TLS Landline unusual calls

[Student of Gann]

Hello has anyone ever experienced this . My Father has a landline and makes minimal calls but he is charged a king's ransom for making the decision to continue using this service . A case of Telstra exploiting and capitalising on the Elderly and less tech savvy Citizens who wish to retain their landline connection and not switch over to mobile phones . But that aside there has been several strange occurences where the phone will ring and he will pick up the receiver to answer the call and the person on the opposite line claims that Dad called him . this has happened on a number of occasions when I have been home the phone will ring then I will pick it up to be told by the other caller that I initiated the call which I couldn't have because I didn't dial their number and the phone was firmly in the holder . so after explaining this to the other caller who I don't know I put the phone down and a second later I receive another call from the same person claiming I called them again but I didn't initiate the call as it was in the cradle and I didn't dial a number . any advice appreciated thanks

 

[cutz]

Hi Student of Gann.

Not exactly but similar weird stuff on landlines and mobile.

Buy your Father a new phone with caller ID for Father's Day then set it up to block unknown numbers as an aid to prevent fraud.

 

[Student of Gann]

thanks . it's a wall mounted push button phone . do they have similar models with caller id

 

[macca]

Scam alert !

It is possible they have spoken to him before and he said that he was old and did not need whatever they were selling

They noted "he was old" so they intend to badger him into doing something that will enable them to get money from him.

They will keep ringing, hoping to get him on the line, then they spin some story and Gotcha !!

Get him a mobile on a $10pcm plan, save money and ditch that old number.

There may well come a time that he desperately needs to contact someone, having a mobile phone in his pocket or by the bed may save his life.

 

[bellenuit]

If he has an internet connection, he could get VOIP. I too was sick of Telstra charges of $50 pm for a phone I rarely used but was there mainly for overseas relatives to call me.

I opted for MyNetFone who charge $10 pm. They supplied the CISCO device (can’t recall what type of device it is, but it was needed so I could use my existing cordless handsets) for free on a 1 year commitment to them. That normally costs about $90. Set up was simple and it has been hassle free. Most Australia calls are free and those that attract a charge (overseas, special numbers) are dirt cheap. There are other providers who do it for $5, but MyNetFone have a good reputation.

Regarding the calls, I was also getting calls that often hung up after a few seconds before I could answer. When I called back I was always put in a wait queue. I discover it was RACWA selling pet insurance. It really annoyed me as I am a long time customer of theirs for house, contents and a few cars. I sent a complaint to them about such despicable tactics from a reputable company and I was able to put myself on a do not call list from the company.

If you put the number into a Google search you may be able to find out who it is if lots of people have been complains about it.

 

[basilio]

If you make a decision to get a mobile phone take care to make sure your father can use it.
Frankly most mobile phones are too complex and difficult to use for older people.

Big numbers, simple easy to easy functions. Simple phones
Less is more..

Some options
https://www.kisaphone.com.au/seniors.aspx
https://auspost.com.au/shop/mobile-phones/phones-for-seniors

 

[cutz]

thanks . it's a wall mounted push button phone . do they have similar models with caller id

I get it mate, the oldies don't want to part with landlines, found some budget phones for you, remind your father not to return calls to unknown numbers.

They're easy to mount.

https://www.bigw.com.au/electronics/home-phones-landline-phones/corded-phones/c/6323100/

 

[Student of Gann]

thanks very much yes alot of older people are reluctant to change and Telstra are clearly exploiting and capitalising on their unwillingness to switch to mobile . Price gouging the elderly with a charge called Telstra plus which is just a trumped up exorbitant landline fee that equates to over 80% of the bill . I will have a look at similar style handsets that have caller id functions . My Father is well aware of the scammers and their schemes and steers clear of these Chimps but the issue of reverse calls has me puzzled . last week the phone rang and I picked it up and said hello . the other person unknown to me advised me that I had called him and suggested the line could be faulty . I didn't even pick up the phone and dial a number so I may consider calling the faults department . even a friend of mine experienced the same thing when the phone rang I picked it up and he said that I had in fact called him when I didn't even initiate a call . sounds like a Telstra fault to me

 

[Value Collector]

even a friend of mine experienced the same thing when the phone rang I picked it up and he said that I had in fact called him when I didn't even initiate a call . sounds like a Telstra fault to me

could be a mutual friend playing a prank on you.

 

[Value Collector]

 

[bellenuit]

but the issue of reverse calls has me puzzled . last week the phone rang and I picked it up and said hello . the other person unknown to me advised me that I had called him and suggested the line could be faulty

Was it a business and did he then try to sell you something?

 

[Smurf1976]

I'll post it here as it seems to be the best place but Telstra have really lost the plot I think.

I have a mobile on Telstra network and in short they're increasing the price by $5 per month. OK so far, it's no big deal.

They are however offering $5 / month discount for 12 months so $60. Not a lot of money but I thought may as well have it then.

Well it turns out that in order to claim said $5 they want to know:

*Do I own my house outright? Or is it mortgaged or am I renting?

*How long have I lived there?

*Do I live with others? If so, under what arrangements?

*Do I have income from investments? Working? My own business? Welfare?

*What is my job and who is is my employer?

*How long have I worked there?

*Who is my boss and on what number can they be contacted?

*What is my Drivers' Licence number? Apparently this is required for delivery - delivery of what??? A cheque? Cash? A few specks of gold?

And so on.

Well I'll simply say that whoever came up with this load of nonsense ought be heading down to Centrelink themselves and making way for someone more competent to do their job.

Auditing an existing customer's financial capacity in order to give them $60 as a one-off discount is beyond ridiculous. $5 per month for a year for heaven's sake and that's a discount not an additional expense and yet they're assessing capacity to pay to the point they're going to call my boss and check? Seriously?

I generally don't get angry but they've done it yes. Not because I've anything to hide but it's a ridiculous amount of personal data being collected - quite simply a company invoicing me $50 a month as they've been doing for years with no ongoing commitment doesn't have any legitimate need to know whether I'm worth $10 or $10 million so long as the bills are being paid which they always have been. Wanting to know my living arrangements and giving them enough information to estimate my net wealth is going way beyond reasonable - we're talking about an existing customer with a monthly bill for $50 here not someone applying for a mortgage.

 

[cutz]

@Smurf1976

That's a joke, find an email address for an Australian contact, send them what you wrote above and give them the flick.

I've got accounts with three companies and I can confirm Telstra is by far the worst, during this covid nonsense cutting costs where ever I could I applied for pandemic assistance with Telstra, all they could do was extra mobile data like I even needed it because I'm was stuck at home with unlimited nbn,

Vodafone slashed my bills by 75% ongoing for quite some time !!

It appears that Telstra have some hard nose Muppets working in the policies department, in your case Smurf1976 all that info that's been requested is enough to dissuade anyone with common sense to apply, that's the whole point. I managed to get a discount years ago with Telstra without all that invasive nonsense, that discount was recently wound back from $10 to $5.

I've been looking at adding a sim only plan to my Vodafone account and porting my Telstra number, network coverage issues are now long gone. https://www.vodafone.com.au/plans/sim-only

 

[Student of Gann]

At least they are receiving some adverse publicity which is good for the cause.

 

[Student of Gann]

just another question re mbn . I haven't got this set up as yet although their have been technicians in the area and I believe it is to be commissioned soon . what I would like to do is arrange to have the mbn put on in the next few weeks just for the single function of having a straight line internet connection that I can hook my computer up to . I don't have pay television or any other requirements , just need a single internet connection . As the landline is with Telstra and a seperate bill is sent for this service would I have to deal with telstra to arrange mbn installation and how much would this cost approximately and once the mbn line is setup what would be the next step to locate a company at a reasonable monthly price that just provides a straight internet connection . thanks

 

[cutz]

just another question re mbn . I haven't got this set up as yet although their have been technicians in the area and I believe it is to be commissioned soon . what I would like to do is arrange to have the mbn put on in the next few weeks just for the single function of having a straight line internet connection that I can hook my computer up to . I don't have pay television or any other requirements , just need a single internet connection . As the landline is with Telstra and a seperate bill is sent for this service would I have to deal with telstra to arrange mbn installation and how much would this cost approximately and once the mbn line is setup what would be the next step to locate a company at a reasonable monthly price that just provides a straight internet connection . thanks

In my opinion give Telstra the arse, you don't need to deal with them, just hook up with a company like Aussie Broadband, landlines are a thing of a bygone era.

 

[macca]

With NBN you must have your landline phone and internet with the same provider.

I had them with different providers so I had to decide whether to keep my phone number or email address.

I now have a mobile phone and a provider for internet with a phone number I never use that could have a VOIP phone attached if I wish

I saved about $40 pcm by doing it this way

 

[Value Collector]

I now have a mobile phone and a provider for internet with a phone number I never use that could have a VOIP phone attached if I wish

Same, the only thing I use the Land line for is the internet home wifi network.

 

[bellenuit]

With NBN you must have your landline phone and internet with the same provider.

I am not on NBN yet, but I am sure that is not how it works.

Firstly there is no such thing as a landline in the traditional sense once you install NBN. You just have one connection, which will be fibre or hybrid or whatever other tech runs to your home. Your internet provider can offer you a VOIP service over that connection if you want a landline style always on phone connection over that internet connection and in particular if you want to have the same "landline" number as you had before. However, as far as I understand it, you can opt to have the VOIP connection from any company that provides such a service. Most NBN providers will offer such a service, and it is probably more convenient to use their VOIP service (one company to deal with, one bill etc). However, your VOIP connection is transparent to your NBN connection and is just another stream of data like someone browsing from a PC. The router they provide may have a special jack for connecting your landline phone, but you can equally get a CISCO device that has one or two standard telephone jacks as input (to connect your landline phone and fax) and an ethernet port on the other side that plugs into any router port. That connection will be a sort of private stream that connects at the other end to your VOIP provider's network. Your NBN provider does not even need to know that you have that running over their network.

I've probably explained it badly. I am currently still on BigPond Broadband with Telstra even though I can connect to NBN whenever I want. At the moment it doesn't make sense as I consistently get 115Mbps on Bigpond Cable for about $60pm, with unlimited (or it feels unlimited) data. I had a Telstra landline on the copper network that was costing me $50+ per month and was rarely used. I cancelled that and got a VOIP connection at $10pm from MyNetFone who supplied the CISCO device for free (12 month commitment). I just plug the base station used for my cordless phones into the CISCO device and the other side of it into a free port on my router and I now can continue to use my "landline" phones. MyNetFone will give you two new telephones numbers (if you want), but I wanted to use my existing home phone number. Telstra charged me $10 to port that number across to MyNetFone. The 2nd phone number is useful for people who also have a fax number.

 

[frugal.rock]

For some applications, you might want to still be using the Telstra network but not Telstra.
Boost Mobile and Aldi Mobile run on their network albeit on a slightly reduced coverage and priority queing basis.
Boost probably the better option but have been using Aldi service relatively unscathed.
I don't think 5G is included yet, which doesn't bother me.
I dislike Vodafone for their overall coverage and bandwith capacity issues over the years.
I dumped TPG when they dropped Optus and went to Vodafone as was getting dropouts and poor coverage.
(I had checked the phone frequency bands as well, and it covered all needed, so wasn't the device)