Moorooka,

                Qld, 4105

                                    9 November 1999

Chris Anderson

CEO

Cable & Wireless Optus

                             PERSONAL

                                           

Dear  Mr Anderson,

                                    I cannot believe that you personally are aware of the indifferent way even your senior staff treat your customers. For representatives of the "Yes" organization, they are past-masters at saying "No".  They have got me so frustrated at their inability or unwillingless to perform even the simplest of tasks that I think I have got to get the media interested in them -- or maybe I will just take a hacksaw and a crowbar to your cable.

                                    I attach a copy of a letter that tells you more.

           

                          Yours faithfully,

                          (Dr.) John RAY

                                   Moorooka,

                                    Qld, 4105

                                    9 Nov 1999

Telecommunications Ombudsman

                            Re: Ph. (07) 38922313                                        

Dear Mr Pinnock,

         Six weeks ago I changed my local phone service over to Optus.

I told them that I wanted local calls only and that all other calls must be barred.  So the first thing I did when their workmen had installed the cable was to check that STD calls were in fact barred.  They were not.  An STD call went through.  I told them to rip their cable out again immediately.  They assured me however that they could fix the problem by calling their head office and spent half an hour doing so.  When they had finished, I tested the phone again. This time an STD call did NOT go through.  Great, eh?  A cautious and careful customer had checked all he could to see that he was getting what he had asked for.

         Imagine my surprise, therefore when I received yesterday a bill from Telstra for five STD calls!  I promptly spent several hours on the phone to Optus and all I got was the information that they had lost my original application form and that they had not completed some part of the process needed to bar STD calls. Why the bar was put on and then taken off again they could not explain.  They also refused to refund me the $12.15 charged to me for the calls that they had negligently let go through in contravention of my explicit instructions. 

         Please get them to refund me the $12.15 and do whatever is needed to prevent any future such stuff-ups.  The recalcitrant customer "service" manager at Optus that I spoke to was a Mr Andrew Couch.

                      Yours faithfully,

                     (Dr.) JOHN RAY

Fax from:

                             Moorooka, Qld, 4105   

                            11.11.99                                 

 Optus    

                                                         

Re: Phone (07) 38922313              

Dear Sirs/Mesdames,                                                                           I have a problem with your service that your    customer service operators and their supervisors seem unable to solve.  I have called 1300 300 937 and 133066 and spoken to many of them for   hours on end in the last few days without result.  Please therefore     pass this letter on to some senior person on your technical staff.                                On 27th September 1999 I had an Optus cable  installed and selected Optus to provide all my services with the        emphatic instruction that all calls other than local calls were to be   be barred.  And whenever I ring your operators, they say that all non-  local calls from my phone DO show up as barred in their computers. BUT THE BARRING DOES NOT WORK.  Any STD calls made from my phone go        straight through with no obstacle or difficulty of any kind.  And the   bill for such calls then comes from Telstra!                                                      Your operators always try to pass the buck to Telstra for this but Telstra will have none of it.  I have spoken to  several of their operators (e.g. Tracy on 1800 011 333) about the      matter and they all say emphatically that my account with them is now   TOTALLY closed and that the only reason calls from my phone via the     Optus cable go to Telstra is because Optus puts them through to Telstra -- in clear contravention of my explicit instructions.                                              I reiterate that Telstra say that they now have NO  relationship with me at all and that they have received all the forms  they need to totally sever any connection with me.  They say it is entirely YOUR doing that calls go through to their network.    

                        I could fix this problem myself in a matter of minutes by changing back to Telstra at no cost to myself.  I know from  experience that THEIR barring does work. But I am not going to let you  off the hook so easily. I want you to solve this problem.                

                      Yours faithfully,                                      

                      (Dr.) JOHN RAY