“On 20/12/20 a tree had come down across Wisemans Ferry Road, Mangrove Mountain about 3km away from us, taking the landline phone out. A neighbour rang Telstra on my behalf to report the landline was out because my two Telstra mobiles have very poor service. Telstra informed locals phones would be restored by 28/12/20, so with no connections, locals had to travel 5 km to get mobile reception to make numerous calls every time they never turned up on dates they promised to restore phone. 29/12/20 then 5/1/21 then 6/1/21 then 11/1/21 then 15/1/21 then 27/1/21 then FINALLY after over 6 weeks we get land line phones on 1/2/21.
During all this times on many occasions I contacted Telstra Via Telstra Faults Website and Telstra Faults Facebook because my mobiles had very poor service… all a waste of time after messaging and messaging giving dates of loss of phones, location of where phone lines were damaged etc, at times sending messages over a 8 hour day waiting up to one hour for each reply from them when they request information… they then message back to tell us to ring Telstra Outages.
Waste of time having these services on websites. Lodged a complaint to Telecommunications Ombudsman 7/1/21 then Telstra contacted me saying because of health issues they will send a technician with a satellite phone and dish and install it on our property on 21/1/21, waited all day no one came… notified the Ombudsman and also rang Telstra and was told we have short supply… you are on waiting list.
Have now filled out a Priority Assist Application indicating health issues and that mobiles have poor connection, the Ombusdsman informed us that if any outages occur again Telstra must supply us with a satellite phone within 48 hrs. Each time I rang or messaged Telstra I did notify them of health issues and that I have been a customer with Telstra for 47 yrs but that didn’t get my phone restored any quicker.
So much for loyalty… shame on Telstra.
Also, on two occasions at 9 am I got onto Telstra Website to the faults section and sent a message trying to find out when phones would be restored, got message back sorry our offices are closed for the night ???
On another occasion while I was in town, rang Telstra Faults, explained we have had no land line phones for 4 weeks and very worried as our two Telstra mobiles don’t get service, we live on acreage and neighbours will not hear us if we have a emergency and need help, he then replied, yes its very hard when you live out bush and very far away.
Told the jerk we only live just on 1 hour from Sydney and 1 hr from Newcastle, obviously he has no idea because our calls all go overseas.”

Vicki Zammit

14/2/2021

Posted in Telecom, Topics