Telstra Chief Sol Trujillo laughs as consumers languish!

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?
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Goodna Hungry Jacks booms as Booval rip-off exposed

Hungry Jacks Goodna is doing a roaring trade after its official opening last Tuesday 22 April 2008.

Friday night was chaos with carloads of parents and children backed around the corner past the Church Street roundabout eagerly awaiting Goodna's new food outlet, next to the Caltex Service Station on Brisbane Road which is the service road which runs parallel to the Ipswich Motorway.

Friendly and alert staff have the Goodna drive-through operation running like clockwork.

This new outlet will undoubtedly give the nearby McDonalds store a run for its money with what many people regard as a superior product.

Goodna's new Hungry Jacks store which opened
this week. The store is already being criticised by
its own rival Hungry Jacks store at Booval in Ipswich.

But inter-store rivalry between competing Hungry Jacks outlets has already surfaced with the Booval Hungry Jacks ripping off customers and at the same time accusing the Goodna store of "doing the wrong thing" and charging customers more for the privilege.

However the claims by Hungry Jacks at Booval against their Goodna rival are completely off the mark because it is actually Booval which is deliberately dudding customers.

At McDonalds, kids meals comprising chicken nuggets, fries and a drink can be ordered as as 3 or 6 nugget pack.

But at Hungry Jacks, 3 nuggets are standard and extra nuggets have to be purchased as a separate add-on.

At Hungry Jacks Goodna - as the attached receipt attests - extra nuggets cost 90c each, or three for $2.70.

At Booval, customers are told that they cannot order 3 extra chicken nuggets - the minimum order being 4.

This costs the unsuspecting customer $3.15.

If customers query the 4-buy minimum for extra nuggets - when Goodna sells them as single extras - they are told that it works out cheaper than the way Goodna is charging and that their Goodna store should not be charging on a per nugget basis.

A customer today queried this advice when he actually produced - at the Booval drive-through - a Goodna receipt from 25 April 2008 for 3 nuggets @ 90c or $2.70.

Hungry Jacks Booval is clearly ripping customers off by forcing them buy a minimum of 4 extra nuggets for $3.15 when their counterparts at Goodna will gladly provide 3 extra nuggets for $2.70.

The unit price might be cheaper but the overall cost is clearly greater at Booval because of their higher minimum quantity, as the attached receipt from the Booval store in Ipswich shows.

Copies of receipts
from the Goodna and
Booval Hungry Jacks
stores showing which
one is ripping-off
customers.
[CLICK TO ZOOM]

For the Booval store to be slagging their "opposition" at Goodna is one thing, but falsely accusing Goodna of doing the wrong thing and ripping off customers is pretty weak when it is the Booval store doing the very thing itself.

Hungry Jacks Goodna is providing a cheaper alternative for struggling families in difficult financial times and the Booval store should be reprimanded by their superiors in Brisbane for its underhand tactics in condemning the Goodna store for its initiative and customer-friendly approach.


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Harbour Town on the Gold Coast - a Death Trap!

Harbour Town on the Gold Coast is regarded as one of the best shopping centres in Queensland, although its myriad of lanes and alleyways which make up the centre normally requires a compass or GPS unit to navigate the site.

But one thing which is lurking in Harbour Town is the lack of public fire safety with at least one store giving the public "two to the Valley" with its apparent attitude towards customers if a fire were to break out in the store.

Queensland's fire safety laws have been enacted by Parliament for a very good reason - to ensure that members of the public, men, women and children, are protected as far as humanely possible in the event of a fire.

It is not helped by stores such as Tivity which deliberately block the fire exit, preventing people from reaching safety if a fire broke out.

In this day and age, how can Tivity possibly justify blocking a safety exit.

There have been too many tragedies around the world where fire escapes have been locked or blocked to ignore these sorts of transgressions.

A picture speaks a million words in this case.

Despite the clear red lettering "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY", someone in Tivity has taken it upon themselves to place a display rack standing about two metres high, right at the entrance to the door.

The picture clearly shows the metal rack behind the fire door with other merchandise on the floor just behind.

You don't have to be Einstein to know that emergency exit doors are designed for one reason and that by blocking them with display racks, could lead to a real tragedy.

Harbour Town Management needs to act swiftly over this issue.

We are talking about people's lives - where there can be no compromise!

Tivity should be ordered to immediately remove this physical barrier from the emergency exit.

If they fail to take action, they should be referred to the Gold Coast City Council and the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service for their apparent blatant disregard of Queensland's fire safety laws.

The major concern is that store owners and managers often don't care about fire safety.

"I didn't think it would happen to me," is the usual utterance after a real tragedy occurs - then it is far too late.


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commercial exploitation, customer ripoffs or unacceptable business practices?
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Moviegoers given dud deal by Birch Carroll and Coyle

Michelle Vecchio might be pretty smart academically when it comes to being the Queensland Marketing Manager for Birch Carroll and Coyle (BCC) but she appears to be out of her depth on the issue of forced seating allocations.

BCC has recently unilaterally imposed seat allocations for all movie goers at its cinemas including Garden City, the Myer Centre, Chermside and Indooroopilly.

In the past, you could walk into the cinema and pick your own seats based on the theatre layout, distance from the screen, how tall the people were in front of you and whether or not you wanted to be surrounded by young and restless children.

Not any more.

It all seemed to work very well until the marketing gurus at BCC decided that they were smarter than the Australian public and that people must be told where they had to sit.

That might work in a crowded cinema but how can it be justified in a cinema less than half full?

This is exactly what happened to me and my two sons a fortnight ago at the Chermside edifice of Birch Carroll and Coyle.

John Paul aged 8 and James who is 6 fronted up to watch the Bee Movie and we were politely informed that we would be given specific seat allocations.

When I queried this, I was told that it was "world's best practice" by the dizzy young blonde behind the cash register.

"You can pick your own seating," she said.

"That's what I want to do," I responded.

"No - here on the screen. Pick your own seats."

"OK. Give me these three on the side about half way up," I suggested because my boys wouldn't have anyone in front of them and we wouldn't have anyone behind us kicking the seats and generally annoying us for an hour and a half.

I asked if she would keep the seats free around us for that very purpose.

"Of course," the sweet, young thing from BCC nodded with mock approval because 10 minutes later we were in our seats with a group of wriggling kids immediately behind us and tall moviegoers in front of us - which forced my kids to sway from side to side for the whole movie trying to get a a glimpse of part of the screen.

We had been mislead - if not lied to - by the staff of Birch Carroll and Coyle!

The cinema was less than a third full and whereas previously we could have chosen our own seats, we were now forced to sit in unacceptable, pre-allocated seats like regular inmates in a German concentration camp.

And now Michelle Vecchio reveals the height of her marketing prowess when she declares that forced seating allocations at BCC cinemas are no different from attending a QPAC concert or a major sports stadium.

I'm surprised she didn't throw airline seating in as well.

Michelle - there is no comparison!

When you go to your favourite coffee shop and there are plenty of spare tables, you would be unhappy if the staff told you where to sit, irrespective of your own wishes.

In my 50 years of movie going since I first enjoyed the canvas seats at the El Dorado cinema at Indooroopilly in 1957, I have never seen fist fights or punch-ups over self-selection seating arrangements.

What has changed so dramatically to force this new situation on patrons?

Ah! World's Best Practice. World's Best Bloody Practice!

As if we should all bow down and exalt: "World's Best Practice is good for me and good for Australia".

I am in full agreement with the woman in The Courier-Mail who described BCC's new arrangements as "stupid" and vowing never to return after they "has all been lumped together towards the back of the theatre, all in neat little rows on top of each other".

She went on to say: "So long BCC, it's been nice, but don't expect the people in my group to return until this stupidity is removed and people can make their own decisions as to where they want to sit".

Michelle - come down out of your ivory projection room - and talk to the people who are really angry at this new company policy which you are defending so passionately.

It used to be great in a Birch Carroll and Coyle cinema to flop into the first available seat.

Now, the only flop is the company's new seating policy.

And movie goers who object to the new arrangements should boycott BCC and save a stack at the same time by patronising the Cinexplex Cinemas at Southbank, Balmoral, Hawthorne and Victoria Point where adults pay $6, students $5 and children $4 to attend daytime screenings Monday to Friday and just a little more at other times.

And where the popcorn, drinks and ice creams are half the price of that charged by Birch Carroll and Coyle!

It is all reminiscent of 2 years ago when the Birch Carroll and Coyle / Greater Union chain placed a ban on patrons bringing their own food and drinks into their theatres. The only reason that the patrons were doing it was because of the crackerjack, ripoff prices which they were - and still are - being charged.

The people of Australia voted with their feet and this company - which seems to be perpetually full of out-of-touch marketing experts - was forced to back down.

Click here for a flashback to this disgraceful action by this money-hungry conglomerate.

Will they ever learn?


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commercial exploitation, customer ripoffs or unacceptable business practices?
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Coffee Club leaves customer boiling!

The following SMS Letter to the Editor was published in the Ipswich-based Queensland Times on Saturday 29 December 2007:


To Coffee Club Booval Fair who refused hot water to warm baby bottle, my friends and I who spend a lot in your shop won't be back. How mean can you get? - CAROLYN, Newtown


Indeed!

It would be fair to say that the founders of The Coffee Club in 1988, Emmanuel Kokoris and Emmanuel Drivas would be horrified to hear of this mother's dilemma at being refused such basic service at one of their outlets in Queensland.

Is this now official Company policy at all of their stores in Queensland?

The people of Queensland would like some answers.


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commercial exploitation, customer ripoffs or unacceptable business practices?
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Aldi breaks Australian laws with impunity

The German-based multi-national Aldi should hang its corporate head in shame over the actions of its store manager at Riverlink in Ipswich.

Despite breaching State and Federal laws, the store manager refused to refund the purchase price of a defective Apple iPod Nano bought by a local teenage consumer, Alyssa Beasley of Walloon.

This was in spite of Aldi's 60-day refund policy with proof of purchase.

The Queensland Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Kerry Shine was forced to step in, making it clear that consumers are legally entitled to a refund, exchange or repair on a product which was faulty, did not perform as stated by the vendor or did not match the relevant product sample.

Which is all pretty simple stuff.

Aldi has been in Australia long enough to know what our State and Federal consumer laws say, yet they are apparently happy to skirt around those laws with their posturing and prevarication until they are forced to act by Queensland's Attorney-General who puts people first.


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commercial exploitation, customer ripoffs or unacceptable business practices?

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