Working for Telstra at 1 cent per hour (less expenses)
Last October I closed a phone account with Telstra. I’d paid the three month rental in advance so there was a credit. “The cheque will come in the post”, I thought. A few weeks later I got my letter from Telstra. It was a bill, whcih said I was in credit for $43.09. A dark suspicion began to grow in my mind that if I didn’t pursue the matter, neither would they.
I filed the bill in the too hard basket, and early this month it shuffled itself to the pile. I was feeling positive so I called the number. After telling my name and birth date to people scattered in call centres across the country, I was assured that a sum of $43.08 would be credited directly to my bank [Credit Union, actually] account. You may have noticed a one cent discrepancy in the two figures. That was what they said they had on their screens.The call had taken about half an hour, so I couldn’t be bothered arguing over it.
About a week later I got another credit bill, dated after my phone call. Not a good sign. Last night I finally checked my account balances and sure enough, presents from Telstra were conspicuously absent from the credit column. So…. this morning after bouncing around for another 30 minutes and some lovely chats about my birthday, I insisted that I be paid $43.09. Against protestations that $43.08 was what was on their screen, I said, “I have a bill from you saying you owe me $43.09 and I want you to pay that amount to me. These two phone calls have taken an hour. I think my time is worth one cent an hour, don’t you?”. My interlocutor agreed, glad to be rid of me. I was just as glad to be rid of them.