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Category: Internet Technology / Telecommunications / Business, Economics and Finance

Telstra customers dispute claims major internet outage fixed

Monday, 23 May 2016 15:53:28 | Lucy Carter

Telstra has repeatedly claimed the outrage had been resolved. (ABC News: Nic MacBean)

Some Telstra customers say they have been without an internet connection for up to five days, even though the company claims the latest outage has been fixed.

Key points:

  • Third major outage of 2016 began last week
  • Contrary to the company's statements, scores of customers remain offline
  • Consumer advocates advise customers to seek compensation

Telstra first acknowledged the latest issue online on Friday, saying that there was "an incident affecting NBN voice and data and ADSL customers".

It later clarified that: "There was a fault with the device that manages the interaction between our network and all of the different types of customer modems."

By 8:11pm on Friday, Telstra announced "all NBN voice and data services and ADSL services affected today were restored earlier this evening".

Over the weekend Telstra's online updates on the latest outage continued — acknowledging that "a small number of customers" were still having problems.

On Sunday night at 5:00pm, the company said "residual issues affecting NBN and ADSL data services are now resolved".

Customers face a week without internet

However, PM spoke to half a dozen customers who said their connection problems were ongoing and they have been left with no internet, customer support or idea when the problem will be fixed.

Scores more disgruntled customers have taken to social media to complain about ADSL and NBN issues relating to an ongoing outage.

External Link: Telstra tweet May 21: All affected services restored

Adam from Perth said his internet connection dropped out on Thursday night.

"There's been no connection since that time. Went on to Telstra's website and their helpdesk advice was that they're rectifying the problem, then they posted one that said the problem has been rectified restart your modem," he said.

"That didn't help. The following day they posted another one saying that it had all been fixed but whatever you do don't restart your modem, it makes it worse."

Adam said the issue only affected his home internet, and while annoying it is not causing him any major issues.

'There's a lot of spin going on'

Adelaide university student Caitlin said she has had no internet connection since Thursday morning and is not able to study or submit assignments.

Caitlin said she had spent hours on the phone trying to get through to Telstra for help.

"The first time was 2.5 hours and it cut off, they cut me off before they answered. I was told last night it would be done by 7:00pm," she said.

"To wake up this morning for it to still not be working and to get a text message from them saying they won't come out until Thursday."

External Link: Tweet: You have called Telstra. Your call cannot be completed at this time. Please hang up and try again later.

Ken, runs a small business in Nimbin on the NSW north coast, said his ADSL internet connection has been offline since late on Wednesday.

"I do office administration-type work for various clients online so it's starting to pile up. They can be understanding, but not infinitely," he said.

Ken said Telstra has tried to blame the problem on his modem — the one he bought from the company only very recently.

"The inconsistency is the worst thing, the people on the phone apparently not knowing what's going on," he said.

"There's continual messages from Telstra to the media that they've fixed the problem it hasn't been fixed and people are denying it and there's a lot of spin going on but not much action."

Consumer advocates advise those affected to seek compensation

Tom Godfrey, from consumer group Choice, said Telstra mobile customers have suffered three significant mobile outages already this year and the telco giant's response was not good enough.

External Link: Tweet: @Telstra Not impressed because we were told it would be fixed before the weekend was over, and yet now it's Monday and it's still not done

Mr Godfrey said if customers feel they are not delivering an appropriate service, they should take action.

"Obviously businesses have issues from time to time but that doesn't mean as a consumer that you can't seek a remedy, particularly if this is ongoing," he said.

"We need to remember Telstra is a premium-price service, people pay a lot of money to be with that company so I'd encourage everyone to keep detailed records of every outage they experience including any impact on their business operations and then seek compensation accordingly.

"Telstra shouldn't be leaving you on hold and they shouldn't be leaving you without your contracted service so if these problems persist I would strongly urge you to contact the ombudsman and report it."

PM asked Telstra for an interview but did not receive a response.

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