telstra tuff max smart phone.

[user 7268]

It is stressful Nightjar, but I need to take the phone with me, for a few reasons, work being one of them.
I spent a lot of time in the bush without phones to mate, decades, but now, its different for me, and I like to have it with me.

Dave in much the same boat as yourself regards Telstra only decent coverage area and also same boat re faulty phone after purchase.
Get onto Customer service / complaints and push and push hard I have done this and ended up with the $700 back I paid for phone plus got to keep phone that was fixed and also $500 free credit for my angst.
BUT you have to push hard ..................... customer service
Good luck

 

[Davent]

They have sent it away, and ive gone back to my old aspera tuff phone. Its not a smart phone, not touch screen, but it works, and the battery is amazing. I can have it for a week without charging it. Only real reason I like the smart phone is the bigger screen, my eyes arnt what they used to be, and I can access the net, google maps etc where I go. The camera is good.
When they sent it away, the girl at the telstra shop told me that they have had a lot of problems with this mobel, screen failures.....

 

[Wishfull]

davent let us all know what the outcome is.

 

[Davent]

Reckon they will change the screen under warrenty.
Apparently, they wipe the phone to, so all my recent pics of gold and my area will be gone, lucky some are saved here on this forum.

 

[RM Outback]

Corporate mongrels that's all I've got to add big bunch of sooks the lot of them, don't and will never understand customer service.

 

[magneticsand]

I'm going to tell you a secret.
When dealing with telstra. Get phones on plans and take them in as soon as you have a fault you can replicate. (Or Lie)
Deal with actual telstra store when possible, as opposed to independent stores.

I've had 2 tough maxes and before that 3 Daves.
All with 0 down time.

 

[Davent]

Dont like plans, feel like the plans are a bit of a trick by telstra, however, they treat you like a leper when you use prepaid.

 

[magneticsand]

Dont like plans, feel like the plans are a bit of a trick by telstra, however, they treat you like a leper when you use prepaid.

Thats the trade off you made with prepaid. Price vs service.
Have you looked at the Aldi prepaid sims at all? Last I heard they were using telstra network.

 

[Davent]

No aldi in the NT, and telstra the only provider that covers remote area any way.
every other provider use the telstra network, or parts of it, but never all of it.

 

[BastosA]

No aldi in the NT, and telstra the only provider that covers remote area any way.
every other provider use the telstra network, or parts of it, but never all of it.

I have Aldi , buy online. They are using Telstra 3G towers and sometimes they connect to the 4g.

 

[RM Outback]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't 4G data only. I keep getting text messages from Telstra when I'm in the 4G areas that says data only and call services may not work including emergency calls.

My wife uses Aldi and gets service pretty much anywhere I get it. We live within an hour of Melbourne and still have trouble spots with Telstra. After my plan has finished I'll be trying Aldi.

 

[Jaros]

Maybe this will answe your question.

Yes the sim will works on all the phones. A 4G sim is just like normal sim. You can put it in any phone(2G/3G) and make/receive calls normally. But if you want to use 4G internet then you require 3 things: a 4G phone, 4G sim and 4G network in your area.

Jaros

 

[magneticsand]

My wife uses Aldi and gets service pretty much anywhere I get it. We live within an hour of Melbourne and still have trouble spots with Telstra. After my plan has finished I'll be trying Aldi.

Thats because its just rebilled/re-branded telstra. Its not like Aldi have their own network.

 

[Magilla]

I bought a new Telstra phone about a month ago, just a $100 cheapie but it is a smart phone and has blue tick for remote area service. It worked fine until I took it out bush where all my mates were getting reception on their Telstra phones but I was not. I thought it may have been because I was on pre paid but the Telstra shop checked and I was on full service. They have sent the phone back for repair and said it should only take a week, they also downloaded my numbers to the sim card so I wouldn't lose them and offered me a loaner phone. Maybe it depends on which Telstra shop you go through but I have no complaints with the way they have treated me.

I also looked at Aldi but even though they use the Telstra network they do not get full service so remote areas are apparently out.

 

[magneticsand]

Maybe it depends on which Telstra shop you go through

Actual telstra stores, often the larger ones, can sometimes have better turnarounds and more lenient policys as opposed to franchise stores.
That has been my experience when returning multiple handsets.

 

[Davent]

Yes well, thats all good for the southern states.
We have a pretty big territory, dont how many times bigger than Victoria or NSW, but we have a population of 210,000, in total, the ACT has around 300,000, Vic and NSW over 5 ,000,000 each, so we dont have the choice of the states.
We have telstra shops, and their service sucks. We have woolies, coles, IGA, and thats about it for super markets. Atm, we have 1 big w and 1 k mart, both in the same (only) proper mall.
Alice has a k mart I think. No aldi, no mega malls etc. Telstra do as they please here, because they are the ONLY provider that gives you signal in remote areas, and once about 100km out of darwin, you are remote. The price we pay for living here. It used to be really good, because we had a life style free of the PC crap and WHS was a lot more relaxed, but now, we are getting Southern buerocrats coming up here to "help" fix our problems.....and because they dont really understand the NT, the changes they make to bring us up to speed, just dont work well here. Their intentions are usually good, but in practice, it just dosnt work. Think a state about 4 or 5 times the size of Vic, Darwin and Palmerston have a combined population of just around 130,000, thats not a lot of revinue to fund hospitals, emergency services , infrastructure etc.(roads).
The price of getting good labour here is really high. So with high wages also comes high prices, we pay more for everything here, and get taxed the same as Southern states. We often joke about the "Darwin dollar" and how its almost worth 80c Australian! We get criticized about the way we treat prisoners, Indigenous population, and just about everything we do, when Southerners have no real idea why things happen the way they do.
Indigenous health for example is out of control, due to many factors, including that some "longgrassers" use ambulances as taxi, s.
Example, I took my dog for walk the other day, at Lee Point beach. Two drunks saw me going to my car, and politley asked if I could give them a lift to The Casaurina Club, (like a bowling club ! RSL type club) I said no, as I was going a different direction, so the lady asked me to call her an ambulance.
I could go on, but usually, if you try to explain things as they are, I end up getting labelled a racist (which I am not) or an elietist, (which we territorians cop a lot) and thats because the general population does not understand what its like here.
Keep in mind, that the nearest capitial city to Darwin is Dilli , East Timor, and that an airfare to bali is as cheap as $99 and one to Brisbane, Sydney or even Cairns is usually around $350 to $500.
Lol, rant finnished!

 

[RM Outback]

I was thinking of services available IE availability of options size of service centres and turn around times, you've just answered that.

Alot different to us in Vic, I hope you get a satisfactory turn around and answers davent

 

[magneticsand]

Yes well, thats all good for the southern states.
Lol, rant finnished!

Tangent is fascinating.

Sidestepping the supply chain issue, lets return to the handset itself.
I think you have a handset fault, as opposed to a bad product. The two I've had do not have those symptoms.
Two annoyances though.
- The light will sometimes be turned on in my pocket. Balanced by the ease of use of having a button when I actually want to use it.
- No covers on the usb or headphone ports.

 

[Davent]

Staff at the telstra shop told me that theyve had a lot of returns of this model phone, she actually said to another staff member while I was there, its another screen failure.....

tangent is to highlight the differences in our economies, like the funding of 1000, s of km of roads with no where near the funding available to the other states, a medical cost that is 5 times the national average per capitia, the highest rate of imprisonment in the western world, the remotness of travel, the cost of living, and the service that we get, and the restriction of whats available at our shops, on the plus side, we dont need boat licences or registration, or fishing licences, our rego for cars is relativly cheap, our life style is pretty laid back, and there are a lot less people on our gold fields!

On another tangent, why is the US presidential debate on nearly every channel.......in Australia?

 

[LC76]

On another tangent, why is the US presidential debate on nearly every channel.......in Australia?

Knowing that what happens in America and how it affects the rest of the world.....A mate of mine was just saying we should get to vote too,I agree with him.