Telstra's unsatisfactory response to a telephone fault during a bushfire situation
25 Nov 09
Dear Minister Conroy and Ms Gash,
On Saturday November 21st, at around mid-day, many telephones in the Upper Kangaroo Valley area north of Nowra in southern NSW, including ours, ceased to operate. There had been severe lightning activity the day before, which started a bushfire 5 km to the west of our property . As I have no mobile telephone reception at our house, I had to travel 3 km to obtain reception so that I could telephone Telstra.
I and my wife Janet Bundey (in Sydney attending our sick daughter at the time) contacted Telstra (132203) on 4 occasions - that Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning (twice) and on the Monday morning (Nov 23rd). On the first call I was advised that there was a fault in the general area and that it would be fixed by Tuesday 24th November. I was informed on at least one of the calls that technicians did not undertake maintenance/repair works on weekends. I complained that this was not satisfactory as we had no mobile reception on the property, that there was a bushire in the area, that we were facing severe to extreme fire danger over the next 24 hours, and that a neighbour was having a heart bypass operation early the following week and needed to have telepone contact.
Neighbours also telephoned Telstra at various times and on at least one occasion were given the automated response that the fault would be fixed that evening by 7.00 pm. This was despite the information that I had been given that maintenance staff did not work on weekends! So Telstra gave misleading/false information on their automated service.
Telephones commenced operating around mid-day Mon Nov 23rd.
I think it is totally unacceptable that:
1. Telstra does not undertake repairs to its customers' fixed telephone lines on weekends
2. Telstra would not make an exception despite the fact that a bushfire was in the area, that we were facing a day of extreme fire danger on Sunday 22nd November and that most residents did not have mobile phone reception
3. Telstra would not take into account that a neighbour was facing heart surgery the following week.
I spoke to the Telecommunications Ombudsman yesterday who basically said it was a commercial decision by Telstra not to do any maintenance work on the weekends and that because of the fire Telstra may have thought it was an OH&S risk to send staff into the area to attend to the fault. I am not impressed by this response.
I urge you to make representations to Telstra to address this unacceptable situation. If we have an electricity fault, the local electricity provider attempts to fix the problem within 24 hours and it is rare to be without power for more than 12 hours. Why can't the telecommunications carrier offer the same standard of repair service at this time when telecommunications are such a vital part of our daily lives?
I have also forwarded a complaint to the NSW Department of Fair Trading
Many thanks in anticipation.
Yours sincerely
Les Mitchell (and Janet Bundey)