I checked the post box today and found a wonderful letter from Telstra, kindly informing me that from the 1st June 2004, the line rental fee (for the plan I'm on) will increase from $23.50 to $26.95 per month.
It's only $3.45, but I don't see the point of this increase, when Telstra's national/international/mobile prices are the highest in the market (correct me if I'm wrong), it's the default choice on new connections and its net profit for the half year ending 31st December, 2003, was $2,293 million (an increase of 99.4% over the value at 31st December, 2002). It's total revenue for the period was $10,456 million (a decrease of 0.1% from the value at 31st December, 2002, which was caused by "declines in revenues from offshore subsidiares… together with declines in ISDN and other sales and service revenue"). Does that look like a company that is struggling to maintain profits? Hardly, considering that massive increase in profits, despite the revenue decrease!
To make it a double whammy, Telstra has also imformed me that on the 26th July, 2004, a "Payment Processing Fee" will be introduced on all payments using credit cards. The reasoning behind this, according to Telstra, is to "partially recover the costs incurred by Telstra in providing this payment option". Riiight. So they're going to slap me with a fee between 0.63% and 1.69% of the bill amount (plus GST!), depending on the credit card I use. Surely Telstra can afford to cover this cost for the customers? I can't think of any other companies I use that have the balls to charge fees for credit card payments.
Woolworths? Nope.
Coles? Nope.
Vodafone? Nope.
Energy Australia? Nope.
iiNet? Nope.
The reason I'm pissed off about this is because I get paid fortnightly by the Uni with my scholarship payments. I also have to get money from my flatmate to cover his calls and half the line rental, which I can't always get immediately. I can't always get to the bank to deposit this money, either. Sometimes I don't have the money spare to pay for the bill immediately, so it's convenient to pay for the bill before the due date and pay it off later when I get paid.
So what's the motivation to make these changes, Telstra?
Is this to improve the "quality of the network"? I haven't seen anything like that…
How about to provide better customer service? Nope… Queue times for the call center are just as long…
Maybe you're just being greedy, money-sucking scumbags with no idea of how to treat your customers? …
Hell yes.
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