🚀 go-pugleaf

deanh@opera.iinet.net.au (Dean Hollister) wrote:

>dcstar@acslink.aone.net.au (David Clayton) writes:

>>For years I have been making lots of local calls through Telstra, and
>>now I find that I can get a 5% discount on the calls if I spend more
>>that $10 a month, and all I have to do is ring them and arrange it!

>There is also one where you get a 15% discount, provided you make more 
>than $15 in local calls per month. The discount applies to anything over 
>the $15 qualifier. So, if you spend money on two phone lines (1 voice, 1 
>data) there's money to be saved.

Thank you Dean, (and others),

I am now aware of the discounts available from Telstra, (thanks to the
"Choice" article of September 1996).

The point is I don't seem to remember anything being provided to me
with my bills, like "You spend between $10 and $15 per month on Local
Calls, Hey! - You should use our Local Call Saver Plan ....."

Any company with a decent attitude to their customers would IMHO:

1:	Inform them of these things.

2:	Apply them automatically.

I am now on this plan, (after dialling the number on my bill, and
waiting 2-3 minutes while the phone answerer typed away on his
keyboard to make it happen, over 2 minutes just waiting for an "ok, it
done now"!)

I used to work for Telecom and I would like to support Australian
companies where possible, but the difference in attitiude and
performance between Telstra and Optus is, IMHO, still enormous.

I have pre-selected Optus for my long distance calls, (as the Telstra
rep. pointed out to me, I stopped him before he tried to sell me any
of his other plans), and I will seriously look at any future options
that would enable me to not have to deal with Telstra at all.


It looks like we may be heading down the same track as the USA w.r.t.
telephone services, from what I have picked up from the relevant
newsgroups the main problems are as follows:

1:	The old, established carrier, (who once had the monopoly),
sometimes treats it's customers like they still had no choice.

2:	All sorts of alternative offers and plans are being marketed,
with some containing "fine print" that turns out to reduce the benefit
of these things in varying degrees, (like what's happening now in our
mobile phone market).

3:	Customers are being "slammed" on a regular basis, ("slamming"
is the practice of changing the long distance provider that you use
without your consent).

4:	Customers that subscribe to some of the newer service
providers find that their customer service can be worse than what they
had before, (even though the rates are better).

5:	There is a myriad of choices available for all sorts of
services, almost so many that no one can keep up with, and make any
sense of, them.

6:	A lot of companies, (but not all), with a regional monopoly
seem to perform very poorly w.r.t. charges and customer service.

Items 1 & 2 should be familiar to Australians, items 3 - 5 may become
familiar after full deregulation occurs next year.

Anyway, I'll get off the soapbox now.

I have cross posted this thread to aus.consumers and aus.comms as I
believe that it is relevant to these newsgroups, if anyone thinks
otherwise, please edit your follow ups and I will respond in the
relevant place.

Regards, David.
-------------------------------------------------
David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@acslink.aone.net.au
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

"Virtual Reality - Give it a rest, Actual Reality has me stressed enough as it is."