Actually, order takers.
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They are not totally useless - my mother often relies upon them when Iām not within shouting distance.
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Pray tell, if you wouldnāt mind sharing, if itās not too personal, in general terms just what type of assistance your lovely mum can get out of them?
I find them quite pleasant too, itās just that they do not know the answers to questions, and as @CharlevilleCharlie also found, they just direct you to the Telstra number..
That was frustrating to me because I had made a special trip to the shop just to avoid ācalling Telstraā. Still havenāt, waiting for a free morning or afternoon to dedicate to them.
The person that takes the call establishes your identity, asks what is your question, apologises for putting you on hold and then goes and tries to find an answer, and is not always successful.
By that time I give up, thank them for their kind help, and just step outside to give out a loud scream..
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My understanding is that they help her set things up, like her current mobile phone. That was a couple of years ago.
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I often receive SMS and emails claiming they are from Telstra with threats to cut me off in a day or two. Usually self evident as Scams by closer inspection of the source, language and comparison with known reliable previous messages. Recent Telstra changes have been notified well in advance (month+). Another clue Telstra seems reluctant to terminate services despite late payment of bills, although there is an added cost if one is past due. Not suggesting anyone take this as reliable advice, it is simply how it appears when Iāve missed the due dates. In one instance Telstra simply issued an overdue bill notice with the late payment fee added. To consider if the customer is totally cut off on short notice or on first notice Telstra (and the same for their competitors) looses all means of contact with the customer. Snail mail or door knocking excepted.
Personal experience with various Telstra shops over the previous months, (Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, and Townsville). The system performs best when one makes an appointment in advance to do more than pay a bill or buy a new product. Staff with knowledge and the authorisations to sort out account or tech issues are in short supply. Sometimes one can get a slot same day an hour or two away. Often a day or two! Not to say this is good service, however Iāve found over the previous 4 encounters staff with both the knowledge and skill set to resolve, plus patience. To suggest significant issues have been due to Telstraās IT systems and ongoing changes or migration for us long time ālegacyā customers. Telstra unwittingly made a rod for its own back IMHO when it sold all on Bigpond for Internet accounts and email services as products seperate to mobile and home phones.
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Thanks for mentioning loyalty points @CharlevilleCharlie. We need to sign in and join Telstra Plus rewards program (10 points every $1). Thereās no further information other than what they already know. Might as well be rewarded for being a loyal customer 
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I think that the transition process for transferring broadband customers to their new system must be handled by a special call centre project team and possibly located in India since both people who have spoken top me on the phone about my transfer have both had very broad Indian accents. They were super polite but a bit hard for this old dude with a western Queensland accent to understand,
I have to say, though that Telstraās customer communications process for this transfer seems to be awfully messy. Yesterday alone, between 1.50 pm and 4.17 pm, I received 10 emails from Telstra, many of them sending quite confusing messages. I have received another two today. None of these require any action on my part. I also received eight text messages, a couple of which were duplicates. Weird!
Anyway, I have suffered no interruption to my service and it all seems to be working well. As usual, Telstraās engineering seems excellent but their customer comms may be a little wanting.
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Iāve had a number of similar messages which have been ignored. My Telstra accounts must have been cancelled many times by now. However, they all seem to be still working.
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More likely in Australia?
Telstra transitioned my personal account and business account and connected services without any need to do anything. The issue most might be having will have been with changes in payment methods. The original letter I received in March of this year seemed quite clear saying āYou donāt need to do anythingā.
Although Telstra avoided highlighting that in moving to a new plan one was also moving to a new billing system. Itās all mentioned, sort of on the back of page 1 along with lots of other details. Included was a promise to get back in touch with the plan move date and payment date change. On the 1st of May Telstra advised all would change from 05 May 2025 and added - āYou donāt need to do anything.ā There was a polite end note which also said āPlease refer to our initial notification for details about our plansā. A quick rumble in the pile and who would look past the increased data on each plan, the new plan names and zero increased cost!
As many customers may have come to realise Telstra has migrated the accounts to a new system concurrent with relabeling the plans and changing the T&Cās. Hence all previously set up payment arrangements such as auto debit, saved biller details etc no longer apply. Itās there in the blurb of the original letter things would change.
I wonder how many have been caught out?
To note Iāve had many scam emails supposedly from Telstra that appear to be crafted around leveraging off the Telstra transition. The latest all from a āMyTesltraā or just plain āTesltraā. The sending email resolves most often to ā[email protected]ā which Google suggests is a legitimate email source! Iāve taken the original advice and done nothing - although I do need to change the saved payment details in my banking before I forget. Iāve paid the last few bills using a CC and the Telstra App to access the bills.
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This is very similar to a text that I got recently but it was from my GP saying that I had a test result and to click on the hotdoc link (which looks very much like the one shown) for details, or phone the clinic. I phoned, and was told there was no test result pending for me. So still puzzled.
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Is this more than social engineering and increasingly normalising clicking on links in emails? Should there be a legally enforceable ban on corporations doing business in Australia against the use of links/buttons in emails/messages?
A recent email from FlyBuys which resolved to ([email protected]) solicited a button press. Commonly used in many promotions with the supermarket loyalty programs and by others. Should the email exclude links and encourage one to log in independently to your loyalty programs account using a secure method to activate offers?
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Yes but no. I for one would not log in just to āboost/activateā because it is a pain, made more of a pain with 2FA.
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No.
I totally understand what you are getting at but that would be wild overreach and in some circumstances completely inappropriate.
It is confusing though because quite a few legitimate emails specifically say that they will never include links (and explain why). So the user is being pulled in both directions.
If you absolutely insist on ābanningā links/buttons in email messages then please put that in your email client. Your email client can either filter out links/buttons (delete them from the email source so that they simply arenāt there) or leave the links/buttons there but make them inoperative (clicking on a link or button doesnāt do anything). Your choice.
If we are going to be heavy-handed then ban outsourcing of this kind of stuff - so that every legitimate email must come from the relevant sender company and all the links must go to that same sender company. This would make it easy for the mail system to flag or block anything that is dodgy. (NB: This wouldnāt absolutely preclude outsourcing but it would force the third party to configure things in a certain way.) The problem right now is that legitimate emails can come from companies of which you have never heard and the links may likewise go to some unknown company.
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Appreciate the feedback. Agree there is no magic bullet solution. What might work best for one type of user may not work for others. Some of my observations relate to how others in the family group respond to different situations, whether opening email or with online browsing/shopping.
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Could this be a phishing scam? Transcript from voicemail:
Oh, good morning. This is Rosie from Watson. Iām calling in regards your request to book our code for today. Could you please give me a call back on
Thank you. Bye.
(Phone number deleted by me).
Phone didnāt ring. Got alert sound from Voicemail. I assume āWatsonā could be IBM Watson. Do they need a booking for a code? It looks like a phishing scam to me.
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Sounds like spam or scam.
It could have been a wrong number, but the fact that the phone didnāt ring suggests spam/scam. The caller would have had to do something (I donāt know how itās done, only that it can be) to leave a voicemail message without actually calling the number. I doubt that legitimate callers would do this.
The message doesnāt make a lot of sense, but thatās probably a deliberate attempt to make people call back in case it was something important that got garbled while being recorded / transcribed.
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That was my first red flag as it has happened before with more easy to spot spam/scams..
That was the second one: message is unclear enough to make people ring back just to enquire about the meaning and they would have to answer a lot of personal questions: āBefore we can answer we have to identify you and your request..ā
But then again could be a wrong number. .Iām not going to find out, Iāve blocked the number 
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It is called āringless voicemailā. Scammers use this technique as it allows them to leave voicemails rather than a call being ignored (such as unknown numbers) or blocked through phone call screening apps.
They exploit abilities of the mobile network to try and maximise receipt of their message and for scam victims to be caught in their scams.
There are businesses which can also be used to create and distribute ringless voicemails. This is one example.
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Also: Rosie lowers her voice and slurs a bit when saying ācodeā, I replayed it twice, it wasnāt clear at all. Someone without a transcript function would be probably made interested enough to call back just to find out what was being said in case it was important..
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It could be AI generated with an Australian ascent. Australian ascents increase the likelihood that it will convince many it is a genuine message.
I fear that the next wave of scams will use ringless voicemail. It will potentially be far more successful than text messages, emails, robocalls or voice calls. They will be far harder to determine they are scammers.
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