Holy Cow! What Has Happened with Telstra Support?

surethang on 16/11/2020 - 21:42

I haven't used Telstra services myself for decades, but over the last few months I've been helping out multiple friends and friends-of-friends with Telstra services for their businesses and homes. (All unrelated.)

In each case, things went south dramatically, costing the people involved significant time and money. All of it could have easily been avoided by Telstra. And nearly all problems were readily solved within days by moving to other service providers, others are ongoing and heading for the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

What's worse is these people were all life-long clients of Telstra that initially insisted they would only use Telstra products and services. Now, they will never use Telstra again if they can avoid it. The revenue loss will easily total in the $100,000s of dollars.

If this was just a simple case or two of woe, I'd rack it up to "yeah, unfortunately these things happen occasionally". But I've witnessed a continuous stream of incompetence, avoidable mistakes, deliberate neglect, and outright contempt for clients.

What the hell has happened to Telstra?

I won't bore you with all the messy details of each client, but the journey includes pearls like:

  • Telstra deliberately closing an ongoing support request before the problem was solved, then continuing to charge the client, despite a written statement that they wouldn't

  • Telstra only offering online chat support for business clients. (Meanwhile, even my budget mobile service reseller has telephone support)

  • Telstra taking two-hours to transfer a client to the correct department in an online chat session

  • Telstra ignoring multiple written explanations with evidence stating that the problem the client was experiencing was not the one described on their outages page. This added weeks of unnecessary delay, and no apology was offered when Telstra finally discovered their mistake

  • Spending several hours deciphering Telstra invoices to get refunds for double charges

  • Telstra insisting a client has to deal with the NBN Co directly. NBN Co stating the issue is Telstra's. (Singing, "The circle of life!")

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Comments

  • bdl on 16/11/2020 - 21:47
    +3

    moo

    • perhaps on 16/11/2020 - 22:18
      +1

      i is here

    • surethang on 16/11/2020 - 22:31
      +2

      Yeah, understandable response.

      You haven't had the a front-row seat watching my friends lose thousands of dollars because of Telstra's incompetence - and it's so much worse that it comes right on top of the massive hit from covid.

      Watching the agony one friend went through laying off a great, part-time worker just to pay Telstra's screwed-up bill to stay in business was not pretty. Sure she'll likely get it all back at the TIO eventually, but the damage is done to everyone involved.

      So yep, as pointless as it might be, Telstra has earned a bit of a rant IMHO.

  • follow on 16/11/2020 - 21:50
    +4

    pretty standard for telstra and other big ISPs

  • [Deactivated] on 16/11/2020 - 22:09
    +5

    Have you been living under a rock? Telstra's customer service has always sucked.

    • surethang on 16/11/2020 - 22:13
      +3

      I had two business back in the 80-90s. Used Telstra for all my telco. Sure problems came up, but I never faced anything like the dismally low standard of response these clients are consistently getting

      • apsilon on 17/11/2020 - 06:46
        +4

        So when they were Telecom. It's been downhill since then. Having been in IT for almost 30 years I've seen everything you mentioned multiple times and much more. They don't care, they've got most of the market, they owned most of the infrastructure and will again when they buy NBN Co.

        I have found once you start spending 6 figures per month with them they're not too bad so there's the trick, spend more.

  • [Deactivated] on 16/11/2020 - 22:41
    +4

    As a business user, I have experienced all you've mentioned.

    Me. Barge pole. Telstra.

  • Ruprect on 16/11/2020 - 23:04
    +3

    I believe Telstra are pushing for profit… Getting rid of staff even if its not in their own best interests.

    Most other ISP's are performing better with customer service, including some of the real budget ones. The solution is as you say, churn to someone else.

  • lunchbox99 on 16/11/2020 - 23:13
    +4

    I signed up to a new postpaid account last Thursday. Received my first bill after 2 days (never had this happen in my life) where they expect you to pay in advance. I mean isn't that the very definition of prepaid?

    Anyway, the amount they billed me is wrong. Tried to talk to them via chat today while at work. Initiated the session at 1pm, explained the issue to someone who then proceeded to tell me I had to manage my expectations of a response ie leave the chat session open and go about my business and someone would eventually respond.

    Well I left work at 6pm and nobody had responded in all that time. Just terrible service.

    • surethang on 17/11/2020 - 11:59
      +1

      Yep, a 5-hour wait with no response is way beyond just "bad" or "sucks" or any of the milder adjectives I've been reading. This seems like a whole lower-level of deliberate disregard and almost malice in the name of profit.

      From what others are saying, it seems like Telstra is happy to burn through its long-term goodwill and brand reputation for short-term gain. That never goes well for businesses.

      And if this is how the paying-customers are being treated, I wonder just how poorly the lower-level Telstra staff are considered by the decision-makers.

      • lunchbox99 on 17/11/2020 - 13:00

        Well the real question is what happens if I hit the bill due date and haven't had time to wait 10hrs on the phone (ironic given they are a communications company) to discuss an issue on a brand new account that is entirely of their making. I literally just signed up… it's not my actions that have led to the wrong bill being issued.

        Honestly, it makes me feel like cancelling the whole service and taking them to TIO if they try to charge breakage fees. The only thing stopping me at this point is a complete inability to contact them to cancel it.

  • EightImmortals on 17/11/2020 - 07:22
    +1

    Yeah have noticed similar things for most of this year. Am not telstra customer but often have to help people who are. I think they've sacked most of their staff blaming the covaids (as if call centre staff can't work from home?) and are pushing for profit over service, more than usual. I've even had weird things happening with my mobile service lately, calls not coming through from certain people for e.g. but works fine for others.

    People need to vote with their money on this one.

    • AngusD on 17/11/2020 - 08:20
      +1

      I think working from home may actually be an issue for some of the offshore call centres, more so than local ones. The company I work for uses a mix of onshore, in-house and offshore, outsourced call centres. When COVID hit, the onshore people were all shifted from 100% in the office to working from home within a matter of days. Some of the ones in the Philippines were out of action for months. For all I know, they still might be.

  • knasty on 17/11/2020 - 08:31
    +2

    I could say the same thing about Optus. Used to think Telstra sucked and Optus was great. After dealing with Optus across home phone/ADSL, Optus cable and Optus mobile I can safely say i will not touch optus again willingly.

    I'm using Boost for mobile and Aussie BB for broadband; very happy with both.

  • Rod AUS on 17/11/2020 - 08:32
    +2

    I am a technician for 3 major technology companies in Australia. I work directly with clients. I can guarantee that your report is legit and much worse. Perhaps this is why Telstra is being divided into 3 I hope. I've worked on different continents, the technical and professional inability to manage large companies in Australia is shocking, I was able to see this personally in meetings with NBN.co I believe this disaster situation will only change when there is market competition, it seems to me there is a government lobby that does not allow other big companies to enter on Australian market for fear or even certainty that it will destroy with national companies, with their old and outdated management methodologies. ps: Optus is even worse

  • ShannonN on 17/11/2020 - 09:30
    +2

    Old saying, "Telstra? Can't complain about the service … Cause there IS NONE".

  • [Deactivated] on 17/11/2020 - 10:10
    +1

    Telstra is a basket case since covid, was told first hand they put off 150 at a business call centre in Australia as they wouldn't spend the money to set them up at home, chat is useless, only way to talk to someone is to say cancel contract.
    Had to go to TIO 3 months ago as couldn't talk or chat to anyone re a no on my business account put onto a private account when i changed the plan, eventually got it back on a few weeks ago and a $340 credit.
    I would be loathed to change anything on a Telstra account ATM.

  • [Deactivated] on 17/11/2020 - 10:17
    +1

    OP if you ring 132000 no and say cancel contract you will get a real person in a business centre.

    • surethang on 17/11/2020 - 12:52
      +1

      Thanks for the heads-up on this. Hoping it'll now save a lot of time for both the clients and Telstra

  • lbsyc on 17/11/2020 - 10:29
    +1

    I've signed up their NBN plan, got the confirmation email and order receipt everything. So far nothing has happened since, no communication whatsoever, and that was from 3 months ago. I guess I am sticking with my old ISP then.

  • surethang on 17/11/2020 - 13:12

    Thanks for all the insightful and often helpful responses, everyone.

    Yeah, my post was a bit of a rant from frustration that didn't quite convey the message I was intending. But hopefully my other replies to your comments clarified my concerns a bit better.

    The other real tragedy here, beyond this epic-low in poor service, is that the bean-counters and decision makers at Telstra are clearly focusing on short-term cost-cutting gains (and probably their nice bonuses) at the expense of the company's long-term value. And given that most of us will have an investment in Telstra through our superannuation, this means these managers are potentially lining their pockets at the expense of our retirement funds.

    In the words of a renowned philosopher group, "The rich get richer, the poor get the picture…" - M. Oil ;)

    • apsilon on 17/11/2020 - 14:51
      +1

      is that the bean-counters and decision makers at Telstra are clearly focusing on short-term cost-cutting gains

      Virtually all large corporates, and especially those who are the largest in their market, go through this cycle and usually for an extended period. Looking for ways to increase profit when sales can't really be increased further so attention turns to costs and efficiency and most do have fat that can be trimmed to a point. Most eventually reach a point where they realise, or hire someone to do an analysis that tells them, that they've cut too deep and it's actually costing them money rather than saving it and then there's a period of going the other way before the cycle begins again.

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