So on Tuesday night I bought one of these Samsung prepaid phones from Telstra online. On Wednesday arvo, I cancelled the order via live chat, a request to cancel was put in, and was sent the chat transcript by email. Later that night, an email arrived to say my order was processed, despite me cancelling it. Thursday morning I received a letterbox notice to pick up the phone.
Annoyed, how can they agree to cancel and then still charge my card? Anyone in a similar situation before?
Recently complained to them on live chat, they said they are looking into the matter.
i actually think this is really good service by telstra…
they sent it so fast that they could not process a cancellation in time !
the real issue is now , if they accept the item back and refund you.
this isnt a real issue or bad practice by telstra, cancellations are not instant if the order has already been sent to the packers for packing/shipping.
They already charged my card. I actually think the cancellation should be instant with technology and what not. Not that hard to put on a customer's profile that order is cancelled. When the shipping department sees my profile, they should see the note and not ship it out.
still gonna side with them on this one.
there is no way for us to know what stage and or who handled your order after you requested to cancel it.
it might have been so far into the shipping process that only the courier who picks it up touched it after the request went through.
its not some mum and pop shop that the person who you talked to to cancel the order is the same person who is sending it.
Sure I can see where you are coming from. But as a customer, if you were promised a refund, shouldn't you be at least entitled to it? As a customer, how are you supposed to know of a supplier's processing and transacting stages? This isn't like Amazon where you can see stages of your order.
If my order was already processed,then obviously I shouldn't be able to cancel it. All I got was, an automated message that my order was received, an agreement by live chat that I could cancel the order, 5 hours after that an email that my order was processed. Even on CrowdSupport, Telstra has said your order can be cancelled as long as it hasn't been processed.
Like you said a customer doesn't know what stage the order is in, then it is up to supplier to get their act together, and make sure the shipping department knows what the processing department has done. I'm sure this can be done in less than an hour, the request went through immediately and there was a 5 hour gap. Easily solved if the shipping department read the customer profile before processing and shipping out the order. telstra really needs better internal controls.
@Cronut: Can't you send it back and get a refund?
I wouldn't blame Telstra too much. Telstra is a massive company, I wouldn't be too surprised if the warehouse people and the customer support are located in different cities or states even. A company that size, with fairly large volume of sales and everything, I personally think there are plenty of rooms for errors like this. It's even plausible that the delay is not due to Telstra, but the banks' fault (delay in transaction or something). Yeah, I think it's slightly dodgy, but that said, I personally don't think it's something unthinkable (their employees are humans too, they can make mistakes, there can be miscommunications etc etc).
If they make you pay for the returns, however, I personally think that is completely unfair.
@Oversimplified: They haven't provided me with any course of action. But yeah if I can send it back, of course I will :)
@Cronut: If I were you, I'd talk to the customer service about returning the product (with the records of the conversation you had earlier). The chances are, that probably would be the fastest and most likely way to get things done.
Update: after 3 months, I finally got my refund from the Telstra shop yesterday. Such a painful experience.
Recap: I sent the mobile handset to them in mid Dec. Used online chat at least 20-30 times, each time I was promised to be taken care of and my refund would be prioritised. When I called, they enjoyed transferring me between departments and making me wait 30min for each transfer. It was only after I threatened to complain to the TIO and ACCC till someone from Telstra India call centre personally called and handled my case. Got the refund back on Feb 26. Never met a more disorganised company, do not recommend the Telstra online shop.
This is good to hear, I sent a device back to them in December as well, so should be getting my refund soon.
I share the same sentiments.
Oh my. All the best mate. Telling them how angry you are with a threat helps.
*worst
Lol yes. Can't believe I didn't pick that up.
so what does live chat say about the situation now?
has credit card been charged? refunded?