Australia Blog: Phone Companies

August 26, 2003

Phone Companies

Telstra, our all-powerful telephone company, are a pack of bastards. I saw a report on the telly last night that they are absolutely fleecing the Australian public on mobile phone call termination fees. They use it to round out their less profitable business. It's so bad that a US phone lobby group said thecost was 3-4 times what it should be and puts Australia at odds with the business practices agreed to in the WTO trade agreement.

Not only are they a pack of bastards, they're a bunch of idiots too. I signed up for their Broadband cable service two months ago. Yesterday I received my first bill and got rather a shock when I saw it was over $900.

It was easy to see where they'd gone wrong on a couple of things (not excusable, but at least immediately obvious), but there was also a $350 charge that made no sense whatsoever. In effect, they'd charged me a monthly rate to access the internet, then also charged me for every MB of transfer. Absolutely ridiculous!

I called their customer service line and got it sorted out fairly quickly, so a pat on the back to Mary on the other end of the phone. But even she could not explain what the $350 charge was for or how it came to be on my bill. What a load of bollocks.

The Oz government wants to privatize Telstra and open it up to competition. That can't happen soon enough for me.

Posted by Chris on August 26, 2003 02:55 PM Brisbane Time
Category: Observations

Comments

Begora bejaysus they ARE a 'pack of bastards' - and good to see you've reacquainted yourself w our lingo!

But yes, thank god I've decided NOT to get a landline via said pack of bastards, for what your experience now supports my initial reason: that while I usually only spend about $5/10/mth in 'actual phonecalls', with all the mandatory 'homeline complete care' [!] packages they 'offer'/insist you opt for, the bill ends up being 10-fold with extras such as the base/minimum charge of $20/mth, 'line charge', 'handset rental', 'message bank', , probably bloody administrative fees? [always a good miscellaneous one to inconspicuously throw on a bill that 'most' people don't question]... Sure me moby will take a beating, but I go the 'pay as you use' route, so as to at least avoid running up a nasty bill!

Gee, I'd like to've seen your face when you opened your $900 'introductory' bill!

Boycott the bastards I say!

While I'm bitching about these kinds of 'companies' [power being that 'generally speaking' we need telecomms/electricity, etc. so they can charge what they like!], what about 'SECURITY BONDS' - they used to be refundable/transferrable to new accounts. I've had to pay now SEPARATE electricity and gas bonds, despite being from the same company [!] and because I disconnected last year [when I moved - so kill me!], they are no longer transferrable?! 'Cos gee, it's not like I've ever had an electricity/gas account before!!!!

Feckin' bastards...

Have a nice day now...

Soapbox Ging

Posted by: Ging on August 26, 2003 04:18 PM

Now you know what I go through each month with
our cell bill! It seems all the phone companies
have a knack for this.

Posted by: Dave on August 27, 2003 04:54 AM

At least you have some decent competition in the US, Dave. We're stuck with one company owning 95% of the land line infrastructure.

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