TelstraClear customer service - What a fucken joke

[Naki Rat]

My 75 year old mother has just been through the stress of moving from her home of 42 years, into a retirement village. Only a kilometre up the road and on the same telephone exchange but do you think TelstraQueer can manage to get the telephone changed over. Not a fuckin' clue

She was advised (finally) by TQ on the 29th January (the eve of her move) that the connection would be done in 7 days. Okay we can live with relying on her cellphone for the first week as my sister would be down from Auckland to stay with Mum and help with the shift.

The 7 days came and went last Friday and after listening to TQs shitty muzak and promos, indispersed with strong personal abuse of the drones that all seemed to know nothing, we were advised that all would be happening on Monday - today.

This morning after 1 1/2 hours of muzak and ever better honed abuse I decided to try a shortcut and found somebody in "Business customers" department who actually seemed to know more than the previous TQ drones. It was scheduled for 1-5pm today. Joy, celebrations and operational communications

But 5.00pm came and went and not a titter. WE have obviously just been fucked with once again Two hours of TQ muzak (in stereo as I had both phones on handsfree in an attempt to beat the "27 minute call backlog"), various threats to tone down my language countered with "If you hang up on me I will then call back and abuse another one of you drones", to find out the job has been rescheduled to the 11th (Thursday). You must be fucken joking Some pissant little tech didn't get his work done today so the queue just slips three days. What about "sorry we'll get it done in the morning?"

More calls to "customer service" (Department name fail) to arrange transfer of the landline number to terminate at Mum's cellphone. Well, I though that would be good for a bit of idle chatter with yet another drone. That's not going to be an option

Finally I found a sympathetic older female service person who also has (had) a parent who had been through a similar emotional trauma, with initial stages of dementia, and actually had some degree of feeling for what the lack of a telephone in a new and strange home environment meant to an elderly person. An email to the manager may see some change to the delay in connection but I'm not holding my breath.

Tomorrow morning, after I have organised carpet cleaner, in the house that will have new occupants on Friday, I'll be back on the phone to TQ to spread some more discontent among the drones that spend their day being abused by Mr and Mrs New Zealander who wait in the distant hope of actually getting a telephone that works sometime before hell freezes over.

TelstraQueer - Telescum .... Tweedledee and Tweedledum

[p.dath]

You need to be more creative when explaining why it is important.

Tell them your mother has a medi-alert alarm system, and the lack of a phone line could be a life and death situation.

[Naki Rat]

You need to be more creative when explaining why it is important.

Tell them your mother has a medi-alert alarm system, and the lack of a phone line could be a life and death situation.

The idea had occurred but as the retirement village has all the villas fitted with call buttons that summon aid from the main complex I don't think TQ would fall for that one.

[crazyhorse]

Well, the only positive note is that the call didn't cost you by the minute...... In Australia if you need to phone for these sorts of things, the calls cost you, and yes, you get put on hold, or have those stupid answer phone systems:

"please tell us in a few words what you are calling about"
"i'm sorry, I did not understand that"
"are you phoning about your home phone, internet connection or a mobile phone"
.................blah blah blah. And so it goes, and if you push the wrong button, you may as well re-dial, because eventually someone will answer and then put you through the BS again!

Oh but hey, they call it "custome service"

[quickbuck]

Well, the only positive note is that the call didn't cost you by the minute...... In Australia if you need to phone for these sorts of things, the calls cost you, and yes, you get put on hold, or have those stupid answer phone systems:

"please tell us in a few words what you are calling about"
"i'm sorry, I did not understand that"
"are you phoning about your home phone, internet connection or a mobile phone"
.................blah blah blah. And so it goes, and if you push the wrong button, you may as well re-dial, because eventually someone will answer and then put you through the BS again!

Oh but hey, they call it "custome service"

Last time I got one of those services from Telescum i ended up swearing at it. It sort of got the message, and then gave me the option to use buttons!

Now, I wait for my Internet to die, because I wrote Telescum.....

Oh, and Nakirat, I really feel your frustration.
You are quite right, an elder really depends on their land line.... as much as a Teen relies on their cell. Have you seen how distraught a teen gets when they loose their Cell phone?
It must be quite upsetting for your mum, and the phone company (Doesn't matter which, and they are as all as bad as each other at times) should at least realise this....
Yup, Department name FAIL for sure!

As an aside, why does google spell check reckon internet is a "Proper Noun"?

[Sable]

Abusing them isn't on. They just answer the phones, they have nothing to do with what's actually going on, they will only have limited access to information and every call they take is recorded so they have to be careful what they say. They're not paid enough to put up with that shit.

[Cloggy]

I fully symphatise with you. I dread having to call Telstraclear's customer service line.
I reckon they make you wait so long on purpose in the hope you'll hang up. Last time I got through I didn't tell the person on the other end what my problem was, I simply asked for their boss. Got him on the phone, asked him if he knew why my service was down, didn't get a straight answer and therefore asked to speak to his boss. That got things done (talking to the area manager or some similar position) and a credit on my next bill to boot.
Service was absolutely first class when they were still called Saturn. With Telstraclear taking over it's just gone downhill.

[Naki Rat]

Abusing them isn't on. They just answer the phones, they have nothing to do with what's actually going on, they will only have limited access to information and every call they take is recorded so they have to be careful what they say. They're not paid enough to put up with that shit.

Abusing them is all about the squeaky wheel approach. It's not my problem they are braindead drones answering phones for a faceless corporate. My intention is to solve the problem their company is causing for me and if they are not of any assistance in that quest then they are part of the problem.

[kevfromcoro]

I Know what you mean... just get sick of it.
iam in Australia. had a friend come over. used an ATM here and no money came out.
Soes i ring up the company.. sorry,, have to do it on the interweb.
so i do that... well they say. check your bank in NZ. the ATM may have put it back.
contact the National bank in NZ
sorry.. we dont accept e-mails.
this was over a week ago.
and the ATM still has my friends $200.
what a hasle......
bit of topic i know.
but dont people get sick of all this .SHITE

[Kendog]

Ever worked in customer service?
Just ask for their supervisor if you are not happy, keep going up until you get a result.

[Naki Rat]

Been there, done that..... But with TelstraQueer each transferal results in listening to 1/2 an hour of muzak before another more senior drone picks up (hopefully).

[Laava]

I have had good service from them re my broadband but have had to wait for ages on hold, BUT here is a little tip that I was not smart enough to figure out on my own! Put the phone on speaker and the handset in your pocket, so when they answer you can just yank the handset and push talk, and that way you can do other important stuff like cook tea, take a crap or even a combination of the 2 if that is your thing! But it stops the frustration at least. As for the getting the run around, I fully sympathise and there is a guy up this way with IKIL4U on his number plate if you need me to put you in contact!

[cs363]

Abusing them isn't on. They just answer the phones, they have nothing to do with what's actually going on, they will only have limited access to information and every call they take is recorded so they have to be careful what they say. They're not paid enough to put up with that shit.

Actually it is. Their job is Customer Service, if the customer isn't getting any service then they have failed to fulfil the primary role of their job. They are paid to put up with 'that shit', if you go into customer service and don't expect to deal with upset and angry customers, then you're extraordinarily naive IMO.
There's too much of this 'it's just a job' attitude in this country, with people filling in the time of day at someone else's expense, no wonder the economy is fucked.

Right, rant over....if you hadn't figured it out, I've just been dealing with an alleged Customer Service department....

[JMemonic]

Unless this rest home is in a Telstraclear owned network i.e Christchurch or Wellington then from memory they have to work with Telecom for these connections.

[gammaguy]

Abusing them isn't on. They just answer the phones, they have nothing to do with what's actually going on, they will only have limited access to information and every call they take is recorded so they have to be careful what they say. They're not paid enough to put up with that shit.

what a crock

they should take responsibility for their job,and that needs to go hand in hand with an incentive program from management to ensure rewards for employees that actually "give a shit"