My Mate Telstra.

[kustard (Simon)]

So much hate

I've been with TPG for years, but being at the limit of the exchange for ADSL2+ I was sick of only having 400kb/s so I had a look at Bigpond and their cable broadband options. They finally have some respectable plans for decent prices. Considering we aren't massive downloaders but we do watch the occasional rented iTunes movie, the speed increase with cable is desirable.

So today I received the new cable modem (we have had cable/foxtel previously) so in it went and I am now enjoying fast internet.

I'm happy it's all working but I've had dramas from other large corporations, insurance ones really seem to have it in for me.

Cheers,
Simon

[DaveR]

We have had a few problems at home, which seem to arise Friday and therefore wont fix till monday which is really frustrating.


On the plus, my elderly Mum in another state had a phone where the static was getting really bad. The Telstra tech did a quick thorough job - after fixing line (coastal corrosion) checked pc and modem worked, replaced old phone in workshop and checked medi-alert. Rang the med-alert people ss the had bodgied the wiring and then rang me to give me his mobile in case the medi-alert people wanted argue who was responsible.

Would have given him a slab of crownies if i could.

[Karls48 (Karl)]

If you think that Telstra and their Philippines call centre is bad try Vodafone with their Indian call centre. It took me over two moths to convince them that I want to be disconnected. I'm sure that my old 300 baud modem was faster then their wireless Internet.

[LewisM]

Been with Westnet for 6 years now. NOT A SINGLE ISSUE, and always get an Australian on the phone.

Was on Optus when we initially moved to Perth. After ludicrous delays (7 days to activate the ADSL!), problems etc, I decided enough was enough, and decided to cancel them. First time, TRYING to cancel, I actually fell asleep on the phone waiting (and they hung up!), second time they took about 1 hr 45 minutes to cancel it, offer me all sorts of incentives etc. Rang Westnet. All set up, and working 3 hours later.

I have little positive at all to say about the Philippines, full stop. Only call centre I have the misfortune to ring that uses Filipinos is Virgin Mobile. Took me an HOUR to get them to understand that I already had a sim card, but they had sent me another, and wanted me to activate it. Told them no, I am using my old sim. They told me they would charge me 1 month for the new sim, then cancel it. I told them I want to speak to their management NOW, and slipped in the words OMBUDSMAN. Well, I proceeded to tell management in my best Tagalog (another useless language I know a fair bit of), and whaddya know, they cancelled the new sim card gratis...

Virgin also charged me $625 once for excess SMS's - in ONE MONTH. Their first response was to halve the amount. I told them to send me a complete list of every number I messaged. They did (something like 18 pages long!), showing that the same message had been sent every 3 minutes for 2 weeks to the same number! The phone was not at fault, so they finally waived the ENTIRE month's bill.

[Shark Bait (Stu)]

Just had Telstra fix our phone connection ..... again. I have to admit to putting off making contact with Telstra. I find dealing with the staff at the Phillipines call centre very tedious.

The Tech who has fixed the problem multiple times in the past calls the junction a Bat Box. Apparently Bats rest at this junction and their corrosive droppings eventually cause faults. So we know where the problem lies, but the call centre staff have to follow the bouncing ball and will not accept that we may have some information that will be useful.

The tech fixed it this morning and did not bother visiting our house first. He went straight to the box and sorted it before dropping in to make sure that the connection was fixed.

The phone line is now clear and the internet connection is stable again. Telstra's Techs go about their work and do it well but Telstra lets itself down badly with their overseas call centre.

[Astro_Bot]

Wonderful news (sarcasm): Telstra plans to unilaterally limit or block peer-to-peer networking.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/tec...205-2dvus.html

I particularly like this comment (which, to me, speaks volumes about Telstra's attitude toward its customers):

He was also reported to have said that if the carrier's proposed system "cut out 80 per cent of the non-value adding traffic – good".
According to the RCR Wireless article, about 80 per cent of Telstra's data was chewed up by high bandwidth users.
"I'd rather not have those 80 per cent as customers. I'd rather someone else had them as customers," Mr Lawrey reportedly said.

[RANT]

If users are paying for the bandwidth they're using (are there any plans where that isn't the case?), and the content isn't illegal (which is a matter for law enforcement), then what right do they have to throttle or block traffic? We're not talking about going over a data cap here - the throttling/blocking is aimed at a traffic type. If I want to use my, say, 100GB data allowance for all video, that's my prerogative. If I want to use BitTorrent to share (legal) data, then that's my prerogative, too. (Actually, I rarely use BitTorrent, but it's my right if I want to). If congestion is an issue, charge for peak and off-peak, as many ISPs already do.

Then we get onto some services only being available, or being much better supported, on protocols other than HTTP. I encounter this frequently in the Linux world where BitTorrent is used for open source software distribution (perfectly legal).

And who's to say what future uses will develop over any particular traffic type, or a new type of traffic altogether? We've seen this before with "net neutrality" arguments in the USA (also see this). For me, the argument for net neutrality is as clear as day: continuous freedom of access and evolution of the internet on a level playing field. The arguments against are largely from the perspective of being able to charge the same money for less data, blocking competitors (or blocking their partners' competitors) and limiting or blocking traffic from smaller, more independent operators who can't afford the infrastructure of large, fast server farms, and who may be more likely to carry information critical of big business.

To me, throttling peer-to-peer networking is an obvious "thin end of the wedge".

[/RANT]

[COSMOPARADISE (Nick)]

OH EM GEE. WHAT AM I GETING MYSELF INTO!!!! I've just been offered the job that I've been applying for for months.....CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS SPECIALIST....TELSTRA!!!!
Hope the 4 weeks training here on the Gold Coast is enough to prepare me for my impending APOCOLYPSE.
So if some one in an english accent named Nick answers your next call to telstra, the password is NBN

[Barrykgerdes]

Originally Posted by COSMOPARADISE

OH EM GEE. WHAT AM I GETING MYSELF INTO!!!! I've just been offered the job that I've been applying for for months.....CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS SPECIALIST....TELSTRA!!!!
Hope the 4 weeks training here on the Gold Coast is enough to prepare me for my impending APOCOLYPSE.
So if some one in an english accent named Nick answers your next call to telstra, the password is NBN

That 4 weeks training is to teach you how to talk with a garbled foreign accent

Barry

[doppler (Rick)]

I am with TPG, have been for years. My internet gets cut off every 5-6 months (crappy telstra exchange and copper lines). TPG always answers my calls straight away and calls me right back if my phone hangs up. My modem diagnostics lets me know when the DSL is down so I have a well practiced spiel in reply to theirs..... yes I have unplugged everything, no I dont have a fax machine, yes I have tried another modem....There is no DSL signal on my modem, please get Telsta onto it. ps They all sound like they are in an Indian call center, but I cant fault the service.

Rick