Telstra

I have made two complaints in 10 days directly to Telstra about a Priority Assistance phone and received two separate complaint numbers. Within 10 days 570,800 other complaints have been made. Telstra are still using a call centre in the Philippines and the person I was speaking to this morning was NOT in the Sydney CBD as he claimed.
Why can't I speak to an Australian?

I was assisting someone with recent health issues with their account. Now I can see their Telstra plan on MY Telstra app.
I can see what plan they are, number of days left etc. I can even cancel their plan.
Telstra - you are terrible ....... which is why I am cancelling my service with you.

My name is B. El Wazni

I called telstra today 06/03/24 at about 0850 am because a credit was not processed. Due date for the credit was 22/02/24.
The telstra guy (with accent) asked for my bank details which prompted me to question why I should give him the details over the phone when telstra already got them and every month they deduct their bills
automatically from my account. He replied because they are on difference system. I said what??? What system ?Isn't all telstra ??? Look to my last bill..can you see it...he said yes...then I said look that I have a refund two weeks ago and it went to my account without the need to call and give my
bank details.
The telstra guy started to tell some nonsense reasons and after that he mentioned some thing that
made me believe he is authentic telstra guy but may be he lacks of info and exp.
I decided to give him my bank details but I had to go to drive my daughter to
school so he agreed to make a call back@10:00am and he gave me a case
number#78995416

@10:00am he did not call.
So, at about 10:40am I called and telstra guy with an aussie accent was responding to my call.
I directly gave him the case number then he said it is too long number. I repeated the number to him when he said again it is too long and don't be rude with me, I will hang up otherwise.
I said to him this is the number given to me by the other guy. He said did he call you back when I said to him that you can see my case now why you said the number is too long then he replied, you are rude and he hanged up the call.
Immediately, after his call, the other guy called and asked for my bank details so I gave him the information and finished the call.

It seems telstra guy who hanged up with me was setting close to the other telstra guy and they know and deliberately plan for this hanged up.

Anyway, I am having a trouble dealing was telstra for the last two months and want to go for another provider.

So let me know in the comment if any one with good experience with internet providers.

Thank you

Approximate cost: $1

I found this business on Word of Mouth

Hopeless. My account is hacked. The hackers change my DOB and order a mobile plan. I find it not Telstra. Now they are billing me for the plan?

Horrific experience still ongoing even after leaving Telstra three years ago and taking them through the ombudsman court (which I won) I still get constant emails from them on a no reply system telling me to update my details for my contract which they still believe is ongoing... The latest one was telling me that authorisation on my husbands account for me to speak for him needs to be renewed although they send the emails to my email and then call me my husband's name so not only incompetent but are hoarding customer details and never deleting them from their system... I have contacted them about this issue before I have told them to remove my email from any emailing list they will not listen... I would recommend people use another telco and I would prefer to use smoke signals and carrier pigeons rather than this terrible company

I would never recommend Telstra
Tried cancelling my account and you don’t get to talk to anyone
Had to message them back and forth or by phone pressing buttons to answer questions which had nothing to do with the reason I was ringing
Nicer if you can talk to someone
They couldn’t even tell me what my bill be as it is done automatically each month
No way to run a business
Had been with them for years but now will be going to Vodaphone as the people there are willing to help and they are real people

The store staff at usually really good, but the offshore call centre is rubbish. I disconnected message bank twice in the last 2 years and they keep reinstalling it ... and charging $55 a month. They can't even give you an itemised account! Go with another provider

Approximate cost: $300

I have been a customer for about 15 years, pay all my bills on time and still we are treated like trash. They care more about money and new customers they forget how to treat the people that have been with them for almost 2 decades! I pay $280 a month for a phone and internet, have constant issues with my home internet dropping in and out, i tell them its my modem as its a decade old and they tell me I have to pay $9 more a month 2 years for a new modem! They are money hungry.. I work full time and am a carer.. but they have a deal on for new customer who stay with them for 2 years get a free telstra 3 modem, the newest latest.. 15 years I have put up with them, im constantly on the 24/7 chat complaining or trying to fix their mistakes, they try to rip me off, luckily i check my account everyday or they would rip me off. I tell them im changing providers because the support is horrible and they dont care about their longest standing customers and they just go around in circles trying to read me fine print and why I have to pay $9 extra month on top of my $280 a month bill just for a fresh new modem. Do not bother with this company they are probably the worst, money hungry, uncaring, undertrained people ive ever spoken to.

Approximate cost: $95

I have been a Telstra customer for over 10 years, and I have, and still use various services from mobile, pre-paid and internet. Overall products are good and have never really had an issue until I decided to take advantage of the recent Telstra Day Promotional Bonuses.

This is how it’s played out over the last month.

- I waited till Telstra Day to take advantage of the promotional bonuses offered by Samsung
- I received immediate confirmation of my order and over the following days I received various emails explaining when I should receive my new device, and the steps to follow to claim my Promotional Bonuses
- 1 week later I received my device and uploaded the proof of purchase supplied with the device to the Samsung promo redemption page
- 6 days later I receive a response from Samsung saying, "The document you provided is not a valid Proof of Purchase".
- I contact Telstra who proceed to email me another proof of purchase document.
- I upload the new document again
- I receive the same response from Samsung

This cycle happened another 5 times meaning a total of 6 declined claims from Samsung due to the proof of purchase document supplied by Telstra not being valid.
The final correspondence from Telstra Customer Support being:
"Call the Samsung Promotional Team and find out why they are not accepting the proof of purchase"

Sooo... For the past 4 days I have been reaching out to Samsung Customer Service and Promotional Team via emails, messaging, and phone to try and prove that I am entitled to the Bonuses.

It seemed that Telstra customer service attempted to help multiple times at first but then handed it over to me to complete. Telstra is not willing to contact Samsung to confirm the requirements and rectify the issue. Apparently if I really want the promotional bonuses, I am required to chase it up with Samsung myself.
Telstra has me locked in for another 24 months so there is no real incentive to try anymore. Now I am on a deadline with Samsung because if I do not submit my new claim in the next 10 days, I will forfeit my validity for the bonuses.

Is this common? The whole experience has been frustrating, stressful, disappointing, and now a waste of my time. If I had known it was going to be this difficult, I would have never signed up for the new device.

Approximate cost: $150

I am paying $100 / month for my internet and home phone. But the internet often down and takes 1 week sometime to get it fixed by them. So annoying when you need internet for business purpose.

Approximate cost: $100

It took months to connect our internet and it has been cutting out ever so often even though we have nbn. When complaint was taken to head office and last point no one called back. Our bills are $20 more than quoted on phone, we would not sign up with Telstra again.

I would never recommend Telstra to anyone. You lie and rip people of. You tell people one thing to get them to sign up with you then you take money from them. Was never given a contact and yet you say One has been signed. Well you must have done that. Your liars and cheats. DO NOT DEAL WITH TELSTRA> BEWARE!!!!!

OK so let's be fair here: Telstra have the worst customer service and pricing of the major carriers...
BUT !!! 5 out of 5 for the actual service ... both mobile and landline services are THE BEST.
Pitty you have to pay more money and suffer bad service to get the best!

I have been with Telstra as a mobile customer for years now, both for my small business and now as a private customer for years too. Your service just continues to get even more shocking as the years go on. I went into a Telstra store and wanted to upgrade my own phone to a new iPhone 6S Plus to a plan that would put $2500 in Telstra's pockets - which yes, in the long term is no biggie to a massive monopoly like Telstra with the best coverage - they ultimately have you over a barrel there. However - I was NOT expecting to be told I had to wait at LEAST an HOUR to speak with a sales rep in store!! Poor form, Telstra. So I ended up completing an order online - everything SEEMED to go smoothly. Until I got my phone. I put on my $90 spigen glass screen protector and protection case and was excited to get started! My SIM didn't work. Why not? I spent nearly 4 hours on the phone with Telstra that night trying to get it sorted. The problem? I had to pay $300 upfront, as I changed from my husband's name into my own name but either way we were established customers for years. Did ANYONE tell me this fee was necessary BEFORE my phone came or during the sales process, which I had a rep helping the the whole way on chat through the process to make sure everything went smoothly? NO! Not ONE mention of a $300 charge. Then they tell me, Well, It's $300 or we will send you a return bag, ma'am!!! What could I do? I am in a new building area in the country where reception with any other telco is rubbish. Even Telstra gets 2 bars only. What was I to do? Had no choice but to pay the $300 out of our family christmas money. Had I known this, I would have ordered my phone AFTER Christmas! Anyway - it took me absolutely CRACKING it with a service rep and her escalating it to a manager to get my $300 refunded. Initially all I asked for was a credit on my account for all the hours and callbacks I had to endure over telstra's mess up. They flat out refused. Then an hour later I got a call back telling me they realised it was their fault and my order was processed incorrectly because it was cancelled and put through again, with the fee but no one ever told me about it. Only when I called to see why my SIM wasn't activated, did I find out - and only have 2 hours on the phone with a rep! I got the $300 back, but I'll never get back that 6 hours of fighting, frustrating and disappointment from Telstra not wanting to accept responsibility for their screw up and compensate their LOYAL customer, despite all the years of bad experiences. I really with another Telco would catch up to Telstra so we have another option!

The coverage is unbeatable but this is the only thing they have going for them. The customer service is non existent. Please offer your staff more training and hire more call centre staff to deal with the large volume of calls that must come through your call centre. I can't believe the number of times I have been on hold for 30+ mins before speaking to a real person only to then be cut off. So frustrating!!

Quality of their Phone and internet service is not able to be matched (until the NBN is released nation wide. However, when it comes to dealing with their customer service representatives. Good CSR staff are few and far beyond. I have had the majority of phone calls be nothing but infuriating. Some of which I have known more about what is going on than the staff themselves. I've had lots of arrogant staff that act as though they own me. I've made several complaints none of which have change much of anything in the company. I even spent 8 hours on the phone one day several years ago having the "Run around" going from one department to the next and in some cases back the starting department. I've been hung up on unnecessarily lots of times. My complaints are almost endless there are so many. I had always been with Telstra from my first mobile. I had avoided all other companies as much as possible. All I can say is, for the value you're basically better off finding a company that has good customer service and better value. There are more than enough ISPs and telephone providers out there that your time would be best spent finding a better company until Telstra realise that their customers are more important. I am now avoiding Telstra as much as I possibly can and doubt I will ever go back.

I am very happy since I changed my phone over to Telatra. I now get better reception then I did before. My plan is the same cost but I feel it is better value as I receive more data

Approximate cost: $70

bought a phone. an informed sales rep put in the picture. I upgraded my $40 plan to a $70 plan to cover calls as I don't have a landline anymore. As an incentive I received 26.5gibabytes of data usage free for the first month, then 1.5gigabytes of data every month after that for 24months.

Approximate cost: $nothing

I've been using Telstra BigPond Cable for more than 15 years. It is THE most reliable service I think I have ever used. It did annoy me when their customer support moved overseas, but compared to others, its not bad. The Aussie team though is magnificent. Great consistency, great speed, but of course you pay a premium for it.

Approximate cost: $80pm

For several days I could not get my internet usage on either my computer or I phone. I spent nearly an hour on the phone today with Telstra telling them this and at one stage they took over my computer with "logmeon123" and after nearly an hour they said they would transfer me to another department but needed me to write down some information I would be asked for (approximately 16 lines of writing and numbers) and when I was transferred I was told that Telstra was having difficulty with their 24x7 app and that as soon as they had corrected this I would be able to go on line for my account information. You would think in this day and age of technology they could have told me this in the beginning or sent a message to all account members. What a waste of time.

i am not impressed in telstra at all . i have it for my computer and as soon as my contract runs will be changing. should have looked into things further. the store itself was big and busy especially if you wanted a mobile phone . didn't want much to do with me cause mine was computer. won't be going back there .hate ringing up because you you always get someone from over overseas that you can't understand wouldn't recommend telstra to anyone for computer. only one good thing plenty of parking

Approximate cost: $60.00

goodby telstra off to try another server kept getting bills with calls that were not min last bill 6 calls not the first time so sick of having to go over bill with fine tooth comb

Approximate cost: $lots

Unlike many people who have mobiles I rely on a land line. This is the same line installed when Telstra was AustralianTelecom, back when it was government owned and I got service if something went wrong, instead of being told it must be my handset and warned that it will cost me an arm and a leg if a technician comes out and it is found that I am wrong and it is not the line that is faulty.
I have found the Filipino call centre staff to be very pleasant and obliging but they have a failure to understand what living rural in Australia means and that if my phone goes bung I can't pop in next door to call them about my problem. If I have called with a problem I am many kilometres from home and, no, I am not happy to wait for days to have it fixed.
That said, when nothing goes wrong, like no one has ploughed through the line for instance, it is an okay service except that it is expensive. And I still get pestered by people from the subcontinent and charities wanting donations/sell raffle tickets though registered on the no call register. Of course.

We signed up for cable broadband. Received the modem after one week and tried activating but could not do so because according to their system, we did not receive our modem as yet. The frustrating part about this experience was that their call centre agents did not know what the issue was and transferred me from one department to another. It wasn't until I called up the second time did they accept that it was a fault on their end and escalated the matter. They also informed me that I would receive a phone call from their team, yet that never happened.

The sad part about this experience is that it appears they knew about this issue for at least a couple of months (just google Bigpond cable issue), and yet their agents were unaware and their fix took about 2 weeks to work.

On a positive note, once up and running, their speeds are quicker than adsl 2 so no complaints there.

yes, hard to find a good phone company, this time was happy with my experience with Telstra, some times you are still going to get drop outs - howewver thsi is reducing each time now, thanks

Approximate cost: $200

I've always hated trying to get assistance from Telstra. It usually involves speaking to an overseas call centre, being put on hold, transferred - and often with no resolution at the end. My latest experience was much better as I used on line chat help. Wonderful. Quick, efficient and resolved my problem courteously and without fuss. I'm a new convert!

i have a home and intertnet bundle with telstra for the past 4 years now i have had other companies trying to get me to switch over , but im satisfeild with telstra and my bundle when ever i make mistakes with computer which is often .i ring telstra and they will talk me through the problem without rushing me they are always understanding and im happy with price so will be staying with telstra

Went to the telstra shop to buy a sim card for iPad and had to wait a little while, but when served the sales person was very friendly and helpful. I got what I needed, no hassle.

Approximate cost: $30

Telstra is a funny company, they have teh best infrastructure in general, especially for mobile but they are too big I think and their service can be very poor..

Mobile Phone: I get far better mobile coverage with Telstra than Optus or Vodafone..

Mobile Broadband: Horrible experience, I tried activating the prepaid broadband account I got and it took 3 days just to activate. First their system was down for 1.5 days and then when it went back up it was a 48 hour delay to activate the account.. Pretty hopeless for a prepaid service they claim you will be able to use right away.

Wired Broadband: I am stuffed with this, ADSL is terrible in my area due to Telstra's poor copper netwrok that they won't spend money on upgrading. Telstra cable runs past our court but they won't run the cable 25m to my house because apparently they don't run more cables as the NBN is coming. My area however is not in the rollout plan for the next 3-5 years so why not get a customer for 3-5 years, especially as I was willing to pay a much higher upfront fee to compensate them for the cable length, but no, won't even talk about it..

Definitely a better experience than Optus offer, overall.
Telstra seem to have their stuff together in the back-end (eg systems work properly and apply credits and special offers properly rather than needing manual intervention). Their offers are competitive and quite agressive particularly on the fixed product front.
The multitude of departments is irritating when you are trying to get through to the right area if your enquiry is 'non standard' and some staff are quite rude and deliberately unhelpful - cold-transferring you to other areas just to get rid of you. But then there are others that are helpful and nice to make up for the rude ones.
Cable broadband is the best - extremely fast and better speeds than any other carriers can offer.