should i expect anything from telstra?

[the big bang]

hey guys, nearly a month ago, i called telstra and wanted to get my landline connected for the sole purpose of going online with my ps3. the girl i talked to said there was a problem locating my address on their database, but should be able to get it fixed and have someone out within 48hrs. that was a wednesday. no one had come by the following tuesday, so i called again on wednesday, explained to the bloke what was going on, he basically said what the chick needed to do to find my address she didnt do, filled out the form, but didnt submit them, so the guy said it would be another 48hours after he submited the requests or whatever. once again, hadnt heard anything by the following tuesday, so i called them back on the wednesday. (exactly 2 weeks after original call)

the bloke that i got this time sounded a bit older, and gave the indication that he knew what he was doing, and after 36mins of being on the phone and doing what the other 2 halfwits said they had already done, the bloke reassured me that they were "halfwits" and didnt know what they were doing. he then went on to praise me on my patience, and said that he had added a note on the computer to let everyone else know, that basically, i'm a good bloke. he didnt give me a timeframe to expect a call back, but stopped short of saying that it shouldnt be any longer than a week.

yesterday, (24 days after first call) i called, and admittedly and i hope understandably, was a little annoyed. i have gotten further, but now have to wait for a technician to come check the house (probably not till thursday or friday), which will cost somewhere between $54 and $289 depending on what they have to do.

next time i talk to them, should i ask to speak to the person in charge, and ask for free/cheap stuff/services? and what would be the best way to go about it for me?

told it wouldnt be any longer than 48 hours, 26 days later i'm still waiting.

[dedja]

Contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman ... http://www.tio.com.au

[Brucetiki]

I had the opposite problem with them when I moved into my house - was going to get a landline/internet connection with them. However the consultant didn't know what he was doing and put me on hold - 15 minutes later I hung up without agreeing to anything. I subsequently decide to not bother with a landline and get wireless broadband with 3 (glorified dial-up pretty much).

When I move in, surprise surprise there's a phone bill in the letter box for new connection and line rental! 45 minutes later I managed to go through the Telstra ringaround to get all the fees reversed. Fortunately, everything got reversed no probs.

Sadly Telstra is in its own vicious downward spiral - terrible service provided by consultants in terrible working cultures (I worked for a Telstra industry partner call centre for 2 years). As a result, we see situations like The Big Bang's - where consultants don't care customers are getting stuffed around, and like mine, where consultants are so desperate to meet targets (to keep their jobs) they will do anything to get them (even if it involves committing fraud)

[fisho mcspaz]

Contact the head office/general manager. I haven't had any dealings with Telstra but that's what I did with Centrelink (and it actually worked ) after months of being stuffed around by their customer service reps trying to work out my exact entitlements from them. I would be writing an email that makes it clear that you've tried to sort the issue out repeatedly, and that you're not impressed with Telstra customer service. I find that putting stuff in writing tends to get results quickly.