Naked tales
23 Feb 10 11:17AM EST |
Post by
Matthew Steen
Recently I moved and decided to do without a very large national communications network. You know who I’m talking about: Telstra.
I started the process of Naked DSL activation. I’d briefly been with Internode at my previous address and hadn’t had any issues, so decided to go with them again. It was relatively simple, as long as you don’t read their rather long-winded explanation of what you’ll require if you are in an apartment complex. Even I got confused with descriptions of MFDs and other random IT acronyms I’ll never use. I don’t live in an apartment so moved on.
All I need to do is:
a) Ring Telstra, get a line set up
b) Contact Internode and get Naked DSL set up
c) Cancel the Telstra line
Simple, right? Well, only if you like double handling. But that’s what happens in a monopoly.
I had my NakedDSL working, was on the phone to Telstra to cancel my line, and then came the series of hiccups.
My first mistake was explaining to Telstra about getting Naked DSL installed. Telstra informed me that not only would I be hit with a $100 fee for cancelling before my first three months were up (which I was already aware of), but that Naked DSL required a dial tone so I would have to reconnect to Telstra after 2-3 weeks when the dial tone was ready. She explained this was why Telstra didn’t do Naked DSL, because it required a dial tone. What?
I politely declined to cancel and rang Internode. After some time on hold, I got through to technical support who explained to me that Telstra was wrong, that Naked DSL doesn’t require a dial tone, and to ring them back and tell them to cancel the line rental and stop billing me.
I rang Telstra again. This time I didn’t mention Naked DSL, I just said I wanted to cancel. A better-informed Telstra rep said my line rental had already been cancelled by their Bigpond DSL department. No talk of $100 penalty fees or requiring a dial tone. Bye-bye Telstra.
Moral of this blog? Take a large grain of salt when talking to Telstra about Naked DSL. I’m sure it was the result of one misinformed person rather than a deliberate attempt to tie me to a pointless line rental for another three months.
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