Telstra Non-service

I’ve noticed we pay Telstra for Spam email and virus protection that doesn’t work. However, when I select the “Contact Us - Chat Now” option the service disconnects with the message “Service interruption -check connection”. It does the same when I select the Report Spam option in Webmail.

What’s the point of having a “report” or “contact us” button if they don’t work. What a con!

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Thanks for pointing that issue out, @grenj! That does sound like it’s not working the way it’s meant to for sure!

Not to mention, Telstra will no longer investigate internet problems unless you subscribe to their ’ platinum service’ which costs at least $10 a month more.
I thought I was paying for a service, which should be provided without having to pay more when there’s a problem. Telstra is a total disgrace!

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We had problems with internet dropping out several times a day. We went to Telstra, our ISP and were told we hadn’t upgraded our plan for about 6 years (we didn’t know you were supposed to), and we were trying to mix the old technology of the modem with the more up to date technology. Two very helpful sales staff at Ryde put us on a new contract that was $10 a month cheaper and organised a new modem for free. The new modem makes a huge difference but we still get breakdowns which are due to overload of the system. (could be a couple of kids next door downloading movies all the time.)

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We upgraded from 12 GIG data to 50GIG data, but for 3 months Telstra charged for BOTH contracts. It took 3 months to have the overcharges reversed.

Our experience has been with mobile phone bills and chargers - overcharging and, only after successfully contacting Telstra through a complaints’ link, was I aware that, on page 5 of our bill, we were being charged 5c for each SMS under the term “Enhanced SMS” - a service we had NOT asked for, was NOT a feature on our mobile phone AND a service we had NEVER received. Telstra did credit the amounts, but what if we had not kept a close eye on our bills.

No, no, no, no, no, you’ve got it all wrong!
When you endeavour to be connected to Telstra “assistance”, ask no, demand, to be connected to the “SAVES TEAM”. Then your world will start to become normalised.

We upgraded to 50 gigs of Data with Telstra, and were charged for the old 12 GIGS and also for the 50 Gigs. It took 3 months to get the double charges reversed.
We later were delivered a new modems, which will be compatible with the NBN. We were charged + /- $150 for the modem. We contacted them on line, and after a week they admitted that they didn’t charge for the hardware, and reversed the charge.
You need to check your bills very carefully.
Michael Barnett

Your problems can all be fixed easily & you will save money. Leave the telstra thieves and join iinet. I’ve been with them 11 years now and no problems

We’ve been quite happy with Telstra, apart from the cheap and nasty modem/routers they provide for free which like to forget how to Internet multiple times a day. The only fix is a restart. So we’ve invested in a modem/router from Officeworks that hopefully will not only keep us connected, but give us a better WiFi experience.

Asking Telstra to do anything usually involves them saying they can send someone out to look at it, but it will cost an excessive amount of dollars just to have someone come up to our front door if they can’t find any faults.

So today we got our new NBN ready modem. The problem with third party modem/routers, so we just found out, is that Telstra will only allow you to use your landline phone via their own cheap and nasty modem/routers. There’s a couple of spare phone jacks built into the NBN box that lives inside the house, but they’re not connected. The only way to be able to use one is to get Telstra to organise for NBN Co to rewire the optic fibres at a cost of $89 which is the standard Telstra fee for new customers, even though we’ve been with Telstra forever. They have to disconnect us from the current fibre connection and then reconnect us with a new one, which will also mean we’ll have no phone or Internet services for at least a week.

For the moment we’ve got the new modem acting as a router connected to the Telstra modem so we can have the benefits of a reliable WiFi service that hopefully won’t forget how to Internet anymore from the new device and we can still use the landline phone via the old Telstra device. If that works in the long term then we’ll keep it at that. If the Telstra box shuts out the new box periodically though, we’ll have to fork out the fee for the new service and watch DVDs for a week or so until it all gets reconnected.

Aaaaand, after a few hours of double WiFi speeds the entire modem’s gone belly up and is now back in its box awaiting it’s return to Officeworks tomorrow where I shall be wanting a full refund. Back to the faulty but free Telstra box it is. I’ll have to see if they can send me a new free one that doesn’t need restarting multiple times a day.

I had to deal with Telstra in my professional roles for many years. Every interaction reinforced the message that dealing with Telstra is its own punishment. One of the great pleasures of retirement has been the knowledge that I will never have to deal with them again.

I recently have had nothing but problems, the end result being i am consistently being invoiced for amounts not owed as they already took unauthorised funds. Do u think i can get anyone to call me to resolve the issue tho? nope. Nobody not one. They do keep sending more invoices and suspension notices … note i am paid in advance, not in arrears. In the 12 weeks it took to connect me i received 12 invoices with no service, each of a differing amount.

Im over it, and them. Worst provider EVER. Never use them. My next call is to the TIO.

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@Khary sorry to hear about the billing issues. Let us know how you go with TIO and best of luck getting it resolved.

Got email last night waiving relocation fee but saying i still owe funds. Answered asking abt $188 debited and was suspended when i woke.

Ra g TIO urgent complaint now with them. These idiots at iinet have no customer service or interest in resolving disputes

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Give it some time with the TIO if possible, but if you hit a wall, let me know and we’ll do our best to help find another way. The TIO is probably your quickest pathway for now, so it’s worthwhile trying this first.

Thank u. Complaints mgr at iinet rang and all resolved. I owe nothing and gave me a months credit and profuse apologies which were appreciated. Wants feedback he can take higher re the whole debacle. Said hed never seen such a mess. Frustrating part is that cld have happened months ago and the issue wld have bern sorted. Connection back.

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We have been Telstra Bigpond customers for years with a business account and use both cable and wifi computer connections for our 6 computers. We have now had zero internet (and not coincidentally no Foxtel either … same cable) for more than 3 weeks. After being fobbed off with a spurious claim that there was an intermittent area outage (the property on either side of us are also Bigpond customers and have had no issues) for two weeks, Telstra at last sent a technician out who certified that everything on our end is working properly. He believed that the problem is in the exchange. For more than a week since, we have been told that it is a Level Two problem and the cause is still under investigation. As far as we can ascertain it is still unknown because nobody is looking! What do we do - we have been badgering them as far as we can, but of course dealing with a different person each time and each one has to have the whole problem spelt out again (apparently they keep no records) before they tell us that the investigation continues. We cannot continue like this. Do we go to the Ombudsman or get a new provider … and how do we get reimbursed for the account we have paid for no service?

If u ring the ombudsman and tell them u have no service they lodge it as urgent and u get a response in 2 business days. I had a call in an hour from iinet. Ombudsman were awesome.