Telstra needs to *listen* dagnabit!!!

Frustration levels are high.  *Very* high.  And Telstra is the focus of said frustration.

We got home from work yesterday to discover that there had been a power failure, and that not only was our internet access (which is cable) not working, but Foxtel was down as well.   The Foxtel digital box was reporting that it was unable to lock on to a signal, and the Cable Modem was reporting exactly the same thing.

Now, I’m *real* pedantic about protecting what is some very expensive electrical equipment in this house, therefore the entertainment equipment, and server and everything that hangs off it, are protected by UPS – sure, they’re dinky baby UPS at only 700VA, but they’re still the real thing – they even come with a $25,000 load protection guarantee.  I knew that even if we had suffered the dreaded brown-out that my hardware was just fine thank you very much.

I already knew, if only because Foxtel was down, that the problem was not on my network, but I went through all the troubleshooting steps to no avail.  The Cable Modem was simply unable to lock on to a signal – my logs were reporting that sm-server simply wasn’t there.  The Foxtel box was also unable to lock on to a signal.

Ok, so I phone Telstra to report the problem, and was on hold FOR A WHOLE HOUR before I got to a first level technician – a techician who then proceeded to tell me that nobody else in my area was having a problem (thanks to a “special” programme he was able to use to check who was on and offline in my area – “there are only half a dozen offline and hundreds still working” he tells me).  After much back and forth I am told that the problem must be with our hardware (up to and including the grey box on the external wall to our house) and against my better judgment a technician was booked to attend meaning, of course, that one of us has to take the afternoon off work.  We also booked a Foxtel technician to attend on the same afternoon.

I honestly wasn’t surprised when we awoke the next morning to discover that our allegedly faulty hardware had miraculously repaired itself with no intervention on my part.  Foxtel was still down when I left for work, but by the time the kids got home in the early afternoon it had also, miraculously, repaired itself.

Of course, because everything was working I had to phone Telstra to cancel the service call.  I was on hold for nearly 45 MINUTES waiting to speak to a first level technician and cancel the service call – a cancellation which took, may I say, only a minute or two to organise – 45 MINUTES ON HOLD, 2 MINUTES ORGANISING THE CANCELATION.  I ask you, is it any wonder I’m frustrated?

Let’s contrast those hold times with our Foxtel experience.  Yesterday when reporting the fault to Foxtel we were on hold for barely 2 MINUTES (compared to a hour with Telstra).. tonight, we were on hold with Foxel for barely 30 SECONDS (compared to 45 minutes with Telstra).

The Foxtel lady said to us tonight that Telstra “must have been doing repairs that they didn’t tell us [Foxtel] about”.  Well, Telstra must have forgotten to tell their own technical support staffers as well!!

Then, to add insult to injury, I received a phone call from the Telstra techician while I was at work – “you have a service call booked for now” says he.  “No I don’t” says I.. “I cancelled it yesterday”.

Jeez.