Telstra mobile phone warning

Dug · Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Posts: 4837 Location: Gippsland

Just a heads up to check your text messages on any Telstra connected mobile phones.

Margo and I have both had messages saying "You have reached the end of the free period of your mobile internet trial IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO CONTINUE THIS SERVICE CALL 125111"

So unless you call them they will start charging you for a service you have not asked for or signed up for !!!!

I had specifically asked that my mobile phone internet service be disconnected and disabled when I bought the phone and they had re connected it without asking me and were going to charge me for the service unless I called them.

I called them on the number they asked me to and after working my way through the voice prompts I got on to a customer service person who had no idea what I was talking I got onto his supervisor and voiced my disapproval in fairly strong terms.

After I arrived home Margo checked her phone and had the same message after 20 minutes of attempting to get a sensible reply we asked the automated service for COMPLAINTS and finally talked to a human being who appeared to take some notice.

So just a heads up if you are like us and don't use your text message function on your phone just check it and if you get the message phone the number and ask for COMPLAINTS immediately !

OH ! they also said they would REFUND the $10 that we had been charged to connect us to the free service !!! Shocked

Jade

Optus also connected me without my permission to an internet starter package at $7 and still it shows up after asking twice for them to remove it

gggraph · Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:18 am Post subject: Re - Telstra mobile phone warning

I actually have a Telstra data pack to go with my iPhone. Last month, I got an SMS saying that I had exceeded 90% of my 150M allowance. The iPhone itself keeps track of how much data it has recieved & sent - 6M in the three months since I bought the phone!

I rang up Telstra and got somebody who (A) had no idea what I was talking about and (B) claimed that my plan didn't have a data pack of any kind... would I like to have one connected? I took the account in person to a Telstra shop and pointed out that I had been charged (as arranged) for the $10 data pack each month since I bought the phone. They too, had no idea what I was talking about and suggested that I query the data charge if it was wrong on the next account. When the next account arrived, it showed my data usage as 1.6M.

As a follow up to this, my wife got the same SMS a few days later, despite not actually having a 3G phone... I have a source at Telstra who tells me that thier billing sytem sends out SMS in error all the time...

Grant

Dug · Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Posts: 4837 Location: Gippsland

We should send them invoices for art they have not ordered and do not want !

thecatsgrin · Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 2181 Location: Gippsland

People have successfully billed companies for time wasted whilst on hold....

Dug · Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Posts: 4837 Location: Gippsland

Steve Gray · Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 1569 Location: Geelong

tele marketers calling a mate of mine get a rude shock, he starts out with "Oh so you say you want to take a minute of my time... before you start, can I grab the address and company name so I can send an invoice, oh and by the way I charge my time out at $200 per hour..." he has not had to send an invoice yet!

Jade · Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 8:29 pm Post subject: Re - Telstra mobile phone warning

lol I like your mate, STeve

thecatsgrin · Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 2181 Location: Gippsland

I had a foreign telemarketer recently that insisted i pass the phone on to my mum. After 3 attempts to tell him that i was the mum, i passed it on to Charlotte (almost 2) so she could have a little chat to the 'phone' he hung up after a minute or two...
I feel bad hanging up directly on someone, and only resort to giving Charlotte the phone after they get rudely persistent!
But asking them for their address is a great one...I will remember that one for later!!
One useful thing i have found though is that they have allowed me some practice in the art of saying NO!!

gggraph · Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 8:30 am Post subject: Re - Telstra mobile phone warning

We've developed a technique (by accident) for dealing with telemarketers.
After the usual "Harro Sir, How are you today? May I speak to the Business Owner?" spiel, We ask "Do we have an existing account with you?" They will usually not answer this directly, but will say something like "I'm calling about your existing Telstra account..." Our response is "Sorry, my Manager doesn't take these calls." and hang up.

I heard my assistant say that one day, and thought I'd use it myself from now on...

Cheers

Grant

Steve Gray · Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 1569 Location: Geelong

I had an indian guy call me one day on my mobile (a while back now) he said hw was in "sydney" oh yes I replied and which street... he said "Pitt street" I said is there a window... "Yes" are you close to it? "Yes" what can you see? he was a bit lost and asked me why? "I said I'm the guy across the street waving at you!" he laughed and said nervously "oh yes I see you!" I then said "nah mate it must be someone else, I'm in Victoria, some 800 klms away, so you must have a wrong No: so see ya!" click...

Dug · Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Posts: 4837 Location: Gippsland

Them "Hello may I speak the the Business Owner Please ?"

Me " No I'm sorry, he went mad and we had to have him shot"

Silence then after a while them "I'm sorry? What happened ?"

Me "The manager went mad from all the phone calls like this wasting his time so we had to shoot him"

They usually hang up after that exchange Wink

Tango · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 1360 Location: Melbourne

My solution is that I never answer the phone ''NEVER'' everything goes through to my answering system so I get a lot of callers just hang up , in the last year of the marketers I think it was only ""ROOF SEAL'' that left a message, my friends have got used to my system and after the beep just start talking knowing that 99% of the time I'm going to be there...then I'll answer it ..

gggraph

Jodi B · Joined: 25 Aug 2007 Posts: 593 Location: Katherine

I've heard that alot of them have an automatic system so that when you say 'hello' it puts you through to an operator.. when you answer with a company name it's just silent until you say 'hello' - I usually hang up before that.