Is Telstra chat support better than phone support?

So after 5 weeks I "Think" I've been able to sign up to a Telstra cable service. Is the best way to deal with them to talk to them over live chat and not talk to them on the phone? Their phone agents (Even the managers) seem to be the most incompetent people on the planet.

So, I live with my grandma and our ADSL service sucks because of our exchange congestion. However upon trying to sign up to cable, we can't because it's in my grandpa's name who is in a nursing home and wouldn't understand the concept of a phone. (Even though we own the house and pay the bill)

So we attained power of Attorney, and had both myself and my grandma put as full authority's on the account at a Telstra store.

I then call Telstra to sign up. In which I am told I am NOT on the account, and I would need to go into a store again. At this point I hung up.

I them immediately started a chat with their support online in which I was told I WAS on the account, and assisted me in ordering the plan.

The next day I was called and told I was NOT on the account again and they could not verify my details even though I was able to the previous night (And also obtain confidential information about myself such as my bank account numbers etc). I was told to go to a Telstra store again.

Going into the Telstra store, they confirmed I WAS on the account and the original store had not put in my DOB correctly.

I then re-called Telstra to continue my order, but it had been canceled. So I started the order again. (Cable plan, 500gb, 95 dollars a month, no contract).

Spent an hour on the phone doing the order, spoke to a manager about my previous experiences and made sure I was definitely on the account. Tried to wiggle a $20 speed boost for a month out of them but no dice. However the manager accidentally hung up on me trying to give me back to the original agent and I never obtained an order number or any confirmation that it had been ordered.

I called back, spoke to someone else who put me on hold for 15m and refused to tell me even after successful verification if my order had gone through, or provide me with an order number.

Opened up a text chat and spoke to someone, who was able to give me my order number, and even gave my chat to an expert who confirmed that the order had been placed. They also discovered that I had not been put on a no contract, but had enrolled me on a 24 month one. However they immediately assured me that they would resolve the issue, gave me their employee ID and the interaction number and said that any termination charges would be void. They also credited my account for $120 (Yet they can't give me a $20 speed boost wot).

Why is their text chat so good, but their phone chat so bad?!?

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Comments

  • Is Telstra chat support better than phone support?

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    Why is their text chat so good, but their phone chat so bad?!?

    • I'm asking for other peoples opinions essentially or if they agree.

      • I find chat much easier, in the early days they were all based in australia for the online chat I dont know if that has changed now or not but I still get better support via chat

  • hahaha, its to early for you to call one good or not.
    iv had good experiences with both , and experiences that should have resolved the problem , but didn't on both.
    it all depends on the rep you get.
    at least they where polite and tried to help all times tho, even if it took a few times to resolved some of the issues.

  • +1

    Ans.. Yes.

  • Waiting times can be long but it's worth it. Sometimes you'll get a shit person so just disconnect and get the next person.

    I've had plenty of refunds processed through live chat which would have normally been a tedious call.

  • It's way less stressful than talking to them on the phone, that's for sure. It's a bit slow for them to respond at times but essentially it's the same teams you're dealing with and you still get transferred (run around) from team to team when you have something that needs fixing.

    I like it because you can do other things at the same time and you don't have to have your speaker phone blasting hold music over a crappy VoIP line from the Philippines for 75% of the call.

  • +1

    Live chat is good because I can do it at work, and just close it on them if I need to :)

  • I love the text chat with Bigpond technical support staff. Most of these guys can type 4x quicker than me. They also have waaay more time to text chat with you so they are more patient than the guys on the telephone. Some of the online staff have very fun personalities.

    My most incompetent telephone dealings have been with Telstra sales staff. Also when I talk with them I feel they are looking at the call time, or a manager is watching over their shoulder. That metrics and generating new sales is the priority.

    Specifically I hate TSA telephone sales staff. Telstra still contract out part of their sales to TSA. TSA are a separate entity from Telstra/Bigpond. I'm heavily biased against TSA due to a fraudulent TSA telephone salesman. The Telstra complaints team + management were unable to investigate or reprimand TSA sales staff. This was 10 years ago so I hope things have improved.

    Telephone with Bigpond technical support is good. They try their best to explain the hold ups, have case managers that call your mobile with status updates. Technical support are way more sympathetic than sales staff. Know about other Telstra teams (sales, accounts/billing, complaints) and can refer you to the relevant teams (eg. refunds)

  • I always used 24x7chat as it gives me evidence if there is a dispute (hasn't happened recently however has in the past).
    Plus 24x7chat doesn't cost me $ in mobile calls (no landline) or tie up my mobile.
    The staff are in Philippines (I've asked them) however that doesn't seem to matter as they get the job done well.
    I'm in the process of moving to OVO as Telstra are not reliable or competitive any more.

  • I love the text chat too - it's such an easy way to converse with them, and you have enough time to actually think about what they're telling you. I never call Telstra anymore!

    • Do you find that the agents actually get stuff right more than the phone agents?

      • I've never had any problems where I've had to go back to the chat service. They have always solved any problems on the first interaction.

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