Telstra has apologised to a Harrison family and reduced their service charge by $10 a month after taking almost two months to successfully move them from Big Pond and a landline to an NBN connection.
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Quentin Roberts, a federal public servant who said he and his wife had lived in the ACT for the past four years, says the company contacted him within hours of The Canberra Times taking up his case.
‘‘A Telstra staff member called apologising in relation to the dramas,’’ Mr Roberts said. ‘‘He has provided me with his contact details should we have any further problems and offered to fix my email and to reduce our contract payments by $10 a month.
‘‘I accepted the $10 a month but told him [name supplied] not to touch the email as it is working now and I don’t have faith that it would be rectified if Telstra played with it. I told him I was disappointed that it took a complaint to The Canberra Times for Telstra to act.’’
Soon after Telstra spoke to Mr Roberts, a female media manager contacted The Canberra Times and asked if the inquiry should be proceeded with. ‘‘We have spoken to the client; the problem has been resolved,’’ she said.
Mr Roberts said it had taken almost two months for him to change over to the NBN.
He had not been unhappy with the existing service and made the switch after being contacted by the telco. ‘‘We received a phone call from Telstra offering to switch us over while, at the same time, cutting our monthly bill from $130 a month to $100 a month,’’ he said.
‘‘They also said our data download would be doubled. It sounded like a good deal as it included the landline and they said they would throw in a free T-Box as well.
‘‘The person said they were from Telstra but, while trying to get my connection sorted out, I was later told at least one independent company markets services on Telstra’s behalf.’’
Mr Roberts said while Telstra had been keen to obtain the business, ‘‘customer service after I signed the contract was non-existent’’.
He said that when he responded to a call to his mobile by a Telstra staffer asking how he was enjoying the NBN, he replied: ‘‘It’s lucky you didn’t call me on my new digital home phone as it has not worked since the Telstra technician left.’’
He said he had given up calling to complain as he would wait on the line for 30 to 50 minutes. ‘‘Then I would be put through to the wrong area and commence the waiting game again.’’
Issues with his logon and email address meant trying to deal with the situation online was also difficult from home.
