telstra to sack 300 executives, page-8

Recently I called up TLS to complain that my third 7.2 wireless gateway had died within the last 12 months. It only took them 4.5 hours of semi-unintelligible menu-drilling, buck-passing, form-filling, and over-diagnosis to decide that I wasn't trying to con them, and promise to send a new one. Of course, by the end of that time I was a twitching, drooling wreck.

Do they really imagine that I would waste my time and theirs by claiming that the gateway was faulty when it wasn't? What did they stand to gain by asking me to dismantle and check my computer components, when they'd already been told that another computer was independently confirming that the gateway was faulty?

If my complaint had been frivolous, they stood to lose a bit of freight within Australia on a light, compact item. They wouldn't lose the value of the device because they make you return it. Does the risk of wasting a few bucks on freight really stack up against wasting 4.5 hours of their employees' time, plus turning a long-term customer into a lifelong fountain of adverse publicity?

What are they thinking?

I know what I'm thinking. Sell.

I live for the day when a cheaper and more competent provider (meaning any of them) offers reasonable mobile coverage for outback travel.