to the problem!

  Comment 249 of 421

• Will of Sydney Posted at 10:16 AM Today

  Asking and listening are two different things. Here's my suggestion. #1. Australian born and bred phone operators. I dont want my call leaving the shores of Australia to speak with someone who's name is apparently Sue, when its obviously Sandeepikalanapapedoo. #2. Get rid of the Automated phone system. Everyone knows to press 0 multiple times until we speak with someone. #3. Within your organisation, you cold transfer too much leaving the customer to have to explain everything again. #4. Communication between departments is non existant. #5. Attitude of customer service is applauling. I had a situation where i needed my internet to be uncapped for a funeral organisation, and i couldnt get to speak to any manager or supervisor who could do it for me, until i basically said, yup im cancelling my account in disgust. Only then did someone actually care. Could put more up, but doubt your going to read it here.

  Comment 250 of 421

• PaulT of Perth Posted at 10:18 AM Today

  My suggestion is Hand your operations to for free to other telcos and close shop - then we will all be happy - and David Thodey take a job as a call centre operator in Mumbai!!

  Comment 251 of 421

• Cunny Funts of Dreamworld Posted at 10:18 AM Today

  Still waiting on my phone call back from a supervisor to try and resolve a billing problem with my mobile phone, which was promised would take no longer than two hours, that was six years ago. You wonder why I disconected and went elsehere when that call never came after I had sat waiting on four different occasions to get through to your call centre to have the problem fixed. Still get nasty letters from their debt collectors, which I rip up with pleasure and have no intention of paying. You pricks are only interested in one thing and that is making huge amounts of $$$$$ with a care factor to your customers of zero.

  Comment 252 of 421

• terry maitland of Adelaide Posted at 10:21 AM Today

  the worst that telstra and its subsidiarys have done is the outsourcing to foreign contry's in a bid for cheaper customer service..I have personally disconnected a call for service eight times until I found one "Tech" operator I could understand.. it simply isn't good enough and surely steps have to be taking to bring this service back to Australia and English speaking operators

  Comment 253 of 421

• dave of melbourne Posted at 10:21 AM Today

  you people need to stop being negative about telstra and look at the positives with the networks they have built for australia? do you think optus can match the next g network. you people bag qantas for the same reasons i do not see virgin with a380s get over the service and focus on telstras features for once. and hello people in europe do not waste this much time about telco you people must have so much time on your hands?

  Comment 254 of 421

• sigi of australia Posted at 10:21 AM Today

  I tell you my daughter has had a telecom accout for some three years and still she is only allowed local calls, we live in the outback and any call made is STD but she is not entittled to STD even though she has paid all her bills on time. The only reason its still on is so if she needs to call 000 she can. Our nearest neighbours are 3 klms away and they don't have phone lines. She would like to be able to pick up the phone and ring to make drs appointments without having to travel 40 klms to town to do so and telstra wonders what is wrong?

  Comment 255 of 421

• Mark W of Mascot Posted at 10:23 AM Today

  I moved my internet to Internode after Telstra kept trying to ring me and lock me into a cable internet plan that offered no better download limits then what I was getting on ADSL2+. They also had the audacity to try and 'get me in' by suggesting I pay what I paid now with Internode for the first YEAR of my new contract with Telstra, but pay almost half again in my SECOND YEAR. Thinking I'd been pranked, I hung up the phone, my laughter ringing in the the saleman's ears.

  Comment 256 of 421

• Mick from Melbourne Posted at 10:25 AM Today

  What do customers want from Telsta?, easy – a decent service at a fair price. Unfortunately that is not was is provided!, In 4 months with Telstra my bill has not been accurate once! Foxtel has been total garbage – the HD package is a bait and switch (half the channels go to an extra subscription within 2 weeks). BigPond is the worst and most unreliable ISP I’ve ever seen. And every time you speak to Telsta you get terrible service from disinterested people who just want to end the call rather than even think about sorting out the problems. How to make it better? 1) Getting the billing right! 2) Get the pricing right (you are currently a rip off!) – think about some packages that provide a discount for bundled services. 3) Get the offering right – you offer far less quality than your competitors for the higher price. 4) Empower the customer service people to correct mistakes – they are currently useless and waste of time to deal with. Else as soon as my lock in period is over, you can count me out as a customer as well – signing up with you when I moved to Melbourne been a big mistake for far!.

  Comment 257 of 421

• Jeff Posted at 10:27 AM Today

  It's simple to fix, move half of the upper and middle management to operate the customer service phones. Job done !

  Comment 258 of 421

• Top Ender of Top End Posted at 10:27 AM Today

  My family has returned two malfunctioning phones for repair only to be told they could find nothing wrong with them and then charged us $50 each for the privilege. If Telstra didn't assume that its customers were stupid they would do much better. The only reason I stay with Telstra is that there is no other carrier available in remote aboriginal communities. Aboriginal people have no choice at all!

  Comment 259 of 421

• Adam of Sydney Posted at 10:28 AM Today

  Unfortunately Telstra have monopoly and too much power. Competitors lease Telstra's technology and infrastructure. They can pretty much get away with what they want, or so they think. If they were not loosing profits right now, they would not be doing these surveys. More people and industry bodies need to stand up to this company because they have ripped customers off for too long. I have lost count how many times I have called customer service and the person on the other end simply could not speak English. That together with bad billing, poor online account management and expensive services is enough to say this company does not deserve to be so successful.

  Comment 260 of 421

• serena west of melbourne Posted at 10:28 AM Today

  how about this - telstra actually LISTEN to the customer. How hard is that? I worked at optus for years and the main focus of optus was customer service. Thats it. Thats why optus is so successful. Start rewarding loyal customers optus. You know the ones that have been with you for about 20 years.

  Comment 261 of 421

• Kitty of SA Posted at 10:28 AM Today

  2 little 2 LATE Telstra. You're past tense.

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• Rob from Brisbane Posted at 10:31 AM Today

  By comparison to other OECD countries, Australia has some of the highest TELCO costs. Telsta needs to split the company as the Govt. suggested, reduce the retail price structure, improve levels of customer service and be less concerned with the dividend to the shareholders. Sort out the fundamentals and the profitability will follow, oh and by the way, no more Americans who think they know it all on inflated salaries telling us how to run things. It astounds me in this day and age that high quality senior execs are often sought overseas. All pretty basic stuff one would think, but it is often basic common sense that eludes big business in this country.

  Comment 263 of 421

• Aml of Adelaide Posted at 10:34 AM Today

  Dear David Thodey, It is in your hand to fix the problems that Telstra has created. So just do it! Read aloud the comments made in this discussion forum - they are very very genuine comments, as you would feel the frustration the Telstra customers have over your customer service. Cheers mate!

  Comment 264 of 421

• steaksteve of melbourne Posted at 10:35 AM Today

  ???i've had no problem

  Comment 265 of 421

• LAZ of Sydney Posted at 10:36 AM Today

  I was involved in the 2000 change process from Telecom to Telstra, establishing FlexiPlans and setting up the Complaints Process. It's always a leadership issue. Telstra hired US execs (called Toecutters) who were there to break up the internal friendships/community and get rid of any opposition. They got rid of all their good managers and staff and retained all the dead wood which have a habit of hanging on in any large organisation. It was a downward decline from there, outsourcing to non-caring, non-understanding Indian Telecentre's etc. Telstra is the most expensive and worst telco service in Australia. I'm always amazed that 'anyone' is a customer, even on BigPond which is a so much more that any other internet service... but it is a reflection of lethargic Australian's who dont vote with their feet. When Optus initially came on board, the national marketing strategy in FlexiPlans was to confuse customers so much about pricing, that they would stay with Telsta.... a strategy that is still working today.

  Comment 266 of 421

• Hannah of SA Posted at 10:37 AM Today

  I left Telstra 3 years ago, and that was many years too late. They are rip off merchants, their service is non existent, different departments have no idea what the other is doing. Go to the sales department and they will tell you anything as long as they sell a package. If you have complaints, you go to the complaints department and they will tell you exactly what I just said. True story! Then you wonder if the person who tells you that can be believed.

  Comment 267 of 421

• JackBlack Posted at 10:38 AM Today

  As an employee, middle-management is more concerned with revenue than service. Its the Telstra culture. The CEO has setup a site for employees to provide feedback but middle management wants to screen the feedback before we send it off. They scrub it from the harse realities of what actually happens on the field. It the end of the month, as long as the volumes and the dollars in the green, life goes on for them.

  Comment 268 of 421

• Goran's Wife of Brisbane Posted at 10:38 AM Today

  Has anyone here had a positive experience with Telstra that they'd like to share? I will admit that I was put through 5 months of absolute stress, trying to sort out a billing problem. Sick of speaking to incompetent staff over the phone month after month, I finally marched into a Telstra Shop where I was provided with top-class service and an immediate resolution to my problem. I take my hat off to "Dave" at Capalaba Central Shopping Centre (Brisbane) - if all Telstra staff were as helpful, knowledgeable and customer service-focused as you, Telstra customers would not be leaving in droves.

  Comment 269 of 421

• Brad Suiter of Perth WA Posted at 10:39 AM Today

  We live in Morey (Border of Beechboro) WA and We can not get ADSL of any sort. Every second house on our street is without ADSL. When are we going to catch up with Europe? We are sick of sharing one wireless USB modem between a household of computers just to get on to check our emails but what about windows / Mac sodtware updates? What a joke. Adam of Brisbane, your comment is spot on.

  Comment 270 of 421

• Anton of Perth Posted at 10:40 AM Today

  wasn't the telecommunications ombudsman invented for telstra alone? sarcasm aside, why don't the telstra big wigs just read through all the complaints lodged with the tc ombudsman, it will definitely give them a BIG CLUE as to where they've gone wrong. overseas call centres who have no responsibility and possibly no reprimand if they give DIRE service would be the first step in cleaning up.

  Comment 271 of 421

• Joanne of Brisbane Posted at 10:41 AM Today

  I agree Adam. Forest Lake is a fairly close suburb to Brisbanes CBD and large sections only have wireless connectivity. Or has anyone tried ringing Telstra to resolve a problem only to have to ring back day after day and every time being given a different explanation by each person you talk to. Frustrating is an understatement.

  Comment 272 of 421

• Rob Northern Sydney of Northern Sydney Posted at 10:44 AM Today

  Telstra I hope your reading this.. Im sure your scrating your heads as to Why Australians might want to talk to Australians fofr a customer service query. The funny thing however is, im sure one of your execs were paid a bonus for the money saved when the original set of call centres were shut gown for a bottom line saving, Remember Telstra you are an Australian Company, SUPPORT AUSTRALIA ! yes you have share holders that want to see a profit , but not at the expense of Jobs and Service. The damage done over the last ten years is not irreprable but its going to take a long long time before you get your customers back... You have opened the door for foreign companies into Australia with your lakluster service , Drop your prices inprove your service and in time youll be back. Maybe

  Comment 273 of 421

• V of Sydney Posted at 10:45 AM Today

  A word of advice Telstra.. Lower your prices and try competing with other companies that offer better service for cheaper prices. Stop taking advantage of people because you can. The corporate bullying power you once had is becoming obsolete due to the competitors in the field. Shame on you, you are meant to be the leader and had the potential to be great but instead you choose to be greedy and use your authority for malice. Well you reap what you sow and its time to make a mends with the tolerant clients that you have left

  Comment 274 of 421

• Helen Plowman of Qld Posted at 10:46 AM Today

  Stop treating customers like we are complaining, stupid whingers, trust me, we only phone you when we have a real complaint, educate your staff to be polite & at least sound as if they are really interested in fixing our problem, there should be no charge for complaint phone calls to Telstra/Bigpond & you need to provide the service that we are told we will get from you

  Comment 275 of 421

• kylie of north west nsw Posted at 10:51 AM Today

  im sick of getting billed for internet usage on our mobile bills and we dont even have it avaliable on them because we have it on our computers.............so if ya fixed up some of the charges on mobile bills you wouldnt have so many complaints. also if you wernt so exspensive for everyone especially western nsw were there are no other avaliable networks to use soooo be bloody fair to the bush

  Comment 276 of 421

• Robyn Bradley of Cairns Posted at 10:53 AM Today

  Firstly I would like to say that the current CEO approach to asking for feedback from its customers is a positive but only if he follows through and acts on those comments. My main gripe is with Bigpond and the fact that after contacting technical support on several occasions about a problem it is still not solved. My experience is that they are not very well trained. For several months I have been having trouble accessing my emails through Outlook Express. When I call tech. support they advise me to access emails through webmail as they have no idea how to solve my problem. Accessing emails through webmail is unsatisfactory for the following reasons:- 1) It is too slow 2)You cannot access the attachments 3) You cannot do a reply through webmail. Also when my call goes overseas my complaint is like everyone else they are hard to understand, call takes twice as long and it is obvious they follow a certain format and have absolutely no idea how to solve my problem, not that they are on their own as even the Australian tech. support team are just as useless. I am extremely close to changing my internet provider. Robyn Bradley - Cairns QLD>

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• carmen lozano of Queensland,Morayfield Posted at 10:54 AM Today

  telstra should seriously review their charges. I have just relocated to queensland and i have no other choice to go via telstra and upon receiving my first bill i almost fell of my chair. Being a pensioner i have noticed that all their charges are based on time calls. I had Optus in Sydney for many years switching from Telstra to Optus and i did not even have to pay a quarter of the amount Telstra charged me for one months account, And there is no choice in our area to go via Optus so they say. Very disappointing and seriously considering of cancelling my landline. At the same time they should train their personnel on Customer Service Relations to the public, Some of them would not even give you the time of day. carmen

  Comment 278 of 421

• tommo of brisso Posted at 10:55 AM Today

  How about charging accordingly... Instead of ripping your customers off. I recently had to sign up a phone line for 3 months just so I could get an outside Naked ADSL connection, Total cost just under 200 dollars... ?!?! Telstra = Rip Job... Just like Optus.. they are just as bad. Shop around people

  Comment 279 of 421

• telstra customer of sydney Posted at 10:55 AM Today

  I am generally happy with telstra. The only thing that annoys me is when they ring up and offer me an awesome deal on something, I accept the deal, then they ring me up the next day saying "sorry mate you can't have that deal because of x, y, or z". Why call in the first place?

  Comment 280 of 421

• Papa Doc Posted at 10:55 AM Today

  Who cares what the Telstra bosses want to know...they can get stufffed because that's basically what they've been telling everyone to do for years. Switch to another Telco for real service.

  Comment 281 of 421

• Doug Leith of Q,land Posted at 10:55 AM Today

  I signed a contract for Broadband for 2 years ( 1 Gigabyte $59.95 monthly)and now find other providers offering far more for much less cost. To get more for my money I will go to another provider as well to be able to have more downloads instead of upgrading my Big Pond plan to the next level. By using another provider it works out cheaper to get the extra download. Why can't Telstra reassess their contracts and see that they are way over the top with their charges. I WILL be changing all my services to Optus or another competitor when my contract expires in 12 months time. I have always been with Telstra but the they have had their day in my book.

  Comment 282 of 421

• Henry Posted at 10:57 AM Today

  I complained via the TIO recently over the time it took to get my services up and running(transfer home phone and ADSL). I found out through the TIO that you can request compensation (and it's law) called QUALITY OF SERVICE (QOS) as it's known. I recieved $508 refunded to my bank account under this scheme. So, if you have an issue, ask the TIO about QOS. If your case does qualify,they will seek a refund for you.

  Comment 283 of 421

• Jacko Posted at 10:59 AM Today

  Easy to fix ,every telstra customer stop paying bills until they either fix things or go broke

  Comment 284 of 421

• Peter from the bush of Central West NSW Posted at 10:59 AM Today

  To the Management.......how to fix Telstra?????? 1) get rid of your overseas call centres.These people have no ideas what happens here in Oz,so get rid of them. 2)Bring back more techs especially out here in the bush where it takes between 10-20 days to get service out here.Whatever happened to service within 24 hours. 3) drop the prices of calls especially your 13/1300 numbers.These calls are supposedly LOCAL call rates NOT 30c per call....local is local NOT 30c. 4)TRAIN your shop and telephone staff to know their products better and NOT just guess what its all about.I used to work for Telstra and as soon as I mention this to your unknown trained staff I usually either get a dirty comment or they hang up the phone. 5)Your Customer service staff should treat their customers with respect after all your rates,which are FAR to high are paying their wages and 1/2 of your customer service staff just arent cut out to be where they are. 6)STP using idiot sheets when selling products.The sales staff are all 'steriotypes'and should know their products before selling them and there should be NO pressure,which your overseas call centres think there is. This is just for starters.

  Comment 285 of 421

• Thomidog of Newcastle Posted at 11:00 AM Today

  I worked for Telstra at the start of the Frank Blount era. Remembering that we had (a) a monopoly and (b)a mandate, I really tried to help every customer who rang. I was rapidly accused of "over-servicing" the customer, told to put people through to whoever should take the call, forget about the system which frequently dropped people out, and focus on stats, stats, stats. It's a horrible culture that cares for nothing but the almighty dollar. A huge new computer program was rolled out months before it was ready in order to meet an amended 'management deadline' - they told us the stuff-ups this would cause would generate zillions of customer complaints! I watched as experienced call centre staff buckled under the strain and came down with chronic health conditions. Not for me, I thought - and applied for redundancy. Since then I've realised the massive prices they charge were/are to raise capital to expand into Asia - what happened to that idea? Regardless, it's wrong. It's time Telstra genuinely gave something back to the populace who funded it in the first place instead of trying to suck ever more out of their captive audience. Integrating their stupid systems would be a start.

  Comment 286 of 421

• chris taylor Posted at 11:00 AM Today

  How about a good news Telstra story guys?! I work for Telstra in customer service and do a bloody good job! And customers are always telling me this!

  Comment 287 of 421

• jacob manning of brisbane Posted at 11:03 AM Today

  How about stop making staff redundant when the existing staff couldn't meet targets by telstra senior management... all the targets are never customer service oriented.... i was made redundant last year..

  Comment 288 of 421

• Jack Reeves of Newcastle Posted at 11:08 AM Today

  I live in the middle of newcastle and am unable to get ADSL thanks to Telstra's lack of upgrading the exchange above third world standard. The situation would improve if telstra demanopolized the line infrastructure to allow real competition.

  Comment 289 of 421

• richard from melb Posted at 11:09 AM Today

  too much too little too late. for years telstra has shown its arrogance in how it treated its customers. you only burn a customer once. why should any one care? the day i left telstra i celebrated.

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• Shannon Newton Posted at 11:10 AM Today

  I used to work for Telstra.. Funny that they moved all call centre based roles to the Phillipines and since than doubled the complaints.. Amazing coincedence isnt it.. Bring back Aussie jobs.. Stop cutting costs.. Telstra suck..

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• waz Posted at 11:10 AM Today

  i cut my bill from around $220 a month to $130 a month and get free calls (local and std), and 150 gig a month in downloads, cya telstra... glad to be rid of them. anyone who is still with them either has heaps of dollars or no sense... lol

  Comment 292 of 421

• Shil Posted at 11:12 AM Today

  Telstra and Bigpond - hands down the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life. Terrible customer service, and absolutely useless processes in place. I've been having Internet connection problems for 3months and not a single Telstra representative has been able to help me fix it.

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• Brad of Sydney Posted at 11:13 AM Today

  Mr Thodey, I would like to make a positive suggestion. The experience I have had with Telstra has been mixed. On some occasions, I have had good service e.g rapid delivery of an ADSL modem before my service commenced. What has not been a good look for Telstra has been the obstruction of competitors businesses. This I think does an enormous amount of damage to Telstra's reputation. An example, if I were to call TPG and ask to be connected to their ADSL 2 + service, I am told that I am on a sub-exchange and they do not have access. When I first had my phone line put in, Telstra had it on a pair-gain and so I wasn't able to have ADSL unless I switched to Tesltra. So when I was with Telstra, the problem was fixed immediately. Now the contract has ended I can only use an ISP that uses the Telstra network. This becomes so objectionable to the customer and there is little doubt where the problem lies even though the competing ISP's don't criticise Telstra. Now I understand that Telstra doesn't have to assist it's competitors but this is extreme. Why not have an agreement with the other ISP's to work out shared costs and look after the end customer? Have an industry wide service charter where all participant companies have the responsibility of ensuring the customer has a good experience.

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• Judy Tan of Perth Posted at 11:13 AM Today

  Telstra should also find out and take note of why former customers left them in the first place. They would learn some truths about how to treat their customers like real people with needs rather than just numbers to fulfil their profit making schemes and tactics.

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• marie of WA Posted at 11:14 AM Today

  Every complainant should be given a receipt number or reference number for ease of continuity. It should be immediately obvious to the supervisors which of your service call employees aren't correctly trained and that will give them the incentive to deal with the complaint properly first time around. Our most frustrating experience has been the secrecy about who we are actually talking to and this makes it difficult to get continuity of service about any one complaint.

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• SouthernGal Posted at 11:15 AM Today

  Telstra and Optus are the most disgusting companies I have ever dealt with. You can't get service after hours (when most people work), you always have to do things by credit cards (no payments, even in store!) and if something goes wrong, they make it as hard as possible to get ANY service. It's woeful, and I hate them both. If I could open my own telephone company to actually respond to what the people want, then it would soo open. Very poor, Telstra.

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• Al of Sydney Posted at 11:16 AM Today

  Sorry to say this, but this has little to do with Telstra actualy providing Customer Service, and more to do with saving them the cost associated with hiring consultants and Customer Service trainers. Its just a way for Telstra to get the customer to do their job for them, with little compensation to the customer.

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• Sonny of Telstra Exodus Posted at 11:16 AM Today

  To start with, stop charging $20-40 just for the fact of having a dial tone. Increase service tech times, 7-10 days it takes for a phoneline/adsl to be connected? Man can travel to the moon faster than that, but Telstra needs more than that to connected 1 pair of copper to your house. Upgrade copper lines in dense urban suburbs with a high complaint rate. I struggle to recieve 1500/256 and being 3.5km away. I have considered going to fix it my self a few times, its not rocket science. Sack half of your call centre staff who dont give a s**t about the custoemrs, and with that you can reduce service charges overall. You cannot charge top dollar and get a 4th or 5th rate service for internet. I have removed about 100+ businesses from telstra retail services, be it voice or data, and people have never been happier. Most of whom saved upwards of 50% on their bill in doing so.

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• Kieron james of Perth Posted at 11:16 AM Today

  With the problems I had with Telstra (too numerous to mention) and finally their arrogant attitude where they would not listen to my point of view, I never want to hear from them again and will never use their product despite what they may try to do.

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• Pat of Bundaberg Posted at 11:17 AM Today

  It will take Telstra years to repair the damange done by the last CEO, he had not belief in Customers Service. I think all Australia Companies should take a big look at the CEO's they are importing from oversea's. The new CEO David is doing a great job but it will be an uphill battle.

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• Not a Telstra fan of Canberra Posted at 11:19 AM Today

  Address complaints more quickly. I ran a business from home and had two lines coming in, one of which was under my business line. Both lines went out for four months for the same reason (old coax cable getting wet). I also had three other outages in a two week period up to a fortnight each. Telstra were hopeless and each line was treated as a totally different fault. No one would listen and I had to explain twice each time. No fax, phone or web almost cost me my new business. Try complaining. Telstra have 28 days to respond - too late. They are even sneaky and log your problem as resolved when it isn't which means your penalty/compensation clause starts again. I left Telstra 2 years ago and will never go back.

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• adrian of flemington Posted at 11:20 AM Today

  offer your staff a pay deal that keeps up with the cost of living and you will empower them to give good service. yet instead they are on strike, just to get a fair payrise.

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• Jimbo of MARSFIELD NSW Posted at 11:20 AM Today

  Telstra's problems are a result of their own success! Too many customers and not enough infrastructure. My broadband internet service is useless at weekends due overload due to too many customers using service.

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• Fu of Perth Posted at 11:21 AM Today

  They won't fix anything, the problem is while they call it customer service, it is more so a complaints line, the only people who ring the number are those who have a query about a bill, when half the time it was their kid that rang the dodgy number after watching a late night ad, or when services are down on one of their networks, which well the operator on the other side most likely cannot fix from the computer but people treat them like they can push a button and instantly repair a tower that got hit by a truck somewhere, and lastly those who want to get a new service installed, and well the earliest time possible is all they can really book you for, if their are no technicians, they can't just get in a car themselves and come down and fix your connection, they aren't trained for that, but again callers abuse the staff. Now how many of these ignorant callers that seem to like abusing people on a phone are going to give good feed back ever? or have a good experience? people in general take utilities for granted thinking water/power/communications all magically make it to their house and when its not working they think that someone can push a button somewhere and turn it on again.

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• CLOSE TELSTRA DOWN of Queensland Posted at 11:21 AM Today

  You cannot fix something as broken as Telstra. I was also a loyal customer for 20 odd years, and yes, they screwed me like evyone else. Had to have a land line connected to another house a few weeks ago, 5 days later after 3 "we will get someone to call you back" and no phone connected, I actually spoke to someone with a brain at Telstra, and who says they haven't got a clue? Customer service, give it a try Telstra. If you say you are going to call back, DO IT

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• billy mcferran of Hobart Posted at 11:22 AM Today

  i have had endless amounts of trouble with telstra. when they closed my account for no reason at all then cancelled my email address as well. I got put through to 20 department heads who could not give me a reason why they did it. when i complained they said to me telstra doesnt have a complaints department.

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• phuong of canberra Posted at 11:22 AM Today

  lol... this is such a joke. That's late Telstra. Too many mistakes and negativity. I see Telstra go down than help them with their history of arrogance and contempt for customers...

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• Peter of Central NSW Posted at 11:23 AM Today

  In answer to Chris Taylor.....give us a reason why we should.Service is slack,,the internet is pathetic,especially in the bush,the NextG dosent work outside of towns,there is no communications and you tell us that Customer service is great. I take it that you are in the city....

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• Steve Posted at 11:23 AM Today

  I sent off an email to Telstra Customer Service asking how I could sign up for My Telstra Exerience. Back came the response. Predictably it was completely off-topic, all about the "TelstraOne Experience" which has to do with mobile phones, apparently. These guys cannot understand English; I've never, ever had a response to a question of mine that got close to answering it. They always answer a question I haven't asked. My guess is that the Telstra service centre is just the usual slave galley of the 21st century where everyone is under pressure to turn matters around as quickly as possible so as they meet their KPI metrics. For those who are looking the Web site is called mytelstraexperience.com.au (found via Google)

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• Bob of Switzerland Posted at 11:23 AM Today

  Trevor.. the other telcos are not able to give service in remote areas because they do not have the right too.. it has nothing to do with weather they can or not. Telstra owns the infrastructure (copper) and charge other telcos an arm and a leg for it. There is nothing that can be done about it as good ol' Johnny floated 2/3's of Telstra's shares years ago...

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• Nic Posted at 11:23 AM Today

  I went to a Telstra shop on Friday to ask if I could try a HTC Touch HD. The answer was 'No', the rep then turned on the spot and marched away. Everyone knows Telstra only cares about corporate customers and big profit activities. Why change now?

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• Fu of Perth Posted at 11:25 AM Today

  V of Sydney, thats what I am talking about, you must be one of those people who call a service line to complain about prices, which is completely out of the control of the guy on the other side of the phone. prices are determined by the multi-billion dollars it costs to put up infrastructure and maintain each year. each of those poles you see on the street cost $1m to put up and maintain over it's life, and well someone needs to pay for them. Telstra in general can't make monopoly profit, the ACCC makes sure of that, so prices are as low as they can get them while not making complete losses. If relative to your income they are expensive, then you need too work more hours and get more income.

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• Wazza of Melbourne Posted at 11:28 AM Today

  Why don't they ask someone in the street, instead of surveys, also hire back all the experienced staff they dumped over the years through quality manangement programs.

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• LostRoo of Brisbane Posted at 11:28 AM Today

  If Telstra really improves its customer relations and satisfaction, I may even consider to change my broadband to Big Pond, beside being a shareholder.

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• Gee Whiz of Brisbane Posted at 11:30 AM Today

  Why doesn't Telstra put their money where their mouth is. They want customers to come up with the solutions to Telstra's poor service standards yet they intend to reward them with monthly prize draws? Try giving $10 per survey and not only will they receive genuine feedback but they'll be more likely to have a higher response rate. Monthly prize draws ... gee thanks.

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• Jacqui of Bayswater Posted at 11:30 AM Today

  I called up to complain about my contract, I spent around an hour practically arguing with this foreign woman called "Nicole". She advised me to go into a store to fix the issue and gave an interaction number which turned out to be made up. B**ch.

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• Dougie of Q,land Posted at 11:31 AM Today

  We need Service. NOT Contracts. Why screw us down with Contracts? Is this the only way you can keep your customers? Seems so....

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• M Lawrie Posted at 11:33 AM Today

  Dear Mr Thodey, Make an anonymous call to your help department and personally experience the frustration of being shuffled from one dept to the next (up to 6/7 times), being cut off if your frustration shows; (if you are lucky they are not in the Philippines),and even with perserverence having no solution provided. Your "help" centres are full of people preserving their "necessity to exist OR BUMS ON SEATS" by maintaining you will need to speak to someone in another dept who then transfers you to another and another and another ---- . Our loyalty is constantly abused.

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• dissapointed customer Posted at 11:33 AM Today

  I am a customer of telstra since february this year. I really really dissapointed to the not only poor customer service , but the technical support group which i think is based in India or philippines. They really should not work in that department if they really lack of knowledge and idea what is happening to the device Telstra using. I am am going to switch to other service provider very soon... on top of that, please check your bill every month and particular to all the charges, they over charge me every month until i rang them 3 times to fix the problem. To be honest, i dont think Telstra is going to change the population's impression about them. Because it is horrible!!!!

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• George of Canberra Posted at 11:33 AM Today

  Ok let me get this straight, Telstra admits they don't know how to run their business by asking us the public to solve their problems for them? I am pretty sure they decided they could solve them on their own when they were made a private company. If telstra cannot provide the services they advertise, which is the definition of a business then I have to wonder what are they doing at all? There are many other service providers out there who do a better job at doing their jobs. Our job as the customer is pretty simple, we pay to use a service, not run it. You are on your own Telstra..unless you want to turn your business back over to the Government I don't think anyone cares about you failing to take advantage of the constant slack the govt. gives you letting you run your monopoly into the ground.

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• longliveoptus of brisbane Posted at 11:34 AM Today

  Telstra wouldn't let me pay off my bill as I'm a low income earner and threatened to cut off my phone if bill wasn't payed on time. Payed my last bill over 10 years changed to Optus haven't looked back. When Telstra did ring about changing back to them I laughed and hung up on them like they have done to me on many occasions. Telstra will be phased out if there bad service keeps up.

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• telsta sux big time of melb Posted at 11:36 AM Today

  I had many run ins with telstra over business and personal accounts going back 15 years ago. The minute I could i changed to optus i did, what a relief. But optus customer service went from great to horrible a couple of years back, so I have changed from them as well. Then a few years ago i started get calls from a 3rd party trying to get me to go back to telstra, I told them why I wouldn't. They kept calling and calling I got ruder and rude and swore at them. Had to got to TIO to have them stopped.I now work in a large organisation dealing with many lines in different adresses.Invoices don't show the supply adress,just the billing adress, so that would be my first improvement.Then a few months ago they introduced this dumb system so that only the contact person could call regarding the account,so in effect an accounts payable person couldn't query an account.So we now have all these accounts were the billing is stuffed,the bill suddenly went to the the wrong adress and was disconnected and the person they have on file as the contact is not the correct person so noone can have the thing fixed!You can't get duplicate bills to replace ones that have gone missing.Change this now!

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• GenYvsTelstra of Brisneyland Posted at 11:36 AM Today

  I anticipate my generation (Y) will never use telstra again. I expect that over the next 10 years, and if Conroys split goes through, that Telstra will be not even in the top 10 of telcos, and hopefully, go bankrupt as a retail entity. Too much profit taking for too long and not enough investment. Shame - they could have been good but chose a different path.. Sol, you twit.

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• Steve of Tassie Posted at 11:37 AM Today

  Despite Telstra protests via SMS, I simply will not renew my mobile plan because Telstra steal any money that is available in my account rather than roll it out to the next month. Naked ADSL for my phone line cannot come sooner.

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• tel of melbs Posted at 11:37 AM Today

  they say it's a excellent working environment, how i was wrong. Thomidog of Newcastle, dam right i worked for this company in melbourne, hated every single bit of it - i for one wanted to help the customers how could i help the customers when telstra used 4 systems, all of the systems had to be loaded one at a time if you did it to fast it would crash, different passwords it's just crap. i walked out, i still feel dirty. until you have worked for telstra you just have no idea how crap it is. i even had to train the rep who i was speaking to on the phone as he had no idea how to use the systems. chris taylor, you probably do a good job, good on you, but you would be 1 out of 5 and anyway a good report isn't the issue (how they would do a good report beats me) its telstra and the flood of complaints it's getting from disgruntled customers, myself included. maybe i should write a book about my experience. hmm.

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• Annie MacKinnon Posted at 11:38 AM Today

  Wow at last an uprising. I am 67 Years old I saved to buy windows7 got it all set up and then was told that telstra doesnt recognise it. You are a joke. I was proud to go with the Aussie company, sad when overseas ones give better service. As for technical support well another joke. You cannot understand these people and many times when they cant understand me they simply cut me off.I have you for internet and landline. You must be making a fortune especially from OAPs like me and using alien workers. Shame on you or the first time since I came here in 1966 I am not proud to be an australian. Go take a good look at yourselves and stop penny pinching.We Aussies deserve better.

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• Kev Steen of Kosciusko Posted at 11:40 AM Today

  Thomidog summed it up well: "It's a horrible culture!" Decades of ripping off Aussies cannot be forgotten or forgiven. Even now we have four rental homes _tied_ into Telstra's _horrible_ monopoly. We really feel for those tenant families chained to Telstra's service.

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• Bethany Posted at 11:40 AM Today

  I just skimmed the previous 288 comments. It's a sad litany of shoddy service, unresolved complaints, and sheer bloodymindedness. How can Telstra fix this? Start by answering the damn phone!

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• Dale Quinn of Melbourne Posted at 11:41 AM Today

  At last Telstra recognises it has a problem. Maybe the first issue it should look at is TELSTRA VALUES - re customers and staff alike. recognise that service is not just a word, but an action with respect. Allow the consultants to do the job for which they were employed with out unreasonable expectations that have lead to mass resignations, depression. Customers when calling for assistance should be given appropriate advice from people who understand their predicaments and by consultants they can easily understand. Having staff who know all aspects of what their job entails, caring for both the Telstra name and the Customer equally.

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• John Luscombe of Sydney Posted at 11:41 AM Today

  Some years ago I cancelled my mobile phone account one month before it expired. I expected to pay my final months fee only. Instead I was hit with a $300 cancelation fee because I made the technical mistake of cancelling within the contract term (1 month to expire). Telstra's intransigent attitude cost me $300 and a lot of stress trying to deal with someone rationally. There technical thievery gained Telstra $300 but cost them a potential customer for life. They once had us ALL, but through greed and arrogance they have lost a huge part of their market. They deserve to loose us all. I now derive great satisfaction from seeing Telstra spend a fortune (ironically, that current Telstra customers pay for) on trying to get me back. Good Riddance Telstra.

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• mark of Brisbane Posted at 11:42 AM Today

  I left telstra a few years ago because of their over inflated prices and very sub standard customer service. I couldn't be happier now that i am saving money on internet and phone bills and i'm not with the biggest company. They need to get their act together...

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• JD Posted at 11:46 AM Today

  Telstra will need to do alot to win there customers back, they have ridiculous service, first lets get people on the call centre to actually speak english and assist with your request, not just continue with something you already know and havent queried on. They are a disgrace, cant even cancel because they dont understand !!

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• Geoff of Melbourne Posted at 11:50 AM Today

  I'll happily sort it out for them, one does not have to be a rocket scientist to implement best practice customer service...my consultancy fee is 250k

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• UnhappyCustomer of The Shire Posted at 11:52 AM Today

  Now lets see, my Cable Internet went down Friday Night, Tech Support said no probs in area, notice technician working on nearby street, get told he fixing failure which took out entire area, problem gets fixed and causes another problem, contact telstra again, find out that they still have me connecting via old house over an hours drive away and technician being sent there, get that fixed and get told yes problem in area, we guarantee be fixed today, cable still down. How to fix customer service, hmmmmm, how about getting your information correct, get people with brains in tech support, train them to think outside the checklist, stop telling people that there is no problem in the area when it is damn obvious there is and when an entire area is down, GET IT FIXED within hours, not days, oh and yes, I am pissed that my cable connection has been down for 3 days and counting :(

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• Smoke and Stress free Posted at 11:54 AM Today

  I worked for Telstra for 3 months. The Managers watch over your shoulders and pushed you towards unreachable targets. this only stress me out , no wonder more than 75% of the staff working in the call centers are smokers . i left as who wants to work in that type of environment !!! when you don't have happy staff at ground level , how can you be happy towards your customers !

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• Luketown Posted at 11:54 AM Today

  Why survey 18000 people to see what the problem is, arent the 104000 complaints a good enough starting point or have they not bothered to investigate these? Invest the 40mil in fixing these issues, or do the public a favour and just shut down

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• Happy with Bigpond of the Internet Posted at 11:54 AM Today

  A number of years ago I left Telstra due to poor service and pricing. About 12 months ago they contacted me to see if they could coax my patronage back with their company. They offered me a fantastic telephone and internet package (with other incentives) that no other company could match. They did however stuff up the transition period which left me without internet for a few weeks but they made up for that but compensated me for the inconvenience. My service is now managed by their office in Bendigo Victoria. I am told to always contact them direct. Since then I have found I have fantastic service at the best price around... and part of that is becuase I have Telstra staff in Bendigo that actually can fix whatever issue I come across (which are few and far between). None of this overseas nonsense whereby they just take notes and send them off to someone else.

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• Garett Posted at 11:58 AM Today

  Telstra is so far behind it's competition when it comes to broadband pricing, even it's own staff knows it. Everyone is opting out to get naked ADSL2+ accounts from other providers since line rental being $30 a month is a rip off, and the ADSL2+ plans from Telstra are priced by morons. So what does Telstra do to combat this? They introduce a $90 line cancellation fee rather than lower their over inflated broadband costs. You guys think because your a monopoly with the lines you can just bully people into your business. Never.

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• Jan Ryan-Philip of gold coast Posted at 12:00 PM Today

  What a great idea, if only the banks would do the same, imagine the outcome

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• GenYvsTelstra of Brisneyland Posted at 12:00 PM Today

  Also - the sad part about all of this is nothing will get fixed on the network side (no more dslams, no more fibre investment, no more copper investment - nothing) I assume until the FTTH project kicks off. No profit-focussed ISP/Telco will want to spend the investment for a small ROI window (until the fibre is operational in a few years time) when they have so many CEO bonuses and shareholders to appease. Sorry to my fellow Forest Lake neighbours, I think its wireless internet for a long while longer..

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• al Posted at 12:02 PM Today

  It's fairly easy Telstra - listen to your customers, follow through on your promises, and communicate. Simple little things: Have the installation teams turn up on time, if late - CALL THE CUSTOMER. Your customer has probably taken the day off work for your techs to gain access to their property. Nothing builds resentment like a tradie that doesn't advise they are running late. Planned outage to the network? - publish it on the website, send an email, send a txt. Tell the customers how long they will not have service. Stick to the timeline. Disputed bill? Investigate, document result, inform customer, don't do it again. Once bitten, twice shy. Hardware fault reported by customer? Fix it once, don't patch it several times. A repeat call for a reported fault SHOULD NOT OCCUR. Long wait times to fix a problem or install a new service? Publish and report standard response times, and LIVE BY THEM. Have a time limit on non standard issues. I.e. installation of country services, max time - X number of days/weeks. ...And I'm not a Telstra customer for the above reasons...

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• David of Sydney Posted at 12:02 PM Today

  I stayed on hold for 25 mins the other night trying to make a billing enquiry. Eventually I gave up and used the online form to make my enquiry. The website crashed twice so I gave up on the form. Tried again the next morning and it worked. Got a reply saying the usual turnaround is 2 days but they have "higher than expected call volume" so it might be 4 days. 5 days later I got another email (this time from a person) telling me my enquiry has been forwarded to the Bigpond Department. 3 days later (this morning) I get an automated email from the Bigpond Department telling me somebody should be in touch within 2 days. So it's been a week since my original enquiry and still at the "2 days" point. What's the bet I can sign up with a new ISP within a single day and forget about Bigpond?

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• Ironwood of HOWTH Posted at 12:03 PM Today

  In response to: - Jules Scarlett Director Cust.Service&Satisfaction of Telstra - you say "please call 13 2200 and say complaint", why should I PAY to make this call? People do not call you to pass the time of day, it is because you (Telstra)have let them down, so you would be wise to provide a 1800 number for this purpose. Callers are already WASTING their VALUABLE TIME for which you provide no compensation irrespective of the degree of Telstra's shortcomings. Don't rub salt into their wounds by making them pay for telling you how you have let them down.

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• Whats the Difference of Brisbane Posted at 12:04 PM Today

  I dont know why people are anti-overseas. I had a friend who used to work for Telstra and used to hang up on people just because he didnt want any further hassle. Also, I have had people mention about "Indian" call centres, when I know people that these call centres are only 10Km's from my house. This was because 2 people came from India worked there. You dont really know these days where you are calling. Perception people - its all about perception.....

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• Paul Black of Sydney Posted at 12:05 PM Today

  For the past six months I have been recieving Mobile Bills for Services that are not mine. I have spoken to many Supervisors that all assure me that this can not happen and will not happen. Reguardless I still recieve these bills, the owner of one of the mobiles listed said he has not recieved a bill from Telstra for twelve months. I have now lodged a complaint with the TIO, the Communications Minister Mr Conroy and sent the info to A Current Affair. If Telstra will not clean up its act may be Media and Public pressure will.

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• Buntang Posted at 12:05 PM Today

  Chris! the complaints is not about you at all But the company you work for... unfortunately being in the frontline you face the emotions & frustrations of disgruntled customers. I've worked in customer service, paid hourly and it can be depressing....we take all the wrap while the "boss" is not supporting us with the complaints and who is paid well with bonus, with car, benefits, go off and on work as they like (like GOD).Telstra should make the "bosses" work on customer service for a week or so as part of customer service improvement or else they only know how to shuffle blame, papers and notes.

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• Jamh Mitt Posted at 12:07 PM Today

  Ummmm lynch the managers and board, and burn the rest to the ground?

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• Martin Wright of Melbourne Posted at 12:07 PM Today

  Unfortunately they do live up to their own standards. I have been a Telstra customer for many years but will be leaving them as my contracts run out - they have failed to live up to promises, refused to fix problems, have no available complaints mechanism and frankly stink. I don't know whether the others are any better but I am certainly going to find out.

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• mars of bne Posted at 12:11 PM Today

  give me a break, it all sounds like a thinly veiled ‘lets feel good about telstra’ publicity promotion..! it's not that hard telstra, there is simply no value in the service provided, usage costs are sky-high compared to ALL other service providers & no providence to change. that’s why i changed to voda & i loath indian call centres. i'll go back to telstra (albeit with no offshore cc) when a: price parity with all other networks in all forms of communication.

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• George of Sunshine Coast Posted at 12:12 PM Today

  I tried to advise them years ago and vowed never to be their customer again. Far too late for me to trust them now!

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• VOIP user Posted at 12:16 PM Today

  Telstra should first address their internal staff issues before addressing customer issues. Telstra is currently in dispute with staff/union over new EBA.

  Comment 352 of 421

• Brian.d of Sydney Posted at 12:17 PM Today

  I too was a Telstra employee from1989 to 2001,in the call centers we were told to upsell to every customer no matter what the call was about and each call had to be answered in less than 10secs from when it hit our call center.If you spent more than 5 minutes on a call or were off call from more that 3 minutes you could expect a manager to start asking questions as to why that operator was not working to their fullest capacity. Telstra needs to go back to basics-their billing system is great but has been hacked by bean counters who seem to want to hide the customer information as to what they have been exactly billed for. if they are wrong the customer has to jump thru hoops to get satisfaction even when the answer is plain and simple. I had to suspend then cancel my Foxtel - the suspension went for 3 months then I canceled it, whilst the suspension was on they still charged me the full amount and continued doing so for about 3 months after I cancelled it - it took that long to get any satisfaction from them and numerious call to them and the credits did not show fully on the bill so we could not reconcile them Guys transparency is the word and service is the code

  Comment 353 of 421

• rick Posted at 12:18 PM Today

  To be considered serious, Telstra need to immediately more than half their prices and simultaneously double the service quotas, call limits, plan inclusions across the board. All products, all prices, all options. Only then MIGHT they be considered a serious option.

  Comment 354 of 421

• Paul of WA Posted at 12:20 PM Today

  They promised cable connection to Foxtel, as part of a package deal. After an effing year, we're STILL waiting to see it. You're a JOKE, Telstra... a joke!

  Comment 355 of 421

• Phil of Perth Posted at 12:23 PM Today

  Telstra simply gets slaughtered by its competitors adsl plans. Telstra saying 12GB is a GREAT deal for what I get 50GB for is just laughable. On that point alone, why on earth would I go there? When I get my daily "we miss you, please come back" telemarketing call, I mention the plan I have, and they have no answer and bid me farewell. Really, you could at least try.

  Comment 356 of 421

• Telstra advocate Posted at 12:24 PM Today

  Luke - i think the the survey is to detirmine specific issues experience by the customers. Its easy to say just fix these issues, but some issues are very complex and not surperficial. Smoke and stress free - but did you not get rewarded with high sales incentives for achieving strong targets? It is probably best you left the company. You know what they say if you cant handle the heat get out of the kitchen.

  Comment 357 of 421

• David Caunce of Tasmania Posted at 12:28 PM Today

  Australia now has the Telecommunications service it deserves. A Country the size of Australia cannot afford the luxury of multiple service providers with massively duplicated network, unparalleled marketing costs, multiple operating expenses and dividend profits to pay to shareholders. If Telecommunications had been kept as a public sector monopoly we would have world leading service and facilities now at a fraction of the cost. The grab for cash and political expediency along with the ultimate betrayal of the investors who bought Telstra is one of Australias most shameful episodes. To all those whingers out there who just love to hate Telstra, 'Get over it and get behind Telstra instead of trying to cripple it at every turn. You were warned what would happen before the sale now live with the consequences'.

  Comment 358 of 421

• Unhappy customer of Brisbane Posted at 12:29 PM Today

  About time Telstra listens to customers. I've been a long terms customer of Telstra for all my communication needs. However I've got so frustrated with the poor customers services and moved both my phone and internet to their competitors two years ago, and never look back. I am however still have my mobile services with Telstra at the moment. I am not happy and may move my numbers else where. Telstra's overseas services people are more interested in pushing for new services every time I contacted for help. Telstra will have to show me an improved service and be very competitive to hold on to customers like me.

  Comment 359 of 421

• hint Posted at 12:30 PM Today

  if you call the automated service and want to speak with an operator straight away...at each prompt just say 'operator. operator' you will get through in NO TIME! :)

  Comment 360 of 421

• Michelle Gilchrist of Sandhurst Vic Posted at 12:31 PM Today

  its not rocket science! Its just bad customer service! Spending half an hour on the phone to discuss your complaint and then nothing is done about it! So you call back and go through the whole scenario again. And now you want your "clients" yes that is what we are, in case you have forgotten.... to spend more time telling you what the problem is.....again you have got it completely wrong!!!!!

  Comment 361 of 421

• Martha Posted at 12:31 PM Today

  Don't charge me every time I have to call your 13 numbers to make a complaint or try to get a fault repaired! Why aren't these free calls?

  Comment 362 of 421

• Honest Feedbacker of Sydney Posted at 12:33 PM Today

  For a start - bring back call centres to Australia so that staff and customers can understand each other and have a better understanding of Australia and locations, this is a big issue especially for seeking service in regional areas.

  Comment 363 of 421

• Sues of Perth Posted at 12:34 PM Today

  I worked for a teltra call centre, and I got fired for spending too much time trying to help customers, so my time were well over the approriate time that I should have been, but I felt that the customers came first, that is what I was taught working in the banking industry, but as far as Telstra is concerned, that is not the case. Telstra if you really want to up your image in the market place, let your call centre operators spend the time on the customer calls and let them fix the probs, instead of worrying about profit and time keeping.

  Comment 364 of 421

• pissed off Posted at 12:34 PM Today

  No wonder the Telecommunications ombudsmen has been busy, if Telstra are anything like Optus then of course we the customer are going to be screwed over in a big way, do you people really believe that these large corporations really give a shit about the little man who has already signed up to a large consumer contract and will only have to lose out on that agreement if the service is poor enough to make thwe person want to change. Telstyra ,Optus if you want to make a difference, leave the Telecommunications industry in australia im sure somewhere in the world is a telecommunications company that is not all about screwing the consumer over and over and over again. enough bull i will now go and call the Telecommunications Ombudsmen about my dealings with Optus. Cest Le Guerre!

  Comment 365 of 421

• Kelvin of Perth Posted at 12:38 PM Today

  Too little too late. I left Telstra several years ago and now use Iinet's naked broadband. Saves me $50 per month and I don't have to deal with Telstra. Mobiles are on virgin prepaid.

  Comment 366 of 421

• al of nsw Posted at 12:39 PM Today

  I am the same as Martin of Melbourne. Once my contracts with Telstra are finished i am out of here. I was subjected to rudeness like never before when i spoke to two overseas based staff who just would not even try to understand my issue. I told them i would leave Telstra and they told me 'if thats want you want to do'. I thought what hope is there when no one even cares enough to try. I now i sound like a whinger but it was the shoddiest peice of customer diservice i have ever went through. Telstra has than Titanic feeling and moving the deck chairs i think isnt the answer.

  Comment 367 of 421

• Come On of Sydney Posted at 12:40 PM Today

  At least it is trying to fix the problems. Look at the banks, they dont ask your opinion to increase IR; Look at our patrol prices, still $1.20 a liter.

  Comment 368 of 421

• CSR of ex-telstra Posted at 12:42 PM Today

  To "mars of bne" (12:11pm): I lost my job at telstra due to our call centre relocating in the phillipines.

  Comment 369 of 421

• Thomas Posted at 12:42 PM Today

  I'm 19 years old and signed my first phone contract with Telstra 6 months ago. Never again! Once my contract expires I will not be renewing, nor will I ever use Telstra again. Originally Telstra was charging me 3 bills for 1 phone (via Direct Debit) and over charged me "big time". Now they are not charging me at all! How am I suppose to manage my finances? I'm going to get a $1000 bill in 6 months and wonder how I'm going to pay such a big "lum-sum".

  Comment 370 of 421

• Big Dixon of Perth Posted at 12:43 PM Today

  why don't they introduce decent broadband prices and mobile phone cap prices in line with the other telcos? Telstra prices are ridiculous!

  Comment 371 of 421

• Tracey of Sydney Posted at 12:43 PM Today

  So true Sues of Perth - if call centre operators were able to spend time understanding the issue and fix it then you wouldn't have to call back 20 times trying to fix the issue. Telstra haven't been able to supply me with a credit for 11mths and every time i call i get told it's a different department!!

  Comment 372 of 421

• Jess of Sydney Posted at 12:44 PM Today

  Attitude is all you get when you speak to Telstra. I dread and loath having to call. I try and do it as little as possible but when they disconnect your phone for no reason and then have the nerve to try and blame it on you, its hard not to have to have the conversation - with 5 different ppl who either clearly have no customer service skills or understand english.

  Comment 373 of 421

• Rod of Perth Posted at 12:48 PM Today

  I am currently on hold to Telstra - 25 mins and counting. When I finally get through I am sure that I will be put on hold and sent somewhere else. Kinda says it all eh!

  Comment 374 of 421

• Perth Boy Posted at 12:48 PM Today

  I think Telstra just found all there problems right here. Smarten up and take a pay cut, put money into the areas needed and not in your pocket. Telstra doesn't deserve a xmas bonus this year.

  Comment 375 of 421

• ex-employee of Kew Posted at 12:48 PM Today

  To try to save more and more money (i.e. to make more and more money) they have tried to automate every function possible, treating customers as mere numbers to punch into the system. If the customer info doesn't match what the programmer programs then you are spat out, ending up taking much longer to be resolved than when humans operated the systems. This is because when you automate the systems you can then do without staff that can actually think. For such a colossus there is no going back.

  Comment 376 of 421

• Willem of Sydney Posted at 12:48 PM Today

  I am telstra customer and shareholder. I'm leaving due to bad support and overseas support & selling shares. I no longer try to solve problems. Easier to wait last month of contract and leave

  Comment 377 of 421

• Terri Preston Posted at 12:49 PM Today

  I asked Telstra to change my ageing parents number to a silent one.They changed it to the ex local pizza number and then included it in the next white pages. Terri

  Comment 378 of 421

• Yvonne of Newcastle Posted at 12:49 PM Today

  I know it's everyone's favourite pastime nocking Telstra, but I'd like to say that, having been a customer for many years, I have always been happy with the service provided. I have friends & family on other carriers who do nothing but whinge.My daughter is planning to change from Optus to Telstra after noting the difference in my experience.

  Comment 379 of 421

• Angry Posted at 12:52 PM Today

  Look at their latest bundle plans..only if you have a 13 digit account number on the new customer care (ahem) system. I have been with telstra for 38 years, we don't have a 13 digit billing number, tough luck.The only thing they could offer us was a $10 dollar discount if we contracted to them for another 2 years. (We have ADSL 2plus at the exchange only not enough outlets for customers in our town so we get straight out ADSL). The new plan would have cost us $80 less a month. We lost our business due to 6months of stuff ups on our internet and phone lines 6 months of waiting 2 weeks to see a technicians face,we kept telling them it was breakages in the lines each time we had a frost or wet weather no one listened. There were between us and the exchange 300 metres away 5 breakages and bad joints. We were signed to a contract for a mobile phone that doesnt work in our area because the salesman neglected to tell us (a must have hiptop for our daughter) it wasnt a next G phone..paying it off has cost us an arm and a leg and when I asked to be released from the contract due to misrepresentation then they tell me to see a store, the store then tells me to call Telstra a 70 k round trip

  Comment 380 of 421

• 2roxfox of 2rox Posted at 12:52 PM Today

  after 'losing' my last two Bpay statements, telstra disconnected my phone. I could not get onto online banking to see if i had paid (as i thought i had) so i used all my cash to pay the acct again. Still waiting for a refund. Then i was contacted by phone to complete the customer service survey, an automated voice proceeded to ask me if the service was satisfactory, i answered no... the automated voice asked me this same question FIVE times, i finally hung up on it. Phoned telstra today about getting a refund, had reference numbers etc but the people in the refund dept told me that they cannot use the reference number i was given so i had to go through the whole process again of explaining what had happened. The annoyance at having no phone was one thing but having to use my food money to pay a bill in cash that i had already paid by bpay was unacceptable. They dont care at all about their customers. Why do we have to speak to someone in Bombay about our money? Bring it all back to Australia.

  Comment 381 of 421

• Neil of Melbourne Posted at 12:53 PM Today

  Very simple... just offer plain old fashioned service and it will fix itself. This includes whoever deals with the call is responsible for the call and getting it resolved. Don't play pass the parcel with your customers.

  Comment 382 of 421

• happy ex telstra employee Posted at 12:56 PM Today

  I find it quite funny that they are asking for what can be done to improve customer service. I worked in the complaints department and was a employee with Telstra for 11 years however they did not value my knowledge or experience and not only did they make my job redundant but also all the other people doing this job and then employed people cheaper with no knowledge or skills because they did not think complaints important enough to look at. They also then increased these peoples workloads 10 fold. To bad hey we have all moved on and are now being treated as valued employees elsewhere. When are companies going to realise what they have before they ditch what they have that worked. I dont have any services with Telstra any more and think they get what they deserve.

  Comment 383 of 421

• Angie S of Melbourne Posted at 12:56 PM Today

  I'd like to thank Telstra. I was a very dedicated loyal Telstra customer for many years until one bad mobile phone bill and Telstra's total lack of interest in resolving this $300 overcharging matter caused me to cancel ALL my Telstra services including Bigpond,Foxtel, my home phone & 3 x mobile phone services. Since doing so my bills have easily been reduced between 40-50%. Now my parents have also left Telstra & other family members did the same on my advice over the dinner table. And this all happened because of one bad overcharging issue. That $300 I was overcharged has now cost Telstra many thousands of dollars and many customers who will never return. Word of mouth is a powerful thing and the best thing Telstra can do is learn to listen to their customers, especially their loyal customers. Telstra, sorry but you have lost me forever.

  Comment 384 of 421

• annoyed of WA Posted at 12:56 PM Today

  how about spending less money in adveritising and more on maintaining the systems? Geuss what? if the system is good, you wouldnt have people leaving you Telstra!

  Comment 385 of 421

• Annette Ogonowski Posted at 1:02 PM Today

  Train your customer service officers correctly, it's not their fault you want the customers off the line with-in 1 & half minutes because of stats, this is where the problems lies, not with the operators, with ,management and shareholders.

  Comment 386 of 421

• Cate from Melbourne Posted at 1:04 PM Today

  Many times I have experienced the royal run around only to be hung up on in the end. I signed a contract for a bundles package only to be put onto and billed for the most expensive service Telsra offers. Oh, did I mention I am on a disability pension? So that went down really well. In trying to sort out this fiasco, I spent three days trying to get past the automated voice to an actual person to help me and when I did she crapped all over me because she didn't know what she was talking about! This was verified a day later when a wonderful woman from Bundles who actually knew her job and did it, sorted everything out. Even she couldn't believe the bloody mess it was. I was almost in tears with the stress and frustration of it all. Incompetence, rudeness, hell, what service are they referring to, there is none!!

  Comment 387 of 421

• Saile of Strathfield,NSW Posted at 1:07 PM Today

  Telstra, I am Share holder, and if you want my free advice, happy to do so.GET RID everybody and start a new and sack the depts who do not report or perform.

  Comment 388 of 421

• Optus V Telstra of Brookwater Posted at 1:09 PM Today

  I left Optus when they started to bill me 3 months in advance for line rental, I refused to pay in advance & they cancelled my STD service! I have just built a new house in a smart community which means I have fibre optic network. This can only be serviced by Telstra and they charge 3 times the price for internet connection. How good is that! Not only that but it has taken 7 weeks to get the service properly connected - Jeepers! - It took less time to put man on the moon?

  Comment 389 of 421

• former outsourced telstra worker of Melbourne Posted at 1:09 PM Today

  As former outsourced Telstra Mobile phone Operator (and I was working in Melbourne office), the answer is very easy. Customer service over Sales! My previous manager threaten us that we will get sacked if our daily sales is less than expected (20 per week or 5 per day). Therefore for those who are unlucky, only made few sales in a week will have to skip complain calls which mostlikely won't make any sale, transfer the customer to another or the same department to handle and quickly go to another call with hope, the next one will be a sale. Bringing back call centres to Australia as HonestFeedback from Sydney won't help as I worked in Melbourne and the majority (around 98%) call centre workers are from overseas. If the culture within office environment is good, it doesn't matter which races are taking the call, they will produce good quality. Telstra needs to do further investigate the working condition of their outsourced companies. Starting with the one that make the most sales. Probably stop giving commission to them will enforce them to prioritise customer service over sales as well. I think that what was happened with Sues from Perth (comment 12.34pm).

  Comment 390 of 421

• Stretch of Success Posted at 1:17 PM Today

  Accountability - Just got off the phone to telstra who were chasing payment - This bill address was changed 12mths ago by us, Telstra have not managed to do this, when I asked for Customer service persons Delta No (ID) to have some proof that change was made, I was told they cant give out number - So once again I have no record available that Customer service is doing their job - What job! they are not accountable for anything.

  Comment 391 of 421

• Ria S Posted at 1:22 PM Today

  Im sick of hearing so many negative comments about telstra. They are the biggest telco company in australia, they are bound to make a few mistakes. They offer the fastest and most reliable mobile phone coverage in Australia. They still have many of their call centres in Australia, unlike all the other telcos and they actually listen to customers and shareholders to hear what they want from Telstra. People need to stop being sheep and just hating Telstra because everyone else does, when they don't know all the facts.

  Comment 392 of 421

• Alison of Newcastle Posted at 1:25 PM Today

  As someone who works in a call centre (NOT Telstra's) that has won awards for call centre excellence, Telstra needs to stop screwing the operators down about their call times. If a problem takes a minute, an hour or a day to fix, then that's how long it will take. The KPIs need to strike a realistic balance between call time and what actually needs to be done. ALL EMPHASIS must be placed on customer service over penny pinching. If you look after the customer service, people will come back to you and profits will benefit. ALSO ALSO ALSO - stop outsourcing your call centres to India, there is nothing more offputting to a caller than finding out they're not important enough to be served by a local person. Also if the problem needs to be dealt with by more than on person, put in a system that allows any operator coming into the issue to get up to speed with it - adding remarks to a customer record can make a world of difference, operators need to be given enough wrap time to do this.

  Comment 393 of 421

• Fu of Perth Posted at 1:27 PM Today

  annoyed of WA, advertising and marketing are all part of normal business, if you didn't know it existed how would you know you needed it. How about we let telstra charge what they really need to get the money to maintain systems... the reason they don't update all systems and need to defer maintaince is because they are prevented from charging the rates they need to have enough money to do all that maintaince... and since they can't go around making losses they defer expenditure. If you want them to spend more then be willing to pay more... this is the same for all utilities, we regulate their prices and prevent them making money which is required to maintain service... so some people will lose service because people aren't willing to pay for it. So your phone bills will double and they will double the charge to the other retailers, but they will have the money then to maintain and upgrade their systems and hire more staff... you want quality... pay for it... the problem is unrealistic expectations of the public.

  Comment 394 of 421

• gary from Mackay of Australia Posted at 1:30 PM Today

  FU, all most all those "$1M" poles were installed before Jackboot Johnny sold off 2/3rds of telstra. If it takes "$1m" a year to MAINTAIN a single pole, then the ex-mcdonald employed Execitives who baught into that type of business should not be let out without a minder and at least 8 hours after they take their medication. They bring in amature foreign has-beens to do a job they know nothing about. If they are such genieuses how come they weren't taken up in their home countries? It has been a point of Australian belief of "if you pay for a service or product you have the RIGHT to expect the best from the supplier" Telstra fails all fields. Best means BEST, not shonky c..p that it is handing out and expect loyalty and tollerance for it. Their handling of legimit complaints about service, products and inquires is nothing short of criminal. Call center opperators attitudes, procedures and (to coin a much used political word, we all know it's real meaning) miss-information would not be tolerated from any other business in this country without reaping the results it justly deserves. Telstra CEO and directors, get your act together and fix your shortcomings, or resign and let those who can.

  Comment 395 of 421

• UNhappy of golDCOAST Posted at 1:31 PM Today

  How about telstra you get rid of 1223 crap,and get rid of the $1000 phone bill you gave my parents after it has been in dispute for months you cant even be bother to fix that problem.Pensionser too.Oh thats right you sponge of everyone,You dont explain nothing just shrug it off. So how are you going to take time to view surveys from angry telstra customers and ex telstra customers. WAKE UP stop serving yourself and service AUSTRALIA 1ST.

  Comment 396 of 421

• Fu of Perth Posted at 1:32 PM Today

  ex-employee of Kew, its save money on staffing or let systems go down and not have money to repair them... what use is staff if the network doesn't work and you can't afford to fix it? utilities in Australia are all under staffed, and under funded to delivery the service people expect. Everyone expects seemless water, power and communications magically delivered at almost no cost... well guess what? everything cost money, everything cost a lot of money in australia thanks to our incredibly high labour costs and logistic costs. Utilities in general have a problem that they are prevented by regulators on making additional money to fund future projects, they are only able to recoup past spending + a small margin. Which means if something unexpected happens and systems degrade, they need to make decisions on where to spend the money, do you let the metro area lose internet, or a small country town... do you let one suburb lose phone services for a few days or another suburb, do you save money on staffing or do you save money on safety or on repairs to a system that is critically required. I am glad they are automating, it means they have more money to make sure services are working.

  Comment 397 of 421

• Another happy ex telstra employee of Perth Posted at 1:32 PM Today

  Ah happy ex telstra employee an all too common story and one I share. Yes they disposed of, forced out and made redundant any and all staff members (especially technical and customer service staff) and replaced them with cheaper, untrained people using bad systems and appalling pressure to sell sell sell. I was glad to leave as well, I could see the writing on the wall. My advice: Employ COMPETANT Technical staff, COMPETANT Customer staff, apologise for the excesses and dreadful way you treated staff under Howard (because you could) and actually have Managers that understand the jobs of the people they are meant to be leading.. That might help.

  Comment 398 of 421

• Veritas vos liberabit Posted at 1:32 PM Today

  If the Telstra board descended from their ivory tower and actually tried calling Telstra's so called customer service lines they would quickly recognise part of the problem.

  Comment 399 of 421

• Tania of Bathurst Posted at 1:34 PM Today

  Stop disconnecting us without reason as our bill payment is up-to-date. Stop disconnecting our internet line so that we have constant internet. Get rid of your stupid automated voice recognition and get real people. Don't have overseas call centres. And get competitive on phone and internet deals. Why go with your company when other companies are cheaper??? We are only with Telstra because we can't get another company for our phone. Telstra wont give other companies the right to use their phone lines. Otherwise I wouldnt be with them period!! Im sick of telstra. People fill out surveys for free?? Cash prize draw instead. Oh come on...how about 10 - 20% off our bills.

  Comment 400 of 421

• Rural of Central Victoria Posted at 1:45 PM Today

  About time Telstra. A friend asked about my Bigpond ADSL. I advised looking elsewhere because setting up was a nightmare for me dealing with the very unhelpful helpdesk. After 5 calls to them (all different accents, they don't seem to understand what you are asking them) I was told to my query had become 'level 2' and I had to leave my modem connected 24/7 until they had dealt with my problem, although this prevented any phone calls in or out because of the interference on the line. No explanations as to what 'Level 2' meant. No timeline given. A few days later I was surprised a local Bigpond technician knocked on my door (an isolated rural property) found the modem defective, replaced it, tested everything and I haven't had a problem since. If I had been told to expect this kind of help I wouldn't have been fuming against Telstra and feeling bewildered and helpless for days. Also had to phone up for detailed explanation of my first account - they have their own weird accounting methods to deal with special offer discounts!!*&^%

  Comment 401 of 421

• Samara Posted at 1:45 PM Today

  Why does iiNet only cost me $89 for DSL & home phone & free local & STD calls? I have 40gig peak + 60gig offpeak to use & I don't pay "line rental". When I left Telstra they started calling me about 'coming back'. Could they match the iiNet deal? NO. I had an intermittent fault on my line for nearly 2yrs & had to force telstra to come out to look at it. After the 4th visit they thrust the problem back on iiNet & said it was because I was with them that I had problems! With iiNet's help we persisted at Telstra until I struck a good tech. He turns up, "sorry I only have 10mins before my shift ends but i'll give it a look". As he only had 10mins I gave him a catch up on what the previous techs had done. Well bugger me, he pulled out a gadget & says "there's an issue on the line 21m ahead". He walks 21m to the pit looks in & says "I see the problem, the connectors are rusty" & fixes it. Looks at the gadget again & walks back to the house. "What's that" he asks pointing to the wall. He fiddles & opens the box, yes it is a TELSTRA SUPPLIED & ISNTALLED splitter. They didn't have any record of having installed it. Opens it, pushes the cable back in & voila issue finally fixed.

  Comment 402 of 421

• karl marx Posted at 1:47 PM Today

  i rang telstra recently because once again, my bill was wrong ( every month for 4 months straight ). i spent so long arguing with the various idiots i was getting shuffled between my phone ran flat! 45 minutes and no resolution!

  Comment 403 of 421

• Derek F of Sydney Posted at 1:50 PM Today

  I was with Telstra, since I first arrived into Australia in 2004. I have been a faithful subscriber, always paying on time and just nonchalantly paying my bills every 3 months. Then in 2007, they suddenly stopped sending my bills and when I enquired about it the call-centre girls just couldn't be bothered with me and every time I called they gave me the run-around. I have since moved over to Optus, not that they are any better, but am surprised that Telstra would so easily let off their subscriber, like they are all dispensable. I feel bad of such light treatment and at the same time feel so sorry for all those subscribers who have to face their call-centre personnel. They are just a bunch of no-brainers!

  Comment 404 of 421

• Ellen of Darwin Posted at 1:52 PM Today

  I have been with Telstra since I got my first mobile phone as a teenager and continue to be happy with their service and coverage. I have called them many times and have always been impressed with the level of service provided by their call centres. With that in mind, I am continually unimpressed with Telstra stores. Maybe it's because I live in Darwin (a service twilight zone) but every time I have gone into a store I am confronted with people who mask their lack of knowledge by trying to sell me products I don't need. Yesterday for example I went in to buy a wireless broadband USB and set up an internet plan. It took the salesperson 30 mins of reading off the screen (what I could read myself) to then tell me that there were no units available in Darwin because they were so popular. I even made mention that I knew exactly what I wanted before they started. Franchises or not, Telstra should be aware of the poor image they are getting from their representative stores, not just call centre issues.

  Comment 405 of 421

• Fraser Holt of Canberra Posted at 1:56 PM Today

  The problem with Telstra is there is actually no one left to do the work. When it was Telecom, it had 90,000 employees who, on the whole, were allowed to do their job properly, were well resourced, trained and supported. Now, 20 years later their customer base has grown exponentially and there are now 42,000 employees who have faced constant cut backs while an endlless string of lack lustre executives marched through cutting numbers to improve their bottom line in the short term in order to get their bonuses. As employees burned out though lack of support and systems they were thrown on the scrap heap while the monolith moved on. Thodey the solution is simple, employ, train and support.

  Comment 406 of 421

• Rodney Posted at 1:59 PM Today

  The answer lies in the problem. Telstra owns outdated infrastructure and has not been prepared to spends billions of dollars updating it. How can anyone expect a public company to make investments that are not in it's own interests or that of it's shareholders? Why would you spend billions to enable your competitor access without being able to recoup those costs, because of ongoing issues with the Government and ACCC? Had the Howard Government retained ownership of the infrastructure, maybe we wouldn't have this problem now? Maybe we'd have a world class broadband network, maybe money would have been spent to improve services in regions of Australia that are not profitable for the telco? Forcibly splitting Telstra may not be the answer - someone still has to foot the bill to pay for the upgraded infrastructure - maybe it has to be Government owned

  Comment 407 of 421

• Ash Posted at 2:04 PM Today

  Over 100,000 complaints. Do they have any happy customers? They should be canvassing the opinions of those customers they've lost, not the ones stupid enough to stay with them. I will never ever use the mongrels ever again. This many responses indicates that nerves have been well and truly struck.

  Comment 408 of 421

• terry condrick of q,l,d Posted at 2:05 PM Today

  What a wast of $40m. when they already know. They over charged us once but nobody would listen so we left, now every week they ring wanting us back, i don`t think-so. Terry

  Comment 409 of 421

• taxpayer of Sydney Posted at 2:06 PM Today

  Do not know why people complain about Telsta. Only ever had my phone through Telstra and only twice had to get a call to the house about the phone in 40 odd years. Immediate attention. Nothing but wonderful service. Always pay my account on time at the Telstra shop and nothing but polite and good service at Bondi Junction.

  Comment 410 of 421

• Nowayneveragain of Toowoomba Posted at 2:08 PM Today

  It would take days to write down the numerous times Telstra's "CUSTOMER SERVICE" was deplorable. I rang to enquire when my mobile plan was finished as I was going to disconnect and go elsewhere. BAD MISTAKE. The consultant had the audacity to connect me to a 12 month plan without my knowledge or permission, this of course meant that there would be exit fees. I explained this calmly to 7 or 8 consultants-each time they promised that they would do something for me, like get a Supervisor to call etc, etc and then the final call the consultant told me that I must have asked for the change because they can't just change plans and that there were no comments from any of the prior consultants so there was no proof I had spoken to anyone. How can you treat people that way? And there was no manager or complaints line that they would give me....so I went to the Telecommunications Ombudsmen. FINALLY after 3 hours and weeks of complaints, they did something, I will not have anything to do with this company ever again. They have NO integrity I have no idea how employees could look themselves in the mirror each morning knowing that they are working for the most hated brand name in Australia.

  Comment 411 of 421

• Talon of Penrith Posted at 2:09 PM Today

  I use voda phone and got a call from telstra in relation to a deal with them. I chose not to deal with telstra and I am getting harrased by them? I have no intention to going back to their billing practices and service (or lack of). Its not just their own customers they harrasing but others. Why are they getting away with doing this? Did anyone see the add for telstra pay TV (Foxtel). This would have sent the Foxtel marketing back three years. I believe they are failing to meet customer growth targets already and losing their current customer base. (yes for the pedantic. I used lower case as telstra as it is not of note in my opinion.

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• Noel Peters of seq Posted at 2:13 PM Today

  After reading the comments I'm wondering if some of these dissatisfied customers might be mentally unstable. I wouldn't like to have to deal with them on a day to day basis. Well done to the staff that have to face them.

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• Ben of Sunshine Coast Posted at 2:13 PM Today

  Here's a simple solution... If you have a bad customer experience, switch to a company that is known for good customer service. Telstra is an overgrown beast and loosing a bit of their monopoly would do some good. I use ACN pacific . com . au, and when you call you get a real person in Australia, usually within a few rings. They are a billion dollar company in 20 countries, yet they still manage to give great service!

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• Pete of Queensland. Posted at 2:18 PM Today

  I'd love to help out, but my Telstra broadband is so slow, unreliable and too expensive. So I doubt I could complete the survey in the time allocated.

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• John O'Connor of Newcastle Posted at 2:20 PM Today

  As an ex-Telstra employee I can say that Telstra is without a doubt the worst call centre I've ever worked in. It all comes down to people. Technology can only do so much. Peopel want to speak to people except for the most basic of needs. Those people need to know they will be able to provide customer service without being ridden about AHTs and other KPIs. Telstra to fix your problems you need people. Stop sacking people and hire more. The banks know they made a mistake closing branches - take a hint. I'm available for consults :]

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• Peter of Queensland Posted at 2:20 PM Today

  On one hand they do magic commercials to tell us how good they are & on the other they deliver the worst service. Spend the money on training staff, keeping good staff & fire all the managers that wear telstra pyjamas to bed that are the cause of all these bad decisions. The ones who make the bad decisions are the same ones recieving bonuses for the bad decisions they are responsible for making (go figure). Contact, interview & rehire all the good people that left Telstra for not being listened to in the first place. Our local Telstra Country wide manager is just a media poser who loves his photo in the paper & takes the credit of everyone elses hard work.

  Comment 417 of 421

• falt you of sydney Posted at 2:25 PM Today

  30 dollars for a line rental. Need I say more. I said goom'byes to Telstra long time back. Like 10 years back.

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• kevin of Melbourne Posted at 2:27 PM Today

  Telstra should start being more realistic with what and how they charge. They charge a base phone rental then everything (including calls) adds on. Their internet access is the most expensive, and their prepaid internet plans don't even provide a small percentage of rollover for unused (but paid for) time.

  Comment 419 of 421

• Fred of Perth Posted at 2:32 PM Today

  For those who doubt how BAD Tesltra customer service is I suggest you ring and see what you have to go through. It's a nightmare. And even if eventually you get through after line dropping out once or twice and you go through the same cycle again, you get to talk to some who is basically incompetent at their job and they tell blatant lies. I've been through this routine several times and have lost all confidence in Telstra

  Comment 420 of 421

• Jacquie Butterfield of Neutral Bay Posted at 2:39 PM Today

  Why now? They never listened before. They were so well-insulated at the top that you couldn't reach anybody. Their choice of telephones to the internationally astute eye were and are the ugliest I've seen anywhere, and the range of handsets for purchase are atrocious and backward. I sold telecoms stuff in London nearly 30 years ago and their stuff was much more elegant then. Apart from that, they installed a voice message to code your request so that when you are unable to define your needs in a few words you're stuck. You’d have to understand their departments and setup to be able to do that. And don't tell me staff are brave enough to supply complaints to their supervisors and onwards. Because, had this been permitted without fear of punishment , they would know the problems already. The first tenet of marketing (it was in 1989 at UniNSW) was to ask the customer to listen to customers, even those way out on the outer perimeters of the suggestions and complaints, because they were quite often the forward thinkers who identified future requirements and trends. But no employers I've met understand this whether they are in telecoms, banking or anything else. So, why ask now? Sometimes it's just too late.

  Comment 421 of 421