"I'm never shopping THERE again!" Share your story!

[Virg]

Pippen wrote:

"I tried to cancel a business landline so rang Telstra, the most useless company in Christendom."

In a world that contains Bank of America, that's a pretty bold statement. 

Virg

[Sirius]

I think it's shady.  If I'm on a fixed term contract with a company, with dates, I would not expect automatic renewal.

It 's not renewing the contract. It is continuing service on a monthly basis. At least that's what my AT&T contract says. It also says it is automatic unless they are notified.

I notified my aunt's cell provider after her death, but because I didn't know who it was I had to wait until a bill arrived - all but three days of which covered a period of time after her death.  They were very nice and didn't charge an early termination fee since the young man was able to find her obituary on line, and I did pay that last month's bill.  I asked about early termination, and he explained that since she'd passed away and he was able to verify it, that the estate wouldn't be charged an early termination fee. 

[Bluenomi]

Pippen wrote:

"I tried to cancel a business landline so rang Telstra, the most useless company in Christendom."

In a world that contains Bank of America, that's a pretty bold statement. 

Virg

A true one though, Telstra are terrible!

[Pippen]

Pippen wrote:

"I tried to cancel a business landline so rang Telstra, the most useless company in Christendom."

In a world that contains Bank of America, that's a pretty bold statement. 

Virg

A true one though, Telstra are terrible!

You have dealt with them? They are awful. 8 weeks to connect my internet that should have taken 2 days. At an average of 3 hours a day on the phone with them what does that work out to? It got to the stage where I would call and who ever answered would see my call sheet and the problem and just hang up on me. Then they said they would send a tech out who never arrived and they charged me over $1000 for 3 call out fees and lied saying that someone had been to see me and sorted it out and it was all hunky dory when they clearly hadn't. I was almost murderous by the end of it. They still owe me over $2500 in refunds and I cannot bring myself to deal with them. Incompetent doesn't even begin to describe them. The worst company in the world. I can totally see how people lose it and go to a head office and start smashing things to bits.

[jedikaiti]

I think it's shady.  If I'm on a fixed term contract with a company, with dates, I would not expect automatic renewal.

In my experience they write to you and say "Your special offer is coming to an end, you'll be switched onto our standard package on x date, or you could switch to a sparkly new deal with us."

I've never had that happen - I'm just told up front that after the month containing my end date for X promotion, my rate will automatically go up to the regular rate. I see it happen on the bill, call them up, and see if they've got any customer retention offers to bring it back down. :-)  (I also shop around and if I can find a better deal, then I'll ask my provider to match it or I move.)

But that's just for things like home phone/internet/TV. For cell phone, I've never had a special promo like that. With cell phones, my experience is that you buy a phone for $Y without signing a contract (so you can cancel any time), or $X (considerably less) if you agree to stay with Provider for Z months/years and agree to pay an early termination fee if you cancel the service within that time frame. In either case your service is $C/month (plus tax & other assorted government-regulated surcharges), but after your contract period is up, your service continues at the same price but you can now cancel any time without a termination fee. Other than pre-paid phones, that is the only way I have ever seen a cell phone plan work.

[StarFaerie]

Pippen wrote:

"I tried to cancel a business landline so rang Telstra, the most useless company in Christendom."

In a world that contains Bank of America, that's a pretty bold statement. 

Virg

A true one though, Telstra are terrible!

You have dealt with them? They are awful. 8 weeks to connect my internet that should have taken 2 days. At an average of 3 hours a day on the phone with them what does that work out to? It got to the stage where I would call and who ever answered would see my call sheet and the problem and just hang up on me. Then they said they would send a tech out who never arrived and they charged me over $1000 for 3 call out fees and lied saying that someone had been to see me and sorted it out and it was all hunky dory when they clearly hadn't. I was almost murderous by the end of it. They still owe me over $2500 in refunds and I cannot bring myself to deal with them. Incompetent doesn't even begin to describe them. The worst company in the world. I can totally see how people lose it and go to a head office and start smashing things to bits.

*cough* Telecommunications Ombudsman *cough*

[Ohjustlovely]

I like this thread, but there seems to be a high-jacking about contracts and phones. Would you please start a S/O? Thank you.

[kitelady1870]

There's only one store in my town to purchase Greek Life related items, so I'm stuck going there at least once a year. Everything is really overpriced, but with the time constraints of Big-Little week, you don't have the *time* to order online.

[Moray]

There's only one store in my town to purchase Greek Life related items, so I'm stuck going there at least once a year. Everything is really overpriced, but with the time constraints of Big-Little week, you don't have the *time* to order online.

Ooh! What sorority are you in?

[WestAussieGirl]

*cough* Telecommunications Ombudsman *cough*

I second this!  I waited a year for Telstra to do some work at my house.  I called every so often and kept getting told it was "in the queue".  I called the ombudsman.  It was done in a day.

[Lauds]

Pippen wrote:

"I tried to cancel a business landline so rang Telstra, the most useless company in Christendom."

In a world that contains Bank of America, that's a pretty bold statement. 

Virg

A true one though, Telstra are terrible!

You have dealt with them? They are awful. 8 weeks to connect my internet that should have taken 2 days. At an average of 3 hours a day on the phone with them what does that work out to? It got to the stage where I would call and who ever answered would see my call sheet and the problem and just hang up on me. Then they said they would send a tech out who never arrived and they charged me over $1000 for 3 call out fees and lied saying that someone had been to see me and sorted it out and it was all hunky dory when they clearly hadn't. I was almost murderous by the end of it. They still owe me over $2500 in refunds and I cannot bring myself to deal with them. Incompetent doesn't even begin to describe them. The worst company in the world. I can totally see how people lose it and go to a head office and start smashing things to bits.

I will never go with Telstra because of my parents experience. They had a 10GB or 20GB plan (more than two years ago now so minor details escape me). Every month they would get excess usage charges of about 3-4GB. They had been with the company since its Saturn days and were slowly getting more and more fed up with them, especially after they moved out of the Wellington cable area.

The beginning of the end was me getting a job with telstra's biggest competitor. When they called to find out if their contract was up, the first person couldn't tell them. They would need to get someone to call them back (can anyone say retention team?). By the time mum did get called back she was rather frustrated and the poor person who was speaking to her got a bit of a rant. End result - they were out of contract. Thankfully they ported the landline number so Telstra didn't have any hold on them.

Strangely, never in the two plus years have they been charged overage and their plan gave them equal or lesser amounts of data. In fact, I just changed them to a 5GB as they hadn't used more than that in the last year. Our suspicion is they were being charged overage for their actual usage, as well as the plan charges. The overage before and the usage after the move was just too similar for it not to be when all that had changed was their provider.

It has put me off Telstra, in all their guises, for life.

[BarensMom]

I like this thread, but there seems to be a high-jacking about contracts and phones. Would you please start a S/O? Thank you.

Seconding this request.

[hjaye]

Well it looks like I may be out a nice hefty chunk of change, and I don't think there is a whole lot I can do about it.

About two months ago my grandson's dad asked me to take my grandson to the eye doctor to get his eyes checked and get new glasses.  He informed me that the visit was free and I was under the impression it was some kind of government sponsored program that helped needy families with eye care.

What I found out during the visit is that a neighbor of my grandsons family lives in the same apartment complex and saw my grandson was having some problem with his eyeglasses and she works for an eye doctor.  She spoke to his (my grandson) dad found out he didn't have insurance, so took it upon herself to ask the doctor if she would see my grandson free of charge.  The doctor agreed and there I was at the eye doctors office with my grandson while he was getting his eyes checked.

I thanked the doctor, I thanked the neighbor, I told them it was a very kind and generous thing they were doing for my grandson and I was very grateful for their generosity.

I got a bill in the mail from the drs office for 445.00 for the visit.  It may be a mistake, I'm trying to get a hold of the neighbor to ask her to check into it.  The fact is, I don't know her name, I have nothing in writing so calling the office and talking to someone in billing isn't going to do a whole lot of good.  I'd have to depend on the doctor remembering my grandson and telling the billing people it was a mistake to send me a bill.  Heck I was just there because my schedule allowed me the time to take him. 

[deadbody]

Well it looks like I may be out a nice hefty chunk of change, and I don't think there is a whole lot I can do about it.

About two months ago my grandson's dad asked me to take my grandson to the eye doctor to get his eyes checked and get new glasses.  He informed me that the visit was free and I was under the impression it was some kind of government sponsored program that helped needy families with eye care.

What I found out during the visit is that a neighbor of my grandsons family lives in the same apartment complex and saw my grandson was having some problem with his eyeglasses and she works for an eye doctor.  She spoke to his (my grandson) dad found out he didn't have insurance, so took it upon herself to ask the doctor if she would see my grandson free of charge.  The doctor agreed and there I was at the eye doctors office with my grandson while he was getting his eyes checked.

I thanked the doctor, I thanked the neighbor, I told them it was a very kind and generous thing they were doing for my grandson and I was very grateful for their generosity.

I got a bill in the mail from the drs office for 445.00 for the visit.  It may be a mistake, I'm trying to get a hold of the neighbor to ask her to check into it.  The fact is, I don't know her name, I have nothing in writing so calling the office and talking to someone in billing isn't going to do a whole lot of good.  I'd have to depend on the doctor remembering my grandson and telling the billing people it was a mistake to send me a bill.  Heck I was just there because my schedule allowed me the time to take him.

Unless you signed something at the doctors office stating that you would pay for the visit if not covered by insurance or something I have no idea why they would be billing you.

[gramma dishes]

...   I got a bill in the mail from the drs office for 445.00 for the visit.  It may be a mistake   ...

I certainly HOPE it's a mistake!  That seems like an awfully lot of money for a regular kid's eye check up, even if you were supposed to be billed. 

I'd get your grandson's father in on this right away and find out the name of that neighbor and track this whole mess down as quickly as possible.

I also agree with Deadbody.  Unless you signed something saying you would pay anything not covered by insurance I don't know how they could make you pay for this.  How did they even get your name and address?