Deliberate Deception

So, my mobile phone has a data pack, which I can't auto refill, I need to manually do it every month, or the data drops to an extortionate rate. I got a text to say my data pack was expiring. I still had $50 or so in credit, I am a casual phone user, so I have opted for a plan where my credit lasts a long time, but I need to pump $10 a month in to data. I did this, I bought a data pack. It said it was successful, on my screen. Next morning, I have 0 credit, because it's all been used up. My data pack was not applied and so just checking my mail automatically, used up $50 overnight. Which is an insane cost, who would actually want to pay that ? Of course, they don't care, I can get some platitudes in broken English if I spend an hour on the phone, but my best course of action is to accept I've been rolled by Telstra again and just suck it up. W Why have a credit that lasts a year for phone, and nothing similar for data ? Why not allow me to set it up to auto refill every month so this never happens ? Because they want to rob me, that's why.

And on it goes

I've not posted here for a long time, for a couple of reasons: 1 - a friend of mine worked for Telstra 2 - through him, the CEO of Telstra called me, which I thought ( and still think ) was very decent of him. Sadly, my issues have continued, I've just not blogged them. My wireless internet has become more and more useless as the local tower gets more and more congested and is not being upgraded. I cannot use the internet after 5 pm weekdays, quite often on the weekend, and it drops out intermittently ALL THE TIME. I have considered hiring an office in the local town to stop depending on wireless to do my job, for now when it's really bad, I grab my notebook and go to a local cafe ( or did, until it burned down, something I hasten to add, I do not blame Telstra for ). I complained to the ombudsman and I got a letter offering to release me from my plan, as they have no plans to upgrade my tower any time soon. I recently bought a prepaid mobile phone. I was clear that I would use it almost entirely for data. I was sold a 12 month data pack for $80 on the basis that I rarely use it. I had the phone at home on my wifi network for 2 days then I had to go out and took it with me. I did not use it. The silent data transfers that took place meant my $80 was gone within an hour. Apparently, they will sell you a $80 credit that lasts 12 months, but, if you want a non extortionist data rate, you need to pay $10 a month for it, thus your 12 month credit is a flat out lie. And it seems the stores don't tell you this, they prefer to rob you once before you work out the plans for yourself. On top of that, my wireless modem recently blew up. I called support, and got someone in the third world who had no idea about anything I was asking about. They told me to go in to a store to get one, and it would connect to my existing account. I went in and asked for a router style modem. The only one they would sell me, was a tiny one that is a 5 station wireless hub. I got it home, and found I had to create a new account with it ( thus putting me on a two year plan ), despite my being told otherwise. I did this, and it worked OK for a while. Eventually ( within 6 months ), it would overheat and shut down ALL the time. It also has a rechargable battery in it, but the charge only lasts an hour or two. It's clearly not designed for constant use. Eventually, I had to upload a 10 MB file for work, and it was giving me speeds so slow, it was saying it would take 2 hours, but every 30 min, the modem would overheat and die. So, I called and asked for a replacement. I was told I had to go in to a store to get one. The store told me no, I had to call. I called and was told I'd be sent a 4G replacement modem. When it came, it was a 3G modem, the same useless model I had before ( although it's not overheated yet, I do have to keep it plugged in or the battery dies in no time ). The other thing that gets me is, the hardware they supply blows up, it takes a week to replace, and in the meantime, they make me pay for a prepaid modem so that I can keep using the internet, instead of giving me the bandwidth I've already paid for and cannot access !!!