Telco blunders ‘beyond a joke’
MARK CUMMINS says he’s not the fighting type, but a month of Telstra and NBN blunders has left him fighting mad. With wife Michelle he runs the South Dubbo Newsagency and he’s fuming that not only was his internet shut off a week before the NBN was meant to be installed, but that neither company wants to accept any blame for their incompetency.
MARK Cummins says he’s not the fighting type, but a month of Telstra and National Broadband Network (NBN) blunders after blunders after blunders has left him fighting mad.
With wife Michelle he runs the South Dubbo Newsagency and he’s fuming that not only was his internet shut off a week before the NBN was meant to be installed, but that neither company wants to accept any blame for their incompetency.
“I’ve never thrown a punch in my life, I’ve never tried to start a conflict, I always try and talk things out, but this is just beyond a joke. It’s making everyone look stupid and we’re just not getting anywhere,” Mr Cummins told Dubbo Photo News.
“We just keep getting the runaround, no-one wants to take any responsibility. My wife’s been on the phone for 35 to 40 hours over the last month, and we’re not getting anywhere, they just keep passing the buck all the time.
“We’ve got dongles and routers that they’ve given us coming out of our ears and none of them are any good – every time something happens they just disconnect a dongle,” he lamented, saying that nothing has worked and, given the attitude from Telstra, nothing positive seemed likely to happen in the near future.
“They turned our internet off a week before it was supposed to be turned off and it’s just frustrating – and we’re not the only ones going through this stuff either,” Mr Cummins said.
“The latest version is that the equipment they’ve given us doesn’t match the gear they’ve mounted on to our wall. I’m no tech expert, it’s beyond me, we’re frustrated and Michelle’s not getting any sleep over it.
“We’re losing business because the Lotto and our main computers keep going down all the time, there’s been a few days where we haven’t had anything at all and we’ve had to write stuff down, do it all by hand, and then input it that night or the next morning when we get internet back on,” he said.
The Cummins have had to use their own data on personal mobile phones to keep operating because Telstra turned the internet off before a new service was in place and working properly.
“Everyone just blames everyone else and no-one will take ownership of our problem – some people can only help us so far, they’ve only got so much authority,” Mr Cummins said.
“We get told people will be here to fix things and no-one shows up, and when they do show up from Telstra the gear that’s been installed here is wrong so they can’t do anything.
“It’s not going to close us down, it’s not going to send us broke, but this is costing us money and we’re just one of thousands who are going through it right now,” he said.
Michelle Cummins was interviewed for a Dubbo Photo News story a few weeks ago. She said then that the Telstra service – or total lack of anything resembling customer service – has left her beyond disillusioned, she has no confidence the company can fix anything anytime soon.
“I’ve heard there’s a north Dubbo business that they cut off for nine weeks,” Mrs Cummins said, concerned on top of the toll this stuff-up is taking on their business that she’s also working many extra hours every week to try and resolve the problem as well as input data manually to keep their business working.
“I’m just waiting to see if we get a bill from Telstra for our internet when we’re not getting that service from them,” she said.
Mark Cummins is now looking at the bigger picture, back to when the federal government sold Telstra and then when another federal government set up the NBN, and then this current government tinkered with it.
“When these politicians go into power they say they’ll fix the NBN – don’t make any new promises just fix the problems we’ve got now,” Mr Cummins urged.
Dubbo Photo News has previously contacted Telstra for comment or an explanation about the Cummins’ problems, but those requests have been ignored.
Unfortunately the Cummins don’t have the option of ignoring what was once a great telco service provider.