jafo, wintercross, starkers you are far TOO MILD on those total failures called politicians, they should be shipped over to the middle east as LIVE SHEEP

harpo, the NON-subscriber

Or bring back/revive the careers of politicians past.

Dunno 'bout many of 'em, but I say we bring back Gough!!!!!

Now there was a gentleman... a true statesman... and there hasn't been one since.

Met Bill Hayden years ago... nice bloke from Ipswich, Qld... he too was a gentleman and statesman.

Anyhow, let's not turn this into a politician bashing exercise... plenty of deserving media/telecommunication moguls out there with parasitic desires on your/our back pockets.

And in the famous words of Ted Bullpit: "Somebody ought to blow Telstra; Optus; Vodaphone, etc up."

While on the subject of Aussie internet speeds, I was getting up to 94 - 95mbs on the NBN [fibre from the node] until my feching mother feched it up for me and I had to move... and the bill keeps growing... despite arranging with Telstra to temporarily suspend my service until I find suitable accommodation. Went into my account earlier and they reckon I owe nearly $700 for the months of September, October and November.  All my services were disconnected on August 30, so somebody's getting a right royal blasting later on, with the ombudsman being brought in should I not receive a satisfactory result.

Again, I put this behaviour down to greed, as many people wouldn't question it and would pay the bill to avoid making a fuss... well not me!  I will demand the bill be wiped, and if they don't do it willingly I'll kick 'em in the corporate gonads [metaphorically speaking], and I have a few ways to skin the proverbial cat, so it will be interesting should the fechers decide to be awkward.

You know, I've worked for Telstra in the past and you would not believe the crazy regulations forced upon them.

For one, all the prices are regulated to stay above a certain amount which is why Telstra tends to be more pricey.

Here is one of the dumbest restrictions though; if I had a customer call me regarding their account, be it phone or internet or whatever...

I'd punch the number into our system, and it would bring up their details of their connection (exchange, connection address etc.) and show me if they were a Telstra customer or not. Now if they were not a Telstra customer, the regulations state I was not 'allowed' to tell them they are with another carrier and had to tell them 'I can't find your account'  This obviously leads to people getting irate and it was such an idiotic restriction. 

I also had to deal with a lot of abuse from people who had odd ideas in their head. Like one guy who was yelling at me because a call he made to a number in a different exchange should have been a local call because he could see the other house from his roof.

So I guess I have a little sympathy for at least the people working in Telco companies.

despite arranging with Telstra to temporarily suspend my service until I find suitable accommodation. Went into my account earlier and they reckon I owe nearly $700 for the months of September, October and November.  All my services were disconnected on August 30, so somebody's getting a right royal blasting later on, with the ombudsman being brought in should I not receive a satisfactory result.

That is pretty bad and probably falls into incompetence or lack of caring from the person who should have suspended the account.
If you had gotten hold of me I would have refunded everything back on your account (it's pretty easy to confirm an account hasn't been used) and apologised for the inconvenience.

As long as customers didn't abuse me and give me a chance I'd try to help them best I could. 

might be a good idea if your not getting anywhere talking to them. It shouldn't happen but it does. Even when I worked there I spent probably 50% of my time fixing other peoples screw ups.

@winter Even though i like people that talk the truth, i hope you will not be one employee charged for revealing company secrets in the near future.

wintercross, I did not think that the philipino's sounded like indians/pakistani's with both the accent AND the very fast speach.

harpo. the NON-subscriber

wintercross, it has been over the last few years that the difficulty in understanding the call centre has happened and have found that the philipino call centres are better than the indian/pakistani, but the best is when the call is escalated to the level 3 (apparently aussie)

Harpo, the NON-subscriber

That's why I only ever ring Telstra during regular office hours - 8.30am to 5.30pm - it doesn't always happen, but you do have a better chance of getting an Aussie answer your call that way.  And yes, the Philipino call centres are better for understanding, and the operators always seem to have a courteous and pleasant manner to go with it as well.