THEY KNOW...

A couple of days ago, I became utterly infuriated with Telstra after being thrown off the Internet every fifteen minutes for an hour. We pay close to $200 per month to Telstra. I know I have been complaining about Telstra's appalling service for years, but that morning's lack of performance really was the straw that broke the camel's back. So, once more, I wrote to Vicki Brady, the CEO of Telstra.

I addressed my email to Ms Brady. She responded, calling herself Vicki. This familiarity, totally uninvited, went over like a lead balloon. Vicki Brady is not my friend. Telstra is not my friend. Telstra is a private communications company that cares about profit and its shareholders. Certainly not about a small Western Australian town called Beverley.

A short lesson in geography will inform readers that Beverley is 130 kilometres from the centre of Perth. We do have mobile coverage to York and Northam, 33 and 68 kilometres north, both of which have larger populations. However, travelling from Beverley to the Lakes 80 kilometres away (our quickest and safest route to Perth) has no reliable mobile signal...

Beverley is barely regional and certainly not remote. Yet we barely receive 4G, despite the glowing endorsements given by Telstra with the shutting down of the 3G network. Yet, we continue to suffer from ongoing communication issues about which Telstra will do NOTHING.

How do I know that Telstra doesn't give a toss about Beverley? Because THEY KNOW the state of our mobile and internet coverage. This has been proven time and time again over the last ten years. They rock up in their brightly coloured bus and listen to story after story of communications woe. They give pathetic excuses.They tell us nothing can be done to alleviate the tragedy that are our Telstra mobile phones and  our Telstra internet. They look at ways for consumers to pay more to prop up their appalling service rather than fix the issues themselves.

Over the last two days, I have been unfortunate enough to speak to several members of the Telstra "Team". They have an entire Complaints Team as well as the non - Complaints Team. Personally, I couldn't pick one from the other...

I did not hear a single Australian name from any one of the Team. Which is OK if I can understand them. However, the combination of our dreadful mobile reception and their tendency to speak very fast in accented voices defeated me. How many times do I have to say "pardon?" before they recognise I have a problem.

Plus, they love using gobbledegook and weasel words. Terminology which anybody like me has little hope of understanding. All I do know is when they attempted to perform so called "speed tests" of my mobile phone, the application wouldn't even load, on three occasions. Then, some woman wanted me to move out of my house for another speed test to find the best spot for reception! Are they for real?

Two days ago, the speeds were so bad that my complaint was escalated. Yesterday, the speeds were too good for escalation...I have been offered  Telstra NBN (again), Telstra WiFi calling (which relies on reliable internet), Telstra land line or a Telstra booster or a Telstra antenna, all of course at our expense.

Telstra is planning NO UPGRADES to Beverley's services, even though they are fully aware of their failures. They have acknowledged that we do not have enough signal to cope at peak times, that our towers are not fit for purpose and that our phones and internet (using Telstra devices) will continue to disconnect, drop out, not load or all of the above.  The greatest irony was that when Telstra attempted to ring me this morning, they couldn't get through to me due to NO BARS on my phone.

I hope that other Beverley residents take the opportunity to share their views on Telstra's contempt towards us by also writing to Vicki Brady, the CEO. Just Google her name and her contact details come up. In the meantime, I shall be writing regularly to Ms Brady. I have no desire to engage with any more of her Team as they continue to offer me unacceptable solutions. I shall also be writing to the Communications Ombudsman and the minute the new government becomes clear, I will write to the new Communications Minister.

I have now discovered that my heart condition creates more susceptibility for me to have a heart attack or a stroke or die. If this occurs, I have sworn Michael to sue the pants off Telstra if we can't use our phones to get assistance. 

When will Telstra begin treating their clients with respect?