When we built our new house Telstra failed to show up twice to connect ADSL. I told them to forget it and went to Internode. I have lived happily ever after.
My best Telco customer story is from when I called Optus to tell them that the cable modem at our previous house had been fried by a lightning strike. I explained that there were burn marks on the modem and that chips inside it had exploded. Their response was to insist that I reinstall Windows and see if that fixed my Internet connection
We probably shouldn't be too harsh on the poor beggars who work in the call centres. They don't get hired for their technical knowledge and troubleshooting experience and they probably get punished for diverging from the script.
That's not to excuse the behaviour that Robin reported. That sounds like the act of someone who did know what they were doing and was getting a commission for the churn
Cheers,
Rick.