All I want is a letter.

[Cas98]

The bill came to ME instead of going to the ISP as Hel$tra AGREED it should have done all along. However, Hel$tra would NOT send the bill to my ISP as they were not the name on the account.

I asked the guy if I could nominate someone from my ISP to call and speak on behalf of me and he asked me for their date of birth. How many ISP staff are willing to hand out that sort of information? So, with nothing to give HelStra, they kept sending me the bills.

The TIO got involved and now this has been resolved. But I still want a letter to state that as when (NOT if), Hel$tra send me another bill, I can use this to shut them up.

[draven34]

Who paid the original bill? Yourself or your ISP? And after the bill was sent to yourself, did you advise them to send it to your ISP instead?

The reason that I'm asking is after the payment was made, a final invoice would have been sent out showing that the payment was received. Well it should have been sent out, I don't work for Telstra (but work in the telecommunications industry and have done so for over 7 years now, so I know how things work) so maybe they don't but when I moved recently and got my final account from them for my previous address and paid it, I got another invoice showing the payment was received. As well, you would have or should have your receipt details from the payment if you were the one who paid it. If you didn't pay it, talk to your ISP, they would have records of them making the payment.

Getting a letter sent out is not as easy as it seems. Has to go through legal and be approved which takes time, and then as I already said, you could just ask for a copy of the invoice showing the payment being received to be sent out.

[ozzie]

You'll be lucky to get an "individual letter" - unless it's a "computer/robot creation", they simply don't know how to write letters to the everyday punter. And, only certain staff are allowed access/use of "official letterhead". (Most is used to & from legal firms )

Hi turnover (as most Call Centres have), lack of understanding (inexperience), and the use of "white collar sweat shops" (ie Call Centres) and this insatiable aim of having paperless "everything".....I too, wish you the best of luck - you'll need it!!

[Tangles]

Problems such as listed here are becoming more prevalent here in sleepy old Adelaide. Yes we have phones

Callers, who have reached the end of their tether with telcos, to a morning talk-back radio here are usually referred to the host's contacts at Telstra or OPTUS who fix their problems quickly.

Taking this one (big) step further -- Remembering back to when Bell (I think) invented the telephone, imagine how far his invention would have progressed had the inventor said "when you have trouble with your service and cant make the overseas barely-english speaking staff understand, you must phone a radio station in your capital city and jump up and down to get results"?

Or am I missing something here??

[Section52]

Cas98
I feel for you with the telco troubles.
Just a suggestion here. If you put your request in writing and post it surely Telstra are are obliged to answer you in writing. Worth a try.

[Cas98]

DJ1, So, maybe YOU were offended by the comment I made, so be it. My opini0n and I am sticking to it and not going to change it for a minority.

I am still waiting on a call back from a "supervisor" which I was promised on Friday "within half an hour".. Never expext to get one..

[john123]

Cas 93
I have simpathy for you dealing with Helstra
and expecting to get an answer is like going to a dentist with a name of i hope it hurts .

They are totally off this planet ,the only people that use them are the elderly or blind ,I recieved a bill from them many years ago when they were half decent,and was paid only to have 10years later come up as unpaid after numerous attempts to sort this out ,Iwas finally put through to a junior who had just started working for them and surprise suprise was sorted in 5 minuites it turned out i overpaid them by $1.25 and they sent me a check which i will not cash and will not deal with these people untill hell freezes over

[LLH]

After reading the article in Sun Herald regarding 'Telstra to switch to online invoices' made me fall over laughing. For the last 2 months (Dec & Jan) online invoices/billing has not been available and after countless phone calls made to Telstra I got the same message 'Sorry there are issues with online billing at the moment' when will it be fixed I ask?? 'I will forward your request to our QA group' I was told and they added 'you are not the only one effected' not the answer I wanted. This QA group is cetainly not earning their keep they need a bomb put up them to get these issues resolved ASAP. How could an issue with online billing last for so long considering how it effects their customers or do they just not care?? I know that answer NO THEY DON'T!!
It is now March and the February bill notification arrived BUT (always a but) Telstra have the gall to charge me an overdue fee on my home line due to their incompentence?? How can they think that moving to online invoices/billing will save their printing costs, I ordered paper bills for Dec & Jan??? what about the website, how will it handle the increase in hits with more people accessing their bills?? You have to export the information to excel etc.. if you want a breakdown and then it not clear..yet another phone call!!

[DJ1]

I am just going to chime in my 2 cents here, although I agree you must be frustrated by telstras service or lack thereof, but you use of the "retard" is not warrented in any circumstance, I encourage you to edit as people reading this (like myself) will just think you are biggoted and your not even worth the time to help.

[Cas98]

Why is Hel$tra so hard to deal with? Now I know why they are called Hel$tra.

I called their 1800 number for billing enquiries to find out if a bill had been paid and I wanted a letter posted out to confirm this. Account number given, yep, paid.

Billing enquiries said they could not send a letter and put me through to someone else (provisioning??). After 10 minutes on hold, they told me they could not do this as it is a Credit Management issue to send out the letter, so they put me through. Credit Management says they can not send a letter, so back to Billing who said they can not do this and wanted to put me back to Credit Management.

I asked why it is that nobody in this company can send out a letter to confirm that nothing is owed, yet they can send out a letter a month for the rest of your life if you owe them a $0.25?

What is impossible about this?

Makes me so glad I am not a customer of theirs and I actively discourage anyone who asks me about where to get Internet Access or home phone away from this mob of incompetants. .

FYI: The bill was for work done by a Hel$tra technician on behalf of my ISP in one of their exchanges. Why the bill came to me is unknown. Hel$tra have admitted that the bill should have gone to my ISP, my ISP have paid it but I want the letter to show to Hel$tra in 2 years when they send the bill to a debt collector because of a "computer stuff up".