Really? Do internet and phone ‘service providers’ think that people have nothing else to do other that WAIT for days on end for answers to their email questions or sit with the phone, redialing again and again, as a message tells them that they are TOO BUSY to answer the phone?
I’ve had a truly dreadful 3-4 days with AMAYSIM, our mobile phone provider here in Australia and honest to god, I feel like I have moved to the ‘Back of Beyond’ where technology is concerned. There is no customer service ethic on display even if you DO finally make contact with someone. And I have read a rather lengthy list of complaints today online, so I’m not alone in this leaky boat.
Both of our iPhones (which are working for now) and my iPad (which is NOT working unless I use the household wifi) are with Amaysim — a division of Optus which is one of the ‘Big Two’ here downunder. I’ve finally gotten responses from them this afternoon by turning to — wait for it — social media!
Today after hearing an automated response (again!) saying we’re too busy to answer the phones, I went onto both Facebook and Twitter and began blasting Amaysim. I honestly received a response within minutes, but then that effort was simply washed away when the women who wrote a contact email said she didn’t understand why I thought their service was ABYSMAL. I wrote back that a quick glance at their OWN Facebook page would show that people are ready to go onto one of Australia’s dinner time consumer affairs shows, Today Tonight, and tell their own story about the lack of customer service or lack of connectivity — full stop. I have had absolutely no connection on my iPad for days, but the customer service person told me my iPad probably defaulted back to the original carrier. They ARE the original carrier because I have a 30 day old NEW iPad! And her suggestions for changing things in SETTINGS proved useless, too.
For me personally, the biggest issue is that there seems to be no accountability. They certainly are quick to debit the monthly payment from my credit card, but if I can’t get connected and no one answers emails or answers the phone, how is that behaving in an ethical manner? Simply writing to me via Facebook posts saying that they are in the process of hiring new staff is not the least bit helpful. If they didn’t have enough people to man the phones and computers and the staff wasn’t fully in place and FULLY trained, then Australia’s telco regulatory agencies should never have allowed them to open their doors!
A word to the wise to my readers worldwide who might think of using Amaysim for their travels Down Under simply because it can be set up as a Pay-As-You-Go with no contract — just read the above tale of woe and ask yourself if this is the kind of phone service you want to deal with when you need to contact family and friends back home in whatever country you come from. Or if you are a business traveller who depends on one of their sim cards for your computer’s Pocket Wifi or the micro-sim for your iPad — if you can’t get connected to the internet, it’s simply a useless piece of plastic now, isn’t it?
There are probably some lovely people at Amaysim — and I do mean that. But how would I know that since they only answer their phones with a voice message saying that they are too busy to answer their phones???
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