How to get rid of a Telstra telesales person

Stuart Corner
Monday, 24 September 2007 09:15

Opinion and Analysis

Telstra's telesales person was trying to get me to switch my home phone back to Telstra. He did not like me correcting his misinformation about Optus.

It was the usual cold sales call. I can always tell them. There's a long silence while the predictive dialler tells the operator that it has an answer.

SALES REP: "Hello this is Tam from Telstra. I just want to talk you about your home phone service. Is that OK?"

ME: "Sure."

SR: "Our records show that you are no longer getting your service from Telstra."

M; "That's right." (It's with AAPT actually).

SR: "But it still runs over our lines."

ME: "Yes. Who else's are there?"

SR: Optus has its own lines."

ME: "No it doesn't: it has a cable network but if it provides the service over a phone line it uses Telstra's."

SR: No, they are putting in their own lines."

ME: "No they are not."

SR: "Yes they are."

The interchange goes back on forth along these lines as we both maintain our positions, until:

SR: "Optus is ripping out Telstra's lines and putting in its own lines."

ME: "No it's not, If Optus provides a service over a phone line it rents the line from Telstra."

SR; "Oh my God. I'm not going to argue with you..." (Hangs up).

I consider that quite an achievement, getting a sales person so pissed off that they hang up: it's usually the other way around.