customer service - optus style

I had an email from Lloyd saying his phone wasn't working even though he'd set it up for roaming and could I ring Optus and see why.

I immediately passed this job onto Daz. That is one of his jobs. Dealing with phone matters, taking animals to the vet, cleaning up childrens vomit and picking up dog shit. (I pretend I don't see him throw it over the neighbours fence.)

So of course before you get to speak to a customer service person at optus (who I think is sitting in India), you have to first get past the robotic recorded voice that asks you questions to decide what department to send you to. I kept hearing Daz saying loudly Moow-biile. Because usually the recorded voice says - did you say manadarin? I just say - yes, because she gets confused and passes you onto an actual person.

So he got past her and waited for 30 minutes to talk to someone who said

I can't tell you anything without a password.

So we send Lloyds girlfriend a text - whats the password. Lloyd says he uses one password for everything so its probably that.

Daz repeats the whole 30 minute wait - gets to the service person and explains the situation again.

Do you have the password

Daz tells the password

That is not the password - it will only be four digits. But hang on he doesn't have a password set up says service person.

Daz says - good - then lets talk.

No, Lloyd will have to ring and set up a password.

He can't ring, thats the problem, his phone doesn't work.

Then he'll have to go to a public phone and ring.

So you want him to go to a public phone and stand there waiting for 30 minutes to set up a password?

Yes, this is what I'm wanting.

So Daz comes out and says

So now I'm going to have to ring back and pretend I'm Lloyd and set up a password.

So he waits another thirty minutes and speaks to someone else who doesn't even ask him for a password. Just his birth date and address. He then tells him the phone is set up for roaming but it doesn't work in a lot of places. In fact there is a long list of places it won't work and you're better off going and getting an international sim card.

Every now and then I have a moment where I wonder why we left optus years ago. Then I am reminded.

Tags:

Next Posts

Previous Posts

Comments

Raymond
So you're saying optus throws it over the fence as well?
cat
lol - definitely. As far as they can.
Emjay
LOL! When we went to Europe I called Vodafone and asked the same thing - make it work in Europe. Yes, absolutely it will positively work. Yeah, right ... got to Amsterdam and of course it didn't work even though there are Vodafone signs everywhere! Ring them on Skype (from a McDonalds where we got free wifi - ME in a Mcdonalds!!) they were so unhelpful that I hung up walked to a Vodafone outlet place and bought a Pay as you go sim card. LOL - the instructions on activating it were not in English which was funny but it did work everyplace we went.
cat
He said to - forget about it working in Canada, as if it was the end of the earth. Can't you buy a kind of disposable phone - all the baddies in those books I read go and buy them.
Emjay
Yeah - vodafone doesn't work here in the US. I keep the sim card for Australia but I was so annoyed when they told me it would work in Europe. The place in Europe told me that they (australia) didn't do something they were supposed to do. Yes - I buy "unlocked" phones from New York and then put a sim card in from where-ever - here T-Mobile will sell him a sim card which will work across the states but might not in Canada. I think Telstra will roam both here and Canada. I have a spare phone and sim that I lend visitors.....
Snowy
I used Telstra global roaming in both the UK and the Continent on a previous visit and it worked fine. This time I used Optus in the UK and Singapore, and uh, it worked fine too, even in Cornwall where some of the UK ones didn't have coverage. It was expensive, but convenient.

Now, about call centres laughingly called customer service centres... no, I'd better stop there.
cat

hmm interesting. Lloyds hasn't worked since he got there. Not in England, France and now Italy. He did the turn it off for three minutes then back on but no luck.

customer service hmmm

Snowy
Hmm, not sure why that should be. Optus also worked fine for me in New Zealand too. Is he using an Optus supplied phone that worked in Oz?
cat
yes - same phone he's had for years - look at you Mr I've been everywhere, man.
Empress Nasi Goreng

I immediately passed this job onto Daz. That is one of his jobs. Dealing with phone matters, taking animals to the vet, cleaning up childrens vomit and picking up dog shit.

I need a Daz too! I hate dealing with Optus too. Their customer service stinks. My husband's main strategy with any company like that was always to select the 'sales' option. That way you get through to a real person straightaway!

Snowy
I think Optus haven't turned it on. There's an overseas assistance contact number I got from here that might be worth a try.

For any assistance while overseas please call + 61 2 9342 5678. Please note that Optus Customer Care closes at 7pm Sydney time.
cat
thanks snowy - they say it's turned on, but I'll pass the number on to him.
Snowy
He is using the +61 2 prefix isn't he?
cat
yes - everyone needs a daz. And I just can't cope with vomit. Not so good with snot either. I've never had to deal with optus before but the kids all have their mobiles with them because they had the best text to friends deal. I always get put straight through to a real person because of this stupid throat problem I have. They think I'm saying a word when I'm just clearing my throat and it confuses them. Although I'm usually dealing with someone thrilling like the tax department or industrial relations. lol that reminds me, one day I waited to talk to someone at industrial relations for 45 minutes then this message came on the line saying it was 4pm and they had shut and please ring back the next day.
Empress Nasi Goreng
I had a similar experience with Fair Trading (but did eventually get through). Centrelink very bad as well.
Flamingo Dancer
[this is good]
My Mum asked me to me call a govt dept about her pension once and they said they couldn't speak to me without her consent, so I handed her the phone and she said " I want you to tell my daughter" and they did....we both could have been anybody...crazy.
Flamingo Dancer
I also meant to say that the same thing happened to us in NZ. Mr FD's phone wouldn't work but luckily we had mine and he was able to phone and sort his out!!!!
cat

lol - you could have been lottie less and betty best for all they knew.

gcgal
OMG how frustrating....it's lunacy! In this era of technology...the phones SHOULD work and call centres....ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH *runs screaming*
cat
call centres are a bit of a joke - I always hear my husband saying - so where exactly are you? It's always about a million miles away.
gcgal
I used to work for one unfortunately (for those other creeps) and I hated the job so much because we were so restricted in the ways we could help BUT we learned sneaky ways around those because we got sick to death of customers getting shafted! ;-)
cat
I watched a scary doco on four corners once about the stress telstra wokers were under in those places. Someone had even committed suicide.
gcgal
Yeah I saw that, and it isn't surprising at all, they put their staff under a lot of pressure to perform.
Snowy
Just wondering if Lloyd got his international roaming problems sorted out?
cat
no - still not working but he says he doesn't care! lol, I said, well I do. Ok now he's with friends but once he starts wandering on his own he'll have to get an international sim card I guess. (to keep me happy).
Snowy
Does he have an unlocked phone? You can pay to get them unlocked in the UK. Used to cost 15 pounds or so.
cat
don't know about that - he'll have to check it all out when he gets back to London. He has a few days there before he heads off again.
Snowy
Our elder son has found the job situation in London not to his liking, so he's heading off to Canada to try his luck. We talk to him every day on Messenger. The wonders of the Net.
cat
I know - though I did say to my husband, well you know people did travel all over the world without phones and emails once and managed to make it back ok.

Post a comment

Already a Vox member? Sign in

You will be asked to join Vox to post this comment.