We are about to order a landline connection and would be grateful for your opinions of the service levels and overall customer experience with either of these two service providers...

Thanks in advance and Happy New Year in advance

Both were crap- especially Optus

Both are pretty rubbish... Whereabouts are you...?

Crikey...that bad are they? Accepting that they are both crap and that my choices are limited, which of these two is likely to improve in the short term? I will most probably end up with Telstra judging by my BT experience in the UK - BT is the best of a bad bunch and I am guessing the same will probably be true here in OZ.

I am in Perth...

The home of iiNet, one of the top ranked ISP's in Oz... We have our phone and broadband from them... They do bundled deals like a lot of the ISP's do now... I'm kinda assuming you will need 'net access on this line...? If so check out the Whirlpool website for a lot of info, etc...

we've got Optus for broadband, landline and mobiles - no problems at all so far.

Only because your a Goscinny and Uderzo fan (I liked the last original book)....

We're now with AAPT as a bundle. Apart form the annoying voice recognition system their good and you're not tied into a contract.

Your line will always be rented from Telstra (like BT).

Optus is affectionately(?!?!?!?!?!?!) known as Opeless in our household, we have had numrous accounts with them & their customer service is seriously SERIOUSLY lacking.

Do a search on Opeless to see past problems .

We have Telstra at home here just for our landline, havent ever had a problem with them customer service-wise or technically so far after 2+ years.

Had Optus. Absolute rubbish service and to deal with!
Telstra infinitely better

Suppose it depends what you want and where you are though!

Andrew

Optus broadband is so good we can only use it for more than 4 screen changes from 1am onwards - it's always gone by morning.

Their bills are often wrong, the sales staff give incorrect advice, and telephone reception is a little on the weak side - other than that they're my favourite people!

Thankfully we have cable immediately outside our house and I'm about to arrange it. Could anyone tell me who can actually supply it? Am I again limited to Optus or Telstra?

Oh if anyone does take up with optus, try to avoid signing up for the two year deals, they improve their offers regularly and it'd be a pain to be stuck paying over the odds.

We are with Telstra and although a lot of people criticise them we have found them okay (but then we were with NTL (NT Hell) in the UK so in comparision everything else looks good.

If you bundle them with their broadband (Bigpond) and mobile (if you are regularly going bush then you will often find other firm's do not have service out there) you can get some significant discounts.

I don't know about their service but I used to work with someone who had previously worked for iinet and he said they were chaotic - forget to bill their customers one month and did not notice for several weeks. Their systems were all written themselves and prone to falling over as there was no support.

Been with Telstra for over 30 years and never had a problem. Wouldn't touch Optus with a ten foot pole!

I think you'll find all other companies change their plans all the time aswell and still you don't benefit unless you call the company. If you sign with Optus and the deal changes just give them a call and they'll put you onto the better plan. All that is ever under contract is that you will stay with them for the line rental. I know this because I work for optus however all my stuff is with Telstra and has been for the last 5 months, 4 complaints later we are now trying to get out of our broadband and mobile contract. They've screwed us that bad this time that we've got the telecommunications ombudsman involved aswell as the ACCC.

I hear peoples problems with all types of telcos everyday but in my opinion Telstra would be the one to stay away from, too many people with too many problems. So alright Optus don't have the best customer service but who does.

I am certainly not biased towards Optus but they are a company we are considering at present, all there rates currently being better than Telstra. Another company I am tempted to try would be Aapt, yet again, customer service aint up to scratch.

Marie

iprimus is cheaper and better than either IMO.