Thread: The gas bill

Wow that’s amazing, he should have sent them a cheque for 1cent that would have had them sending him a refund etc etc crash!?

I’ve been battling Telstra since early this year over a duplicate phone account they started and the loss of our home/business number I’ve had for over 30 years.
Turns out the problem was our original account was business and the new cable one set up as private and the two don’t talk to each other.
H.

As they say "To Err is human, to stuff things up completely takes a computer"

Originally Posted by KBs PensNmore

As they say "To Err is human, to stuff things up completely takes a computer"

I always thought that it took a politician.

Originally Posted by clear out

Wow that’s amazing, he should have sent them a cheque for 1cent that would have had them sending him a refund etc etc crash!?

I’ve been battling Telstra since early this year over a duplicate phone account they started and the loss of our home/business number I’ve had for over 30 years.
Turns out the problem was our original account was business and the new cable one set up as private and the two don’t talk to each other.
H.

I was involuntarily retired from Sprint Cinco de Mayo, 2003. Prior to that Sprint (1990s or so) wanted to enter the local land line business where they weren't. So being a good employee (translate that to effing stupid) I said to convert my lines to Sprint. I had three lines, one since JC was a choir boy, one for the kids and one for the dial up modem.

So I say fine, move me over. Oh, you have three lines, let us move you into the business side. "Whatever".

The administrative and billing side of the business was so bad that I decided after 6 months to move back to the local exchange carrier. The LEC says, your lines are business and to move back to residential you have to change the numbers. I actually yelled that the numbers were all unlisted. After consultation with the local manager the lines were moved. Done? No, it gets worse.

After a few months, SWMBO tries to call her sister. (In those days, long distance.) Sprint has an intercept on the line. I get home and get a bunch of poop from SWMBO. I start a couple hour conversation with Sprint collections.

M:What do I owe and why?
S:Two months of local service.
M:Why, I moved back to the LEC over two months ago.
S:Yes, I can see that.
M:So why should I have to pay.
S:You always pay in advance.
M:May I speak with your supervisor?
S:I don't have a supervisor.
M:What is your name?
S:I don't have to give that out.
M:What city are you located in?
S:I don't have to give you that.
M:If you have a job after this week I will be amazed.

We happened to have a VP in our field office who originally worked in the trenches and I went in to see her. She had moved up through the ranks and was rather adept at using the computer systems. I explained what went on and she looked at me saying, "You too?" She went into the computer systems and could verify what I was saying and knew the identity of the CSR that gave me such a bad time. I told her that the CSR needs to be fired because she is only hurting Sprint. My VP could not fix the problem in the computer systems due to a lack of authority. My VP calls a VP that she knows and explains. She also says that the CSR should be fired. The other VP promises to fix the problem.

Two or three hours later, the other VP calls me at my desk and says that both problems were resolved. He said that Sprint has had "problems" with that CSR and it is better that she moves on.

It's funny how all of this ended up in the jokes section, but if we don't laugh we go crazy. I had been a loyal Telstra customer for 35+ years on a basic internet plan and kept running out of data. Not being that tech savvy I went to my local Telstra shop to get a new upgraded plan. Young lady sells me what I want, but I have to change to a new system, new modem etc. Goes ok for a while, then keep getting problems, ring tech support, get a real nice Subcontinental voice and he finds and fixes the problem, but asks why the hell do you have this system? I tell him the story and he tells me that the Telstra shops are franchise, don't work for Telstra and create untold problems selling crap because they work on Commission.
Well broadband came and we needed to pick a supplier, so youngest daughter comes with me to find the best deal. Well the girl at the aforementioned Telstra shop tried to sell us a plan and I let daughter do the driving and she said she thinks that the plan was not as good as the online offers, well Telstra girl gets in a huff and says they are not available in Townsville, so take what I am offering. Daughter says no, we will get other comparison plans. Went into Optus, which I was apprehensive about, but got a guy who really took the time to explain everything in words I could understand and it was way cheaper than Telstra for more options.
So kept shopping, but settled on Optus, been great up to the present. After it was swapped over, I have a $11.05 credit with Telstra, so I went into the Telstra shop to sort it out, no not our problem, ring this number, did that, yes we will post you a cheque. More calls, still not sorted, oh it's a computer problem, so after 2 years I get a letter every month advising me that I have a $11.05 credit. It apparently costs them $3 to $5 to produce and send me the letter. So if it's $3 they have wasted $72 posting letters. HoHum.
Rgds,
Crocy.

This story made it to LEGEND status on Snopes

Zero Dollars Charge

Rick

In the early days of cell phones, where you were physically located at the time of the call determined the long distance carrier. I call SWMBO from the truck saying on the answering machine that traffic was horrible and I'll be a couple of hours, maybe 3. The long distance carrier that I got was AT&T. Working for a competitor, they were the enemy.

A month later I get a bill from AT&T for something less than a half dollar. I don't remember how much postage was at that time but it was in the half dollar range. Second month I get a nasty from AT&T, "Pay Up". It was comforting to know that I was dealing with a company stupider than my current employer. I call them and go into the 'do you realize how much money you are wasting?' routine. The answer I get is that I still have to pay. Knowing friends that have had credit agency problems with AT&T and their cranial / rectal inversion issues I make a deal.

First I had my cell phone blocked by the AT&T network for long distance calls. They complied. I asked where can I go to pay the bill in cash. "You can't." So I sent a whole dollar bill in the envelope with the bill. I get a bill every month showing that I owe nothing and have a bit over half a dollar credit. It gets better. About 3 or 4 months later I get a check from AT&T for something over half a dollar. I go to the bank to deposit the check. The ATM wouldn't take a check less than one dollar. I go inside and by chance the teller was the branch VP. He asks why the less than a dollar question. My response was, "Do you have time for lunch?" At lunch, I explained and he was tears from laughing so hard.

I did learn a very important lesson from this debacle, of all the people in the world, one of the ones that you want to KNOW YOU is your bank branch VP or manager. Over the next 20 years or so, he solved numerous bank and non bank problems. It was sad when he retired. I was the only non bank employee at his retirement luncheon.

The guy to know at our local NAB branch isn’t too high up in the organisation from what I can understand. But he’s the only one bar the manager who can deposit the Canadian cheque’s in US dollars that my wife gets from her shares in a Canadian life co.
Only problem is he’s of Italian heritage and all the little old ladies love him so there’s always a queue.
We used to deposit them at the Teachers Credit Union who banked thru NAB.
The credit union morphed into The Teachers Bank and soon after that my wife went to deposit one of her Canadian /US dollar cheque’s.
She was informed by the teller that they couldn’t do that transaction and no they’d never been able to as a CU.
Problem was she was one who’d done it for my wife a few months earlier.
My wife doesn’t take kindly to it being insinuated the she was a liar or a fool so she withdrew $50k plus and closed her account.
My only interaction with a bank manager was 50 odd years ago and I’d just sold a few blocks of land and went to get a cheque for the proceeds. He invited hippy me (beard and long hair, it was the early 70s) into his office.
He asked me what I planned to do with the money, l said put it in the work credit union.
He said we can pay you better interest than them.
I declined, they hadn’t been prepared to loan me a year earlier to buy a new motorbike but the CU had.
H.