Woman blasts Telstra for charging her for phones she didn't buy
An angry Telstra customer has launched an online tirade after she claims a case of mistaken identity saw her incorrectly billed more than $2,000.
Angela McCarthy from Queensland posted on Telstra’s Facebook page claiming she was billed for two new iPhones in November 2016.
But Ms McCarthy claimed she didn’t order any iPhones and Telstra sent them to another person named Angela McCarthy.
Ms McCarthy said she rang Telstra after being billed $2093 but was told someone had signed for the parcel.
She said she got referred to the fraud team and then put through to Queensland Police.
“I request Telstra to bar both services, but, and I quote 'you can only bar a service that you own',” she said.
“So by me barring the unauthorised services it would mean that I now own the accounts.
“Except all I have to show for it is a tracking number for an address down south and a $2093 bill.”
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She said Queensland Police confirmed it wasn’t a case of fraud and Telstra realised it was an error by a member of staff.
“We throw this back to Telstra to get sorted,” Ms McCarthy said.
“Back and forth, I've requested that someone go through and listen to the call logs.
“Telstra wants me to prove who I am by sending a photocopy of my drivers licence, passport and other ID crap to prove that I am who I say I am.”
After months and a change of case managers at Telstra the problem still wasn’t resolved.
Ms McCarthy said she began receiving calls from the debts departments asking why the account was unpaid with threats of her services being suspended.
Telstra managed to credit her account and disconnect the two phones but Ms McCarthy said she was left with early termination charges.
While she said she managed to get the wrongful debt cleared Ms McCarthy found herself unable to purchase a new phone because her one-year contract hadn’t finished.
She returned to get a Samsung Galaxy but there were none in stock.
After more running around Ms McCarthy said the two services she didn’t order originally were returned to her account, but this time in a consumer account the Telstra Business Centre couldn’t “deal with.”
As of Friday, Ms McCarthy said she still didn’t have her phone but that Telstra employees had finally reached out to her.
“People have asked why I don't just move carriers?” she said.
“A few reasons - yes, this is a huge screw up, but Telstra should be able to fix it.
“But mostly, I need their reception.
“If I never have to contact Telstra again, I will be a happy customer.”
A Telstra spokesman said the company had apologised to Ms McCarthy and "will continue to work to address her concerns."
"We have clearly let her down and the customer service experience on this occasion has been unacceptable," he said.
"We have a comprehensive internal complaint management process that looks at customer complaints from a variety of sources including online, over the phone or complaints that are emailed direct to Telstra executives."
"We will continue to investigate and look at what we can learn from the situation to ensure other customers don’t have the same experience."
Seven News Online understands Ms McCarthy has since received her new phone.
