Customer service is on hold

Onemack says:

08:42am | 30/07/10

I experienced this atrocious service with our largest Telco on numerous occassions, I severed all dealings with them and now use a smaller, more expensive service, my satisfaction level after two years is 100% and it is well worth the extra money. But it is probably cheaper now overall, if I counted the lost time spent previously waiting on the laughingly called Service Centre and the lost time awaiting service technicians who never showed up, or turned up six hours late

Adam Diver says:

09:00am | 30/07/10

I use to work for telstra and it became obvious the system was set up to fleece the customer. They would use propaganda to fool the staff in thinking it was putting the customer first, but every policy told you otherwise.

The way they treat staff meant a huge turnover and then a complete lack of experience from new recruits constantly. My team of 20 was down to 5 by the time I left and that was only 4 months into the job. I ended up having 50 + contacts that would email me first and then I would call them back (against company policy) because it was so difficult for them to get competent help. Obviosly despite meeting and exceeding all my targets for both sales , and call volume recieved, I was heavily reprimanded for putting customers first.

TIm says:

10:30am | 30/07/10

Living in a different country to Australia right now, and with one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the world, it’s clear that with with the locals here it’s not about brand… it’s about the after sales service that is associated with the brand. With IPhone customers having to send their phones to China to be repaired, always at their expense as well (around AUD $300) it’s clear that some companies won’t make any new ground as long as parts of their business are lacking.

joe says:

11:59am | 30/07/10

With my small telco lately they have been saying every few days that they are upgrading their call centre and to call back later. They mustn’t expect you to be calling back very often as they keep using this excuse. They must have very modern technology wit hall these upgrades They seem to outsource things to a foreign country, and answer quickly (after the 20 different irrelevant recorded menu options - takes over 2 minutes to skip), but the people aren’t much use when you get to them, especially when they say to ring back later.

Peter says:

02:26pm | 30/07/10

If it makes anybody feel better, i work for a Teleco. I had a new broandband service and mobile about 6 months ago. I have not received a correct bill in that time and have easily spent 20 hours on the phone fixing billing and technical issues….

So, if it makes anybody feel better, the staff at these teleco’s suffer the same things… Unfortunately in the Teleco world, getting good service is just a lottery…. There is genuine resolve from the industry to improve… Certainly is were i work, but I won’t use the Punch to advertise..

cansjoinedbystring says:

03:06pm | 30/07/10

It is called the TIO - Telecommunications Industry Ombudsmen. I had an EFT payment go astray a couple of years ago (not my or my bank’s fault either) and I phoned each month to advise “no that amount is not outstanding here is my payment reference number” to receive a response “thanks for your call that is now resolved” until they eventually cut my phone off. I sat on the phone for two hours speaking to various people of various intellect and various nationality, to do as you did - explain yourself over and over and over… I rang the TIO, a person answered the call on the third ring, I told them my troubles and they gave me a reference number and a landline in Australia for Dispute Resolution. On the instruction “don’t even say hello just begin your call with TIO ref #...” my issue was resolved within thirty minutes. Once reported to the TIO, Telco’s have a set time to respond/rectify before they get themselves in trouble. This a a free, fantastic service and we should all use it more often. This way issues are formally recorded and you have options and receive assistance if they still won’t comply.

Neski Lee says:

04:49pm | 30/07/10

I completely agree with what you’ve said Damien. Having worked in a call centre for a brief period, I get the jist of how they like to work. When I was asked by a customer to be taken off a calling list and not to be called again - my manager told me not to do it - grrrr - luckily, I did it when he wasn’t watching

Cheryl Gower says:

06:14pm | 30/07/10

I worked for a telecommunications company and answered a phone where it was supposed to be for children or teachers to ring up for information on how the phone works. I worked in a warehouse in SA. In the end other workers in SA and interstate used it as a number to transfer people to when they didnt know where to transfer the customer to. For example i got transfered a customer who wanted a phone connected in Qld. I did the best i could to help the customer.I found that customer service area had a large turnover and i didnt think the training was the greatest for these people.

iansand says:

08:17pm | 30/07/10

Read the Customer Service Guarantee.  Understand it.  Use it, and sue the arseholes.  It works.

Kate says:

09:06pm | 30/07/10

I’m with iiNet for internet and they have a system of phone customer service which is so good, it frustrates the hell out of me whenever I have to ring anyone else.
If you call them, and there’s more than 5 minutes wait time, they get you to leave your number and they call you back. So no waiting around on hold for ages. Seven minutes is bad - but try calling Centrelink. Last time I rang them (because their internet system stuffed up), I was on hold for fifteen minutes. And that’s after four phone calls which didn’t even go through - the number was engaged. How can a hotline number be engaged?

I’ve worked in customer service for eight years now and as a result I really try hard not to take frustration out on the people who eventually answer the phone. But geez it’s hard not to when you’ve wasted hours on something utterly simple like updating your address details.

stephen says:

12:27pm | 31/07/10

At the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce meet in Sydney in about 3 weeks time, when Julia Gillard is there and Westpac chief Gail Kelly and Telstra chairman Catherine Livingstone is also there, I’d like the foremost to have a word into the ear of the latter, (hopefully in the presence of the former) and tell her the ‘bloody public phones in brissy CBD don’t work, and we ain’t gonna take it any more !!’

Frustrated Taxpaper says:

11:30pm | 31/07/10

Ha Ha - anyone tried to call the Australian Taxation Office recently ???????  Well, I rang to change an adress for them to send their BAS Statement
- it only took ONE HOUR !!!!!!  Yep ONE WHOLE HOUR to change 3 numbers and one one word ( The PO Box number and Suburb)
Pathetic.