We’ve had broadband in our house for a long time now – first with Telecom (too expensive) then with Slingshot (left because of that Presley woman) and now Telstra (signed up when the nice man knocked on our door and told us how much money we could be saving).

So, the cable was duly run from the street to our house via the guttering on the garage, across the path, through the cavity of the roof and into one of the upstairs bedrooms which acted as Sugars office.

Now the children have decided they need/want their own rooms so the office is moved downstairs. Suddenly there is a need to move the broadband connection.

I phone Telstra. This is a brief summary of what happens:

1. I wait and wait on the phone…I speak to someone…they put me on hold…they come back and transfer me…I speak to someone else…they tell me it’ll be $59.95 and book a serviceman.
2. The window to greet the serviceman is from 12.30 – 4.30pm. This seems like a long time to be waiting at home. I get them to agree to call me 30 minutes before the serviceman arrives.
3. The day comes. I’m phoned 30 minutes prior. The serviceman is here when I arrive. So far it’s looking good, but he has bad news. Apparently a rogue installer strung the cable from the street incorrectly…there’s no ‘grey box’ on the outside of the house…and there are too many joins in the cable (which is supposed to be bad for BB speed, although we never noticed). He can’t do anything. He leaves.
4. The next day I’m called by a manager. We need to have the cable restrung from the street. He needs to meet me at the house, between the hours of 12.30 and 4.30 pm. Again, I ask to be called 30 minutes before he arrives.
5. I get the call and leave a meeting at work hoping to get home and find him there. No man from Telstra. I wait 30 minutes. Sugar gets home from collecting the kids from school. I decide to return to work. Telstra man arrives and confirms that the original cable was installed incorrectly – he didn’t believe his worker. He leaves.
6. No-one gives us a date to restring the cable from the street.
7. A day later I arrive home from work to discover the cable has been laid. It goes nowhere. There is no magic ‘grey box’ although they did run the wire to the place they said they would.
8. The next day I get a phone call. A serviceman will be dispatched to install the new connection in the downstairs room. He will visit between the hours of 12.30 and 4.30 pm. Sigh.
9. I wait at work. I get no call. I phone Telstra. They say I’m definitely booked and they’ll call. I eventually get a call at 5.15pm saying the serviceman will be there in an hour.
10. I get home from work at 6.00pm. The serviceman arrives at 6.45pm – he’s working late. He installs the connection and leaves at 7.30pm.

We now have a connection. We are very happy. Telstra have probably spent more on moving our connection than they will charge us for three years of BB delivery.

I don’t know whether this story is a good one or a bad one. Ultimately they provided fantastic service in a slow and haphazard way. It should be of no concern to me that they spent thousands of dollars to complete a job that they charged me $59.95 for, but I hate to see bad process and I hate to see waste.