Telstra Not Understanding that People Work

[aggienaut]

   Some two weeks or so ago my home internet went down for four days in a row, which was a bit much even for Telstra, so I called to complain. I actually got to talk to a human, who escalated me to a Level II human, who escalated me to a Level III human, who had me reset the router and do a bunch of other stuff but finally by 12:30 that night I told them I had to go to bed as I had work in the morning.

   The next day and since the internet has been back to it's usual random ten minute drop outs once every hour or so, I don't know if they fixed the total outage or it was just a coincidence that things had returned to normal. Telstra called me the next day (while I was at work) to further troubleshoot the problem and I asked them to call me back after work. To Telstra's credit, they've called me _every_ weekday since then, but always when I'm at work and I always ask them to call me back when I'm at home, which they always say they'll do but then don't. Frankly I'm surprised I somehow haven't fallen off their to-do list. I guess it's an "open ticket" somehwere but they don't seem to have figured out that I, like presumably most people, actually work during the day.

   Today, shockingly, they called back right when I had told them to, at 6:30. After asking a few questions he said it sounded like they'd need to send an actual technician out, and he gave me a choice of several of the next several workdays either 8-12 or 12-4. Frankly ten minute drop outs every hour is annoying but not worth missing four hours of pay for so I asked if they had any technicians available outside of working hours but of course they don't. He then asked when I have my Christmas holidays, to which I responded I will have the public holidays off but that is all, and that obviously didnt' work with them either. Then a weird thing happened, he said "well I'll just hold while you think of a time when the technician can come." There was a moment of awkward silence and then I said "I am not about to become available during working hours." There was a much longer awkward silence until finally I said "if technicians are only available during working hours I don't think sending a technician is a viable solution for this problem."

   Though a strict summary might sound like he particularly wanted to help me, his tone was more like he really wanted to clear the ticket and he has really quite annoyed that I was being "difficult." After I said that sending a technician wasn't about to be viable he in a very annoyed sounding voice told me to call him if I ever become available, and said he'd give me his name and ID number so I can get back in touch with him, and then said goodbye without giving me those things, not that I really cared. And then he probably cleared the ticket. So yeah, that was a kind of weird thing that happened today. But seriously who has time to wait around at home for four hours for a teltra technician??

Comments

[suzanna-o.livejournal.com]

I have sympathies for both you and the technician, as it sounds like they can’t fix the problem unless you make yourself available. Arranging a half day off is definitely easier in some kinds of work than others.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Eventually, months later, I finally bit the bullet and took a morning off work just last week after my internet had been solidly down for a week. The technician found three seperate faults!

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

I hear you but couldn't someone, maybe your landlord or super, meet the person there?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Nah my property management is pretty distant (in terms of helpfulness, not distance). Anyway, eventually, months later, I finally bit the bullet and took a morning off work just last week after my internet had been solidly down for a week. The technician found three seperate faults!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's an issue. Here they will also schedule technicians evenings and Saturdays so it makes it a bit easier. But I kind of feel for both your problems.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Eventually, months later, I finally bit the bullet and took a morning off work just last week after my internet had been solidly down for a week. The technician found three seperate faults!

[richaarde.livejournal.com]

I've had to do it for various reasons over the years. It's a PITA but everyone wants to work banker's hours.

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

Ask Trevor or Kaz to stand by? Maybe telstra could even be convinced to go knock on their door.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

The problem with having someone else meet the technician is I wanted to be there to explain exactly what the problem was, test if their solutions worked for my computer, etc.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Saw this and thought of you.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

O:

[weebleswobble]

i think its rather rude of them to ONLY provide technicians from 8-4 when they know damn well that's when most people have to work. and i think its *extremely* rude to demand a 4 hour appointment window for when they may or may not show up.

my old cable/internet company acted like that, their customer service was atrocious. they were the only provider in the area so they knew you were stuck with them. the moment another company started offering high speed internet in my area, i jumped ship. its been over 7 years and i still wont have anything to do with that old company (comcast/xfinity).

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah exactly, and it seems like it would be easily solved by having some technicians on a 9-5 shift and some on a 11-7 shift or something. Some on Mon-Fri and some on Wed-Sunday. This isn't rocket science!

Similarly, when I was looking to buy a fridge I noticed the local "whitegoods" (as home appliance stores are called here), was open 9-5 monday through friday and literally 12-2 on Saturday and not on Sunday. Surely surely it would be more convenient for most customers if they I don't know reduced their weekday morning hours if they needed to and actually had a full day of hours on Saturday.