Over the weekend at around 6PM, I received a call from a private number. Claire refuses to answer private numbers but I’ll at least pick them up to see who it might be.
In this particular instance, it was Telstra calling to let me know that I’d be receiving a discount on my future bills because we’d been paying our bills on or ahead of the due date. The phone call went along the same lines as you’d expect, they asked for me directly and proceeded to check out basic personal information.
Everything was going swimmingly, up until they required me to provide some sort of additional identification – it didn’t matter what it was, drivers license, Medicare, pension number or other. I was reluctant to provide any of that information to them, as it isn’t Telstra’s normal practice over the phone but went with the flow and provided them part of my Medicare number.
At that stage, the young bloke I was talking to transferred me to his senior something-or-rather to refresh me on what the change was and fill in any blanks. The next person was also quite slick and moved through things quickly and was happy to flash by the fact that the service was provided by Complete Telecom and not Telstra. Not to worry though, they use Telstra hardware to deliver the phone services so it’ll all be okay!
As soon as those words came out of his mount, I promptly told him that I didn’t want anything that he was selling, not to make any changes to what I considered to be the best home phone plan available in June last year.
The conduct from Complete Telecom was nothing short of deceptive and misleading. First off they introduce themselves and misrepresent themselves as being from Telstra, have the balls to ask me for some of my personal information, gloss over the fact that they are in fact not Telstra but placate me by telling me that the phone services are delivered over Telstra hardware.
Sorry Complete Telecom, that doesn’t make you Telstra at any level – it makes you a shoddy filthy lying scam ridden company that I will never, ever do business with – regardless of how good your deal is. I’ll be lodging a complaint with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, you can take it up with them.
Just found this web site, it looks like this mob has changed their MO.
Just got 2 calls from 2 separate guys claiming at first that they were from Telstra, the spiel they crapped on about was the same script as what previous people have said.
However, this time they are from Aero Telecom in QLD. When I asked them why they were ringing on a Saturday, the 2nd guy said “Ah ….. What” (their website says opening hours are 9:30am – 5pm, Monday – Friday). I then told him it was the second call from them I had in only 15 minutes & he hung up.
Their names were (maybe) Alex Watson & Thomas Wilson, of course they had those lovely Indian accents.
The number that was given to me seems to be a real number to Aero Telecom, so I don’t know if they are involved or these lovely scam artists are just trading off the company name.
Just (23 Aug 2012) got the call. Think they are working off an ABN list – they knew the ABN but asked me to ‘verify’ it. I convinced them to let me verify the ABN that they had for me ;-D
I was suspicious because, whenever Telstra has tried to switch me themselves, it has always been to a noticeably worse deal (otherwise, they wouldn’t offer.) These turkeys certainly put a lot of effort into pretending to be part of Telstra without actually lying directly – but when I challenged them directly as to whether they were actually owned by Telstra, they confessed.
I think the same mob have been pursuing me as well.
The latest call was last night with all the same marketing techniques described above. Rapid bombardment with details etc from an Indian girl (“who was born in the same month as me”. Pity I was born 26 years earlier!) who eventually said she was from Excell Telecon in Melbourne at 66 Albert St.
She had an unnerving amount of information about me and when I refused to give my birth date , ABN etc she proceeded to tell me that already had them. When challenged she told me the details.
I hung up after saying that I would not sign up to anything on the phone so if they were genuine they could send me something in writing.
Next her supervisor rings to “just confirm some details”.
I hung up!
Just had a call from a guy purporting to me Martin from Aero desdcribed as wholesaler for Telstra. He proceeded to described discounted services that were available as I had been a long term customer of Telstra and then started to check personal information. I was somewhat guarded because I have not had a landline account with Telstra for years and have lived at this address for only a few weeks.
I hung up when he was trying to get my name right and birthdate. BEWARE THESE CALLS! I BELIEVE THEM TO BE ATTEMPTS AT IDENTITY THEFT!
Just had the phone call and mine was also supposedly from Aero Telecom and they did give me a number to call 1300 66 5537. What concerns me is how did they have so much information about me, address, date of birth etc. When they asked for identification to prove I was an Australian citizen I hung up. Just got the feeling it may be ‘identity theft’
Great to find this website and realise others are getting the same hassels.
I have been called by John, Sam Watson, Derek etc with their lovely accent and clunking phone connections. I try to have some fun with them. Today I asked Derek how far was his office from the South Melbourne footy ground, and he had no idea what I meant, when I said that cricket was also played on the same ground he assured me he wasnt interested in sport and continued on with his patter before realising I was taking the piss out of him and hung up. Next time I will tell them I am Sundah Singh from Punjab!
I feel so sorry for anyony unsuspecting enough to get drawn in.
We’ve had problems with this same company, only now they call themselves Excellent Telecom. I knew it was dodgy straight away but they called about 10 times in one day, we stopped answering the phone after complaining to them a couple of times. Next day we had a few more and I called our phone company, who put in a complaint to Telstra so that the company would be blocked from calling us. The next time they called, an hour or to later, I grilled the guy for info about the company, which he reluctantly gave, and then told him thanks, I’ve made a complaint to Telstra and hung up. No more calls since. If you are getting similar calls, write down the time, phone number (if you have caller id) and whatever details you can get out of them (company name, location, person’s name) and then provide these to your phone company.
We get calls like these too, in fact, just got off the phone from the second such call today with a so called ‘Aero Telecom’ that provides to Telstra. Thanks for posting this because now I know I’m not the only one. In fact we get calls from a variety of ‘companies’, just the name changes although the message stays the same: “You a valued customer that pays on time/before due date, and is a senior customer that has used this number for a long time so just letting you know from next month you will be getting a discount on your bills…” They always say from ‘next month’ my bill will decrease. I said you are not my provider and they say that’s normal and its okay because Telstra is the retailer but the line provider is them (whoever is calling). They confirmed my address, phone number and name correctly and I wonder how they did this because our phone isn’t even in my name! Then they asked me for some form of ID and I said I have none, and the guy laughed and said he will wait while I go and get it, any ID. For him to steal? I don’t, think so! The people that call always have an Indian accent not that I have anything against Indians, but the first call I had today was a woman and at first I couldn’t hear, I could only hear stuff that sounded like background talking, but when I listened harder it was the woman talking. It sounded very far away and the second one was delayed, obviously because it was from overseas. I said I get calls from people like you all the time but we never get a discount. He said its because I didn’t give them my ID. Plus any time I ask for their details like phone number, printed letter and website, their reply was: “This is a computer generated call so you can’t call us back and have the same person answer.” “We will send you a letter after I explain all of your discounts (after I give them ID to prove they are giving the discount to the right person, of course!).” and as for website they won’t give me a website, just a name. Just now when I asked for their website the guy hung up. So people, even if you don’t pay the bills in your household, make sure you know who your providers of all your services are so you won’t get conned!