According to The Courier-Mail on 8 December 2007, the CEO of Telstra Sol Trujillo now has an obscene pay package of $22 million a year.
It's a pity that his lust for the big money is not reciprocated to consumers with an emphasis on quality service.
Just take this example of Telstra treating customers with total disdain.
Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo
thinking of ways to increase
his $22 million annual salary
package.
Last Tuesday 3 June 2008, my home phone / internet line went as dead as a door nail and was promptly reported to Telstra with a guarantee it would be fixed by 7pm Tuesday 10 June 2008.
This was despite advice today from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman that this time frame exceeded the customer guarantee for fixing landline faults, which Telstra is obliged to follow.
I was assured that if a technician attended my home and we were not there, they would leave a calling card with a contact number.
On Friday, I called Telstra on an unrelated matter and was told that no technician had yet been assigned to my job - 3 days after the initial complaint.
Today, a check with Telstra in Ipswich revealed that a technician did come out on Saturday but had failed to leave a calling card.
The problem was supposedly a line fault in the second pit from my home which allegedly had concrete over the top of the pit.
Today, I personally inspected all of the pits from my home for a distance of 250 metres. Lo and behold, there was no sign of any concrete impeding access to any pit over that distance.
Sol Trujillo holds up 10 fingers -
one for each of the almost
$100,000 he earns each
weekday as head of Telstra.
A call to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) gave me a reference number and a contact number with Telstra who blithely told me that they had 10 days to respond positively to a TIO complaint but that they would pass my complaint onto a case officer.
I suppose I should be really grateful for that.
So, Telstra now has 17 days to fix this line problem!
You make a complaint to the TIO which automatically gives Telstra extra time to finalise the matter - a pretty, bloody stupid system.
The TIO stated that Telstra will be liable for breaching their Customer Service Guarantee with a daily penalty of $14.52 for 5 days (after either 1 or 3 days, depending upon my location) plus $48.40 a day thereafter.
Frankly, I cannot give a hoot about this compensation.
As a loyal customer of Telstra for 34 years, I expect nothing more and nothing less than a prompt response to my complaint with the line being fixed as a matter of priority.
And a note left in my letterbox as promised, rather than hanging around like a dill waiting for Telstra to arrive.
In the good old days in the 60s, you could speak directly with a technician at the local exchange and get prompt replies and service.
Now, while Sol Trujillo counts his weekly salary of $423,000, all I want is my bloody phone connection restored!
Is this Sol Trujillo
counting his $1.83 million
monthly pay packet?
Sol - is that too much to ask?
Sol, Sol - are you listening?
Sol, Sol - what's that noise? Actually, it sounds like bank notes being counted with ecstatic laughter every few seconds!
Sol, Sol - I know you are busy but could you please spend just a few minutes to help one of your loyal customers.
WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK
Have you had a problem with Telstra?
Has Telstra failed to give you proper service within a reasonable time frame?
Has Telstra treated you as a nuisance rather than a customer?
Email Queensland and Australian Politics & Consumer Affairs with full details.
The next Governor of Queensland - who takes over from the incumbent Quentin Bryce on September 5 - is likely to be the last Governor of Queensland, as Australia inevitably heads towards a democratic republic.
