Tim Bennett’s blog – Electron Soup

Updated 18 March: Jono H at Telstra is express posting a starter kit & $60 voucher! Now assuming Australia Post does its job, this will all be sorted out by the weekend! I can’t say a big enough thank you to Jono H & Telstra for making this happen. You guys are awesome.

This is my grandmother Lorna. She’s 79 years old, lives on her own, and is completely independent. But she’s still 79 years old, and likes the security of being in contact with her family through her mobile phone. If she ever needs to, she can call us. Or if we can’t get in touch with her at home, we can call her.

That is, until Telstra cancelled her pre-paid mobile phone because she hadn’t put any more money into her account in the last few  months.

Here’s how Telstra Pre-Paid works. You buy a SIM card with a credit balance for phone calls, and put it in any phone. The balance on your account also comes with a credit expiry date, which you extend by putting more money on your account. After this date passes, your phone goes into a “recharge only period” in which you need to add more money, regardless of your account balance. After a few more months, Telstra deactivates your phone and keeps any money left in your account. (You can find out more in this document at points 3.7 to 3.26.)

My grandmother doesn’t make that many calls from her mobile phone, so she doesn’t recharge her credit very often. Why, then, does Telstra have the right to switch off her mobile phone service and pocket the money in her account? Does it put too much of a hole in Telstra’s bottom line to provide a phone service that generally only receives calls? (Telstra’s net profit in 2007/08 was $3.7 billion, up 13% on the previous year.)

Of course I called Telstra to try to sort this out. On my first call to 1258880 I was told that the service was “quarantined” on 11 March, and that it could only be reactivated after six months. When I asked about having it reactivated sooner, I was told to call 125111. I called this number, and after being transferred to the “prepaid” division was told that the phone number had been “deactivated” on 11 March, and there was no chance it was ever coming back. Impossible. So which one of these is it, Telstra?

This is all I want: to be able to hand my grandmother’s mobile phone back to her in working order, on Friday, so she can take it with her on holidays. Is that too hard to ask, Telstra? You can contact me at flashman@gmail.com or on Twitter. Here’s your chance to shine & show you’re not just a corporate monolith. Please don’t disappoint us.