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.
they are most definatley in india. most of the phone companies have set up off shore call centres now, and the call centres are set up in little specially made cities in the middle of cities overseas.
i got a call from someone wanting me to change my phone company, then i had a go at them (well, not them, but their company) for employing overseas companies to do the job that we could do here, should the opportunity be given to us.
she was apologetic, but i told her it wasnt her who should be apologising. i was glad she had a job, i was just pissed off that it was for a so called australian company
so, we’ll see what happens when telstra is sold