Telstra Business Practice

[Vince]

I just got an interesting email from Telstra, seems with zero consultation my Unlimited Broadband Plan has gone from $60 a month to $95 a month with a rebate of $20 for 2 months. Your welcome sucker.

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​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Trouble viewing this email? View online ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Your home internet plan has changed. Here's what's next.​ ​ ​ ​ Hi Vincent, As part of our commitment to simplify our products, we're moving customers to our latest internet plans. ​ We've moved you to our Unlimited Internet Plan. We've selected this plan for you based on your previous plan inclusions. The minimum monthly cost of your new plan for vstokes@bigpond.net.au is $95. As these changes have already taken place, we'll also apply a credit of $20 to cover the price difference between your old and new plan for two months. This is a once-off credit and will be applied to your next bill. ​ Your new plan. Your new plan comes with unlimited data and the plan speed is nbn Standard Plus Speed. Plus, you'll enjoy unlimited calls to standard local, national, Australian mobile numbers and numbers beginning with 13. reduced rates for international calls, starting at 1c/minute plus a 55c call connection fee. Check call rates here. You can choose another internet plan. Your new plan is month-to-month, meaning you can change plans at any time. If your needs have changed, we have other internet plans with different internet speeds available for you to choose from. You can choose from our range of plans here. What's next? You don't need to do anything. These changes have already taken place. On your next bill, your new plan will appear as Unlimited Internet plan and you may notice charges for any calls that were made before your plan was updated. You may also notice a credit for any plan fees paid in advance from your old plan. Any offers or data packs associated with your old plan will no longer apply. As your new plan is month-to-month, if this plan does not suit your needs, or if your needs change you can change or cancel your plan. For more information about your new plan inclusions, visit telstra.com/unltd95. ​ ​ ​ Always here to help.​ ​ My Telstra ​ Visit us online ​ Visit us in store ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

 

[Dellortoman]

Blimey, that cut/paste job didn't go well Vince

A contract requires the agreement of both parties. They really should have given you notice that your existing contract was to be terminated, and you'd need to set up a new one if you want to retain the service. So what they've done could be considered to be in something of a grey area as far as the letter of the law is concerned.

They probably have clauses in the conditions of contract (aka the fine print) saying they can change the terms of the contract without notice. Whether that would hold up to a legal challenge is another matter, but who's going to take them to court over it? I guarantee they'll have a vastly greater legal budget than their average customer.

You really only have two options, agree to the change or terminate the contract. Although that's not what they tell their customers. They say you don't have to do anything and it'll all happen seamlessly, implying that no response from the customer is the same as agreeing to the new contract, which it isn't. That's another legally dodgy practice on their part.

That's one of the reasons I don't use Telstra for my internet. I have an unlimited broadband service from another provider for $70/month.

My phone service is still with Telstra because I inherited the phone and the contract from my last job. I haven't bothered to change it because their coverage seems to be better than others in remote areas. But they pulled the same stunt with my phone a couple of years ago - increased the monthly charge without consultation or agreement. It was only a $5/month increase so I let them get away with it. If it had been a significant change I'd have told them to jam it up their corporate arse and go with another provider.

 

[motoddrob]

Fuck them off Vince
Better deals to be had
Dont like Telstra but use their Boost Mobile 20 bucks/month
Unlimited calls in oz but not sure about data but i never run out.
I need the telstra network for it's coverage
As for internet, lots of deals out there. Shop around.

 

[DaveB]

Very happy with Aussie Broadband since I rejected Telstra’s fucking insulting price rise a year ago

 

[breganzane]

You really only have two options, agree to the change or terminate the contract.

You might have recourse via the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, or at least threatening Telstra with it. Get onto complaints (take a number lol...) and rant and rave and mention the TIO and see how you get on. Most of the time if you spend about 3 hours on the phone getting shuffled from one level of complaints to the next you will retain your old deal.

As per others, going Telstra is sometimes a necessary evil for the phone, but seriously find another internet provider. I use a local (really local, Bungendore region) ISP and if I have any issue I call and am answered by someone down the road from me within 3 rings. Sure beats the multi-hour offshore call centre roundabout trying to get anything fixed with Helstra.

For my phone, I just use Aldimobile, $15/mo and uses much (but not all) of the telstra network. Earlier on I coughed up for Telstra since I found myself outside of my previous provider's (Voda) coverage too often. More recently I don't travel so much and have basically never had any issue with Aldi coverage. But for sure there will be places where Telstra is working perfectly including data and the Telstra resellers like Aldi will not, nor Optus/Voda or their resellers.

 

[81Lav]

I need a relyable Internet connection for work. Telstra have been anything but relyable. We do not have any real mobile coverage here at the farm, I can get 3G but that is useless for any data/internet. The NBN which was sold as being a game changer for rural is just a sales pitch as they would only offer Clarks Belt Satellite services with excessive signal delay, and then want to charge for every Megabit downloaded.
We finally bit the bullet and went Starlink. So far very impressed with nearly 250mbps download and more than 17mbps upload speeds. I can process those work drawings in a flash now.

I guess it all comes down to what your needs are when it comes to choosing a Telco service.

Cheers