r4ndom h4x

Telstra can’t seem to work out how to cancel my phone service. Foxtel can’t seem to work out how to cancel my pay-tv service.

I’ve had Foxtel (Australian pay-TV service) for about two years and decided to cancel it about two months ago.

To cancel is easy. Just phone Foxtel, tell them you want to disconnect then argue with the call centre operator while they try and convince you that you should stay – perhaps offering a month free or something else as a sweetener. Once they finally give in, they’ll organise a courier to pick up the equipment on a certain date. The courier arrives, grabs the equipment, scans the barcode label on the SIM from inside the set top box, give you a receipt and away he goes. Simple.

Then, proceed to ignore all the bills that continue to arrive. Yes. They still send me bills for a service I cannot get any more. I did try to phone them to alert them to this fact, but I sat on hold for so long I gave up.

At about the same time, I also installed a new phone line and had it activated as a “Naked” DSL service. I use VoIP exclusively in the home now. I phoned Telstra and asked them to disconnect the phone. This was a simple process and only slightly less painful than cancelling Foxtel. You still have to dance with the operator while they tell you why you should stay. In the end, they give up and cancel the service.

Then, proceed to ignore the bills that continue to arrive. Yes, Telstra still bill me for a service that I don’t use.

I am fucking sick of this shit. The catch with Telstra, of course, is that if I don’t dance for them and jump through all their stupid hoops then there is a chance that all telephony services to my premises will be cancelled. (Actually, not sure if the naked DSL service would get cancelled, but then I don’t want to find out either).

So I try to phone, but they call centre has gone home for the evening. I email a complaint, but I did this more to relieve my annoyance – I don’t expect it to actually achieve anything positive. I log onto their crappy online web site, but I can’t cancel the service there. Naturally I email a complaint about that, too.

The only way to resolve this is to phone the company, jump through their hoops, wait in line, finally get to speak to someone and hope that they actually do what I ask them to do. I’ve already done this once, so what hope is there that they’ll get it right the second time?

Is it co-incidence that Telstra own 50% of Foxtel, and both of their accounts departments seem to be just as incompetent as each other? I have the same problem with both of them.

The Australian Government were fuckwits to sell Telstra in the first place (Thanks Johnny, you little shit monkey!).