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