As we all know, one of the primary raisons d’êtres (reasons for existence) of Telstra is to creat anguish, angst and frustration in the lives of their
customers.

And they’re very good at it.

We have all experienced the frustration of making an phone call to their customer service centre only to have to explain to multiple people based
in India the fact that the Telstra service isn’t working only to be told that we are the problem.

It’s normal for delays and dropouts to occur, and the fact that we are running a business and must have internet and phone access is of no relevance
nor importance to our Punjabi support person.

We understand this is how Telstra operates, and whenever we have to deal with them directly – which is always a last and desperate resort – we gird
ourselves and prepare to be on the phone for at least an hour, ultimately achieving very little, other than giving our blood pressure some much needed
raising.

And so I have been very concerned with a situation I experienced recently – absolutely amazing customer service coupled with initiative and proactive
behaviour.

This is so not like Telstra that I am concerned the Earth has tilted off its axis and I’ve slipped into a parallel universe.

Danita and I are in the process of buying a house.

As we are planning to live there (it’s not an investment property) I needed to arrange the tansfer of our services, one of which is our internet connection.

I went online and found the place where you notify them of a change of address.

Naturally this wasn’t easy to find, but I got there after some searching.

I filled in the form and found that there is a fee of $89.

I don’t quite get why I need to pay to have the service moved, but we are dealing with Telstra after all.

As part of the relocation I had to agree to a new modem.

I already have a Telstra modem.

In fact I have two modems as the result of havnig made an enquiry about a service issue when we moved into our current house.

So, I didn’t want another modem, but there appeared to be no way of avoiding it.

I found a chat option (I was NOT going to make a phone call to clarify that I had done the right thing) and was connected to soemone very quickly.

That was the first alarm bell – I had expected to be told I was in the queue and someone would respond within the next day or so. But no, they
came on straight away.

Not only that, but they undersood my question and were able to provide an understandable answer without sending me to three different departments.

I then received an email informing me that the modem had been shipped.

This created something of a panic as I was sure that it would be shipped to the new address (they can’t use a PO Box) and we won’t have access to
that address for about three weeks.

At this point my blood pressure was on the rise – “Oh no”, I thought, “those idiots have sent it and we’ll have problems getting hold of it.”

But I was wrong.

I got in touch with them again and was informed that it had been sent to our current address – phew! At least I’d be able to get my hands on it.

We currently live in an area where we don’t have mail delivered to the house; we have to collect it from a nearby LPO, a Licenced Post Office.

This has created challenges in the past but, at least I knew it would be accessible and so I relaxed a bit.

And then the Earth moved.

A couple of days later I received a phone call from a gentleman with a very Indian accent, informing me the modem had arrived at the LPO and I could pick
it up the next day.

While I had him on the phone I asked why I needed a new modem (see point above about having two already).

And that was when the wheels fell off my view of Telstra.

They would disconnect the service to the current premises on the date I told them we were moving – all good.

HOWEVER, we couldn’t get the new service connected at our new house until five days later – OK that’s normal and so I was about to ask “what do I
do in the interim?”

Before I could aske the question he informed me that because there would be a gap in th service the new modem was 4G-

enabled, meaning that it could be used without a physical connection.

All I had to do was plug in the power and it would work – huh??!!!??

And then once the NBN was connected to the new house, all I need to do is plug in the cable to the point in the house and hey presto, it finds everything
it needs and so I don’t have to do anything.

Not only that, but I can use it immediately and it delivers a connection speed which is three times faster than our current wired connection.

As you can see, I’m in shock!

Telstra has provided an awesome solution without me even having to ask.

So, as William Mountfort’s wrote in 1705 in his poem, Zelmane, “Be still my beating heart.”