Cliptin said:
PS, Stick around jtr. James can tear it up. I actually expected more from you James. Couldn't get warmed up?
I wasn't angry, I was having fun.
Something similar happened two nights ago. Telstra (our local telephone incumbent) sells me home DSL service. I use it in the evenings and the weekends, my girlfriend uses it during the day for her web consulting work.
A few weeks ago the service was down for basically a whole day - say 20 hours. This didn't just affect us, it affected everyone in the state, so it was a pretty major outage. Anyway, my gf was pretty pissed off because obviously her business relies on her actually being able to see web pages and so on.
So I called up Telstra and complained to the billing department.
T: "Telstra Big Pond Broadband Billing, how may I help you?"
J: "I'd like to claim a rebate for the 20 hour service outage we had this month."
T: "Sir, what outage was that?"
J: "Well, that time when it was out for basically the whole day. Couple of weeks ago, I don't know the exact date."
T: "I'm afraid I need a precise date."
J: "Doesn't Telstra know when it has a service outage for that period of time? Or was "20 hour outage this month" not enough to narrow it down enough because they are so frequent?"
[The Telstra guy changes tack.]
T: "Sir, there is a specific clause in your user agreement that says that we don't offer credits for service outages."
J: "I understand that. It's just that as the national carrier, with a reputation to sustain in the market, I expect that Telstra would want to keep its customers happy."
T: "Yes sir, we do. But we don't offer service credits."
J: "Well, I see Telstra as a premium brand, with an excellent reputation. I also recall the CEO of Telstra standing up in July last year and giving an undertaking that the ADSL network would be stable by the first of January this year. Obviously, it isn't."
T: "Well, sir, as I said there's a clause in your contract saying that we don't make any undertakings as to the availability of the service. It's a service like any other. I mean, mobile phones drop out, and so there isn't perfect service there either. We don't offer credits in that situation."
J: "Obviously the ADSL network was so unstable last year that your CEO saw the need to actually publicly defend it, which he has never done with any other part of Telstra's service portfolio. He doesn't do that with the mobile network. And if the mobile network was out for a whole day, you'd have a pile of people asking for their money back. It'd be front page news."
[Silence for a bit.]
T: "So sir, what do you feel this outage was worth?"
J: "It was out a whole day. My girlfriend couldn't work."
T: "So, what if we give you a day's credit? That'd be just over $3."
J: "Is that what Telstra values a day of my time and my partner's business time and loss of income at? I think Telstra should tell me what they think that's worth."
[More silence.]
T: "I can give you a credit of up to 100% of your monthly fee. If you want more compensation, you have to call another department and put in a complaint for loss of business earnings."
J: "I'm not unreasonable, I understand this is a home service. I think we can work within the month's fees."
T: "How about 25% of the month's fees? That's about $23. Would you be happier then?"
J: "What would happen if there was another outage this month, or next month?"
T: "Well, as I said, we don't give service credits. This is a one-off goodwill gesture."
J: "So basically you're saying that I'd be selling my entire future rights to complain about the service for $23?"
[Long pause.]
T: "I suppose you could put it that way, sir, yes." [Laughs]
J: "Well then I reckon if this is my last chance to get any money out of you guys, I want every cent I can get. How about the whole month?"
T: [Laughs again] "No problem sir. Don't bother paying this month's bill, I've credited the whole amount. I do have to say, though, that we would expect you to stay with our service. You're out of contract so technically you could leave us tomorrow."
J: "I'm afraid I can't make that commitment. Surely Telstra wouldn't expect me to stay with a service that doesn't work. Are you creating a new contract obligation on my service?"
T: "No, not at all. We'd just ask that you stay with us for at least two months."
[Silence.]
T: "How about a month?"
J: "Deal."
