Quite apart from creating websites that refuse to work with Safari (see threads elsewhere) and refusing to invest in state-of-the-art broadband infrastructure for fear of competition, (see news reports in various places from yesterday, 21/2), they seem to be having some trouble with other aspects of their business, too.

Like today, I get an e-mail with the subject: "HeroMessage reply from Australian Swim Team".

Puzzling. So I opened it to see what it was. It turned out to be a reply to a "HeroMessage" my son and I sent to the Socceroos before the World Cup.

Two things: it was to the Socceroos, not the swim team, so goodness knows why Telstra's telling me it's from the swim team. And secondly, the World Cup was in June, 2006 - EIGHT MONTHS AGO.

Love your work, Telstra.

maybe they should stick to knitting......!

or whatever it is they are competent at!!

Telstra has been letting me down allot since last year. I signed up for cable bigpond extreme last year being told heartbeat was no more. Well to my reality I can only connect using BigPond login client. Every few months they send out a blurb about technical problems then last month stating its all sorted. But myself & everyone else still have to use this stinking BPL.

I really cant wait for Telstra to be totally sold off & run out of town !

I must agree they seem pretty woeful. I help people out on the atherton tablelands with mac related issues and web sites. The last 3 people I have helped have had issues with telstra:
1. Lady who has a bigpond account- account stopped working. She rang tech support. They hung up on her! Rang again, they transferred her to apple support- and even though it wasn't an apple issue, apple spent an hour trying to help her. She tried telstra again- again they hung up on her. She calls me out to see what's going on. I realise it's a modem configuration erro (not apple problem, but a problem with the modem they supplied) but am unsure as to the setting I need to change so I ring telstra bigpond support. After being on hold for 20 minutes when I speak to someone they tell me they'll "just find out", and suddenly I've been transferred to apple tech support. It's 5:30 pm on Friday so that was a waste of time, and they hadn't told me what they were going to do. Furious I ring back telstra but while waiting on hold take a punt and fix the problem. I told them off for wasting our time.
2. Another lady calls me out to set up bigpond. New mac and adsl modem. Only had it 3 weeks or so. I connect everything and set up via modem web interface, but nothing. Ring telstra. They admit that although adsl available at exchange, her line not good enough for broadband. We have to get dial up instead. Well that was a waste of time!
3. An older gentleman. His first computer. Ever. He goes to telstra dealer in town. He tells them he wants internet access to read the paper online. They sign him up for a $59/month plan over 24 months!!!!! He gets all equipment and a cd, but can't get it working, so calls me out. I check equipment all ok, so then again use web interface to connect to modem and connect- hey presto he's on. Then he tells me what he's planning to use the net for and I just about fall over at the price of the plan he's on. We do a quick search online and find dozens of other isp's with more suitable plans at half the price. Ring telstra- no he's locked in now because he agreed to terms and conditions! Really? Where are they? Not explained to him ever. Apparently they are on the cd. I explained he couldn't use the cd and I hadn't used it to set up. Too bad they say, he's locked in. Poor bugger. He's even a telstra shareholder! NEWS to hand- they've agreed to release him from the contract. Common sense and niceness. Good move.

Now when locals ask me about bigpond I tell them about these experiences and show them how to shop around. Whirlpool.net.au has some great feedback.

[quote=mivory;271155
2. Another lady calls me out to set up bigpond. New mac and adsl modem. Only had it 3 weeks or so. I connect everything and set up via modem web interface, but nothing. Ring telstra. They admit that although adsl available at exchange, her line not good enough for broadband. We have to get dial up instead. Well that was a waste of time!
[/quote]

Dirty tickets are unfortunately something that happens...

Its sad, but the system isn't 100% foolproof.

It's not really their fault, could have happened with any ISP.

I just thought that seeing as how it is a telstra line, she rang telstra to arrange bigpond, telstra sent her the modem etc... that they would check in the first place if adsl is going to work on their network for that customer. If it were another isp I'd think it'd be more likely to happen, as they'd have to ask telstra if it was going to work wouldn't they?

Telstra/Bigpond are being very slack with OS X drivers for the new NextG mobile broadband modems also!

I currently use a Maxon MiniMax USB modem on both my Macbook Pro and the other Halfs Dell 6400 using XP.

I keep getting emails and brochures telling me how the EDVO/CDMA system I'm currently using will be shut off by 2008 and I should update, but the OS X drivers aren't available yet so I can't actually upgrade to the new faster system.

Yet another example of Mac users getting poorer service from Telstra and Bigpond.

Sure they would check.

But everyone uses the same systems, including Telstra, to provision for DSL. This is because Telstra Wholesale owns the network, and thats what everyone has to connect DSL to.

So, everyone gets the same tools, including Telstra.

As I said, these false positives happen from time to time...

Shouldn't you be complaining to the manufacturer about that?

Edit: I was just thinking, do Telstra make their own drivers, or is it purely the manufacturers responsibility? Either way, people will always find someway to blame Telstra.