The Trouble With Telstra

Back in the late sixties, an episode of Star Trek was titled "The Trouble with Tribbles". These were cute, sex-mad furry little critters that caused havoc on the "Enterprise" and a space station before being handballed to become Somebody Else's problem - in this case into a Klingon ship.

Unfortunately, Telstra has the ability to create a catastrophe without being cute. furry or sex-mad. Take our recent experiences trying to solve problems with our latest hotspot and galloping data usage.

We had initially gone into the Midland Gate Telstra Shop as Michael had reached the point of No Return - he hated his phone and wanted one that was easier for him to operate. The charming Vivek set Michael up with a Samsung Galaxy which was delightfully and surprisingly hassle-free. He also provided a new Netgear hotspot, signed us up to a new data plan and assured us our overall bill would become lower in cost.

We should have known better. We fell for a Telstra fairytale...

We forgot that Telstra shops are staffed almost entirely by salespeople. These are mostly savvy young people who are confident in loading technology devices but not at technical support. And they also may swiftly set up conveniences they consider essential, but which cause those of us who were not born in the computer age untold headaches.

Michael was exceedingly happy with his new phone. However, we were not happy with problems with our new hotspot, data usage and being able to access the Netgear site online. We tried contacting Vivek, whom I'd given a very good review. No response. We were sure that the hotspot was being hacked, such was the enormous jump in our data usage.

Monday afternoon, I contacted Telstra by phone. I eventually was connected with John. That this was not his real name was bleedingly obvious. He wasn't too bad - I understood about three-quarters of what he was saying. After over an hour, all he'd been able to achieve was refunding us for an additional data pack.

I requested an appointment at Midland Gate for the following late morning. I was offered appointments in Armadale and Maddington. I stood my ground and was finally given an appointment for eleven o'clock in Midland Gate.

We were five minutes late, due to a truck breakdown on Great Eastern Highway. The officious Meet and Greet scolded me and had given my appointment consultant to Somebody Else. So I had to wait.

We were seen, after due course, by Zoe. She genuinely wanted to help us, in spite of my shirty demeanour. Through a process of elimination, she worked out Michael's phone had been linked to our hotspot. This meant whenever Michael's phone was in the vicinity of the hotspot, it would use the hotspot's 10GB of data, rather than its own.

This was the reason our data had jumped from around 0.5 MB per day up to 1000 MB per day. We also discovered that 10 GB was never going to be enough for thirty days, but we were tied into a contract for two years. So much for cheaper bills...

And the reason I was unable to access Netgear's home page was due to the efficient Vivek setting up a password, but not telling me. Awesome.

We left the Telstra Shop, shellshocked. What we had hoped would be a better outcome for us had turned into anything but that.

Apparently, we now have 15 GB per month. However, we have already used 2.29 GB with thirty days to go. You can do the maths. This is not going to end well for us...

Can we please have some Tribbles in our fuel tank?!