Friday, May 16. 2008There's Just No Pleasing Some People....John Linton .....but then perhaps some people appear to need to live their lives in a state of disappointment and anger? (or is there something more sinister?) I've commented before on the sheer perversity of some people who, from my direct observation, seem to actually prefer to live at least a part of their lives in perpetual conflict. In Exetel's terms this manifests itself in a type of customer who continually complains, in the most vociferous ways and at great length, about the absolute un-usability of the service Exetel supplies and the total incompetence of every person who has been involved in dealing with his (occasionally her) issues and the criminal nature of the management and directors. This type of 'customer' often carries out his verbal and written abuse of each person within Exetel with whom he deals using the vilest of language and always at great length. Inevitably this sort of 'customer' couches his complaints in the most untruthful of terms to the TIO and occasionally to one or other of the minor court systems in the different States. His version of events is not only that the service he refuses to pay for is totally inadequate but it's lack of proper provision has ruined his life and he must be compensated for his inconvenience by the payment of thousands of dollars of damages. This has, often gone on, for 8 - 10 weeks before some modicum of 'satisfaction' is grudgingly admitted (usually when the TIO eventually tells him to take some tiny financial accommodation and accept a no-penalty cancellation of the service and move on to another provider). A huge waste of time for everyone involved and a great deal of stress and uncontrolled anger by the 'complainant'. So the account is terminated and everyone involved moves on........except for the complainant. What does he do? He does something truly amazing. Within a week or so, in several cases the next day (and in one case the actual same day as the account was cancelled) this person who has described Exetel as a company, several engineering and accounting employees and the directors and owners as incompetent, criminal scum whose service consists of two 10 year old computers connected by a piece of string (actual quotes and words used by one of these unhappy people) PUTS IN AN APPLICATION FOR THE SAME SERVICE HE HAS JUST SPENT TEN WEEKS 'LITIGATING' ABOUT. What has happened to turn the service he desperately wanted to be free of in to something that he must immediately start using it again?????? How is this actually possible without making the assumption that there is a higher lunacy rate in Australia than you might expect? It defies explanation in any rational terms that I can get my mind around. A person who has so vociferously decried a company and a service, who was both genuine in their complaint and sane, could not possibly re-sign for a service that has allegedly been so inadequate that it has affected his health and financial well being and he has had to seek the TIO's assistance, or the assistance of a court, to free himself from the requirement to pay for it on an ongoing basis. However there have been 15 instances of this conundrum over the past 6 months and there would have been more except, when we began to notice this strange scenario, we began putting in a 'black list' that wouldn't accept applications from specified telephone numbers/bank accounts/credit cards/addresses etc. I can accept that there are a few lunatics who are not institutionalised that could, possibly, account for one or maybe even two such ridiculous situations. I can't accept that there are 15 +. I can accept that in some, very few - no more than 1 or 2, cases all the slandering and complaining was done by someone other than the account holder (parent/partner/flat mate) who actually paid the bills and when the complainer got the account cancelled they had to cover up what they had been doing by trying to get it reinstated. Who are the others? I now have my suspicions having done some minor research on one of the most ridiculous instances and found that the person was actually an employee of another ISP but I can't believe that explanation would account for more than just one occurrence. So is Australia getting crazier as a society or are my suspicions that there are some grossly unethical and terminally silly companies in Australia correct? Neither scenario has any attractiveness.
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Welcome to the era of tabloid journalism, shows such as ACA, Today Tonight etc and the whole 'know your rights' brigade have turned regular consumers into idiots.
I previously worked in retail sales for quite a few years and I can tell you that you are not alone, over the years a small section of the community have been brainwashed into being the most unreasonable 'the customer is always right' people you could ever have the misfortune to deal with. The people that had genuine complaints that were polite always got the help they needed, the others ..... Comments (4)
I love it... too funny!
Oh... and yes we're getting crazier, but you've gotta love it. I nearly spilt my cup of tea from laughing when I read this post above. p.s. Why didn't the employee have broadband with their own company? I assume most broadband companies out there(with the exception of the really big ones) would offer good discounts or free broadband to their staff... yes/no?? Comment (1)
I know of two employees of other ISPs who have Exetel connections apart from the one I referred to (they never make any sort of fuss).
I assume they are paid by their employer to connect to Exetel to get 'inside' information on performance and other issues as well as access to the MRTG reports. As we have no 'secrets' I find the scenario bizarre but not insane. Presumably those ISPs have other employees with ADSL with other ISPs for the same purposes. Then again - may be its cheaper to use Exetel's ADSL than provide their own services? (just kidding) Comments (6)
The employee may have just found the rates cheaper with Exetel. Most employees of ISP's still have to pay for their own home internet so I wouldnt read any conspiracy into it.
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I know that the guy who used to run Wild Internet claimed to having a number of ADSL connections with other ISPs.
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I guess I would be one of those customers who is employed by another ISP but have Exetel services.
The main reasons are: I was with Exetel before I started employment here. The process of transferring is a tiresome one and I wish not to undertake it. * The services Exetel provides suit my needs better than one of our own plans and it is cheaper (we don't get free or discounted access). I find it is much easier knowing the backend of operations and how Optus / Telstra operate so I am not only able to troubleshoot my connection better, but provide more quality evidence / troubleshooting in order to expedite the process. Overall i'm happy and I have no intentions to switch. Comment (1)
Name and Shame, I say.
Might I suggest the first step is a mod to the forums that displays to everyone whether the poster/whinger was posting from a exetel/non-exetel IP. It should weed out those speed complaints from people that aren't even connected! Comment (1)
On our forums that's easy - we have eliminated those idiots a long time ago.
On third party forums we have no ability to do that. Comments (6)
There is a surprisingly large number of accounts whose contact email address ends in @team.telstra.com
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That's one 'team' I certainly wouldn't want to join anyway.
It's quite ironic that you often see complaints from these TIO ready loonies that Exetel don't have support systems in place, sure you can call Telstra support, but can you really call what they offer 'support' not in my book Comments (4)
I am always puzzled by the comments that "Exetel has no support".
I think that Exetel has better, and faster responding, support than ANY other ISP in Australia. I base this on my constant test calling to other ISP support numbers and to Exetel's support numbers. Exetel's support numbers answer in less than 60 seconds on almost all occasions. Other ISP support numbers often time out. Comments (6)
How often do those that claim no support have self induced problems anyway?
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The point is that they complain they get no support but they never make a call.
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why am I not surprised
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Do your support systems have Caller ID? Of course! a call from a JL number will be answered immediately
Comment (1)
The Exetel telephone statistics are generated by the Mitel PBX.
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People aren't getting crazier. Increasing financial (and time) burdens are making people angrier. They pent up all this frustration and it only takes a little thing like someone cutting them off while driving, or - heaven forbid - their Internet connection stops working, and all this pressure explodes in an irrational, disproportionate and sometimes violent temper tantrum.
Exetel is a victim of "ISP rage". Understand that these people are not really dissatisfied customers as such. It's just that their Internet going down happened to be the one final thing that pushed them over the edge, and they need to get it all off their chest by venting a bit. Once they've had their little tanty they feel better which is why they want to re-join Exetel afterwards. It's not your fault or anything you're doing wrong. You'll note that this phenomenon is correlated to people's financial outlook. As, or if, the economic situation in this country continues to deteriorate you can bet you'll see more of this angry, irrational type of customer. Here endeth today's armchair psychology analysis. As to why employees of one ISP would choose to use another, I guess they don't want their boss monitoring their private surfing habits Comment (1)
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