A disgruntled Telstra customer is advocating a radical method for circumventing billing disputes with Australia's largest carrier.
Sydney businessman Adam Todd wants companies to separate all Telstra services into individual bills -- that's a statement for each phone line or other service, every month.
Todd told ZDNet Australia that, because Telstra prefers to consolidate bills for multiple services, the carrier can effectively hold businesses to ransom by cutting all services when payment for one is outstanding or in dispute.
He said Telstra had cut all 13 services to his wife's small business, although only one service was in dispute, and was able to do so because all services appeared on a single account.
Yesterday Todd issued a request to major IT and ISP related mailing lists for companies and individuals with Telstra billing disputes to contact him.
"I've had talks with nine ISPs and four corporations," Todd told ZDNet Australia. He said he had received a response from a major Australian company that does AU$300-million worth of business a year with Telstra.
"Telstra can't disconnect services on bills that are paid, only on ones that are not paid. ISPs with some services in dispute can choose not to pay until the issues are resolved, and they won't have all their other services disconnected." In the meantime, "Telstra will have four times the mess to clean up when they don't do the job properly."
A Telstra spokesperson described Todd's suggestion as "not particularly constructive", adding only that Telstra provides adequate notice before cutting services
"Of course it's not constructive," director of ISP Albury Local Internet Ross Wheeler said, nevertheless "I am extremely likely to do it." That means being prepared to handle at least 90 bills for various Telstra products. Wheeler said that this presents no more difficulty than his current dealings with the carrier. Albury Local Internet is currently withholding payment for some Telstra services in dispute.
"I have not had a single correct phone bill from Telstra in five years as an ISP. And in all the times I have had incorrect bills, never once has the error been in my favour," Wheeler said
According to Todd, another ISP, which he declined to name, is considering de-consolidating a bill for 460 phone lines in four states.
Todd has had plenty of practice arguing with Telstra over billing and fault complaints. As a telecommunications consultant and Telstra partner he already manages dealings between the carrier and several clients. He told ZDNet Australia that he is now considering setting up a separate business, purely to battle billing disputes on behalf of customers.
He advocates that unhappy customers should ensure their complaints are logged in Telstra's internal complaints tracking system and that callers should ask for a complaint ID number at the end of each complaint-related conversation.
