Ben the bull-artist has shown what he is
Optus PR man "Ben" (ph. 9085 9197) thought he could palm me off with corporate emollient (not that he would be bright enough to know what that word means. It means "soft-soap", Ben). He was wrong. I wanted action, not verbal puffery. When I insisted that he track down the offensive member of Optus customer-relations staff, he simply hung up on me. That was all he had left in his repertoire after the bull did not work. Taking a real interest in a genuine customer complaint was beyond him.
Prior to that, however, he had promised me that he would get a member of Optus accounts staff to ring me and explain why the information on their account checking number (5555) had been wrong in my case.
Nobody has called. So Ben is not only a bullartist but he is someone who does not keep his word. I cannot say that I am surprised.
So Optus still has two problems: Rude staff and an accounts department that does not give customers accurate information. Time for me to get back to Singtel, I think. I am sure they would be horrified to hear what cowboys their Australian representatives are.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Optus hangs up on me
I have just had another call from my contact at Optus -- Mr. 9085 9197. He had two bits of news for me:
1). Last time he called, I queried the fact that I had got a message saying that my prepaid account was about to run out. That was crazy because a call to the account-checking line (5555) told me that I had a balance of over $80 and that it was usable up until June.
His feedback? He said: Yes. My account WAS about to run out but that he had kindly added $60 to it as an ex-gratia gesture. I appreciated the gesture but I was quite dumbfounded by the state of the Optus accounting system. It's worse than the Left hand not knowing what the Right hand is doing: The Left and Right hands are contradicting one another! It's a madhouse! Customers obviously cannot trust the Optus account-checking line.
My contact was flummoxed by my report but did promise to get someone from accounts to call me. I await that call with interest.
2). In my previous conversation with him, I asked him to track down the person who sent me the contemptuous non-letter. When he rang back just now he said (predictably) that he had not succeeded at that. I pointed out to him that there would have been only two or three people who had dealt with my matter so had he actually interviewed them? He said he had not. When I pressed him to do that, he got very abrupt with me. So I asked him at that point what his name was. He refused to give it to me and hung up on me! That's PR Optus-style, apparently.
It does appear however that his first name is "Ben". I am inclined to write to Singtel about him. He is not fit for his job.
I have just had another call from my contact at Optus -- Mr. 9085 9197. He had two bits of news for me:
1). Last time he called, I queried the fact that I had got a message saying that my prepaid account was about to run out. That was crazy because a call to the account-checking line (5555) told me that I had a balance of over $80 and that it was usable up until June.
His feedback? He said: Yes. My account WAS about to run out but that he had kindly added $60 to it as an ex-gratia gesture. I appreciated the gesture but I was quite dumbfounded by the state of the Optus accounting system. It's worse than the Left hand not knowing what the Right hand is doing: The Left and Right hands are contradicting one another! It's a madhouse! Customers obviously cannot trust the Optus account-checking line.
My contact was flummoxed by my report but did promise to get someone from accounts to call me. I await that call with interest.
2). In my previous conversation with him, I asked him to track down the person who sent me the contemptuous non-letter. When he rang back just now he said (predictably) that he had not succeeded at that. I pointed out to him that there would have been only two or three people who had dealt with my matter so had he actually interviewed them? He said he had not. When I pressed him to do that, he got very abrupt with me. So I asked him at that point what his name was. He refused to give it to me and hung up on me! That's PR Optus-style, apparently.
It does appear however that his first name is "Ben". I am inclined to write to Singtel about him. He is not fit for his job.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Contacting Optus
I had the rare privilege of a phone call from Octopus yesterday -- a guy who even gave me his number to call him back on: 02 8085 9197.
His call was in response to my letter to the TIO. He noted, rightly, that most of my complaint had already been sorted out as a consequence of my email to Singtel, the parent company of Optus. I think it is now the third time that I have had to write to Singtel to get basic civility out of Optus. They really are meatheads there but the polite Chinese in Singapore hold them to a higher standard.
I did however insist to my caller that the meathead who replied to my initial complaint by sending me a blank letter with only the date and my name on it should be traced and transferred to less demanding duties. We will see what becomes of that.
The meathead's actions did of course constitute a very vivid message about how contemptible and unworthy of reply he thought my complaint to be.
It reminds me of a time many years ago when I had some sort of disputation with a person of European origin. He disliked my letter of complaint so much that he sent it back to me torn into pieces by way of reply.
I must have incensed him rather much, however, as he also sent me a letter of his own a few days later abusing me.
I of course then tore HIS letter into pieces and sent it back to him! I learn fast!
But, getting back to Optus: One of their peculiarities is that they often send out letters with no return address on them! They do not even give a phone number -- mighty strange for a phone company! They just do not be want to be bothered by the unclean herd who are their customers.
So I note with some glee that the clever-dick blank letter that I received was on a letterhead that DOES give contact details. It says that their address is 367 Collins St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 and that their P.O. Box is: Box 53, Collins St West, 3000. And their phone is 03 9233 4000.
What a treasure-trove of rare information!
Hey! There is a fax no. too: 9233 4900
Give 'em hell!
I had the rare privilege of a phone call from Octopus yesterday -- a guy who even gave me his number to call him back on: 02 8085 9197.
His call was in response to my letter to the TIO. He noted, rightly, that most of my complaint had already been sorted out as a consequence of my email to Singtel, the parent company of Optus. I think it is now the third time that I have had to write to Singtel to get basic civility out of Optus. They really are meatheads there but the polite Chinese in Singapore hold them to a higher standard.
I did however insist to my caller that the meathead who replied to my initial complaint by sending me a blank letter with only the date and my name on it should be traced and transferred to less demanding duties. We will see what becomes of that.
The meathead's actions did of course constitute a very vivid message about how contemptible and unworthy of reply he thought my complaint to be.
It reminds me of a time many years ago when I had some sort of disputation with a person of European origin. He disliked my letter of complaint so much that he sent it back to me torn into pieces by way of reply.
I must have incensed him rather much, however, as he also sent me a letter of his own a few days later abusing me.
I of course then tore HIS letter into pieces and sent it back to him! I learn fast!
But, getting back to Optus: One of their peculiarities is that they often send out letters with no return address on them! They do not even give a phone number -- mighty strange for a phone company! They just do not be want to be bothered by the unclean herd who are their customers.
So I note with some glee that the clever-dick blank letter that I received was on a letterhead that DOES give contact details. It says that their address is 367 Collins St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 and that their P.O. Box is: Box 53, Collins St West, 3000. And their phone is 03 9233 4000.
What a treasure-trove of rare information!
Hey! There is a fax no. too: 9233 4900
Give 'em hell!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Poor Margaret
I do feel a little sorry for Margaret Robertson. As you will see in a post below, I wrote her a rather mordant letter recently which does tend to portray her as a bit of a dumb cluck. And guess what? If any of her friends Google the following:
"Margaret Robertson" Optus
They will get this blog and its irritated comments to her at the top of the page.
A little-known secret of Googling is that if you want Google to pick something up fast, you should put it up on a blogspot blog. Why? Because Google OWN blogspot! Is that simple enough?
I do think there is a job for Margaret still to do however: Trace the arrogant Optus operative who sent me a sheet of letterhead paper with only the date on it in response to my initial enquiry. The implicit message in that was that my enquiry was so contemptible as not to be worth a reply. The operative concerned needs to be transferred to less demanding duties. We will see whether Margaret is up to that.
I do feel a little sorry for Margaret Robertson. As you will see in a post below, I wrote her a rather mordant letter recently which does tend to portray her as a bit of a dumb cluck. And guess what? If any of her friends Google the following:
"Margaret Robertson" Optus
They will get this blog and its irritated comments to her at the top of the page.
A little-known secret of Googling is that if you want Google to pick something up fast, you should put it up on a blogspot blog. Why? Because Google OWN blogspot! Is that simple enough?
I do think there is a job for Margaret still to do however: Trace the arrogant Optus operative who sent me a sheet of letterhead paper with only the date on it in response to my initial enquiry. The implicit message in that was that my enquiry was so contemptible as not to be worth a reply. The operative concerned needs to be transferred to less demanding duties. We will see whether Margaret is up to that.
Friday, December 21, 2007
It's got worse instead of better!
I might have known that expecting even minimal competence from Optus was too much to expect. The SIM card that was supposed to be couriered to me did not arrive and the old card is still active with a credit balance of only 20 cents!
And, to cap that, I finally got a call in answer to my letters -- from a girl who was totally unaware of what Scott of the internet enquiries branch had done! I told her to talk to Scott, get her story straight and ring me back but what will transpire from that remains to be seen.
So, only weeks after acquiring it, I have at the moment a totally unusable Optus cellphone! Unbelievable.
I might have known that expecting even minimal competence from Optus was too much to expect. The SIM card that was supposed to be couriered to me did not arrive and the old card is still active with a credit balance of only 20 cents!
And, to cap that, I finally got a call in answer to my letters -- from a girl who was totally unaware of what Scott of the internet enquiries branch had done! I told her to talk to Scott, get her story straight and ring me back but what will transpire from that remains to be seen.
So, only weeks after acquiring it, I have at the moment a totally unusable Optus cellphone! Unbelievable.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Telstra calls the kettle black
Sounds like some real psychological projection going on in the news report below. Telstra is accusing Optus of being reluctant to connect its cable to large dwellings. I had a HUGE battle to get Telstra to connect its cable to my place. I actually had to write to the Prime Minister before they would do it! Even though their cable was only a couple of yards from my front door! Hard to believe, really.
Telstra and Optus are two very lazy oligopolists and that is all there is to it. It is a definite case of the pot calling the kettle African-American!
Sounds like some real psychological projection going on in the news report below. Telstra is accusing Optus of being reluctant to connect its cable to large dwellings. I had a HUGE battle to get Telstra to connect its cable to my place. I actually had to write to the Prime Minister before they would do it! Even though their cable was only a couple of yards from my front door! Hard to believe, really.
Telstra and Optus are two very lazy oligopolists and that is all there is to it. It is a definite case of the pot calling the kettle African-American!
Telstra has taken a swipe at its competitor Optus, accusing it of getting a cheap ride on its network instead of investing in its own. The claim comes a day after Optus announced it had upgraded its cable network to 20 megabits per second, and ahead of an anticipated ruling on the price Telstra can charge for access to its copper network - known as unconditioned local loop (ULL).
A spokeswoman from Optus denied the claim, suggesting Telstra is attempting to distract the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regarding its ULL decision.
Telstra has lodged a request with the ACCC to exempt it from offering Optus access to its ULL network where Optus already has cable. It claims that despite Optus' cable network passing 2.2 million homes, it continues to rely on Telstra's, particularly in multi-dwelling apartments.
"SingTel Optus claims that only 1.4 million homes within its cable footprint are serviceable, which is code meaning they don't want to make the investment to connect nearly 40 per cent of homes that have cable running past their front door," Telstra executive director regulatory, Dr Tony Warren, said. "By comparison, overseas cable networks treat less than eight per cent of their homes passed as unserviceable."
Source
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Lights! Action!
My experience with Optus over the years has not been good. Optus and Telstra are the only two companies with a nationwide cable network so they tend to function like oligopolists -- i.e. they compete in only limited ways. And if Telstra has low standards of customer service then Optus sees no reason to do better: "Don't rock the boat, old chap, or we might all have to work harder!". Very "Yes Minister"!
So it was with some trepidation that I bought a new Optus-linked cellphone. And I struck difficulties with Optus immediately, as you can see below. I of course wrote letters (see below) and filled out online forms but got no helpful response. It now transpires that I was only a week away from getting my Optus service cut off!
Anyway, just a few hours ago I did get a phone call from a perfectly knowlegeable, intelligible, polite and helpful Optus staffer who seems to have fixed my problems. His call apparently was in response to one of the two online forms I filled out a couple of weeks ago. When you fill out one of the forms it tells you that they will try to respond within two days. But TRY is obviously the weasel word. They don't try too hard.
Rather amazingly, however, he tells me that to preserve my service beyond the end of this month, he has to give me a new number and courier to me a new SIM card! I wait with bated breath! Efficiency it is not.
Update
"Scott", the Optus staffer has just called back and, through some strange hocus-pocus, I apparently now have on my new prepaid SIM card over $80 of credit. Seeing that I originally paid only $69 for the original phone-and-card package I can only say: "Thank you very much!". It's not often I make such a good profit out of complaining about bungles! There have always been a lot of allegedly free phones but this seems to be a real one!
Someone once said that the universe is stranger than you CAN imagine. Optus is clearly a part of that universe.
My experience with Optus over the years has not been good. Optus and Telstra are the only two companies with a nationwide cable network so they tend to function like oligopolists -- i.e. they compete in only limited ways. And if Telstra has low standards of customer service then Optus sees no reason to do better: "Don't rock the boat, old chap, or we might all have to work harder!". Very "Yes Minister"!
So it was with some trepidation that I bought a new Optus-linked cellphone. And I struck difficulties with Optus immediately, as you can see below. I of course wrote letters (see below) and filled out online forms but got no helpful response. It now transpires that I was only a week away from getting my Optus service cut off!
Anyway, just a few hours ago I did get a phone call from a perfectly knowlegeable, intelligible, polite and helpful Optus staffer who seems to have fixed my problems. His call apparently was in response to one of the two online forms I filled out a couple of weeks ago. When you fill out one of the forms it tells you that they will try to respond within two days. But TRY is obviously the weasel word. They don't try too hard.
Rather amazingly, however, he tells me that to preserve my service beyond the end of this month, he has to give me a new number and courier to me a new SIM card! I wait with bated breath! Efficiency it is not.
Update
"Scott", the Optus staffer has just called back and, through some strange hocus-pocus, I apparently now have on my new prepaid SIM card over $80 of credit. Seeing that I originally paid only $69 for the original phone-and-card package I can only say: "Thank you very much!". It's not often I make such a good profit out of complaining about bungles! There have always been a lot of allegedly free phones but this seems to be a real one!
Someone once said that the universe is stranger than you CAN imagine. Optus is clearly a part of that universe.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Dear Margaret
TO:
Margaret Robertson
Customer complaints escalated
Optus
Dear Ms Robinson
I am puzzled by your letter of 13th. What about my previous letter requires "investigation"?
All that I asked for was information and routine services. All that was required was a prompt and polite phone-call to me from one of your more competent staff.
You might however care to explain why you have ignored the two approaches I made to you via your online form.
You might also care to explain the gross rudeness of your eventual reply to my letter of Nov. 30. The TIO has the specimen concerned. I have also emailed Singtel about the offensive behaviour concerned.
I am also flabbergasted that your letter to me carried no return address or any Optus address of any kind. I enclose your letter for your further perusal. What are you trying to hide? If I did not know better, I would think that Optus was some sort of cowboy outfit. Do I have to write to Singtel about that too?
Yours etc
(Dr) JOHN RAY
TO:
Margaret Robertson
Customer complaints escalated
Optus
Dear Ms Robinson
I am puzzled by your letter of 13th. What about my previous letter requires "investigation"?
All that I asked for was information and routine services. All that was required was a prompt and polite phone-call to me from one of your more competent staff.
You might however care to explain why you have ignored the two approaches I made to you via your online form.
You might also care to explain the gross rudeness of your eventual reply to my letter of Nov. 30. The TIO has the specimen concerned. I have also emailed Singtel about the offensive behaviour concerned.
I am also flabbergasted that your letter to me carried no return address or any Optus address of any kind. I enclose your letter for your further perusal. What are you trying to hide? If I did not know better, I would think that Optus was some sort of cowboy outfit. Do I have to write to Singtel about that too?
Yours etc
(Dr) JOHN RAY
Friday, December 7, 2007
Ignored!
TO:
Customer complaints
Optus
Re: Possible complaint to the TIO
Dear Sirs/Mesadmes,
You have so far ignored my letter of 30 Nov (copy enclosed).
In the circumstances please give me in writing all the terms and conditions to which I am subject as user of no. 0422142596 and give me full written particulars of all that I have agreed to. If you also ignore this request, I will raise the matter with the TIO.
Please note that if I have to be on some plan or other, I request that I be put on a plan that gives me as long as possible to use prepaid sums.
I would also like you to change the number of my service to a number I had earlier in the year but which I cancelled. The number is 0413 836248. When I had that number it was with Vodafone.
Thanking you
Dr John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.)
TO:
Customer complaints
Optus
Re: Possible complaint to the TIO
Dear Sirs/Mesadmes,
You have so far ignored my letter of 30 Nov (copy enclosed).
In the circumstances please give me in writing all the terms and conditions to which I am subject as user of no. 0422142596 and give me full written particulars of all that I have agreed to. If you also ignore this request, I will raise the matter with the TIO.
Please note that if I have to be on some plan or other, I request that I be put on a plan that gives me as long as possible to use prepaid sums.
I would also like you to change the number of my service to a number I had earlier in the year but which I cancelled. The number is 0413 836248. When I had that number it was with Vodafone.
Thanking you
Dr John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.)
Friday, November 30, 2007
Activation difficulties with cellphone
TO:
Customer complaints
Optus
Dear Sirs/Mesdames,
Today at approx 1pm I activated my new Optus sim card and was given the number 0422142596
I am not good at understanding foreign accents, however, so I understood virtually nothing of the vast screed the guy at the other end read out to me. So I ended up just saying yes to everything.
Could you get a native speaker of Australian English to ring me and tell me what it is that I have agreed to.
Thanking you
Dr John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.)
TO:
Customer complaints
Optus
Dear Sirs/Mesdames,
Today at approx 1pm I activated my new Optus sim card and was given the number 0422142596
I am not good at understanding foreign accents, however, so I understood virtually nothing of the vast screed the guy at the other end read out to me. So I ended up just saying yes to everything.
Could you get a native speaker of Australian English to ring me and tell me what it is that I have agreed to.
Thanking you
Dr John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.)
Monday, January 8, 2001
Moorooka,
Qld, 4105
8 January
2001
Michelle
Ford
National
Customer Relations Manager
Optus
Dear Ms
Ford,
I note that
you have so far ignored my last email to you.
I reiterate that I object strongly to your charging me for a service
that you did not provide. You have dated
my internet account with you from 24th December. Yet I did not receive your letter enabling
me to log on until AFTER Xmas -- due no doubt to a backlog of Xmas mail. I reiterate my request that you date my
account from the day of my first log-on.
Why you would ever do anything else does, I confess, elude me.
If you are
so ill-mannered as to ignore me again, I will have to put you back on to the
familiar TIO treadmill -- thus making more work for all concerned. Surely even you could not be stupid enough to
think that anything is to be gained by ignoring me again. Do try to learn from past experience. Or are you trying to tell me that I should
expect LESS from Optus -- or that Optus
is the "NO" company? You
really should read your own advertising sometime. You might pass for a decent human being if
you lived up to it -- but I have seen no
sign of that so far. But do surprise
me! If you had half a brain you would
just fix my complaint straight away and that would be the end of it.
Another
matter: I note that my download speeds
via your service are only 50k baud. My
previous ISP (a small local outfit) and Freeonline both give me 52k baud
service. How pathetic can you get to be
outperformed even by a free service?
Please advise when you are going to get the equipment at your Brisbane
internet facility upgraded to a modern standard. I did not buy myself a modern HAMR modem in
order to have the purchase rendered fruitless by an ISP that is too cheap to
buy good equipment.
Wednesday, January 3, 2001
Moorooka,
Qld, 4105,
Australia
3 January
2001
CEO
C&W
Dear Mr
Wallace,
I wrote to
you some time ago about unending problems that I was having with Optus and
found your response to be a courteous and helpful one -- in stark contrast to
the swinish attitude of Optus themselves.
You did not however seem to have much influence on Optus. Eventually it was our Australian Telecommunications
Ombudsman who forced them to stop blundering about and fix their problems.
I am ever
optimistic however and feel that you should know about their latest childish
behaviour in case you can do something to pull them up. I personally think you should sack the whole
of their senior staff and start again.
Perhaps their eventual new owner will do so.
Three weeks
ago, I agreed to take them on as one of my ISPs. I of course knew they would bungle even
something as simple as that but also knew that they could be made to fix it
eventually. So when the expected series
of idiocies emerged, I sent them an email to advise them of it and hopefully to
provoke them into getting it right. I
reproduce the email concerned below. The
tone of the email reflects my prior
experience of the senior staff at Optus.
So what was
their response? Something
constructive? Something positive? Something intelligent? Not on your Nelly! The very next day, they went in and changed the password on my
internet account so that I could no longer get on to the internet via
them. An attempt to annoy me was the sole extent of their talent! I of course simply rang the help line and got
the new password so even the attempt to annoy me made by these sad souls did
not work.
Are these
the sort of people you WANT to have
working for you?
Sincerely,
(Dr.) John
RAY (M.A.;Ph.D.; M.A.Ps.S.)
Mobile
Phone: 0413 836248; Landline phone: (07)
3892 2313.
Email:
Jonjayray@yahoo.com or: Jonjayray@hotmail.com
Moorooka, 4105
2 January 2000
Michelle Ford
Customer
Relations
Optus
Michelle,
I knew
it! Against all reason, I recently
signed up for another Optus service, knowing
full well that you would make a hash of it. You have!
I signed up
to use you as an Internet Service Provider on 10th December and in your anxiety
to please you have opened up for me not one account but two! I received the second letter today and the
other about a week ago. And the second
one arrived DESPITE the fact that one of your operatives rang me last week and
confirmed that I had received the first one!
You cannot get better bungling than that. That's really gold-plated bungling that
is. I doubt that any one of you could
run even a chook yard properly. No
wonder C&W is so desperate to sell you off. Maybe I should send a copy of
this to Graham Wallace in London to encourage him to get rid of you. Obviously, the sooner you go under new
management the better.
To help you
sort out your obviously hopeless records, the username you have given me that I
am actually using is Jonjayray. The one I do NOT want is Jon_jay_ray. Make sure you cancel the right one!
Now
Michelle, there is another matter I want you to exercise your mind on. I got your first letter only about a week ago
so I first logged on to your service on 30th December. But I am NOT in those circumstances going to
pay a full month's fee for the whole of December. I want you to date my account from the first
log on and charge me again only on the same date of every subsequent
month. If that is too
hard for you, I suggest that you waive the December charge.
From past
experience I know it will be a strain for you but please have the brains to get
this one sorted out now instead of going
through six months of correspondence before the TIO makes you sort it out.
Let me help
you with another matter that could save you time and money. The disk you enclosed with both your letters
to me was totally inappropriate for its use.
It was designed for people who wanted to open an account rather
than someone who already had an account opened.
The people who drafted your letters showed some awareness of this in
that they included in their letter an instruction to log on to the disk as an
existing user but when I did that the disk still sent me off on a wild goose
chase --wanting my credit card number and telling me that my chosen account
name was already in use etc.
Since the
big brains in sales there do not seem to be able to work it out, you did not
really need to ask me to use any disk at all in the circumstances. You had already assigned me an account name
and a password so all I needed was the dial-up number for my local area. Had you included a list of these with your
letter, THAT would have been useful. I
could then have simply thrown your disk in the bin straight away (which is what
I did eventually anyhow). Since you did
not do that however, I had to ring up one of your help line operators and get
the Brisbane dial-up number from him.
After that, no problem.
You really
are unbelievable amateurs.
Yours
faithfully,
(Dr.) JOHN
RAY
Tuesday, October 10, 2000
Moorooka,
Qld, 4105
10 October
2000
Paul
Kennedy
Optus
Re: Phone
07 38922313; A/c no. 2057 7675 0001 85
Dear Mr
Kennedy,
The credit that you passed to
my account does not appear on my statement just received (Period 7 Sept to 6
Oct). Please advise.
Please also
check the period covered by the statement for broken-off calls and credit
them. The problem has gone away again
lately but it was pretty pesky a couple of weeks or so ago.
Yours faithfully,
(Dr.) John
RAY
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