Reply With QuoteThe other thing is that I get a weird sense of satisfaction by taking on & beating beaurocratic bully boys. Its amazing how quickly some of them crumble when you put a few realities in front of them.
What watchdog is trying to say is that some of us provide a much more comprehensive service to our customers than others can or are willing to provide.
Whilst i think watchdog is pushing the preverbial up hill as far as compensation from the big T is concerned, at the end of the day we are in a service industry and if that is what is required to keep our clients happy then we do it if we want to keep our clients. I'm sure at the end of the day the client won't leave watchdog high and dry if he is not sucessful with his claim as he knows time has been spent on his behalf trying to look after the clients interests. It would be a different story if watchdog was having to outlay dollars in parts at his cost with no return. At this stage its only his time that has been consumed and we can blow that in one day of shit traffic jambs that are out of our control.
As balun said, some of the freeby work you give to your clients can result in referals and continuation of contract work worth many more dollars than what you gave away originally. You have to invest a little to get a good return ocassionally and sometimes that return can be an extremely good investment.
The other thing is that I get a weird sense of satisfaction by taking on & beating beaurocratic bully boys. Its amazing how quickly some of them crumble when you put a few realities in front of them.
Having had numerous confrontations with the big T, not one has ever resulted in direct payment to me for my lost time and rectification of their f-ups. Some of my clients have had minor adjustments made to their billing as compensation but at least all my clients have always paid me for my time lost.
The sad thing in regard to the T techs is that 99% of the good ones have left the company or have been screwed around until they throw their hands up and leave voluntarily because they don't need the stress. All that are left now are the terminally stupid or contract labour that could'nt give a stuff and are out milking the system for what they can get out of it. How do you ever have a win against talent like that.
Update? How you going? Get your money yet ?
They have the bill & I've got a reference number but that's about it at the moment. I'll be chasing it up toward the end of the week. Let you know.
Wish me luck keef & put a stop on that solution 40
I have just read this thread and I tend to agree with you on this one, watchdog.
It seems to me that there is a matter of principle involved here, but Unfortunately, many people analyse such situations in purely economic-rational terms, when it is ultimately an ethical (moral) problem.
Good luck!
Last edited by tristen; 21-04-09 at 11:52 PM.
Go on keef tou can start smiling.
Pissing down rain & todays job put off so I thought I'd get back to this.
Rang Telstra & ended up with consultant Braira in Townsville. Quoted the reference No & told this was a fault reference No not a dispute reference No. So I related the history again and asked that it be entered somewhere as a dispute. The letter previously sent to Melbourne seems to have disappeared into the ether. Consultant Briara said that this could not be done as it needed to be a legitimate dispute. I asked what was required for it to become a legitimate dispute & she said she would not discuss it any further. I told her that this had the potential to escalate into a shit fight that may involve passing to the media , local politician & legal action & when that happened it would be her in the front of the line for bum kicking because that is how managers operate. I asked to speak to her team leader & she said no. ( tough as nails this one )
Gave it an hour or so & rang again , getting Consultant Sally in Townsville this time. Related the conversation with Consultant Briara & started again. This time I asked what needed to happen for this claim to progress as it was not within her authority to determine if it was legitimate or not. She was slightly more helpful & said the best way was for the homeowner to push it forward.
Rang the owner & told him where it was at & he being a kindred spirit is all to happy to put the time in to see this to its conclusion.
How things have changed. When I was with them you only had to mention media / legal or politician & you got to talk to someone other than the plankton.
go on keef , have a giggle. I may be stuck with that sol 40 for a while longer.
I now understand people that go on killing spree's.
Watchdog as i said earlier, they will only offer a pissy adjustment to the owner as a gesture of good will and leave you hanging on the side out of the equasion.Originally Posted by bss904
The last set to i had with the mogrels was in january when they f-uped big time. Pre booking made 3 months in advance with follow up calls to confirm & still made no difference. Letters of complaint and reqest for compensation went missing and nothing ever got documented at their end even when i ask them to make notes on the account. They could not give a stuff. 50% of the problem caused by a tech and the rest by their internal paperwork between different deptments.
Watchdog, i bet your glad your don't have to work for those clowns any more, and i will send you $20.00 if you send keefy the sol 40 as it would be worth it to see a grown man cry.
send a letter of demand, then a sumons.
we have been paid by telstra for a similar type of dispute a couple of years back.
If it was a regular client and it just sounded like too much hard work on the phone, you wouldn't walk away, why should telstra be any different?
sumons them, small claims tribunal, it would be fun at the least.
After yesterdays effort I sent them an email briefly outlining the situation & that if no one was willing to discuss it then my only option would be to take it up with the media / lawyers or politicians. Got a reply within two hours giving me the option ( among others ) of ringing the freecall number contained in the email. Well Ive read that bloody email a dozen times & am yet to find this freecall number. Shot back a reply that I would ring if they will actually tell me the number.
The Final Chapter
Got an email this morning giving me the freecall number. When I rang it I went through the usual robot interface & ended up with consultant Shane in Perth. Again related the history of the fault & subsequent activities that took place. Again , because I was not the authorised account name for the telephone service he said he could not discuss the account because of privacy laws. Told him I didn't want to discuss the Fkn telephone account , I wanted to discuss payment for work done fixing a Telstra cock up. When he looked up the phone number he tried to tell me it was a Telstra number (FFS). Again I said that this had the potential to escalate in a serious manner , he would probably be at the front of the line when the bum kicking started and his supervisor was paid the money to take this sort of shit & he should buy out of the arguement & pass it to the supervisor. He finally saw the wisdom of my words & passed it on. This arvo Team Supervisor Belle contacted me & again I related the sequence of events. She asked how much the invoice was for & said that she could only credit the phone account , if that was not satisfactory then it would have to proceed through the maze (my words not hers ). I said I was sure the customer would accept that solution & he would then pay me. I said I didn't think the customer should have to pay for a problem that was created by Telstra and guess what - she agreed. (mind you she may have disabled the recording gear by this stage).
Now she said she would have to check that this arrangement was ok with the customer & instantly he was on the line. She had obviously contacted him to check on the circumstances before hand & had him on the line while she talked to me. He could hear me but he couldn't talk to me ( or I couldn't hear him).
Anyway it is all settled & if Belle from Perth happens across this post - she is the most helpful Telstra op I came across in the whole process.
So lessons to be learnt from this ?
1) Yes you can recover costs for Telstra stuffups
2) The Telstra system is not set up for these situations
3) The hardest part is the first step - getting someone to
listen.
4) It really needs to be instigated by the phone account
holder because otherwise they don't want to talk to you
5) You really need to work with the owner & make it a two pronged attack because they usually haven't got the required knowledge to succeed on their own
6) THE RESULT IS WORTH IT.
Now I'm going over to the customers house to drink all his piss. He's lovin this as much as I am.
I agree, its totally disgusting the way they handle their clients.
I go to so many jobs "comms fails" that are the telcos fault, i always urge the client to complain, but i fix the issue and move on.
I picture myself in the clients position, alarm not reporting, confused as to whats going on.
I explain the lot, fix the system & leave a happy customer.
Im sure you guys all have this passion for customer service as well dont get me wrong, but the big t is impossible to burst lol its a machine..
Good reading, lets see on the next phone bill if the account has actually been credited.
and by how much.
Don't plan on retiring on the 20.00 credit that he will have to wait for up to 3 months to see if they actually do it. Bet the paperwork gets lost with the credit details. It proberbly has to pass the shreding dept before it gets to the credit dept.
Anyone that I know from the old days that are still there are only there because they are too scared to get out & find something else to do or are too close to retirement. As has been said , ALL the good ones got out and moved on to other things & not many of those stayed in the industry.Watchdog, i bet your glad your don't have to work for those clowns any more, and i will send you $20.00 if you send keefy the sol 40 as it would be worth it to see a grown man cry.
If keef sends me his address he will get the Sol 40 but I,m am a bit worried he may actually find a use for it. Maybe we could start a perpetual booby prize that continually gets sent to someone you think deserves to get a bit of shit.
It's a never ending story. Just been out tp the same customers business because the GSM backup has stopped working. It seems that Telstra has cancelled the SIM.
Sometimes it all seems just too hard !
lol @ least the gsm was programmed intelligent :P
hands up how many u come across a gsm not programmed or connected to the panel haha!
I always use the siren with a relay to trip an input on the gsm :P
Why ?
Daily/ weekly test calls should prove that it works.
What happens when the phone line is disconnected? (the PSTN) ??
GSM's do not switch over & site wont report a thing.
It's a great fail safe measure
That's why there are inputs on most GSM units ..
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks