Telstra Service.. *NOT* as it should be…..

Edit: 26th November –

Stunning, just truly stunning……  11 days….

Caveat: I am a shareholder!

Today [Nov 26th ]  in a window of connectivity [ Download speeds 0.04Mbps or slower than a 1995 dialup modem] I received this:

The PREMISE   of this communication is that SOMEONE from Telstra has responded?

The sum total of my interactions with Telstra Support SINCE I contacted them on the 17th of November [as outlined below] can be summarised in two “tweets” I received in reply to this article; it appears that no-one at Telstra has considered RINGING me?

Note: as at 4:15pm 26th of November, the Telstra Service Status page STILL reports the “unplanned outage”

Lets hope the Telecommunications Ombudsman can assist.

Original post – November 18th 2013

What does a Telstra customer do when Telstra reports a fault on their own website, but TWO customer-support officers say it does not exist?

An open letter to David Thodey [ @davidthodey ]

cc: Telstra Support staff/network [ @Telstra ]

cc: The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP – Minister for Communications [ @TurnbullMalcolm ]

cc: Mr. Rob Mitchell MP – Second Deputy Speaker & Member for McEwen [ @RobMitchellMP ]

cc: The Hon. Jason Clare MP – Shadow Minister for Communications [ @JasonClareMP ]

cc: Ms. Cindy McLeish – Member for Seymour [ @CindyMcLeishMP ]

We’re here to provide customer support and answer any Telstra questions you might have whenever it works for you – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Source: https://twitter.com/Telstra

My dear-departed father never understood the internet, he thought it was like yelling in the wind…

Perhaps this is all I have left, pointless, but it might be fun….

This is not simply another ” Telstra rant”, but rather, I hope,  a careful consideration of the challenges, both technical and cultural, being faced by our largest telecommunications provider and the implications it has for rural communities, business and the economy as a whole.

Question: What does it mean for Telstra and the productivity of businesses, both big and small, that rely on critical, time sensitive services,  when the systems and people it employs to address customer enquiries and calls for assistance provide information that is both incorrect and contrary to the publicly available information on their own website?

Perhaps we need Alexander to supply his solution to this Gordian knot?

I spent seventeen minutes and eight seconds [17:08]  on the phone with TWO Telstra support staff on Sunday the 17th of November. This is after two unsuccessful attempts [call queues].

I had been without 3G Data services for approximately 36 hours.

As of composing this post at 9:35 am Monday 18th of November, I am still without service.

Edit: As at Noon today, no service…..

Edit: 1:35pm, no service…

Edit: 26th November 4:15pm – 11 days and no-one at Telstra customer support has thought to RING me… Still no response…. Stunning.

I run a consultancy business from home and am online 7 days a week. We have no copper lines on our rural property and an exchange is many Kilometres away, making 3G wireless services our only [and expensive] option. Living on a rural property, we also consider such wireless-based services as fire and weather data as critical.

I have also gone to the expense [$1000.00 + incl installation ] of purchasing a Telstra Smart Antenna to boost and focus internal 3G coverage.

I pay over $300.00 dollars per month for a combined Mobile-phone and Bigpond Wireless Internet service that only provides 12 Gigabyte of data download a month… I use a large additional Mobile phone data pack to supplement this very poor access, hence the additional costs. My house and property  *are* covered by an NBN fixed-wireless coverage envelope, *but* apparently the ADDRESS   of my property is *not*, thus I do-not yet have access to an NBN alternative? That “adminisitrivia” is for another time…..sigh..

I had spent many, many hours troubleshooting my own network devices, ensuring the problem was not of my own doing. I had attempted to contact Telstra support on two previous occasions but the wait-time in the phone queue meant I had to hang up.

I eventually spoke with two separate operators over an almost 20 minute period.

At approximately 2:55pm on Sunday 17th of November, I was assured by these TWO separate Telstra support staff that there was no 3G Network issues in Broadford.

Six minutes later, at 3:01pm I took this screen shot from my mobile phone in the split-second of service coverage I received. [Note: I had been trying to load this page since early SATURDAY morning – 30+ hours]. This shows what anyone with public internet access knew BUT the Telstra Support workers where unable to identify.

Broadford has unplanned outages and it had been occurring for [at least 5.5 hours -by Telstra reports] but over 30 hours by my *experience* of the service.

This is the point I simply gave up….. Beaten.

It is for the fourth time in five days that I have picked up my “mobile office” from my newly-built and equipped home-office and travelled 40+ kilometres to the home of a family member so that I can access an internet connection. [ A connection I must say that provides over 5 times  monthly bandwidth allowance and one-fifth the cost of anything available to me.

We know the OECD research that shows that doubling the broadband speed for an economy increases GDP by 0.3%.

We also know that National Economics modelling showed that lagging regions have poor access to quality telecommunications infrastructure, preventing efficient internet usage and, therefore, reducing the possibilities for exporting and attracting high technology firm start-ups.

Those concerned with such macro and micro policy issues should pay close attention to the growing inequity in what is clearly a fundamental business and community infrastructure item.

What does it do for an economy and community when the broadband speeds are almost non-existent and the provider is apparently unaware of this?

The significance of Broadford?

The Irony of these difficulties occurring in the Mitchell Shire and in and around Broadford should not be lost on anyone.

Broadford has a little history with all things internet.

The Broadford Secondary College [of which I have a past-association] was the first school in the world [yes, you read that correctly] to link Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Australian schools via the internet.

It did this in partnership with PEGASUS Networks, [the first commercial internet ISP  in Australia] and I*EARN, the first International Education Telecommunications network.

Along with partner schools Mansfield and Wandong it was also the first Australian school to address the United Nations via video-phone [Hansard] and internet connection.

In 1994-5, Broadford received  over 300 visitors and delegations from China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, India, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Israel, England, France, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Chile, Brazil, Italy, The Netherlands, New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, all to review the use of telecommunications in education and the community.

Ironically, Broadford High School/Secondary College was also the National Launch Site in 1996 for newly planned [and newly founded] Telstra Corporation [Bigpond]  and their LearnIT programme. This saw Broadford students linked with two others schools nationwide, also participating as an audience member [at a remote site – Melbourne, was the Premier of Victoria – The Hon. Jeff Kennett and the CEO of Telstra, Mr. Frank Blount]

Seventeen years after some of these Broadband services were launched in Broadford and 25 years after we began sending emails and collaborating online with colleagues via online services, I have to leave town to simply get a connection?

This is one last vain-attempt to make contact with a Telstra Support staff member that can

a) respond with some factual details regarding the fault

b)  suggest a schedule for resolution

c) offer any improved service that I could access?

 Links:

• The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP – Minister for Communications
• Mr. Rob Mitchell MP – Second Deputy Speaker & Member for McEwen
• The Hon. Jason Clare MP – Shadow Minister for Communications
• Ms. Cindy McLeish – Member for Seymour
• Telstra Service Status – 3658
• Telstra Support
• Study quantifies impact of Broadband on GDP
• I*EARN 25 Years On
• Michael Smith – 1996 – Broadford and Broadband [ I have removed link as Google reports on 9th feb 2014 that this site or its links contain Malware] Original URL is http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2013/05/in-1996-i-sat-in-a-conference-room-in-melbourne-with-jeff-kennett-while-a-school-band-at-broadford-s. html
• Telstra leaving clients on hold.. [SMH]