Telstra Rep on Chat Threatened

After 15 years with Telstra, I moved on to another provider and I had a chat with a Telstra rep to check if the disconnection process was initiated or if I had to initiate.

The rep got annoyed and soon threatened me, before I could take a screen shot or copy the content of the chat it ended abruptly.

I raised a complaint with Telstra and I got a call back. I explained to the lady and she said she was sorry and she would like to close the ticket??? I asked for the transcript, she denied and cut the call

Is there anything I can do now? She did acknowledge that rep was out of line.

Shaun

Related Stores

Telstra
Telstra

Comments

  • +3

    What did they say that was threatening?

    • +19

      "be aware, I have your details"… Along those lines

        • +2

          He said I should not initiate disconnection and the new service provider will, to which I said but the new provider asked me to call Telstra and disconnect and it was my responsibility.

          This irked the guy and he went on a rant saying about his experience as a disconnection expert and he knew what the process is and went on ranting. His last statement was about my details and then the chat abruptly disconnected…

          • +2

            @Shaunf: I assume you were having mobile service with Telstra. If that is the case, porting happens automatically once you submit your details via new provider. Why did you need to connect Telstra for disconnection? Some dots are missing in your story.

          • +19

            @Shaunf: If this was me I would lodge the complaint, giving date, time and your account number, and say it is information only and you don’t expect any further correspondence. However, you do need to be pretty sure you were civil throughout as they will review the transcripts. That sort of crap is unacceptable, but he may have just come off a really bad call and, I bet, he is regretting what he said.

          • +8

            @Shaunf: Telstra is correct, new provider is wrong. The new provider will take care of your Telstra disconnection and port your number to the new provider, if you want to keep your number. This is actually the ONLY way to keep your number. If you call Telstra yourself to disconnect then you risk your number going back into the pool and it being allocated to a new customer and you lose it.

            I had this done earlier in the to move my internet/home phone to a new provider from Telstra. It was my long time understanding anyway that this is the case.

            • +1

              @Brendoo: OP said it was a home internet connection and didn't mention porting numbers.

              It very well could be the case that Telstra is wrong and his new provider is correct.

              Ie. Telstra cable connection moving to NBN with a different provider. You have to call Telstra to cancel.

              Even if porting the landline number, it's possible for Telstra to keep the internet service active, just cancelling the phone

        • +7

          You must have provoked them with something.

          Thats not a logical inference.

            • +4

              @spackbace: your argument is logically invalid, so it can't be sound.

        • +2

          Seriously? It's the person doing the threatening who is at fault here. There are plenty of people who might feel angered by a person but they don't use threats in response and when you say stuff like that, it devalues the majority of good people who behave like adults when this happens. Threatening someone in this way is a disproportionate and overly emotional response to a customer service inquiry, I think it's a bit odd you can't see that.

          • -4

            @MessyG: I find it odd you'd be so offended when we have no actual proof or anything and it's all hearsay.

            Do you regularly get offended at things you can't prove or disprove?

            Victim blaming (as you're implying) requires a victim. All we have to go off are basic, minor paraphrases of OP's conversation. Very 1-sided, with zero solid proof.

            • @spackbace:

              Victim blaming (as you're implying) requires a victim. All we have to go off are basic, minor paraphrases of OP's conversation. Very 1-sided, with zero solid proof.

              Wait, isn’t that 99% of all the forum posts? Let’s use you as an example. Over the years as a Toyota car sales specialist (could be hearsay based on your logic), you’ve shared your thoughts or 3. Therefore, can we please have your name, phone number or dealership details so we can confirm or verify the things which you’ve said? You know…as proof so that it isn’t a case of ‘zero solid proof’. Just going by your logic! 😜

              • @moo: I thought this thread disappeared 43 days ago.. Are you a bit bored?

                OP hasn't even replied since October

                • @spackbace: Always mate. OzBargain is a great cure for boredom. Feeding the occasion troll keeps the community and mind alive. You give some, you take some and the world is a happier place.

          • @MessyG: Op has left out the part of the story that is along those lines.

  • +11

    Think about why you are doing this and what you hope to get out of it before doing anything, we all have crap days.

    https://www.telstra.com.au/support/category/account-billing/…

    Give the facts and don’t be emotional.

    • Fair point

    • +2

      What happens when you have a miserable day? Break someones knees?

      'Yeah I'm real sorry about that little jimmy. I know you'll never walk again, but I was just having the worst day. I ordered coffee with lite milk, and the lady gave me full'

    • +14

      There's having a crap day and there's bloody threatening someone. We all have crap days, we don't all tell people we know where they live!

      • I know where you live, i know which school your child attends and I have your internet traffic data… Dont screw with me!

  • +7

    What do you want us to do without any form of evidence?

    Brush it off and move on if it's going to become a 'he said, she said' situation.

    • +4

      What do you want us to do without any form of evidence?

      I think the same applies ;)

      • +3

        Evidence proves that it did happen and can shed more light on the situation, from there OP can probably escalate to an official complaint channel, post it here/Telstra facebook page to bring awareness and results.

        Conveniently missing evidence tends to indicate made-up/heavily-edited stories to suit one's need to rant about/defame a business, i.e. no one's gonna take OP seriously.

        • +6

          It’s friggin Telstra, not a 2 bit service provider. OP has every right to take it the top, if he can get the transcript. If it shows up, the staff members days are likely to be limited, threatening someone, especially a customer is not on, regardless of how shitty day he had.
          Go straight to the telecommunications ombudsman. Once it’s registered with the ombudsman, there is no way Telstra can just dismiss it with just internal reviews.

          • +1

            @82norm:

            OP has every right to take it the top, if he can get the transcript.

            Isn’t that more or less my point?
            With no evidence whatsoever, I’m not inclined to believe OP or anyone’s story at all.
            But feel free to dive in head first with your pitchforks.

            Heck, what if I make a post about how an Apple/BigW/JB/<insert any company> employee smacked me in the head in store, but too bad I have nothing to show it actually happened?

            P/s: I have worked in customers service, the amount of biased stories and outright lies that come through official complain channels and social media are staggering.
            Not calling OP a liar, but if they want to make a claim, they need to provide some sort of evidence.

    • +9

      You don’t need evidence, Telstra will have captured transcript of the chat. They also tape voice calls as well. If Telstra wants to investigate this they will be able to.

      • +3

        From memory, Telstra Chat also gives an opportunity to enter an email address at the end of the chat. A copy of the chat script will be sent there.

        • +1

          I use the Telstra live chat several times a year as it's easier than calling and I've always gotten the option to have the transcript emailed to me as well as to rate my experience.

      • +51

        Yeah, if op provided details like username/mobile number, your chat log would be on your account. I work for Telstra, and some of the shit that our FOH (and execs for that matter) do, makes it extremely difficult to defend the company

        Op, if you want to P.M. your complaint number, I’ll look into it for you and get someone with half a brain to call you back

        • +5

          I’ll look into it for you and get someone with half a brain to call you back

          This is awesome mate, you are the flex tape holding the company together!

  • +2

    Did you feel threatened? I think best move is to just move on since you're leaving them anyway. If you still want to check your "status" then do another chat but probably be more calm and considerate this time.

    • I would be super scared that the overseas chat centre rep on his/her ~$5/day wage will fly over to Australia and come to my house and beat me up. LOL.

      • -1

        Probably more than one person to beat up so the cost of travel here should be divided equally.

        Say the cost of travelling from… I dunno… India is $1,000 round trip. Staying with a buddy.

        If they had 20 people to beat up, it would practically cost $50 for Telstra person to beat OP up.

        That's a bargain!

        • Imagine the cost cost per person we could get if we did the same thing to beat up shitty phone rep. Super OzBargain Savings.

        • Id be in for that price. Ops in trouble.

      • +2

        They have relatives over here doing food deliveries. One day, the OP might get a knuckle sandwich delivered.

        • +5

          Or OP walks into the wrong 7/11…….

    • +2

      Don't move on, this is your chance to retire early.

  • +1

    Move on with your life

    • +4

      Don't move on, this is your chance to retire early.

  • +1

    Who cares, it was probably their last day and they have gotten the exact response they wanted - you posting to a forum of tightwads for advice.

  • +1

    Normally you get the option for a chat transcript when it is closed off. It is all recorded so you can make a complaint to Telstra (not here)

  • +4

    Lodge a complaint with the accc, this person should lose their job, it is never acceptable to threaten a customer for any reason. You might even want to take this to the police, this kind of threat should be treated seriously.

  • -1

    from someone who worked in telco. You were actually wrong disconnecting any number before a transfer creates a pile of shit that needs to be fixed. You can only transfer a number if it's connected. I hope you weren't arguing this with him because if you did you were totally in the wrong. it doent justifies threatening you but nothing more annoying than a customer arguing they are right when they obviously have no clue.

    • +5

      Hikaru, I never said anywhere that I tried to disconnect before I got another connection.

      I was with Telstra NBN and moved to TPG FTTB and my chat was a week after TPG install. A week after plugging out Telstra router. TPG said I would have to contact Telstra to disconnect the service as NBN and TPG FTTb are different

    • +2

      This is correct. If op wants to keep his number, it’s a lot easier to transfer the number while it’s connected. At Telstra, after a service gets disconnected, it’s technically not meant to be used for 90 days or something like that, but if there’s a number shortage, it could get used again the next day

    • +10

      The whole post is about an employee make a threat, not about the disconnection issue. Why is it so hard for people to miss the point of the post.?

      • Well i said doesnt justify threatening.

        • +1

          and you were wrong too, as this is different product, NBN and TPG FTTB so yes, the OP needs to make sure that TELSTRA already disconnect his services otherwise bill will keep coming and then they force you to pay the last invoice which you are not with Telstra anymore

          • @andyken: Yes and no. Op said moved.. in this case he didnt move anything as you cant move.
            He signed up a new service with tpg for a totally different product.

            When he told the telstra rep.he moved services they most likely assumed a port because moving from nbn to fttb is not possible

            • @hikaru78: one internet is totally different product to another internet…

      • Because ozbargain

  • Is there anything I can do now?

    What outcome are you looking for? A sorry? Compo; if so how much? Anything else?

    • +2

      One coupon for a free meal at Beniggan's.

      (With purchase of a meal of the same price or more of course.)

    • +1

      Tell them you were so scared and depressed and can't go to work, etc. Ask for $1m a year.

      For the time being, take stressed leave from work and watch suits

  • is it disconnected or not?

    • Telstra has still not disconnected, after back and forth now they have said once the final bill is generated the service will be disconnected

      • +1

        This is what Optus Cable told me when I rang them the day after I got NBN. This was 6 months ago. They continue to send me bills to this day, and say they've sent it to a collections agency. I've called them 3 times and each time they say they'll fix it and I don't have to do anything else.

        Every time I've had to deal with Optus it's been a massive PITA.

        • +1

          It's Optus man, i don't know what the hell is going on with their Billing/CRM system. It's a cluster (profanity). They (profanity) up my DSL/NBN account as well even though I'm with them for both account. So hopeless.

  • -1

    Oh no the Telstra chat monkey from the back blocks of who knows where in their 2 x 2 cubicle threatened me lol. Mafia will be coming.

  • +6

    I find Telstra reps utterly incompetent. I had to get in touch with them about my prepaid service but you can’t talk to someone over the phone. They said I would need to chat with the prepaid team.

    I ordered two prepaid SIM cards and didn’t get a confirmation email and Telstra couldn’t find order numbers in their system 24 hours after I placed my orders.
    Anyway I eventually received SIM cards but a port-in order from Vodafone prepaid is taking over 24 hours and had to chat with them yet again.

    Can’t believe how poor my experience with Telstra has been. I regret leaving Vodafone.

  • +3

    Telstra customer reps are totally incompetent. Few years ago, I had $100 credit (accidentally overpaid) in my acc, and wanted them to transfer it back to me, a year after the account was closed.

    Updated my address first call, asked them to close the account as I don't use my email. Took 3 calls over the space of months for them to tell me each time my account is still open "so I could use their email". And then they sent a cheque to my previous address. I just laughed when she told me that as I couldn't believe how ridiculous it was, and threatened to file a report with the Ombudsman if the money wasn't direct debited into my account by the next "billing period"

  • +3

    It Isn’t even a threat, just a statement of fact:: ‘be aware i have your details’

    Perhaps the next part was:

    be aware i have your details’…so you don’t need to give them again

    be aware i have your details’…so i can contact you if we are disconnected today

    be aware i have your details’…so i can send you any future offers

    • Be aware I have your details, and thats a nice car in your facebook profile. Not a threat but id be more uncomfortable with it 🤣🤣

  • -3

    Phvcks sake. You think what the rep said was a threat? Please step out of your bubble into the real world for a second.

  • +1

    "be aware, I have your details"… Along those lines

    How is this threatening?

    • +1

      They probably used red font.

    • Well, we can start with "be aware". You can guarantee the details would include your home address and, if ported, your telephone number. Personally I don't think this is a threat that anyone will go ahead with, particularly if the call centre is "overseas", but it is certainly not something that a Telstra employee should be saying to someone else.

    • +10

      And this is why professionalism and courtesy are dying. As I indicated above, the OP does need to think about what he may have said but people, certainly, can erupt at one person for something someone else does. Also some people are just pompous idiots and are doing the wrong job.

      Quite a bit of my working life was customer facing and I learnt a few tricks.
      A) if someone wants to rant them let them rip without interrupting them. They will, eventually, run out of steam and then you can address their issues in a calm manner. If they interrupt then stop talking again until they run out of steam, again, and explain how you will address their issue. Rinse and repeat. We once made a mistake and quite a senior manager gave me, a quite deserved, bollocking and I let him go without interrupting him. I then, calmly, explained what went wrong and what we were doing to ensure it didn’t happen again. He finished off with “and it, probably, doesn’t help having idiots like me ringing you up”. I thanked him for his time and concern. The secret is don’t escalate.
      B) If ringing up a help desk make sure you are clear on what is the issue you want resolved and what you accept as the resolution. Start by noting the persons name and the date/time of the call. Explain your position in a clear, unemotional manner, and remember the person on the other end responds better to respect than anger. Let them do their checklist script, it is annoying, but that is what they are meant to do. If you find you are getting angry then stop talking until you are calmer. The help desk person can cut you off if they feel the customer is abusing them so raised voices doesn’t help your situation. If you do feel you have been treated unfairly then having the call details helps for a complaint. There is, always, the option of dropping the call and ringing again to see if you can get a help desk person who can buy a clue.
      C) the best way a company can avoid help desk calls is to do their job right in the first place. However, they appear to be outsourcing this more and more, including to the customer. Once the customer makes the request this whole process should be completely internal between both companies. My experience is that, even within companies, processes are becoming so fragmented it is hard to get things done. The “customer” has to, continually, chase things up to ensure they are on track. Communications is prefunctory and often useless. Personally, I try to follow up voice meetings with clarifying emails, where possible.

      TL:DR for both parties
      Know what you want
      Keep your cool.
      Be professional.
      Be respectful.
      Don’t be abusive or belittling.

      • If you ever need to ring centerlink i find the best bet is that complaints line. 1. The job seeker one always says goodbye and hangs up.
        2. I spend more then the 30 mins the complaint line takes if i ring the other one..
        3. The complaints team are really bloody good at sorting shit out for you. Best team at centerlink.

    • +3

      I feel sad for the way people have treated you in you life for you to get to a point where you'd write something like this. This is just a sh***y bully thing to say.

    • +1

      are you @ivi

  • +2

    Aside from all the psycho sympathizers above (which is just lovely), keep in mind that a lot of the guys are ESL. It's possible that he was just using a weird phrasing, and had no idea that to a native speaker its vaguely threatening.

    Is there anything I can do now?

    Escalate. Call up, demand to speak to a manager, tell them you're fuming. Absolutely fuming.
    - Fuming so hard, its getting hard to see from all the fumes in the room.
    - Fuming to the point you're considering seeing a doctor, because you're not sure that its healthy to fume this long and this hard.
    - Fuming to the point that its starting to bring all the boys to yard, and thats right, it is better than yours!
    You know you want it.

    He'll know what to do.

    • +7

      What I find weird is all the disbelief and invalidation people have posted rather than just taking the post in good faith. The OP felt threatened, there's clearly a registered transcript of this, there's a admittance that the customer service was rep out of line, BY Telstra and yet we have all this weaselly naysaying that the OP must be mistaken, that the rep was having a bad day, that the OP provoked them, that they could be ESL. It's a very strange and disheartening response.

      • -4

        rather than just taking the post in good faith

        You must be new to online forums.

        Unless you believe everything you read, anyone who has logical reasoning would require proof of evidence before forming an opinion. Without evidence of any sort, all you're doing is forming an opinion based off OP's biased, loose fragments of a conversation, and that's not going to prove or disprove anything.

        • +3

          It's an online forum, not a police case where you need all the facts and evidence.

          Someone asks a question - simply answer based on what they've provided. If the information provided by Op was incorrect or they didn't tell an important point, then they won't benefit from the answer given and it's their own problem and fault.

          I'm amazed at how people like to imagine scenarios and circumstances of some randoms who asks questions on the internet.

      • -1

        We live in an age where some people are just soft. They take offence to basically anything.

        • easy for you to type until one day it happens to you and then…

      • +5

        MissG, you are fighting a losing battle on civility. Unless people have absolute proof in front of them then they won't believe what is being posited, and even then they will insist it has been doctored. Facts have become what people want them to be. It is why we have so many ridiculous conspiracy theories and a bunch of politicians that aren't being held accountable for what they do. With this thread I have no idea on exactly what has been said by either party, but all I can do is comment on what the OP has indicated occured. My advice, here, is based on this. I have also indicated to the OP he might want to reflect what his part of the discussion was as well. If anyone is looking for support on these forums they will be sadly disillusioned. My advice, to anyone posting here is just ignore the naysayers and only look at the posts that actually might provide some useful information. Unfortunately there are a lot more judgemental people than helpful people.

      • Hey, don't go lumping me in with them. I'm on the OPs side. The ESL thing was just something that suddenly occurred to me, as a small chance. A shadow of doubt.
        Which, to me, is something worth considering for a moment. I'd rather let a hundred minor thugs get away with their weak threats, than burn down the life of one person who made a slip of the tongue in a language she didn't fully understand.

        But hey.. I'm weird that way.

    • They're ESL? Electronic Sports League?

  • +3

    All is recorded…. if it were toward your life, ring the police. Or complain with Telstra and the Telecommunications Ombudsman

  • +2

    No serious threat IMO, no proof, so take it on the chin and move on.
    Don't waste time and emotion on someone who is likely to be sacked eventually.

    If you get a lawyer and involve the police, you might get the transcript, and succeed.
    But as there's so many twisted people and you'll end up with nothing for your time once the lawyers bleed you dry (my experience), is it worth perhaps years of litigation?

  • +2

    this is not the first time, telstra customer service provided by indian teams is lower than sh!t, i posted a few days ago about their nbn dramas, i had to raise a formal complaint to get it sorted where an aussie guy called me back, i ran into a few d!ckhead indian call center people in the first 3 days of transferring to telstra, one was a loud mouth b!tch who kept talking over me when i was explaining the issues, and when i told her can you please let me finish and explain the entire issue and she was having non of it, than she tells me to stop interrupting her, oohh the irony, than i told her that she needs to listen to the customers issue let them finish and than provide a solution, than she got irked and hung up. i called back, the loud mouth b!tch i could hear in the background telling this guy what to say, so he started playing games and acted like he could not hear me, he kept saying hello sir hello we cant hear you, if you dont speak we will hang up. while i was saying hello sir hello he was not answering, than i swore at him from anger than he said ohh sir we dont allow swearing we have to terminate the call, lol than i said oh now you can hear me you fukhead. than he hung up.

    ive never had this issue with optus customer service, while also from india they are way more professional and caring and nicer. way way better customer service but for me the speeds were very bad ant thats why i switched.

    • +2

      than i swore at him from anger than he said ohh sir we dont allow swearing we have to terminate the call, lol than i said oh now you can hear me you fukhead. than he hung up.

      Charming. No wonder they hang up on pita customers.

      • -1

        You sound like one of them, did you feel sorry for the Indian customer service team member who does not give 2 sh!ts about the customer or the problem with the service?

    • Bill Burr has a bit about this

  • Always two sides to every story. I'm not saying the rep is right but in 99.9% of cases people omit certain information and make it sound like they utterly did nothing wrong and it is 110% the other party's fault. Again, not saying you did this but there's usually always something left out. The devil is in the details.

  • interestingly I always requested to send chat transcript to my email every time, and received them almost instantly.
    however, after some time, they all disappeared.

    i wonder if this only happens to me :(

    • Do you mean you don't get sent the chat transcript anymore?
      My last chat with them was about 2 months ago. The transcript was not sent immediately but arrived a few hours later. I did not see it arrive immediately, so made a copy of the chat myself, just in case.

      • Yes I agree. I learnt it hard way. Now when I got my chat transcript, I’ll make a copy and resend to myself.

        I don’t know why the original transcript emails disappeared…

        • Disappear from your email? How

          • @Shaunf: I’ve been trying to figure out how…

Login or Join to leave a comment