Message from Ben

[retrofuturist]

Greetings everyone,

Two messages received from Ben via SMS, to share...

Please let members know I'm away for a little while with Internet connectivity problems. Sometimes they contact me via PM. Hope all is well. Missing DW.

Maybe away 10days/more: Internet problems with Telstra. Very frustrating. Complained to Telecommunications Ombudsman... pls say hello to gang. Ben.

Metta,
Retro.

[zavk]

Thanks Retro.

I'm curious. Do people in other countries experience similar problems when dealing with telcos (telecommunication companies/providers)? The ones in Australia, especially Telstra, are notoriously difficult.

[pink_trike]

I grumble when my internet connection goes down for 10 minutes to an hour once every 6 - 9 months (California).

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Thanks Retro.

I'm curious. Do people in other countries experience similar problems when dealing with telcos (telecommunication companies/providers)? The ones in Australia, especially Telstra, are notoriously difficult.

On that, my Mum is actually in the process of lodging a complaint about Telstra too!

Metta,
Retro.

[David N. Snyder]

Send my regards to Ben and best wishes that the connection comes back soon.

I spend a lot of time in California and the connection regularly goes down in the evenings. The provider has stated that hackers have been getting into the system and they had to shut down the whole area to prevent them from stealing customers' private data. It has not been happening too much lately, though. But it seems hackers might be the problem for a lot of service providers.

[nomad]

I’ve lived in four U.S. States (New Mexico, Texas, Virginia, and Ohio), and I rarely have any problems with my network connection unless there’s severe weather outside. There was a period about a year ago where I lost my internet connection for 3 hours a day for an entire month in Texas. I was very angry at the cable company, but it turned out that a switch had gone bad in the apartment complex and it was my landlord who broke the thing, not the cable company. Besides that, I’ve never really had any trouble getting the network guys to fix my connection.

Never heard of this Telstra company. Sounds like one of those evil corporations from a Bruce Willis movie.

~nomad

[Ben]

Hi everyone!
I'm back in a limited capacity as school has gone back and...I'm back at work and have access to the internet for about 30min-1 hour a day.
The problem I'm having with my telco is that I recently moved house and I moved around the corner. I'm still in the same telephone exchange area and we were able to move our landline number but I was told that there was no adsl capacity in the 'new area'. I had adsl to the door and wireless in the home.
I was then given two options - go back to dial-up internet or sign-up for a new plan (twice the cost, and half the download capacity) using the telco's 3rd Gen mobile telephone wireless service. I thought it was unconscionable conduct and launched a complaint via our telecommunications industry ombudsman. The complaint is five working days into the ten-working day limit a complaint must be responded to under the legislation.
Normally I would probably just grin and bear it, but considering that our landline, all our cell phones (3 or 4 at last count) plus internet go through the same provider, and given their recent behaviour of problem resolution by sign-up to more expensive plans, I decided to take them on with regards to this issue.
So that is where it is at. I hope you are all well and happy and not gass-bagging too much on DW - however wonderful it is - and that you are spending some time actually engaging with practice.
I've got 35 messages in my intray so I better scuttle off and read them!
Cheers

Ben

[David N. Snyder]

Welcome back! You have been missed!!

[zavk]

Yes Ben you've been missed!

And fight the good fight for us who are at the mercy of Telstra!

[cooran]

Hey Ben!

Yes - fight the good fight against Telstra as Zavk says - I'm on broadband, and everytime the house phone is used people can hardly hear each other for all the static and technical sounds. We often have to unplug the computer connection from the wall.
Telstra tops the complaint charts
http://commsxpress.com/australia/telstr ... arts/5853/

You are missed!

metta
Chris