Here is my Telstra story. Change, Computer guru said, to Telstra...

Here is my Telstra story. Change, Computer guru said, to Telstra as the other providers are re-sellers and go to the top of the tree TELSTRA.
OK. Says I. I attempt to change providers. There is a problem, says Telstra. We have your name as picastocSmith# (OK I am not Ms Smith, but that part is pretend). With a hash? Yes. So, you need to contact I-Primus to report that error. Just leave off the hash, I am sure I said. No. It has to be fixed by I-Primus and you need to contact their Customer Service area. Back and forth, NBN, I-primus and Telstra, day after day after day........Telstra here. You have not contacted Customer Service. Customer Service from I-Primus said your name is picastoc Smith (without a #). I tell Telstra. That's not correct, they say. It has a hash. Makes no sense, I explode. Do you think there are two people here, one called picastoc Smith and the other called picastoc Smith#, some dope leaned on their keyboard and the hash must have been added AT YOUR END! I thought you were the best company for me to approach with this NBN problem. Well, you need to go to a Telstra store and get it changed, they said. I said, I don't drive a car (small lie) and I am not going to stand in a queue for an hour to report my name as being one without a HASH at the end, I say. My computer guru comes to my aid. He spoke to Telstra on my behalf. Think I had been calling the Telstra contact as "she" and computer guru told me later, that he believed he was speaking to a man with a high voice and that I had been wrongly referring to him as a she. (Well, what else can go wrong?)

The above is the story as to why I went, instead, to TPG.

A TPG modem that worked. A few days, everything worked. Congratulations to TPG, a company I am still with as everything got moved over, mobile, landline and internet connection.

The time span for Telstra's issue was months! Of course, TPG knew I was definitely not the possessor of a HASH symbol at the end of the name, and never suggested it was.

Many a Sunday, after church, there were many of us who lunched together and the topic of conversation was always the weird experiences of the NBN. I used to walk along my street, and more often than not, the NBN men were in the Pit. I would tell them of my problem. They would give me a card, telling me to try that number. I also attempted the Ombudsman, without success, your post has reminded me of that. The men in the Pit I would speak to and point out my house with cable hanging from power pole. Yes, they would say, we noticed that. It is wrongly installed. I know, I would respond. In the end, I didn't care any more as the ADSL was still operating as they don't cut you off until NBN is working......

I nearly had a nightmare last night coz your post triggered all my NBN stories. I think I am the only house in this long, long street with a cable installed on a power pole and threaded through my vine hanging on a pergola.

My internet is working now. No rain last night. Pit dried off sufficiently for internet to work.......hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!