Yesterday when I put a post up on Facebook, about a family that is without phone service, I don’t think I was very clear. You see there are a few important facts that you need to know.
It isn’t my phone line that is out, but it does happen. This phone fault is down in Kynuna QLD. Can we just start by saying not all of Australia has mobile coverage. In my world it is satellite internet or landline telephones. There is certainly no mobile coverage in the Kynuna area.
This advertisement is very misleading… people living in cities would think there is mobile coverage in 99.3% of this big land we cal Oz. There isn’t. I think what this means is 99.3% of the population, not land. We are the .7% that don’t have coverage and let me tell you there are a lot of us and we are a loud bunch.
There is a young lady who has lost her partner. He died suddenly, and they are trying to organise a funeral. I am pretty sure this would be hard enough at the best of times. I am sure this would be a difficult task even if you lived in town. But these people don’t. They live on a cattle station in Outback Queensland. They are 120km from the closest little town, and when I say little I mean population 400. They can’t duck next door to use their neighbour’s phone.
Did I mention the big river that has been cutting them off from the main road for the past week? Yep, that’s right – they haven’t been able to leave the station for about a week. Oh and this phone problem, well it isn’t the first time it has happened this week. We have already reported and sorted this problem once and I must commend the technician on his speedy service. The phones were working again, for a little while anyway, and bam – out again. They have now been out for over 2 days. TWO DAYS TELSTRA. OVER TWO DAYS!!!
The problem was reported however they did not receive an email response until 6pm on Saturday (that is after their phones had been out for a whole day, possibly more). This email stated that a technician would attend to this issue on 26/7. That is Tuesday for heavensake, the Funeral is on Thursday….. not happening Telstra. Get your backsides into gear. Get a chopper in the air and fix this problem.
WRONG! You aren’t connecting all Australians Telstra… just ask me! Give me a call, if you can get through. Just don’t call my mobile or leave an SMS because I won’t get it until I go to town next… maybe in 2 months time.
There are 12 people living on this station without phone service. A young lady who has lost her partner. Two young children aged one and three who have lost their Dad. A Father who has lost his son. A team of hard working employees who have lost their boss.
Imagine if there was a real emergency on this station. A station without phone service. Imagine if someone was bitten by a snake or worse. How would they get help? Should they just email someone? Should they kayak themselves over the river and walk 120km? Should they just lie there helpless?
Do you get it? You need to get a chopper down there right now to fix this problem, you are already too late.
It isn’t how we connect Telstra, lets get real …not out here anyway. All I can say is thank god for satellite internet or we really would be stuffed.
It was very upsetting to my husband (it was his twin brother who died) yesterday when we saw a fancy Telstra advertisement on TV telling us how wonderful Telstra is.
Stop wasting your money on expensive advertisements and start fixing problems in regional and remote Australia. People live out here, it isn’t just a big black hole. We are real people. We deserve your attention.
We just accept these problems as part and parcel of living out here at Bum Truck Nowhere. We think it is so normal when it happens and don’t think we deserve immediate attention. I accept that my phone line is a satellite service and has a 3 second delay which makes me sound really ignorant when talking to people, but hey – that is normal isn’t it?
After reading all of the comments on the Facebook post I wrote last night, about this problem, it has come to my attention that IT ISN’T NORMAL. People in towns and cities wouldn’t put up with this shit. It is unacceptable.
One thing this blogging caper has taught me is that we are not the only people who have these problems. The Miss Chardy Community has been amazing. I knew they were a solid little gang but up until yesterday I didn’t know just how solid. Thanks to everyone who shared this message and offered a solution. We really appreciate it. I am just so amazed at how thoughtful and wonderful you all are. It really is a wonderful little community. And when you live all the way out here a virtual community is just what a girl needs.
Please help us Kelvin, come on, I know you can do it. Stop with the fancy advertisements and get a chopper in the air right now. Hell, I will organise it for you if you want me to. It isn’t that hard. Just do it. Please! ….and thank you in advance, Kelvin, I know you are going to sort this out for us. Thank you.
Is there something I have missed?
Something you would like to add?
Do you think I have made it clear exactly where these people live and how isolated it is?
Feel for the family that have lost a family member and are trying to organise a funeral.
Coolabunia, 10mins from Kingaroy don’t have any service.
Hi Fay, thanks.
Dan
I am sharing this to anyone I can think of. This is not good enough under normal circumstance but it is even worse now.
My heart is breaking for you all.
C xoxo
My prayers are with your whole family and friends – I know from personal experience it is hard to lose a family member so early in life and you certainly do not need the added stress of inadequate communication channels at this time, I also know how frustrating it can be when city people – big companies – etc. tell you to do things our lack of services or inadequate service will not allow us to do. They say it like it is a simple task assuming we have the means – just send us photos- just go to this website and fill in the form – there is a video on there that will show you how to do it, – O no we only accept on line transfers – Yeh right!! so there’s another trip to town to use a devise that wont work at home. I have never experienced road rage but I have certainly come close to telephone/technology rage, and the lack of understanding or assumptions companies and government departments work under.
Oh Sue, I am hearing you… how about the old “but we need a street name and number” ummmm sorry – not everyone lives on a street or in a town. It is mind boggling to them isn’t it. Or the old “we will send you a pass code via SMS” – which is no help if you don’t have mobile phone coverage. Thanks for your message Sue.
Thanks Kit. Appreciate it. Nothing we can do really as there are not enough technicians, there won’t be one out there until tomorrow.
When ringing telstra to complain about poor service on both phone and interneti was told that i chose to live there and to accept what service i receive as therenot enough people in the area to make improving the service not financially viable
No that’s right, they could care less about the nobodies in the bush… well I am here to tell them that we are SOMEBODIES, we help feed a nation and we are a loud bunch. And a bloody good bunch.
I will share this on my site as well Miss Chardy. If they do not do something right away after such an impassioned and heartfelt plea then a lot of people who currently have accounts with them will be looking elsewhere in protest. It is not good enough and it will never be good enough. Apart from everything else even with communication you still have vast distances to worry about. I cannot imagine how stressed and upset you must all be. thinking of you Deloresxxxx
He there Delores, thanks for your message and for sharing. If only we could actually look elsewhere in protest… they have the monopoly over telecommunications out here which is why they don’t have to try very hard. We did have a lovely lady from Telstra phone to apologise for this inconvenience but there wasn’t anything that whinging to her would achieve. The bottom line is that they do not have enough technicians out in the field to keep up with all the problems. Hence they are still without phones and it won’t be rectified until tomorrow, that will mean they have been without the phone or any phone service for 4 nights! It’s ok, we have sorted the funeral service via Facebook messenger … if we didn’t have internet (although we have actually now run out of peak data too…) we would be buggered. Thanks again for your message.
Hello Miss Chardy, I wish there was something I could do right now to help out.
Having lived a very long time ago in the Kimberleys in Western Australia, I understand your frustrations.
The figures the government and Telstra quote sound wonderful to anyone who never has to experience how it is in the real world – but as often is the case, it is the way the figures are used / interpreted. As you say 99% of highly populated areas are covered. The areas that aren’t covered don’t have a lot of voting power – unfortunately.
I am very lucky where I live.
I listened to Malcolm Turnbull promote NBN and the amazing internet speeds he quoted. Then I spoke to a Telstra contractor not long after who told me not to hold my breath. He then said, “Well can I be honest? You aren’t a young lady, but you could be a very very old lady before you see it in your neighbourhood.”
Too much reliance is put on mobile phones. When our landline is not working, they tell us they can connect calls to our mobile phone. That is fine for us. When it comes to my mum who only has a landline, they suggest sending mums call to us. That is fine, but what about mum who has no other means of contacting anyone. And again, we are lucky where we live. I can call in and check every day is needed.
Your quote, “we are SOMEBODIES, we help feed a nation and we are a loud bunch. And a bloody good bunch.” says it all.
I have shared on facebook as has my sister. My thoughts are with you and your family at this sad time.
Janice
Hi Janice, lovely to hear from you, great message too. So great to hear that. Also, thanks for buying the necklace set on the Tommy Walsh Facebook Sale… I have posted it but only yesterday, I am so sorry it took so long to get in the post, I forgot to take it to town last week. But it is on it’s way now. Let me know if something doesn’t fit and I will sort it out. 🙂
We can drive 50 ks to the next town and have phone service for about half that distance and are only 3.5 hours from Melbourne but that is no comparison to the difficulties to the problems you describe,
A friend was once told to pop down to the office to grab an item, yeah right see you in 3.5 hours.
Take the sister in law home from hospital, thats an 8 hour trip due east, and there are people that are worse off than that
It is crazy isn’t it Dee. So many people just don’t understand.
I live only an hour or so drive from Brisbane in the lockyer Valley 20mins from town and I don’t get mobile service texts if the phones in the right spot and wind is blowing in the right direction. Trying to communicate to city businesses that I don’t habe phone service is impossible. I think the vast majority of city people have no clue that just outside their over populated areas are people living without the services they take for granted. Hope Telstra fix this issue asap for your extended family.
Oh they just don’t understand do they… and when you are registering online for something and they want to send you an “sms message with a code to use” and you are just sitting there thinking… thanks… might get that in 2 months when I go to town again. Just ridiculous.
Oh Dan, this is dreadful. For goodness’ sake, I think Telstra ought to also supply a helicopter to fly the young family wherever they need to go for the next 12 months; not being able to communicate at a time like this is …. unspeakable. This is a very tough situation; thoughts and powerful prayers for you all.
Hi Pip, thanks. It is unspeakable. They finally fixed the fault but not until the day they had planned… so they were over 3 days without a phone. We sorted the funeral via Facebook.
My thoughts and prayers are with you all, I was shocked and saddened by your unexpected loss. You have my deepest sympathy at this very sad time. – I will certainly pass on about Telstra
Thanks Barbie xx
I feel for you all deeply at this time an agree with you totally about the lack of understanding for those out in our regional / remote areas. Less on the wiz bang advertising and perks and more on actual service would go along way to improving peoples regard for Telstra. My daughter lives and works on a cattle station in western Queensland which I have visited myself and I know how frustrating it can be for her when the phones cut out or when she tries to do business over the phone and they say to just pop into her nearest service centre that is in actual fact 5 hours away! These employees need a geography lesson before being allowed to be in the customer service call centre (oh that’s right , they live in India-no idea about Australian conditions). I worry often as she is left on her own when everyone is off on camp mustering what she would do in an emergency if her phone wasn’t working. She is 35 km’s normally from the main station but with a river that has been flooded for months now meaning a 300 km trip to get to the station if she needs something. These conditions are common to people in our remote communities all over Australia. This article above will be shared.
Hi Robyn, yes – all so true!!! They have no idea.