I Hate Telstra

[solissydney]

Last September 08, I entered into a 24 months ADSL contract at $29.95 for 12 Gig.
This month, September 09, I got a bill for $69.95.
When I objected I was told that I was informed last Sept. that the $29.95 was only for the first 12 month. ???? Why on Earth would I have accepted that, not knowing what I would be paying for the latter 12 months???
I hate Telstra

[Baron von Richthofen]

If you hate Telstra ( with a passion) you will have to get in line with the other 20 million people

[Ian Robinson]

I've a liberty bigpond account (unlimited downloads) that costs me the same amount , if you are getting only 12Gb downloads / month , you're getting ripped off.
My Telstra account includes my home phone landline , I hate paying line rental $27.95 per month , when I know some other telcos offer land line services that are line rental free !!!

I have noticed that the upload and download speeds for my ADSL2+ is often not much better than when I was using the free University of Newcastle dialup proxy servors. I wish there was some way of logging the upload and download speeds ( I am sure I'm being ripped off and not getting what I paid for a lot of the time because the local bandwidth is not nearly enough ).

As soon as my contract with Telstra is finished I'll be changing telcos if I can get ADSL2+ w/ unlimited downloads and the land line service cheaper.

[pgc hunter]

Telstra is a malignant cancer.

[dpastern]

Did you read the entire fine print on the contract? I suspect that you didn't. If you have a copy of the contract, please re-read it and I think you'll find that it's all in there...

Telstra retail sucks, Telstra wholesale is very very good, much better than the competition.

Dave

PS I actually work for an ISP, so I get to see things that the ordinary person doesn't...

[Glenhuon]

Your not alone in being caught with the sudden jump in cost with telstra, there are thousands like you, not that its any comfort.
We also suffer from the lack of bandwidth problem with Telstra. I have one of those nextG prepaid wireless dongles as I've no landline available. After 8 in the morning, forget it. Its either limited access (Phone only) or no signal. Even when connected the speeds are woefully slow, streaming audio, no chance even when there's a full signal. At $60 a Gb a complete rip off. The sooner this mob go belly up, the better off Aus communications will be. I'm using the daughters landline at the moment, but only until I get moved into the caravan park, then its back to the dreaded wireless. :(

Bill

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Ian



I pay $100 a month for the same thing all inclusive of line rental and calls with pensioner discount. I have been plagued with other telcos to change but none can match this in the end.

I never use more than 5GB/Month and I share my internet to two other neighbours. Who can't get ADSL.

I may eventually add a 3G service from telstra because I have tested it and it works at Wiruna and Crago.

I also may get a bigpond web host (Since geocities is no longer available) even if it is twice as dear as others because of the convenience of a single billing.

I have no reason to change otherwise.

Remember always read the fine print on a contract!

Barry

[Robh]

This site might give you some idea ... http://www.ozspeedtest.com/

Regards, Rob

[solissydney]

Thanks for your support.
My contract was a verbal one over the phone.

About three years ago, using my insignificant little download, I suddenly got a bill for $200.00 extra over my usual bill. A technician from Telstra admitted that it was a fault at Telstra's. But I still had to pay the $200.00
Ken

[stephenb]

Bigpond have been promoting 1/2 price liberty plans for a couple of years now. I have been on one. They do exist, but whether they fully, and reasonablely disclosed this to you upon signing up is another issue.

I have had 3 major disputes with Telstra/Bigpond in the last 12 months, all three issues I went to the Telescommunications Industry Ombudman (TIO)

The process is:

1 - Ring the TIO and lodge a complaint. You are assigned a case number and given a special Telstra 1300 number to call.

2 - call this 1300 Telstra number and quote your TIO case number. A case manager will be assigned to your case and they will contact you within 10 business days.

3 - The case manager contacts you and from my three issues, they bent over backwards and wiped in excess of $900 off my account (over the three separate issues). No questions asked.

I have had a shocking run with Telstra/Bigpond. I will never, ever recommend them to anyone. but it seems that they bank on the small percentage that complain to the TIO level, and therefore they do not dispute the customer.

I won't go into the incredible details of my 3 complaints, but I will say, to receive over $900 refund across 3 complaint files in 12 months was worth jumping up and down.

[stephenb]

And you know something??? Telstra doesn't care what you think !! I have had call centre staff admit to me on the phone that their products/plans are of poor value.

[thunderchildobs]

I have seen a lot plans advertised that say ie $30 for the first 12 months on a 24 month plan. Then in the fine print at the end of the comerical say total cost for 24 months is $1,000,000,000.00

[Ian Robinson]

ran the test and got :

Your line speed is 1.31 Mbps (1311 kbps).
Your download speed is 164 KB/s (0.16 MB/s).

Not very flash since it's supposed to be ADSL2+ .

Must be heaps of kiddies on the net tonight using up bandwidth.

[DavidU]

Mirror: Telstra Bigpond
Data: 3 MB
Test Time: 7.34 secs
Your line speed is 3.34 Mbps (3337 kbps).
Your download speed is 417 KB/s (0.41 MB/s).

[fringe_dweller]

telstra do suck, early this year couldnt believe the hoops had to jump thru to qualify for them to send a tech, (i am with iinet/ozemail) I knew the deterioration in speed wasnt my fault, and problem was on the street out the front, a bad crimp getting progressively looser at the box on the pole it turned out! grrrr ..the telstra tech was a top bloke tho, fixed it in 5 seconds, not the workers fault - damn shareholders burn in hell!

Ian I believe all the ISP's only guarantee a minimum of 1 Mbps d/l with ADSL2+ its in the fineprint

I get a constant 6.5 Mbps with this old adsl 1 modem on 2+ service, geez should get a 2+ might get 20? how slack is that! :eyepop:

[g__day]

Every time a complaint is lodged with the TIO the carrier is charged $250. Make it clear to the call centre staff if your issue isn't handled professionally you just keep on raising (legitimate) cases with the TIO.

Generally carriers are trained to recognise customers who know their rights and protections and will give better treatment to those mentioning the TIO.

[fringe_dweller]

ah thats a cool tip matthew, ta, wish i knew that back then, my indian friends at the call centre were very nice, but made configure and reconfigure two different modems endlessly and other tasks for an eternity, should of made my calls during aussie business hours and i would of got an aussie and made that clear, but i was distracted by major building/renovation works at the time, oh well, first time ive ever had trouble like that, didnt know any better at the time,cheers

[solissydney]

Thanks all.

I will let you know the result of my complaint to the TIO
Ken

[stephenb]

I had a similar problem during one of my Bigpond issues. The call centre people were getting my to reset the modem again and again. I kept telling them that the issues was external to my property, but I gues they have a checklist to adhere to.

[GrahamL]

Same here and wow don't you have to jump through some hoops to get it sorted, I even stupidly tried to get a call centre in india to give me the local depots phone number:rolleyes:.. and when I finally got to speak to somone local .. they asked where i lived and within a few seconds said yes theres a fault logged at the end of your street (4 weeks ago) :)

[dpastern]

let's correct a few misunderstandings here.

1) ADSL2+ is a dog. I never recommend it, far better to go with an Open 1 (8000/384) plan. ADSL2+ is a variable speed product, always changing, always trying to push as fast as it can get. This, imho, creates a lot of instabilities. Better to go with ADSL and a fixed speed product.

2) the top speeds are NEVER guaranteed - both for ADSL and ADSL2+

3) speed is dependant on several things:

a) distance from exchange

b) quality of modem - you buy your cheap crap, you get crap. Get a Cisco and you have less issues.

c) correct internal procedures (filtering, etc)

d) quality of the actual PSTN

e) quality of the DSLAM @ the exchange

4) A 1.5mb line speed is the minimum for ADSL2+. Anything less should be rejected on application.

I treat ozspeedtest.com as a rough guide. Firstly, make sure no one else is downloading anything at all. I would recommend:

ftp to:

usage.request.com.au

username = speedtest

password = testspeed

once you've logged in, set the type to:

bin

do a dir or ls to see the contents of the FTP area.

Grab and download the 5mb test with this command:

get 5mb-filetest.bin

Take note of the line speed, download time and kb/sec speeds

re: the TIO - I'm personally not a fan of the TIO. Did you know that even if the problem is not your ISPs fault, but is upstream (i.e Telstra infrastructure), if you log a complaint with the TIO, it goes against your ISP, not Telstra. In fact, ISPs cannot complain against their wholesalers either. So, when we, as an ISP get screwed, and Telstra gives us the finger, we're stuffed.

Don't even get me started on Telstra and CNI faults...

Hope this helps.

Dave

PS I work in the industry and deal with Telstra, AAPT/Powertel and Zedrez all day, every day.

[dpastern]

OK - standard procedure (which your ISP should walk you through) for troubleshooting connections is:

1) ISP checks the rad logs (radius) for auth entries - Telstra techs will run an OATS test and radsniff usually. Telstra should be able to tell via the RVOP stats if there's problems with the line etc. Also, a good, experienced tech has a good idea what the problem is when looking at the Radius logs.

2) ISP checks uptime on their core router - Telstra techs can't really do this. Few ISPs let their staff have full admin level 15 access to their core routers. I'm glad I can access our big Redback router @ work hehehe.

3) tech should get you to test dial tone (if there's no sync on the modem)

4) tech should get you to do an isolation test. Basically, that means removing every phone, fax, foxtel, electronic security alarm that shares with the ADSL line. The idea is to ONLY have a single line from the socket in the wall to the modem and see what happens. That way, you're eliminating anything internal causing an issue. If the connection then works OK, re-introduce each item one at a time and see if the connection stays stable. Make sure each and every object sharing with the ADSL is filtered, and filtered correctly.

5) reset modem and re-enter all settings

6) if available, either test the modem on another ADSL enabled line (friends place), or try another modem on the problematic line. This is a last resort.

If Telstra goes out, they usually book a commitment, which means a trip to the exchange and MDF. They usually don't go to the first socket for these, but can do so sometimes. They check the exchange, then they go to the MDF and plug in with their test modem and see what happens. If it's all good, they'll usually go to the premises and test at the first socket. This should tell them if it's a lead in issue between the MDF and first socket (still a Telstra fault). If it's OK a the first socket, then it's an internal issue (usually filtering). They will charge FFS (fee for service).

Dave

[pjphilli]

Hi Ken
I had a very similar problem regarding costs doubling after the first year when I had negotiated a permanent reduction with Telstra. I had taken detailed notes of this negotiation which I repeated back to the operator who took my complaint. Too bad she said the double rate remains. So I said goodbye to Telstra after being a loyal customer for many years and I am now with Three wireless. I receive a 3.6Mbps service with a 1Gbyte download/month for $15 - suits me!
If I have any problems I get onto their service department in about three minutes and receive excellent attention.
With Testra I had up to a 25 minute wait with not so good service.
It took good old Yankee know how to ruin Telstra and the previous Telecom and OTC services which made it.
Cheers Peter

[Kevnool]

Love Telstra out here where not many reside in the outback.
It seems there the only carrier out here ( Far western region) and hey there prices may be stiff but at least theres a service out here.

I,m not talking about Small towns i,m talking between them in remote locations.
Have a happy day Cheers Kev.

[dpastern]

The problem is that Telstra owns most of the infrasctructure, paid for with public monies. Telstra should NEVER have been privatised, and the infrastructure should have ALWAYS remained the property of the government, and NOT Telstra.

The TIO is as useless as t*ts on a bull, and until ISPs can make formal complaints against the wholesalers, things won't get any better. Also, the TIO needs to be changed so that if a user complains about an ISP but it's a wholesaler fault, then the wholesaler cops it, not the poor ISP.

Telstra doesn't give a **** about the TIO, it doesn't even take any notice, it just pays whatever the TIO asks. Smaller and medium level ISPs get screwed badly by the process. I say disband the TIO and put something better designed in its place that will keep the wholesaler *******s honest.

Once again, we have idiotic politicians in place, making idiotic decisions on things that they know jack **** about.

Dave