Can You Guess What Is Going On With My Telstra Account?

Cheaplikethebird on 13/03/2019 - 10:30
Last edited 13/03/2019 - 13:00 by 1 other user

So I recently moved into a new place in Melbourne and had cable internet connected by Telstra. This is my second month using the service and yesterday a couple of off things started happening with my account. I thought I'd share with you the details so that you can all come along for a journey that we're probably all too familiar here at OzBargain - the journey to find out "WTF is happening with my account?!". I'll be keeping this post up to date as new developments occur but here's the facts so far in bullet form…

  • Had Cable connected at the end of January by Telstra - unlimited usage and standard speed.
  • Use said internet connection for a month without issue. Receive a bill at the end of Feb, due to be charged on the 18th of March. All is normal.
  • Receive an e-mail yesterday afternoon from Telstra titled 'You have a new Telstra broadband plan' - hmmm that's odd
  • This morning at 7am within the same minute I receive e-mails titled "You're approaching your home broadband monthly usage limit" and then "You've reached your home broadband monthly usage limit" - even odder, I'm on an unlimited plan
  • Wake up at 8am, see the e-mails, run speedtest - I've not been slowed yet
  • Log into my account on the Telstra site and find that my service is now showing as a 200GB plan with 240GB used.
  • Pull up my bill for the first month to double check that they did indeed put me on the unlimited plan when I signed up - issues with new orders are super common I have found. Nope, first months bill showed that I was on the unlimited plan. What's really odd though is that it only shows a charge for the $240 connection fee for going month-to-month, usage charges were $0. I have no other invoices.
  • When going into the 'change plan' page of the Telstra MyAccount portal there is the following message - "Your usage allowance for this period may have been adjusted. This may be due to a change in billing arrangement, a plan change, a usage credit or because you just joined."

Now before commenting that I should be contacting Telstra not posting here - I'm not posting this for advice, just so that you can join me on what I'm sure will be a wild and interesting ride, as it always is.

So tell me what you think is going on - closest answer wins 900 ozbargain internet points.

Personally I'm running with the dream that I wont be capped, I can ignore the e-mails, and that there's been some bug in Telstra's billing system and that I'll be enjoying free internet for the life of my plan, so I'm a little hesitant to follow up just yet until I actually have my service slowed.

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Comments

  • Sideswipe on 13/03/2019 - 10:42
    +3

    Identity theft

    • Cheaplikethebird on 13/03/2019 - 10:48

      Probably the first thought that ran through my mind. No other services listed on my account though.

    • savage bargain on 13/03/2019 - 10:49
      +1

      First thought I had.

      Call right away. Leaving it won't be doing you any favours.

  • [Deactivated] on 13/03/2019 - 11:03
    +5

    Telstra

    They probably messed up your account.

    I had about a dozen or so connections with Telstra. Here are the highlights.

    1. Mobile phone plan - Started getting two bills about 4 months into the plan so total cost is double. Took about 60 hours on the phone (no kidding, I was on vacation but ended up being on the phone 9-5 for over a week. Mostly on hold or repeating my details). They amended the accounts. 21 months into contract, I contacted them regarding end of contract, they told me I have 7 months remaining. They closed all my accounts and restarted the account when they amended the accounts. No paper trail on their end so I had to scan and send my sign up contracts. Took a further 4 months to amend. Paid 25 months for the handset.

    2. Set up new business account. Got sent faulty modem. Confirmed faulty. Second one sent, hardware appears okay but Telstra couldn't get it to work. Called independant IT technician. Walked me through in 5 minutes (IP address on modem was incorrect). Fixed but no internet because Telstra forgot to order a connection. In the mean time, after much complaining, they sent me an interim solution (mobile internet stick), first one they sent was faulty. Second one took so long to arrive my internet was fixed by then.

    3. Different business account. I had 500gb limit and it is an office that uses maybe 80gb at the very most. Got told I used 1TB and asked to pay the excess charges. My contract says it is a shaped plan, no excess charge. Moreover, not possible that I used that much since our internet is so slow. Peak speeds over one month couldn't hit 1TB. A week later, they tell me that their bandwith usage was faulty. Woops.

    4. Numerous times they forgot to send the invoice and tried to charge late fees. It's an office so not getting an invoice into the payables pigeon hole is unlikely. Also, always seems to be Telstra. All other mail arrives okay.

    Have fun.

  • pantsparty on 13/03/2019 - 11:32

    I am genuinely curious, what did Telstra say when you called them?

  • Cheaplikethebird on 13/03/2019 - 11:37

    Ok I hit up online chat and here's the explanation. Looks like they weren't billing me properly and so decided to swap me to 200GB till they can sort it out or something (???). I asked if they could just switch me back and they have. This seems to have been too easy and I expect there will be multiple hurdles and probably service disconnections before I'm actually returned to an unlimited service.

    "Actually what happened was that we were trying to contact you for more information but it was unsuccessful.

    We've has sent you as well and email we have confirmed that there is an active Internet Service on their account that hasn't been billed correctly, meaning we have not been charging you monthly charge and to fix this issue, we've placed the plan on a Big Pond Broadband 200GB plan for $79.95 per month in the meantime."

    BTW I double checked and there was no e-mail sent explaining billing issues, only the generic e-mail to notify that my plan has been changed.

    • [Deactivated] on 13/03/2019 - 11:48
      +1

      It's hard to contact you when they stand to make more from you.

      When you've missed a payment, they're more effective than the police.

    • droptester on 13/03/2019 - 13:06
      +1

      Hopefully it is all fixed. But from my experience, when I used to call up to fix their mistake, they'll quickly say it's all fixed. Refund the incorrect bill amount, and then the next month nothing has changed and you have to call up again.

      There's no accountability for them, they pretty much just pass on your problem to the next person to handle for you.

  • Associated87percent @ Telstra on 13/03/2019 - 12:50
    +2

    op, pm me your details..

  • poohduck on 13/03/2019 - 13:10

    This just sounds like what telstra used to be like. I'd never go back to them based on my experience alone. There were many issues. One ongoing issue was them upgrading my plan and therefore cost; all the time. They'd just upgrade it. It would take me ages to get that fixed, and then have to chase up the subsequent over billing. Another doozy was an apparent disconnection and then a reconnection fee; I'd never been disconnected. I got a statement from the tech who would have done it to say that it never happened. Just bullshit. At the time I was living in an area where I had no choice - and they knew it. Not any more :)

    • SomeGuyOnOzB on 13/03/2019 - 15:12

      … would that have earned trailing commissions for dodgy staff? (disconnect you without your permission, then connect you as a "sale" by themselves?"

      • poohduck on 13/03/2019 - 17:49
        +1

        the whole point was it was a charge; an unknown charge till I chased it up. Just money making - fees for no service, at all. The banks have been found guilty for the same thing

  • Nalar on 13/03/2019 - 14:09

    Telstra Sign ups are dumb as (profanity)! Wanted casual plan …signed me to contract -> they were waiving the casual fee…..got charge casual fee -> Told my internet wasn't going to be active for a month ….already had line connection.

    This BooYa guy had it worse then anyone: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/416170

  • momptdeals on 13/03/2019 - 17:23

    They connected you to in a 2 step process.

    Standalone cable to book the appointment. They connect you using a placeholder service Telstra small broadband 200gb cable plan.

    Once the standalone cable is connected and running properly they bundle you to the 89 unlimited offer.

    However since you've changed product codes within the same billing cycle, you're still technically limited to the original order 200gb data limit.

    • Cheaplikethebird on 13/03/2019 - 19:18

      Mmm been showing as unlimited for a month. You could be onto something though. I self installed and they've been trying to book and appointment for a guy to come out to connect the telephone line.

  • isthisreallife22 on 13/03/2019 - 17:59

    I find if you can get connected with a complaint manager you can get it all sorted

  • nuchalis on 13/03/2019 - 19:38

    I've been a Telstra customer for 20 years, and since the switch to NBN I've had constant billing errors and random service issues… after months of problems it turned out there is some sort of billing software issue that they just won't fix! Instead they just raised my allowance and hoped I'd stop complaining.

    I still have dreams where I'm transferred between billing and faults over and over literally a hundred times…

    • Cheaplikethebird on 13/03/2019 - 19:52
      +1

      I'd be willing to wager it's not an issue of one broken application that needs fixing. With the age and size of the company and all the changes in technology it's been through I bet their software is a mess with a whole lot of half broken legacy systems that can't easily be replaced. On top of all that the guy you're speaking to in an OS call centre probably has a whole different set of software laid on top of these systems that is locked down and simplified. I'd also be willing to bet that they're waiting for the completion of the NBN and the shut off of Cable/ADSL before they do a major overhaul of their systems.

      • nuchalis on 14/03/2019 - 08:27

        Yeah, agreed. But my latest issue is so simple: I have a 100GB usage limit, and when I exceed it's "shaped" (ie slowed). Before NBN I'd just wait till the next month and it would restore full-speed again (or I could go online and do a "top-up"). But since NBN once I exceeded the 100GB it never restored full speed again no matter what!

        Days on the phone and chat, waiting months, having to do the same basic scripted turn-it-off-and-on-again literally over a hundred times, it's insane. The only "solution" they had was to try and make me buy a more expensive plan with more data! ie rather than fix an actual fault that they eventually admitted was a real issue but their system had no way of addressing! So they just gave me the extra data for free, hoped I'd shut up… what about everyone else?!

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