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Sydney Morning Herald

Monday September 8, 2008

Nick Galvin

A bizarre series of events led to major hassles for one Optus customer, reports Nick Galvin.

Those of you with the good taste and discernment to regularly make a Monday date with Troubleshooter will recall that last week's column dealt with a unilateral decision on the part of Telstra to rechristen one of its customers.

The cause of this seemingly high-handed behaviour turned out in the end to have been a simple keying error when entering the customer's user name. (That ham-fistedness was, of course, compounded by some fairly ordinary customer service.)

Today, we have another case that bears testimony to the havoc that can be wreaked in this digital age by stuff-ups when entering information into a database.

Jo Thomson's trouble first started around the end of June when she started receiving telephone calls from grumpy Optus customers wanting their DSL modem problems fixed.

Now, Thomson is evidently a pretty tech-savvy sort of person but she's not up to fixing other folks' internet connection issues. Frankly, she has better things to do.

So she phoned Optus to point out that she didn't particularly want to deal with their customer service calls. Optus told her to phone Telstra, her own service provider, "as it must be a problem with their line".

"I did this and the Telstra supervisor did ring back and say a check revealed the lines were OK and the fault was an incorrect diversion number," she said.

The plot thickened.

"Now the calls are coming at up to 10 per day," she told us at the time. "Some are abusive, [asking] why I can't help. Some are apologetic - I've spoken to many people in Victoria and Queensland. Now I am getting calls on my mobile!"

Now as much as this might seem to be a great way to meet people and make new friends, we sensed at this point that Thomson was getting more than a little frustrated. She faxed Optus to ask for a resolution but no response was forthcoming. Then she came to us.

Optus, to its credit, sprang into action. And it turns out the fault (other than not being very helpful) was not actually the company's.

In fact, the Optus sleuths uncovered a bizarre series of coincidences, compounded by a call-forwarding mistake made by an online classified advertising service that Thomson uses.

"Due to an error made by a third party, the customer was experiencing a call diversion," said an Optus spokeswoman. "We have since spoken with the third party and confirmed they have rectified the situation."

All of which is a high-falutin' way of saying that Thomson is no longer bombarded by rogue calls from Optus customers seeking answers to their modem problems. "Thank you," a relieved Thomson said. "It is so frustrating to think that no satisfaction comes until you go to the media."

Can't get satisfaction from your ISP? New laptop on the fritz? Mobile phone provider driving you nuts? Tell us your problem and we'll try to help: email troubleshooter@smh.com.au.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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