I’m a bit of a procrastinator but finally I did something I’ve been meaning to do for ages. My mobile phone used to only ring for about four rings before it cutover to voicemail. Trying to find a phone amongst all my stuff in my bag was hopeless and nine times out of ten, by the time I found my phone it showed up as a missed call. This is even more annoying when I have to pay Telstra for my calls to be diverted to voicemail and I have to pay to retrieve that voicemail.
One of the reasons it’s taken so long for me to get this sorted was that I thought it was something I could do myself on my phone but after searching through the phone’s manual there was nothing talking about this. There is also nothing that I could find on Telstra’s website. Come on Telstra, shouldn’t this sort of information be on there? You cannot assume that everyone knows this.
I rang up Telstra’s mobile help number to change the amount of rings and I got an automated voice system where you speak into the phone to get the computer to tell you want you want. I said, ‘I want to learn how to change my voicemail.’ This was completely the wrong thing to say as I already know how to use my voicemail and this is what the computer proceeded to tell me.
I did get an option to say something like this isn’t what I want and when I did this I got put through to a customer service operator. My customer service operator had a very strong Indian accent and I thought here we go, have Telstra put their call centres offshore?
I explained my problem to the very helpful person and he said, ‘I’ve made your phone now ring for 25 seconds.’
I asked, more than once, ‘How long is it ringing for now?’, a simple enough question I would have thought. He didn’t answer me but just told me that 25 seconds was the maximum that it could ring before it went to voicemail.
I said, ‘That sounds like an awfully long time, can we shorten it by about ten seconds.’
He finally said, that it had previously been ringing for 15 seconds which is what I had been trying to find out in the first place. I said, ‘Well put it back to 25 seconds then.’ I am still dubious as to four rings equating to 15 seconds but when I get a phone call next I shall find out.
Being ever so helpful he asked if there was anything else I wanted. I said, ‘No thanks’, and that should have been the end of the call.
He proceeded to say something unintelligible so then I had to say, ‘Beg your pardon?’
He went on to tell me about the free number I get that I can call 24/7 for up to 20 times in one day. ‘I already know about this’, I said. I had this set up not that long ago and his records must have shown this.
It took me a bit of time to get off the phone and I was not satisfied at this service. A customer service officer should listen to the customer should they not? He didn’t in two instances and it was quite frustrating.
I did a bit of searching on the internet to see if Telstra have in fact put their call centres offshore. If they have I don’t think they have put all of them offshore as I have spoken to people within Australia recently, but I’m almost certain that this person was in India. I couldn’t find anything on the web to say that Telstra have got call centres offshore but then I guess it’s not something they would advertise.
Dear dad,
