Your account has been compromised

[bo19]

Your account has been compromised This the message I get when I try to acess my big pond  email. Impossible to contact telstra. Its happened twice before . Yes I have done every thing suggested in the past. Does any one still work at Telsra its like the lights are on but no one is home

[bo19]

The saga continues. Telstra still off the air. A bit of research shows this is an ongoing problem which Telstra cannot or will not fix.

Perhaps the directors of Telstra who decided to move the call centers off shore could have their home phones connected to Telstras support number now that they are working from home.

Just a thought.

[Rohan123]

Hi @bo19 

Sorry no one ever got back to you, and no I do not work for Telstra.

try this number 1800 007 391 it's for Telstra tech support hopefully they can help you.

Hope this helps.

Rohan

[bo19]

Hello Rohan 123

Thank you for your reply . I rang the number you gave 1800 007391 and to my astonishment within 30 seconds a real live person answered. We had a pleasant chat and he assured me my email account would be reinstated  " within 24 hours "

Alas 24 hours later my hopes are dashed once more.

I must admit  I was not very optimistic as seven days earlier by some miracle I was able to get through to a real live person on the 132200  number . She was in a country far far away but we had a pleasant chat and she assured me my email account would be reinstated   "within 24 hours " 

Needless to say it didn't happen but the next day I received a text message from Telstra asking me if my issue had been resolved. They reassured me that if I replied from a Telstra mobile and I was in Australia I would not be charged.

Not being able to resist an offer like that I replied  No

They replied as I had answered No would I like a call back to resolve the issue ?

As there was no  " Please, please, please I am on my knees begging you " option I said Yes.

They replied considering all  aspects of how we handled you service issue how likely are you to recommend Telstra to a friend ?  0 = Not at all likely  10 = Extremely likely

As there was no minus option I went with 0

They replied please give the most important reasons why you gave this score ?

Thinking I could be here all day I just said  Problem not fixed

They thanked me for sharing my thoughts and that was the last I heard from them.

Now call me an old cynic but a bit of research on this forum  and others shows people reporting this same problem going back years plus the fact that it happened to me about a month previous I am starting to think Bigpond might be a lemon. 

[Rohan123]

Hi @bo19 

Well I am sorry that you seam to be having a rather rough time with Telstra ATM

However if the number I gave you can't fix your problem I am unsure how to proceed.

unless you want to get the TIO involved, which I would not recommend, not because of the ramifications on Telstra, from my own experience.

I would just keep calling the number I gave you until you get someone at Telstra who can get it fixed, ask to escalate  the call if you have to.

Rohan

Telstra/Big pond aren't a lemon, they just want everyone to communicate via apps/online chat these days which doesn't always fix ones complicated problem.

[bo19]

Hi Rohan123

Thank you for your reply. Taking you advise I called 1800 007391 again and after enjoying the elevator music for a while I was answered by a bloke who was most sympathetic and to cut a long story short he said they were aware of my problem and suggested I wait another 

" 24 to 48 hours and then call back if my service had not been restored "

Now I get the fact that due to covid 19 the work stations at Telstra's call centers are mostly covered in dust and cobwebs and the phone systems in the countries were they are situated are not suitable for the staff to work from home but this same problem has been going on for years.

I have two other email accounts with other service providers, one of them dating back to when dinosaurs ruled the web and I have never had a problem with either. This leads me to believe this is a problem peculiar to Bigpond.

You say Bigpond  " just want everyone to communicate via apps/online chat these days "

Could you please expand on this preferably on words understood by those of us who are not fluent in computer speak ?

Are Bigpond in the business of providing an email service or not ?.   If not perhaps they should advise their customers

You also mentioned a  "complicated problem " . As I see it a box of chips and circuits some where did what it was programmed to do and disconnected my email account, This probably took some where around  a millisecond .  Now I know next to nothing about computers but I would guess it would take a competent human about fifteen minutes to reinstate my account and another few slightly more competent humans a couple of days to correct the program in the aforementioned box of chips and circuits.  This brings us back to the big question.  Why has this been going on for years ?

Regards bo19

[Rohan123]

Hi @bo19 

Hoping that by now your email account  is back up and running, if it isn't just keep calling, though if it isn't fixed by now I would be escalating the call, meaning ask to speak to someone higher up.

You say Bigpond  " just want everyone to communicate via apps/online chat these days "

Could you please expand on this preferably on words understood by those of us who are not fluent in computer speak ?

um apps as in applications they are what smart phones use, sorta like a computer program for your smart phone, online chat means, (in the context I meant it anyway). talk to someone via text over the internet. sort of like live email, instead of sending an email and waiting for a reply, the reply's are suppose to be instant and in real time.

Bigpond are more than capable of providing email.

I can only speak for my self and the 70 odd Telstra accounts I manage for people, for me personally and all the complaints people ring me about, none of them have ever been because Bigpond/Telstra shut down there email.

However I would be doing what I have suggested for you to do, if anyone I help did ring me to say there email account had been shut down.

Hope I have offered some clarity.

Rohan

[bo19]

Hi Rohan 123

Thanks for your reply and explanation.

 I waited for 48 hours to pass and yes my email account has been reinstated. As this has happened before I wont be celebrating. I will just wait and see. I have been relaxed about it as the last time it happened I went to the trouble of transferring my more urgent contacts to another account.  However it still involved a lot of frustration and extra work as I lost a number of replies .

Perhaps the moderators could leave this thread open and I will give up dates over the coming weeks.

I wonder if any one from Telstra actually monitor this forum or is this just a way of getting free support services for a product they sell.

Regards bo19 

[bo19]

Here we go again. Seven weeks this time and " your account has been suspended "

How many times have I heard that before.

Well done Big Pond an uninterrupted service for seven weeks you are getting better.

Now what was that number again. Yes lets try 1800 007 391. I wonder if there is any one there today.

Twenty minutes of really bad music later I get to talk  to a real live human and they reinstate my account in about ten minutes.

During the course of the conversation they mention that if some sort of robot computer program makes three attempts to access my account it is automatically suspended and "there is nothing Telstra can do about it "

Now I get the logic behind this but as I have other email accounts with other providers for many years why does this problem only happen to Big Pond ?

When I put this question to the Telstra operator a reply was not forthcoming,. 

[Sailor59]

Have exactly the same problem.Ring telstra and and get no where. Just redirected to the web page. frustration plus.

[Rohan123]

Hi @Sailor59 

Try these numbers.

Telstra Tech Support 1800 461 799
Telstra Tech Support 1800 063 234

Email support

1800 266 000

1800 429 444

Or you could try the Telstra app.

https://www.telstra.com.au/mytelstra

end a message (blue icon, bottom right of Get Help screen) and if Codi sends you somewhere else, type "Speak to a consultant" and it should transfer you to the queue to chat to a human. c/o Jupiter

[Ozmoz]

Hi @bo19 @Sailor59 

Another possible solution is to lodge a formal complaint. A case manager is generally assigned within 5 business days.

Complains webform https://tel.st/4amxg 

[Yastiandrie]

Accounts don't get compromised flagged for no reason, and most of the time it is because they are detected being logged into from IP's located in Eastern Europe.

If this is becoming a regular occurrence , before getting the account resumed ensure you have run multiple different antivirus and anti-malware scans (Eg. Use more then 1 progr) as well as rootkit scans. Try and do this on all devices that access, or have accessed the email account in the past. When the email address is resumed and if you decide to personalise the password, do not use one that is remotely like the previous ones.

[abthomp]

Interesting. Wife's e-mail account was suspended yesterday. Can't speak to anyone so you're reduced to their dysfunctional My Telstra App. First person tells me it was all a mistake caused by a Telstra "Technical Upgrade" Next person tells me we must have a virus but quickly reversed on that when I told him we have Norton LifeLock plus Spybot installed. Next person reckons he'll need wife's drivers licence, credit card details and passport to fix it. It was about this time I realised Telstra support is possibly one of the most outrageous internet scams going.

[Bellllll]

I agree. The number they send goes to billing. I play a lot of money and want to be directed to an real person 

[bo19]

Hi abthomp

Yes I have heard all the responses from Telstra and done every thing they suggested many times. I have since moved on to another service provider but have kept this account open out of interest and to gradually advise all my occasional contacts of the change.

I have lost count but this is the fourth or fifth time its happened in the last six months. I am pretty relaxed about it by now but the first few times were a major hassle. 

[bo19]

Hi Bellllll

All I can say is persevere . Don't bother with the 132200 number its a waste of time.

Try any of the 1800 numbers Rohan 123 mentioned above or the one I posted and keep trying different ones. Good luck

[bo19]

Westpac announced they are bringing 1000 call center jobs back to Australia because "overseas operations led to slow customer service"

I wonder if that message has got through to Telstra yet

[Rohan123]

Hi @bo19 

I think they are listening.

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/telstra-pauses-job-cuts-for-six-months-to-hire-1000-extra-call-centre...

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/telstra-to-have-australian-agents-answer-all-inbound-calls-from-2022-...

[bo19]

Interesting. I noticed the word temporary mixed in with a certain percentage of spin in their announcement. I wonder how much all this to  and fro has cost Telstra shareholders .

[bo19]

Oh dear oh dear  the censors have taken over. I just composed a long message about the latest problems I am having with my email account. Nothing defamatory just a humorous take on the facts and when I attempted to post it  it was deleted.

If Telstra is not big enough to take a small amount of criticism about its poor service they are beyond the pale. Time for me to move on.

So long its hasn't  been good to known you

bo19