Open letter to Telstra (GRRRRR!!!)

Dear Telstra,

After much deliberation (about 7 seconds) I have decided to shift my voice services to iiNet, in addition to my data services. This is for a few reasons:

1) They’re cheaper.
2) Their support is great.
3) When I called, I spoke to Adrian from Perth, not Raj from Mumbai, and Adrian had an Australian accent and could understand what I was saying and vice versa.
4) I didn’t get cut off halfway through the call (I can no longer count on one hand the number of times that has happened with Telstra in the last month).
5) They understand what a “generous quota” actually is and don’t use the word “Liberty” in the same context as “10gb/month”.

In addition to that, Telstra also failed to note that I canceled my *original* wireless service within the cooling off period (over $300), and that Telstra’s lack of accurate information led me to make a purchase of a SECOND wireless service, for which Telstra now expects me to pay full cancellation and hardware costs (over $400). To add insult to injury, Telstra have just billed me for another month of wireless access (~$165) despite the fact I no longer have a wireless service.

In yet another display of blatant ineptitude and disorganisation, getting my voice service connected in the first place was a struggle as Telstra was not in possession of up-to-date cabling records, and insisted that my home address does not, in fact, even exist. A Telstra representative also convinced me that I would be waiting “years” for additional ADSL ports to be supplied in my area, but that could be shortened to “months” if I switched to a business service, because that sort of build-out tends to be expedited. Less than 2 weeks after getting my landline connected, after Telstra finally sent a technician out to install the line anyway and just not bill me the installation cost if he did, in fact, find an active line (which he did), I was able to order ADSL through iiNet and had it connected in less than a week… despite the fact that Telstra insisted there was no way I was getting ADSL anytime soon. So essentially, I was sucked in to hopping on a Telstra Wireless plan by a combination of outdated information and outright lies, omissions and exaggeration.

Rest assured I have no intention on paying a single dollar of the ~$1,240 aggregate bill you’re about to hit me with, save for any costs incurred by *actual usage of service*, i.e. phone line rental, and the minute period of time during which I actually used your wireless service.

I wish to receive an updated bill which takes into account the waiver of fees for the first wireless plan (which was cancelled within Bigpond’s cooling off period, as confirmed by the representative who processed the order, and for which the associated hardware was returned), and the waiver of cancellation fees for the second wireless plan and associated hardware costs. In return, I am prepared to post back (at Telstra’s expense) the Bigpond Elite network gateway.

In essence, this leaves the line rental, call costs, and actual pro-rata usage of data services. I am happy to pay for these, as they represent what I actually used.

A copy of this letter is also going to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

Kind regards,

Richard Walker

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Bing, bing, bing.

Can someone please explain to me why Microsoft/Bing are spidering sites in large volume, from 65.55.0.0, and not identifying themselves as a bot/spider in their user agent?

While you’re at it…. explain what sort of impact this has on perceived conversion rates when the conversion:impression ratio ends up being a million miles apart.

Here’s a handy piece of code for your stats install (if running inhouse or AWStats or something similar):


<Directory "/path-to-stats-stuff">
Order deny,allow
Deny from 65.55.0.0/255.255.0.0
Allow from all
</Directory>


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