March 12, 2010

BREAKING NEWS: Ipswich developer to sue Telstra over 6 month phone delay

Ipswich developer Manos Saridakis is planning to sue Telstra as part of a massive class action against the communications giant.

Mr Saridakis has been waiting six months for Telstra to connect telephones lines to his new commercial development at 12 Queen Street Goodna.

Telstra's spin doctors have gone into overdrive in the past 18 hours with spurious claims they have been unable to connect the lines because the developer had not installed the necessary conduits on the street.

Local Goodna Councillor Paul Tully, whose electorate office is two doors from the development, confirmed the conduit had been installed last August on the day the project commenced.

"I personally witnessed the conduit going into the ground," Cr Tully said.

Mr Saridakis is briefing lawyers this afternoon with plans to sue Telstra as part of a wider class action against the company.

"How much longer do businesses have to put up with this sort of incompetence?

"This is costing me $30,000 a month. I am calling on businesses across Australia who are on the receiving end of Telstra's poor service to join me in my action against Telstra.

He said Telstra has had six months to get the installation sorted out.

"I have three tenants ready to move in but without any phone connections they cannot take up their new tenancies.

"This is costing me a small fortune with my tenants very angry."

He said he should not be out of pocket because of Telstra's failures.

Mr Saridakis said he rang Telstra on Wednesday of this week to find out what was happening but was put through to a call centre in Asia where the operator couldn't understand him and hung up on him.

He said if Telstra was going to use Asian call centres, they should at least ensure the staff understood basic English.
Cr Tully said Ipswich was the fastest-developing city in Australia but Telstra was "behind the eight ball" in keeping up with the pace of development in the city.

"No wonder their shares have dropped almost 25 percent in the past year."

Cr Tully said Telstra was one of the worst companies in Australia when it came to customer relations and they used a "mixture of spin, bravado and lies" to try to get out of embarrassing media publicity.

"The problem is that Ipswich is managed out of Toowoomba by Telstra bosses 100km away from the city who have probably never heard of the Ipswich or the western corridor."

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PAUL TULLY: PaulGTully@gmail.com

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