disabling Telstra Home Messages 101 - help

I am talking about a mobile phone. Telstra Home Messaging 101 is enabled on these too, in the 21st century. And it is still a pain in the arse in the 21st century.

I got a reply back from my service provider, who uses the Telstra network, and it takes, to cancel the service , in Telstra's words "sometime next week"

Do I hear the sound of wires being unplugged?

 

I have no idea about telstra but is it the same as voice mail or different? I'm on optus and can configure voice mail via their app.

 

Probably called voicemail as well, Telstra have 2 similar services, which I don't know much about, except it is a service designed to gouge money out of the caller when the 101 service answers the call.

I don't use the phone often, so I am on a "no monthly fee, pay for calls only" plan with Sacko Technology, here in Qld, and my monthly bill is only a few dollars, some months it is not enough to bother paying, so I roll it over till next month.

I will give them a plug, why should the big guys have all the fun?

http://www.sacko.com.au/voice-products/cheapest-mobile-phone-plans/

Less brain damage using the internet though.

 

Lol still a problem in 2022, cant turn off from the 101 menu....

 

that's not a problem, it is by design.

the network terminated the call, so the caller is billed. and bonus points for the carrier - you'll probably return the call.

 

Well yeah a problem for the user eh.

 

By design for the Telco, not the customer.

People still have a landline and pay per call? Fckin Telstra...



JSmith

 

it's not designed for the user. when I was at Telstra it was long held belief that from a PSTN revenue perspective, the greatest thing the company could do was give everyone an answering machine. this is the modern version of it. why else do you think they gave THM101 away? it was to extract additional revenue from the market that they could not flog paid Messagebank to. and people heard they were getting something "free" and lapped it up.

 

After spending some time googling and trying all the steps to remove messagebank that do not work, I came across this forum discussion and ended up calling Telstra as suggested.
I spent SEVERAL HOURS on the phone and live chat, trying in vain to remove messagebank from my service. Eventually a consultant advised messagebank will be removed "within 24-48 hours". However, 48 hours later, it was still active so I repeated the time consuming request a couple more times as above.

Messagebank remained active and, long story short, I missed important calls who left voicemails assuming I will receive them.

I raised a complaint. The complaint manager and I went through all the invalid instructions to remove Messagebank, and eventually I was transferred to someone who was actually able to remove it. My complaint was closed as resolved.

However, I later discovered that a change to my account had quietly re-added messagebank again by default and again I missed important calls that went to messagebank I wasn't aware of!

I raised a TIO complaint. To resolve my complaint requesting for Telstra to cease this unethical practice of forcing customers to accept a product by default that cannot be removed using the instructions they provide.

The Telstra TIO complaint manager advised it is not unethical and nothing will be done just because messagebank doesn't suit me, nor because I had difficulty removing it. As far as I know, no feedback will be provided to any department about this.

I challenged that this issue affects not just me but every Telstra landline customer, even if they don't have a phone phyically connected people who call them will be charged connection to Messagebank which is nearly impossible to remove.
I advised in order to resolve my TIO complaint, Telstra need to make it possible for customers to remove messagebank using handset prompts as it was previously, and update their incorrect documentation about how it is done. They also need to revise their processes and educate their staff how to remove messagebank when customers call or live chat.

No, none of those reasonable actions will be taken. They pointed out that Messagebank is included in the service bundle as shown in the PDS and I have the option to not accept that bundle. They simply noted that I would not be satisfied with their proposed resolution of doing absolutely nothing except apologising for how difficult it is to remove messagebank.

Even if I switch providers, this issue will persist for everyone else who is affected and they will continue raking in the unethical profits. This thread is almost 20 years old with no resolution in sight.
Next step is to escalate with TIO.

By the way, Messagebank is still active on my service and as far as I know nothing is being done to remove it. I signed up to overclockers just to update this thread!