Woman shares Telstra nightmare working from home

OPINION: Telstra’s robot army is failing Australia’s work from home army just when we need them to bring their A-game

A real life Telstra robot, Cruzr the robot - that has potential use as a concierge - was one of the innovations on display at the Telstra Vantage conference.

TODAY is my fourth day of battle, trying in vain to get somebody other than a robot to talk at me (and hang up on me) at Telstra.

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I have phoned, I have waited on hold for hours, I have messaged, I have cried, I have gone on the website, I have downloaded the app and tried desperately to wave somebody down on that giant, mysterious, bloodless company highway.

And yet here I am four days later, where I started - the robot I have been messaging seems to have completely forgotten the deep and bonding conversation we began last Friday, and which continues as I type. Or was I just a three-night stand? My robot now full of regret and pretending it has never texted me in its life.

Either that, or it believes it fixed my problem, which it has not.

And yes dear robot, before you ask and trigger me again, I have turned off my modem and restarted it, and it did diddly squat.

Cruzr the robot - that has potential use as a concierge - was one of the innovations on display at the Telstra Vantage conference.

Just when I need you the most Telstra, you are letting me down big time.

I have tried to play nice, but this un-service you call service is appalling, particularly when most of the country has been forced to work from home and good communication and connectivity is more important than ever.

Dealing with Telstra has never been pleasant or easy, but the nightmare, it seems, has spiralled into new territory. Cormack McArthy territory. Is there some sort of army of cold, smirking robots bringing humanity to an end one unhelpful text message at a time?

I live about 10 minutes from Gympie and have two mobile phone accounts and a (painfully slow) internet access account with Telstra and my many, many attempts to get help have met with nothing but monotoned brick walls, hang-ups, and endless loops that go nowhere and fix nothing.

Being a team leader and working from home, it is vital I get this issue sorted but it is almost like there are no humans left at Telstra. Has there been some sort of mass job culling nobody told us about? Or a robot uprising?

Hal? Is that you?

Aerial footage of the Gympie CBD.

I might not be a millenial but I am far from clueless in the digital space. Yet I feel powerless to resolve this problem. I cannot imagine the impossibility that older, less tech savvy, Aussies face.

The Telstra robot tells me the lack of service is due to coronavirus, but aren’t most of you working from home? And aren’t robots immune to human viruses? Maybe not.

As soon as I can figure out how to drop you, I am gone, Telstra. Your recorded promise to “help me in another way” is empty. You suck.

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