Telstra Australia
rated 7 out of 10 for service,
... 3 out of 10 for its non-working product
Telstra... Not my usual topic for review. Most of these reviews are books: science fiction and fantasy.
The books that I review are far easier to believe than my current efforts to get a mobile phone...
It began in March. My wife wanted a mobile phone, one that would also allow her to listen to recorded books. Internet data ? Maybe. But so little as to be insignificant.
We wanted a phone, for emergencies. With the ability to play "music", that is, to play recorded / spoken-word books.
In the Karrinyup Telstra shop the salesman was very helpful, very understanding. Or -- as I now understand it -- he was a lying bastard who would say anything in order to make a sale.
His twelve month plan -- "Yes, definitely, it will have a little bit of data and enough phone calls for the full twelve months" -- lasted three months. A twelve month plan ? A year of phone calls, no worries ?
No.
This "twelve month plan" ran out of data -- and phone calls -- after 30 minutes of testing the phone with some geocaching.
Do you understand that ? Is that what you would expect from a "twelve month plan" ? Well, I did not. And I hate it when a salesman takes advantage of my ignorance of his not-fit-for-purpose product.
Oh, and the device is "3G". I believe that "4G" is the current standard. Sure, it makes no difference to our intended use. But did the salesman mention that he was selling an outdated product ? No way.
So the phone lost its ability to make phone calls. We cut our losses and changed to a traditional post-paid account. One that never -- really never -- runs out of phone call credit. The ideal system when phone communication is absolutely essential. With the added bonus that if you don't call, you don't pay for calls.
Sure the Telstra phone salesperson tried to sell us a plan which allowed for 500 phone calls. I patiently explained that the phone would make, on average, perhaps one phone call per month. (You're right, we're not communications junkies.)
So we identified a suitable plan. We needed a new phone number. Oh well, no trouble to tell the five people who know the previous number.
A new micro sim will be sent.
The new sim arrived on time. After a major effort to access the phone's sim card slot I realised... The new sim is not a "micro" sim.
Yes, I did discuss this with the Telstra phone person. I read "micro sim" straight off the instruction sheet that came with the phone. So they sent a non-micro sim.
After some phone discussion with Telstra...
Off to the Karrinyup Telstra shop. The cheerful saleswoman inserted a new micro sim. Told us that it would be activated -- ready to use -- in fifteen minutes.
Four hours later I'm again on the phone to Telstra. (Luckily we still have the home phone. Otherwise there would be a lot of angry visits to Karrinyup.)
The phone has not activated, I tell them. Try turning it off then on again...?
And here I learnt something new. To power off the mobile -- or to reset it -- you first need to "unlock" it. Before that the screen may be lit but it will not power off...
So I power off. Reset. Check that the sim is correctly in its slot. Reset again. Power off again. Still... no phone connection.
The Telstra person contacts their technical support. Take it into the Telstra shop, they say.
And so... after many hours of effort... phone calls from ten minutes to just short of an hour... three visits to the Telstra shop... we have a mobile phone which is not able to make a phone call.
On the bright side, it still plays the recorded books. And it works nicely over our home WiFi. And the Telstra contact staff are extremely polite and *wanting* to be helpful.
It's just a mobile phone which will not make a phone call.
Tomorrow I'm off -- again -- to the Telstra shop at Karrinyup. This time I will say, Send me a message -- from the once-new phone -- when it is really able to access the phone network.
And I'll go away and do something more useful with my time.
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Problems ? Solved
1 comment:
The next day.
I tried one last phone call to Telstra...
Aside: When waiting in a queue and "Your call is important to us" became common, I bought a hands-free handset for the home phone. Without it I would not survive Telstra. Or other major "service provider" companies.
So I tried one last phone call. Why bother ?! The first contact had clearly told me, You will have to have a new phone number. Suddenly I realised, this is the same number ! Is that the source of the problem ?!
Well, no.
But the ever helpful Telstra phone centre drone had an idea. I'll just try... something, he said. It's not standard but... he said. And this is where the hands-free phone proved its worth.
I put the phone on the table. Listened to the occasional, polite, just a minute while I... And I ate breakfast. Drank tea. Read the paper. And occasionally made an encouraging reply to the phone.
Needless to say -- this attempt was a failure.
Something else also became apparent: the telephone drones are paid -- or punished -- based on customer feedback.
The previous three had been polite. Helpful. (Even while failing to actually help.) Vaguely hinting at a hope that my feedback would be positive. This final drone was almost desperate... A definite request for positive feedback...
Perhaps -- and this is just a suggestion -- perhaps Telstra should put less pressure on the polite responses of their phone drones. Perhaps Telstra should, instead, provide procedures that will actually solve a customer's problems.
It's just a suggestion.
Anyway, to cut a long story short: I went -- again -- to the Karrinyup Telstra shop. Said, Here is a phone. Use it to send a text message when it is working. Then I went shopping.
Ten minutes later I was finished shopping. A text message arrived. I passed by the shop and picked up the phone. It has worked ever since. Admittedly, that "ever since" is just three days. Still...
Many hours wasted. Many annoying trips to the Telstra shop. Much debate, misunderstanding and possibly deliberate untruths about the facts of a phone plan. Much effort wasted trying to translate Telstra marketing hype into clear English.
Ten minutes to actually get it working.
Sheesh.
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