I ordered a Motorola 9505A satphone for the Iridium network thru my local Telstra
shop here in Mandurah in WA.
Two and a half weeks later, no it hasn't arrived yet. So one was couriered from a T
shop south of
Perth, just over an hours drive away.
Three days later I walked into the
shop presuming it has arrived despite no phone call. I asked the staff member to see if it is out the back. She comes out 5 mins later and asks if I had been called to say it has arrived. I said please don't tell me it hasn't arrived. With a massive twirl of the skirts and an authentic Head Prefect look I get: I asked you if you had received a phone call !!
Out the back she goes again and comes back with the phone. Beauty I think. Let's pay and get out of here.
Now on the Telstra website it says the phone is $1995. Another staff member comes to help and between these two strumpets I'm told that it will cost $3700, outright purchase.
Well, hold me down because I'm getting up a head of steam.
The ensuing conversation proved to me that "Telstra" is Australian for "arrogance". I wasn't paying that sort of money so I did some phoning around. Other Telstra shops that were privately owned and therefore have a vested interest in running their business properly, from Subiaco to
Broken Hill, confirmed the price is $1995.
Some friends in business who had a dedicated Telstra consultant rang them and they confirmed that they sell them week in and week out for $1995.
I rang the Telstra satellite people who said the handset was $2995 for an outright purchase.
Unbelievable !! Telstra's own website says $1995 but the company owned
shop and their Call Centre staff all had their own ideas of what it should cost.
This afternoon, a grovelling phone call from the Mandurah Telstra
Shop manager: we found the right code and it is $1995.
Well I went right in there before somebody else came up with another price.
In store, no apologies from the rude staff.
So, avoid the Telstra
shop in Mandurah.
I normally don't think too much about why these things happen but, as the store is staffed exclusively by women, I'm forced to conclude that their individual "womens troubles" all occurred on the same day and critical mass was reached. Much like the Ghostbusters crossing their beams. And I and many others walked into this maelstrom, totally unsuspecting anything out of the ordinary.
Anyway, that's my theory.