Why do Telstra Make it hard to buy stuff from them?
Recently I wanted to increase the Wi-Fi capabilities of our house and being with Telstra and having a Telstra Smartgen Modem Gen 2, I went with a Telstra Smart Wi-Fi Booster Gen 2.
First, I tried to purchase this item online but over 5 consecutive days of trying without success I gave that up. I couldn’t purchase it with a credit card or even add it to our account.
I then telephoned Telstra and although I am a bog-standard consumer, I somehow ended up in the business section. I explained to the operator that I wished to purchase said WiFi booster (and couldn’t online). I then had to supply all my personal details and was asked why I wanted a booster. I explained the reason. The operator then said she would have to put me through to technical support, but didn’t answer when I asked, “why”. Twenty minutes later, I am put through to the business technical support, and they were just as non-plussed as I was as to why I had had to make contact with them. I explained that I wanted to purchase a WiFI booster and that I did NOT need any support. They tried to put me back to sales, but I had had enough by then, and so I ended the call.
A couple of days later I was in town and went into the local Telstra shop and asked if I could buy this Wi-Fi booster. After 10 minutes searching somewhere, the assistant came back and stated that they had no stock, and suggested I purchased the WiFi booster online.
Three or 4 days later, after setting aside a whole morning for the transaction, and when I had summoned up enough courage to contact Telstra, yet again, I phoned them and you guessed it, I was put through to the business section. Yet again I supplied all my personal details, including my grandfather’s inside leg measurement, but I managed to purchase a booster for the sum of $218. Yippee. It had only taken just over a week to achieve a result. It was promised in 2-3 days because of my previous experience, that was a week ago, it’s still to arrive.
The next day I signed in (new customer) to a Home Theatre website and, purchased a quite expensive item for around $X,xxx, and the sale was concluded in under 15 minutes (no invasive personal details) and it arrived within 3 working days.
Why do Telstra make it so hard to buy from them? BTW during these transactions, I was apologised to in excess of 20+ times.
I promise that I won’t get started on how long it took me to get a $6.99 refund from Telstra Home Movies, for being charged for renting the same movie(inadvertently) twice! I had to lodge an official complaint to get the refund!