Telstra's bad customer service

[Steve101]

I've had some bad experiences with Telstra's disastrous customer service over the years, but this one takes the cake. Let this be a warning to anyone who chooses to do business with this dysfunctional company...

I decided to install a landline with bundled internet at my country studio. My studio is rented and is one of two properties on the block, the other belongng to my landlord. I placed the order with Telstra by phone and was notified that a technician would visit to make the line connection. All fine and dandy.

As usual I was given a four hour window for the technician's visit, which meant I had to wait at home. This was the first (but normal-for-Telstra) inconvenience. The technician arrived and tested an old landline that was already in my studio and told me it needed repair. He was unable to do the repair himself as this was the responsibilty of a different department within Telstra, he explained.

Next contact from Telstra came in the form of a phone call from another technician who turned up without notice while I was away interstate. I explained that I wasn't given any notice of his visit and he replied 'niether was I'. So he met with my landlord in the other house, checked the line and said that Telstra wouldn't repair the fault because it ran from one house to the other and not directly from the terminal in the street. Aparently the first technician had a different opinion, or he could have told me the same thing. Incidentally the house to house line was originally installed by Telstra.

Then a few days later Telstra's Indian call centre rang me and explained that the phone line had been repaired and that another technician would attend to make the actual phone connection. I explained what I'd been told about Telstra not being able to do the repair, but I was assured it had been done. I was given a new four hour block of time during which I had to wait for another technician to turn up. This day and time came and went without any sign of Telstra. I rang their call centre and was told that the date I'd been given was wrong.

Two days later I'm at home wasting another four hours of my time and hoping that Telstra has their act together at last. The four hour block comes and goes with no sign of Telstra. Then my landlord knocks at my door with a slip of paper. The technician had indeed visited but hadn't bothered to talk to me. He instead was quite rude to my landlord and said that Telstra would not repair the line (same story as the second technician gave). Apparently these technicians from the line repair department don't talk to the call cantre.

By this time almost a month had passed since I placed the order with Telstra and I'm at the end of my tether. I expect terrible custoer service from Telstra (based on past experience) but this has been the worst yet. 

The day after the third technician had visited and spoken to my landlord (not me), the Indian call centre rang and asked if I was happy with my new phone connection. I explained that the phone was not connected at all, that I was fed up with Telstra's dysfunctional service and I wanted to cancel my order. The operator explaned that the third technician had actually connected the service as it was ringing. I checked my landline phone (again) and explained that I had no dial tone at my end due to the faulty line. I demanded the cancellation of my order and was advised that the call centre could not cancel orders and that I'd need to talk to a different department. I refused to be placed in a phone queue and demanded that the call centre arrange with the other department to have my order cancelled. After some discussion the operator said he would connect me directly and I was placed in a queue. I waited 10 minutes then hung up (all the calls were made to/from my mobile phone).

The next day I receved an email from Telstra congratulaing me on my new phone and internet connection and providing log in details etc. I was not happy. Again I rang the Indian call centre and complained. This time they offered to call me back when they had someone from Telstra's complaints department on the line. I was eventually connnected to someone in Australia who said that they were unable to help but who'd put me through to a different department, the service disconnection department. I refused to be put in a phone queue and the operator promised that someone would call me back within three business days. 

A couple of days later someone else rang me from Telstra and again they didn't know the full story so, as with every phone call, I had to explain my situation again. This person seemed to have the power to arrange the cancellation of my order. I made it clear that I would not be paying Telstra anything as they had not provided me with a service. The operator said that someone from another Telstra department would call me and confirm the disconnection and the waiving of all charges.

Finally, the next day I received a call from yet another Telstra department who tried to steer me into some other solution. I impressed on him that I wanted to cancel my order and he agreed to do so. He explained that I would be billed but that I should ignore the bill as all related charges would be waived. 

The outcome? Many hours of wasted time on my part. Three visits by Telstra technicians for no result. No service provided.

I have never dealt with a more dysfunctional company than Telstra. Their internal organisation and communications are disasterous. I came to understand that one or more of the technicians who visited my home were not Telstra employees but contractors. Between Telstra's Indian call centre, their Australia-based employees, local technicians and local contractors the company has designed a bureacratic debacle. I'll bet the shareholders have been sold a story about efficient cost-cutting strategies. I wonder how much my cancelled order cost the company? How often does that happen Telstra? If only they had more competition....!!!

[Steve101]

Oh and the fun continues.... Now Telstra have billed me $84.47 for NOT PROVIDING ANY SERVICE AT ALL and are threatening to cut off my phone service with only FOUR DAYS NOTICE if I don't pay. This charge is for a Telstra service person who visited but didn't connect my phone service.

Does anyone from Telstra actually read this website??? If nothing else I guess it's a good place to WARN THE PUBLIC AGAINST DEALING WITH TELSTRA, a highly dysfunctional company.

[Lathania · Accepted solution]

Hi Steve,

You've not received a response because this is not a Telstra customer service channel, it is a crowd / customer based support channel for us to assist each other and share the knowledge.

You would be best to direct your enquirers or complaints to Telstra directly either on another social media site or by calling 13 22 00.

[Steve101]

Thanks for your reply Lathania, I have been in touch with Telstra's complaints department and they are rectifying their most recent error - another one in a long chain of dysfunctional actions by this company.Their internal communications are atrocious, their attention to detail is sadly lacking and their customer service is the worst I have ever encountered from any company. If it wasn't for the fact that they have a monopoly on the Australian network infrastructure they would have gone broke many years ago, I'm sure.

Nice to see someone reply though 

[TimBartel]

Hi Steve,

Lathania is correct, if advice isn't requested or needed we, being Telstra won't necessarily reply as this crowd is in pale for the community to discuss and support one another and at times we are criticized for being TOO involved, so we try not to jump in to zealously.

That being said I feel that we should have reached out to you regarding your initial post so I apologise that this did not happen. 

If you've previously been told that charges would be waived then this is something that we will be happy to honour, simply have a chat with us here: http://tel.st/eAUDU or use the number Lathania provided.

Thanks

[TimBartel]

Oh sorry Steve,

You beat me to it with your response.

I'm glad to hear that our Complaints team is already on the case for you.

[Steve101]

Thanks for your reply Tim, hopefully my most recent issue is being resolved right now.

[Steve101]

So yesterday someone called John from Telstra'a complaints department said that he'd credited my account with $125, thereby wiping out the amount charged in error (covered in a previous post) and leaving my account in credit. Great.

Today I received an email from Telstra saying that I owed them $612.93, payable by 10 Sep. This is unbelievable.

I tried THREE TIMES to register for online services so I could view the details of the bill, but got an error message every time.

I may need to make a formal complaint to the Telecommunications Ombudsman. It may be the only way to stop this mess. In the meantime I'll continue to keep a record of the mess here in this forum.

[DingoDan]

Understand your confusion with the email that has been received advising of the new charges Steve101 and we would have to get a look at the account to confirm what the actual balance is for the account. If your case manager from your previous escalation has not closed off the complaint as yet then you will be able to query this with them to ensure you have the correct charges applied to your account. If you have the complaint reference number then you can contact the Complaints Team on 1800814242 (9am - 5pm AEST Mon -Fri) and quote the number to be put through to your case manager. If you would like to discuss this asap then Live Chat can assist (24/7) via: 

http://tel.st/eAUDU

You should also be able to get assistance with the My Account registration issues when you contact this Live Chat team as well.

[Steve101]

Thanks for your reply DingoDan. I managed to get registered for My Account online by using the chat service. I then checked my bill and found that Telstra is billing me for a phone service and internet bundle that doesn't exist. This was supposedly fixed by Telstra's complaints department.

So if I have a complaint about Telstra's complaints department's poor service, who do I talk to then???

[DingoDan]

Not a great experience for sure and am sorry of this has not been fixed up correctly  

Could it be possible that the invoice was generated before the changes had been completed by your case manager?

I will have to get a further look into your account to see what has been going on, so have sent you a private message with the link to send this in. Please have this completed so that we can confirm what has happened with the escalation and what is owing on the account as well.

[rjbalsi]

I am not posting here to get a fix from Crowdsupport - as the problem clearly lies with Telstra - not it's users.

Like many of you - we experience lie after lie, broken promise after broken promise.

Our problems are addressed in Telstra's way - individually.  But the cause is never addressed.  They continue to put

jobs offshore, and promise continued service - yet look what we get.

I am calling on Telstra to fix themselves.

http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/telstra-fix-your-customer-service-and-fix-your-processes-each-...

[NatNotSoHappy]

This whole story doesn't surprise me at all. I was suckered into a new bundle, sold to me that it would be similar spend to what I had been paying. Well every bill since has been $100 or more. Now the landline has been removed from the deal only 3 months in & now there's charge of $189 with no record of any usage on the bill. Add this to the ongoing drama of getting connected to NBN! 4 months from 1st call to book a technician to visit, no show no apology no explanation. 2nd appointment they install device on roof as we are to go wireless, as we are rural & remote 10km out of a large regional city! 3rd appointment Telstra tech installs router but it's not ready to talk to NBN so he says,wait for call to book further appointment yay...not...till Jan! That's 4 months....they didn't even have the guts to ring me to say they were not coming after I demanded they come before Xmas, they called my partner, who isn't even a Telstra customer. What is the answer for this company? They need a severe shock to wake up & provide SERVICE

[Renee]

Heya NotSoHappy,

It's not the greatest of circumstances to stumbleupon CrowdSupport, nevertheless we do appreciate you contributing to the forum, welcome.

It definitely sounds like you haven't had a great experience with us and thus I would like the opportunity to assist further, could you please send me a private message and we'll go from there.

In the meantime, we must reiterate this is not service channel, if you do have specific concerns about your personal experience with Telstra, and/or any specific account queries, we advise utilising our 24x7 Live Chat Service or contacting us on Facebook or Twitter.

[grb1974]

MORE quality telstra customer service.

On wednesday i finally signed onto get cable broadband, although they cant get anyone out to me (in a CBD location) until jan 6th. But thats ok, i work from home and my connection now just about works for me. 

Anyway after an hour or so on the fone messing around sorting this out i received assurances that my adsl2+ connection would stay on until cable was indeed put in my premises on the 6th. 

Lo and behold, 930 the following morning, whilst working of course, my internet dropped out. and wouldnt come back on, so i let work know and rang telstra... And im informed after about 30 mins that my connection is off because .... you guessed it.. 

some moron had processed it without reading the notes they said had been definitely placed on my account... and shut down adsl2+ in preparation... now i know i dont expect too much comon sense but you would think someone might ask themselves.. "do these ppl really want to be without internet for 2.5 weeks over chrismtas/new year"?

Anyway for another hour i was cursing and moaning on the phone to every dept and being told that they couldnt do anything for me for 4-5 business days as it would be like a new account. FINALLY someone helped me. and it was back on within 24 hours.  Although he did have to re-sign me up for a 24 month contract to do so, so god knows what kind of bill i will get in january. Prob triple payments or something stupid.

These clowns have no idea, regardless of what the moderators say on here and telstra apologists.. these clowns could have cost me my job. and all you get from somebody in india or the phillipines who doesnt deserve the abuse is a sorry, we cant help you. 

I have worked in a a few countries and i have never ever dealt with such poor customer service at telstra.. 

I implore any and everyone who signs onto these ppl for anything to check with them over and over, ask to be put through to somoene in australia (its not racist just prudent to want to talk to someone who can fully understand you) and make sure they know exactly what you want. Probably wont make a spot of difference.

[ShannonD]

Hi grb1974,

Thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback

For many years Telstra has had a mix of call centres, both in Australia and in Manila, some of which are company owned and some of which are run by partners.  This is very common to telecommunications companies and our competitors.  Interestingly before we outsourced some of our centres, more than 25 per cent of our customers believed we had call centres overseas.  This in itself is a testament to the diversity of our workforce at Telstra and the real question here is not where our staff are located but why haven’t we resolved our customers’ issues the first time they call.  As you would be aware we are striving to improve our customer service, yes, we acknowledge that we are not there yet, but we are working hard to deliver a better experience. If you have any unresolved issues please let us know and we will assist you

If you need a hand to go through the January bill, please have a chat to us via http://tel.st/49kl

[leefe]

There was a time I would have agreed wholeheartedly with Telstra being the worst of the Empires of Evil.
But then I moved to Tassie and have been trying to deal with Aurora. No contest. Believe me!

[grb1974]

Nope you are wrong, and i dont mind where the call centres are really. 

But there is an obvious communicaton issue when ppl cant understand basic english, even if i might have a slight "Pommy" accent. And THAT is on telstra, they shouldnt need ot outsource these things to their partners but they do becuase it saves them money. 

I am not having a go at you here Shannon but there should be a number where ppl can call directly to australia as i was once given to speak to the connections dept. 

[grb1974]

Well surprise surprise..

It is the 6th of january and they  havent turned up and have changed my appointment date and time and havent let me know. 

But there is more... The 1st person i spoke to said it had been changed today and i should have been notified by text... 

the second says it was changed on 2nd of january and i WAS notified (i wasnt) by text. 

This company is a disgrace, i have had to have a day off work for this crap today and im still on a 45 minute fone call trying to sort this garbage out.  

[JesseS]

I am sincerely sorry for the confusion with appointment, I certainly want to see this sorted as soon as possible.

So do you have a new appointment booked now to get this connected?

[grb1974]

Yes, although I have to wait until the 17th of January, it's a joke.

And there was no confusion, I spoke to someone on live chat last week who confirmed this appt and it was changed without telling me.

[Stooz]

Likewise, just bought the home phone and broadband bundle. The engineer scheduled an appointment to fit the home phone services and never showed up. We rang to find out why and were told he would reschedule, we rang 2 days later to find out when he was coming to find out he was scheduled to come in 30 minutes (which to be fair he did) and no-one had told us, so cancelled plans for the morning. Heard nothing about the broadband and when ringing to chase it found that we had an installation appointment for Feb. 2028. When I'd stopepd laughing, I was told that this was because my order from 2 weeks ago had not yet been updated on 'the computer' . We then went into a round of 'computer says no' (for Little Britain fans) with the customer services lady from the Philippines (I think) before we established that we might hear something next week but we weren't sure. During the conversation, she kept repeating endlessly the benefits I could get from my bundle service ...if only I could get it.

Amazed at a company whose retail side is so good now, can let them selves down so badly with customer service. Really bad ! Not sure who the VP of Customer Service is but David Thody should be giving them the boot, its truly awful....lets what is otherwise a good performing company down.

[aresobad]

These moderators obviously work for Telstra but I doubt they have accounts or services with Telstra and never have to make that dreaded phone call to 132200.......................doing so automatically wastes 2 hours of your life but at least they are thoughtful enough to share you around to 4 or 5 different departments before cutting you off or saying there is nothing they can do to help you.....your enquiry will have to be escalated and someone will ring you back never!!!! Totally pathetic company and customer service departments......worst company to deal with in the history of the world......Every transaction/query/upgrade ends in disaster, every single time.............totally useless, untrained staff.............

[aresobad]

.....and I can't believe these moderators have the hide to ask for kudos...............what a joke!!!!!!!!!!

[Lindy]

hi aresobad

Welcome to Crowd Support  

Thanks for taking the time to provide your feedback. Clearly you have had a bad experience with us. Has this now been resolved, or is there something that we can do to help you get it sorted?

-   Lindy  

[CS2603]

I've been on the receiving end of Telstras poor customer service a number of times. I guess when I look back, it has been a majority of the time.

Know what I do?

I use the online chat service.

That way, everything is documented and I copy all of the correspondence.

They can lie to you on the phone, but it's pretty hard to argue with written evidence.

Once you have that, they are at your mercy.

I had an issue with their sales team lying to me. They said that becasue I was moving house, my Telstra plan would rollover to the other premises.

Guess what happened? They reset it to 24 months again.

What did I do?

I got them to send me an e-mail while I was on the phone to them confirming that my plan is not 24 months and that it has rolled over. This is the only way to get them. Once you get that evidence of correspondence, they are powerless.

Empower yourself and correspond this way. Once you hold the card, you can easily get big discounts and months of free Internet.

It's all about being prepared for them to mess things up, even the simple things. Protect yourself and they don't have a leg to stand on. 

[lindamichelle22]

after talking to a woman with a strong accent i could honestly not understand, and trying my hardest to find out my problem, she hung up on me before the call even finished!

[Greg_Buch]

Hi lindamichelle22, as an alternative to the 13 22 00 number we also have teams available 24x7 via our Live Chat service at http://goo.gl/11oUE   who can help with any complaints or account enquiries. 

[mw2014]

Telstra is an absolute disaster, I am on the verge of contacting my ombudsman and consumer affairs, my story deserves to go on a night current affairs program, trouble is I wonder if the competition will be much different. Who says we live in a convenient age????

mw

[Dani39]

Hi mw2014

That is not not to read. Do you have a complaint reference number that I can follow up on? 

 

[BrendanF]

Hi,

I have had an absolute gutful of Telstra and their lies and  excuse of a customer service department that they have.

Several years ago, about 2007 i had a contract with telstra. It was a 24 month post paid mobile plan. After about 1 year i wanted to cancel, as i wasnt happy with the service. I was quoted about a $350 cancellation fee. I asked if this was all i had to pay, and i was told yes.

Now in 2012, i tried to get a new phone with Telstra, a post paid 24 month plan. I was told i could not, as my account had a been blocked due to an unpaid debt, or $447.82. This debt had not been advised to myself, and i questioned this debt for weeks with Telstra, to no avail. I would have spoken to atleast 10 different people, all of whom could not help me, but also all told me different answers. In the end i gave up and just paid it, as i needed a new phone.

Now, in late 2012, i tried again to get a phone. I was told the same story, that i was blocked for an unpaid ammount. I toldthem i had paid, and even held a confernce call with Baycorp, the debt agency it was sold to, who confirmed that the payment had been paid. Telstra told me, that even though it had been 6 months since i had paid it, that my account would be blocked for another 6 months, because it needed to be clean for that period of time. I had to use a family members Telstrs account to get my new phone.

Now, i enquired today to Telstra if the account is still on block, as i wish to try again for a service with Telstra.

1st Person told me that it was on block because the balance had not been paid.

I rang Baycorp, and was told that it had been paid in the above date, and was given a reference number

2nd person told me that it had been paid, but the account was still blocked

3rd person told me that it was not paid, and they could not see any money owing on the account.

4th person told me that the money only cleared today, and i would need to wait 6 months from today for the account to unblock

5th person told me that this was not the case, and the account was open. I told this person that if the issue was not fixed, i would cancel my current contract, as it only has 2 weeks left, and would not renew.

6th person told me i would need a land line, which i already have, for 6 months to proove i have a good credit history

7th person, who was an account supervisor told me the account was open, and i would need to talk to account person, who i was already talking to, to get special access to bypass the landline rule. This person had be on hold for 25 minutes, before saying she could not help, and hung up on me.

After getting off my mobile phone, i notice that my network has been disconnected. I use my other phone to call the complaints department again. Telstra disconnected my phone because i threated that i would do so if not fixed. I never gave the aproval to cancel it.

Now i have called back using a different phone, and am speaking to complaints. I have been on this call for over 30 minutes now, with only about 2 minutes of talk time. I have still yet to resolve my issue. Nobody can tell me if i owe money or not, or if my account is blocked. And now i dont have a working mobile phone.

I have wasted 3 hours of my time today, as well as the countless hours years ago when this issue came up.  As well as the money that i DID pay, which Telstra can still not explain what it was for, made no effort to contact me, then sold the debt and ruined my credit rating.

I will be taking legal action against the company, mark my words. I am still on hold whilst i type this, waiting for the next lie. I will also wait for my early cancelation charge to come in the mail, for my phone being disconnected, even though i did not ask for it.

[TimBartel]

Hi BrendanF,

This certainly sounds very concerning, and it's a situation I'd like to get to the bottom of for you once and for all, however in order for me to do so I will need to retrieve some additional information from you, and will need you to allow me 1 -3 business days so that I can investigate this and get in touch with you via phone or email (your choice). If this is acceptable let me know and I'll contact you via Private Message so that we can get the ball rolling.

If you would prefer a more immediate response feel free to chat with us just here: http://tel.st/49kl and we'll be more than happy to look into this right away. It might also interest you to know that if you do chat with us you will be able to keep a transcript of the conversation, and this transcript will be accessible by whomever you speak to in future chats also.

Thanks, Tim 

[BrendanF]

Thanks for your response Tim,

Yes if you cold sort this out that would be great. We can talk via phone if that is ok.

Im just tired of being lied to.

[TimBartel]

Ok Brendan 

I've sent you a private message with a link to our secure webform. Once you've completed the form you'll be provided a reference number starting with SR. If you can provide that reference number here when you've submitted the form we'll follow this up for you.

Cheers, Tim 

[BrendanF]

Tim,

Here is the number

SR 1-269497559459

[Dani39]

Hi BrendanF

I can see that another complaint was started two hours before the above one, SR 1-269390700922 and has been assigned to a specialist credit management case manager. 

As this is the case, I have closed SR 1-269497559459 and you can expect contact regarding from the case manager regarding your complaint 

[shane233838]

what is upsetting me !!

i was with optus for 15 years had cable internet and phone

moved over to telstra with my company and brought mobile phones and home internet over

1  it took 3 months to connect me to the internet

2  after 1 year with telstra and several amounts of problem we had to move the business back over to optus due to loss in my business.

3  i moved house to a home that had a internet connection and foxtel.  it took telstra 2 months to connect my internet after serveral lies about the time and date that the internet and phone would be connected.   we canceled the home that we had moved from 3 weeks pryer to moving... But telstra had not canceled it at all i had been to a telstra shop and completed the concelation on there comuter system and via my home system and also over the phone . but 3 months into getting my bill telstra had my connection at my last house was still connected and they told me that they didnt know anything about it , after i showed them the paper work that i had printed out from the telstra shop when i had done it 5 month pri a they then oh yes we can see , but somthing at our end must not had passsed it on like alwasy with telstra they pass the buck !

4  still having problems with the internet but they do not care " drop out every day "

5 phone took 3 moths to get installed but no im sorry for the delay although we have a child with a medical proble they dont care.

6  we were offed a discount of the accounts but when i went to the telstra store as i was infored to do theu cant find any information  on a discout .

to be honst Telstra Suck they are lies and have never tried to help but when you ring then and wait 40min and the tell you what you want to here u then get put on there "wer you happy with telstra bull**bleep** servay that **bleep**s you" as u know u will be ring them again tomorrow with the same problem no internet or some other problem"

come on telstra help us out we pay the bill that u send but you do not deliver on service that you give  . 

[Sign]

Lol - I had a 2 1/2 hour phone marathon session today with about 8 different departments and people at Telstra about a faulty modem with the Australian disconnection team offering to replace it under warranty (it's only 2 months old) and putting me through to a call center to implement the mailing out of the replacement modem only for the call center to refuse sending it out despite being told otherwise. It went three times in a circle like that until I lost my cool and wanted to terminate the contract (I had no Internet but was charged for it). 60 minutes later still on the phone and on hold to disconnect, I am told I can have a replacement modem but have to pay for it (even though I am on a plan for 2 years, 2 months in, which includes the modem). If I don't pay for it I can go to a Telstra shop and they "may be able to look at it", "may send it off to the service center", "may have a spare modem for me" but "Telstra is unable to say how long the repairs will take". No replacement unless at least three repairs have been attempted. What am I paying for, I wonder? I have truly better things to do than attend to hardware trouble shooting. All I ever wanted was a working Internet connection. Instead I caused myself two years of aggravation. Never again from my end, ever!!!!
But Steve, your story made me laugh (as much as I feel for you). Congratulation emails on your non-existing phone line and a subsequent disconnection warning. Hahaha - that's just hilarious. Complete and utter incompetence.

[DingoDan]

Hey Sign,

Welcome to Crowd Support

Not the experience that we like to hear of at all Has this been resolved for you after this lengthy contact with us over the phone? Do you still require the replacement modem to be sent to you?

If you are still requiring assistance with this one then please PM me and I will be happy to assist further.

[2328]

Recently Telstra activated Message Bank on our home phone without any warning or advice. As a result peole calling left messages un be known to us. Subsequently friends and associates asked why did we fail to respond to their call. As we do not want this service, we have an answering machine, I have asked for the service tobe deactivated It still has not occured and callers are being misled. Please remove this option from our phone. 

[ScottBarratt]

Sorry to hear about that 2328! Chat to us here: http://tel.st/49kl and we can ensure this is removed for you.

Cheers, Scott.

[geoffjd]

Steve,

Your complaint is nearly the same as mine. Even the CEO's dept. is pathetic. The CEO that takes our money for his salary can't be bothered talking to us little people. The TIO is in bed with Telstra. As soon as NBN comes to my place, then I'm gone. The call centre overseas are just a 3rd world useless business. Probably getting paid $5 an hour. I sold my shares years ago. They will try to get every cent out of you. They had technicians booked into my place for 4 days running & no one showed up. All up I had lost 6 days wages because of their arrogance. No courtesy phone calls. You wonder why you get upset with them. I'm eying off a TPG plan for $69.99. Better than Telstra.

[DocLen]

Thanks for that everyone I have just read all the posts and the paid BS answers from TELSTRA puppet drones with vacant scripted replies what a pack of bs artists.
I will go elsewhere try iinet or exetel at least call center seems to be in Australis and nothing is lost intransalation

[JT18]

Telstra Is Now So Bad

I have not been able to send recceived messages on Telstra's new whippy do webmail system as it has been down since early yesterday morning. So early this arvo up it comes MINUS MY CONTACTS.  Transferred 3 times by Telstra and that means 3 security checks (I guess lucky I wasnt cut off). What is going on at this most dysfunctional company??? And now I wait.  

[woodstar]

Telstra mail on iPhone s a mess. I have 3,700 emails that have appeared from nowhere. I've got over 900 junk emails and cannot delete them

[woodstar]

I phoned Telstra at 1.30m yesterday. After waiting 45 minutes with no response got on to chat line. Was 15th in line. All I wanted to do was get my email working on my phone and get rid of 3,700 emails in inbox. It hasn't been since the new crappy system was shoved down our throat. Hard to believe, but I ended up being referred to 4 different departments, all in the chat line!!!!! At 7.30pm last night, I finally said to the chat operator: "you know what? I've wasted an afternoon on this and my email is still not working!!!!!!! I'm going to sign off now - bye". How hard can it be? Very hard, cos Telstra has made it that way. I'm now trying to find a way to use a simple email program and migrate bigpond emails. I don't like my chances.

[Chris_G]

Hi Woodstar, sorry to hear you've had difficulties with your email.

Can you please confirm if you're using the new Telstra Mail platform? You can check this by logging in here Track your move to Telstra Mail (It will let you know if you're migrated, scheduled to be migrated etc.). Can you also let me know if you're trying to access this through your web browser, mobile device or through an email client such as Outlook? If you can let me know the status of this I may be able to provide some more information.

-Chris

[woodstar]

Chris I'm using whatever Telstra supplied when following change setting instructions sent to me on changeover. Was with outlook and a chat operator told me to delete that, which I did. After changing settings, a "Mail" icon appeared on my iPhone 6 Plus. When I clicked on that, every email I've ever received or sent over past 3 years downloaded, plus 176 in junk mail. Every chat operator could not tell me how to get rid of the junk, and the last email I received was early last week. I've used bigpond for 20 years, am a platinum member. In desperation I called platinum for help, to be referred to another department. Locked in to platinum at $15 a month for 2 years and the few times I called them for help - they couldn't. No I don't go into webmail every time I look at emails. Too inconvenient to log in 10 times a day. It's all about being user friendly, convenient. Just like Outlook was. I'm not even going to try to contact customer service as instructed on a lot of these pages. The wait times are far too long.

[Kenobi]

Hi woodstar, 

There is a known issues where iPhone and iPad users are reporting that the built-in iOS mail app is indicating (red circle badge notification) a number of unread email messages when actually there are no unread email messages in the inbox.  

To start with can I get you to log on to our Webmail platform (email.telstra.com) and check to see if there is actually 3,700 unread emails in your inbox?  If not it could most likely be an issue with Apples mail app.  

The first step in getting this resolved is to restart your iPhone.

If this doesn't help then the next step is to disable the Mail settings and restart the Mail app. Here is how:

• Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars
• Select the mail account that shows the incorrect unread mail notifications, if you have more than one.
• Disable “Mail”. Note this does not delete your account.
• Exit Settings by pressing the Home Button
• Close the Mail app by pressing the Home button twice. You will see your recently used apps, you may want to swipe left to find it.  When you see the Mail app preview, swipe up to close it.
• Now once again go to Settings > Contacts, Calendars and select the mail account
• Enable ” Mail”
• Check to see if your mail app is now showing the correct unread email counts.

Hopefully this helps.

source

[woodstar]

I did all above a number of times. The "outlook" app has appeared when it wasn't there before. That won't let me sign on in. Says SMTP settings incorrect, same as mail app. Just what I need another app to make it even simpler. Now this morning cannot receive or reply to emails on my laptop either. That was my only way, now that's gone too. This needs to be fixed. Remember Vodafone class action? There are rumblings about Telstra. A lot of people cannot access a lot of important emails, including me. Needs to be fixed, or discarded and back to old system, but quick!