Intro

25-2-08

Hi All,

This blog was set up to highlight the ongoing saga I have had with Australia's largest telecommunications company, Telstra. It's been going for over 12 months and in writing for over 8 months or so.

Current Status: Unresolved.

It's a long story, so I'll tease it out over a few weeks and keep you up to date with current events.

To be clear, there is zero exaggeration in the details of any of the events I have described. If I say for example, I was hung up on 4 times, I was. If I say, I was lied to by customer service, I was. If I say, oh I don't know...Telstra complaints told me they couldn't put me on hold for any length of time because they only have one phone line. Yep, you guessed it.

I think most of you will pick up the obvious areas of exaggeration in some elements of my correspondence to them. I think those times speak for themselves.

I'm normally a sane person. Really I am. True, these sonsabitches have really brought out the wackjob in me, but to be fair, they have completely and utterly put me through the ringer. I started out being polite, normal and forgiving of errors, but this didn't get me anywhere, so I was forced to use the only thing I had... Sarcasm! What you gonna do?

The only changes I have made to any of the correspondence is to remove account numbers and personal details of both myself and the people I dealt with at Telstra. Other than that, it's all in its original form.

It's my hope that we can start a movement, burn some man-bras and really get these big companies to treat their customers with some respect and god forbid, provide some genuine customer service. It's not to much to ask for... Yeah right!

So, in the next few days, come back for an update to see how it all began. Post a comment. Ask a question. I'll try to answer anything or provide more specifics if someone wants them. ALso, stay with it! This is a lengthy saga in terms of the reading, but you'll be amazed at the incompetence it's exposed and I suspect many of you will have had similar customer service experiences (though hopefully not as long and drawn out).

May those who have been royally screwed over by piss poor customer service unite!

Cheers,
FTC