By Jessica Anstice and Danielle Kutchel
Telstra customers are fuming after allegedly discovering the ‘free gifts’ included with their purchase, are in fact, not free.
Over 30 customers took to Facebook to vent their similar experiences with Telstra stores at Pakenham, Fountain Gate, Dandenong and Cranbourne.
Furious customers explained how they were told by Telstra staff the added extras to their phone plans would be “free of charge”, before later on finding “hidden costs” in their bill.
Andrea Douglas told the Gazette she had been charged for an Apple Music subscription that she never asked for, along with a $10 per month accessory payment for free gifts given to her by Telstra when she bought two new phones nearly two years ago.
After discovering the charges on her bill, she called Telstra to query the charges and was told it was in the fine print on her contract.
She was also told that her plan included a free six month subscription to Apple Music, after which it was up to her to cancel the subscription.
“They charged me from my very first bill, so the six months free story is a load of rubbish,” she said.
“When I got the phones they handed me a paper bag full of accessories like a phone cover and car charger and they tell you to your face they are a free gift.”
She said she was outraged at hearing similar stories from across the south east.
After enquiries from the Pakenham Gazette, Ms Douglas was credited $483 by Telstra.
Former sales staff from Telstra have confirmed the practices Ms Douglas endured are common amongst store staff.
“It happens with most franchised or licencee stores within Telstra,” one former staff member, who left because they “couldn’t handle” the tactics, said.
“They will create a “package” or “bundle” for you, which will be a single price point – what they are meant to do is break that price down to you, to show you what is paying for what.
“However, the majority of the staff will not do this, due to the high risk of not gaining those add-ons, which are a huge KPI for all the sales staff.
“If they do not have a set amount of attachment rate, they can find their jobs at risk of being lost,” the former staff member said.
David Scott, a former staff member and customer, said he knew the experience from both sides.
As a customer, he went into the Fountain Gate level two store to buy two phones and walked out with accessories and a Samsung tablet.
“We were told that the bills would reduce but they actually skyrocketed. We were told we had to speak to the original consultant and tried to chase him to the Pakenham store where we were always told he wasn’t in.
“This was never resolved and we were stuck with high bills for the duration of the contract,” he said.
As a salesperson he worked there from April to August this year.
“We were instructed to sell using a “single pitch” where we would package the phone repayment with the accessories minus the loyalty bonus; this would help to make the deal sound more enticing,” he said.
“We were also instructed to sell tablets in the package so we could get a bonus for a new connection. We had to try and do this regardless of whether they needed it or not.
Whilst we were instructed to show a breakdown of the cost, we really needed to try and gloss over it, most of the time we were offering a loyalty bonus and only marketing this if they were getting at least $240 (retail) of accessories.
“In saying this we really had to push for the customer getting $360 worth of accessories.”
He said his employment was terminated when he couldn’t bring himself to sell these contracts.
A Telstra spokesperson confirmed the customer reports are being investigated to determine what has occurred.
“We know the overwhelming majority of our customers have a positive experience when they visit a Telstra store so we’ll be looking into this issue to determine what’s occurred,” the spokesperson said.
“Customers can always check their monthly Telstra bill to see what they’re paying for and contact Telstra through a store, on the phone or through chat online if they have any concerns.”
