Telstra vs Bigpond

Cruising Granny · Guru

Telstra vs Bigpond

Happywanderer · The Master

You've got me real confused CG. My internet is called Telstra Bigpond. I have a 3 in 1 account. My home phone (Telstra) - My mobile (Telstra) and my internet (Telstra Bigpond) all come in the one account.

Cruising Granny · Guru

I had mobile and internet on 1 account, but because I paid the internet automatically, there was gross confusion with my mobile account. I was paying the internet account and getting reminders for the overdue phone account, when in fact I was in credit on the internet account. Because of the confusion I had free services for about 5 months until they/I sorted it out be separating the accounts.
I get my bills electronically so no paper changes hands.
Talking to the trained monkey with the script really frustrate me, so I've been asking to speak to Aussie techs etc. So far so good, but my new laptop is useless for internet because my USB wireless device won't connect on the new computer. So I use the old one for internet/email, and the other one for my business and document writing stuff working off the external hard drive.
Think I'll go back to snail mail NOT!!!!
Today I actually asked if I could go to a shop front to talk face to face for personal service, because I'd had such awful mixed messages at the Telstra Shop. The Aussie guy was going to send me to the shop of awful experiences, and I told him about being told that Telstra was not Bigpond.
I'm too old for this technology sh!t!

jules47 · The Happy Helper

It is very confusing - apparently if you "bundle" your accounts together you only pay one bill to Telstra - but before I "bundled" used to get separate accounts for landline, another for Big Pond and another for mobile - as for email address - I have had a yahoo account for few years - never actually had a Big Pond one - but saw that I could make one if I wanted - somewhere in the system -
I have found that a lot of the "Telstra" shops don't have a clue - we have a little one here in town, and they are pretty good - just a couple of girls - but they seem t know what they are doing - help me out all the time - me being a complete technophobe!!!! The even helped a friend when we couldn't get the back of his phone - even tho he is with Optus - felt like a couple of total incompetents not being able to get the back off the phone!!!!! But we all had a laugh about it.

Turtle Trekers · Veteran Member

Good morning CG
From what retail outlet did you purchase your new computer from?? Have you checked with them as to what the problem may be? If it was purchased from one of the larger stores sometimes the salespeople do not have a clue (the same as the people in Telstra shops) and a visit to a smaller computer fixing place could be an option. Just be careful if you go down this track and that you do not fork out a heap a money.
Is the little "wireless" light/switch on?
Good luck

Louise

Antique Pete · Senior Member

My daughter had the same problem untill she found the tiny wireless switch on her new laptop not very well marked

BGR · Member

I was paying $39.95 for 1GB with bigpond, I was looking at their website and saw they were offering discounts dependant on what other services you had with them. I only have mobile and internet so I gave them a call to see what they could do and I was upgraded to 4GB ($49.95) given a $10 discount and now still paying $39.95 per month with extra GB.. go figure!!

Vic · Guru

CG,

I recently bought a new laptop and bought a Telstra wireless prepaid dongle/stick but couldn't get it to work.

When I bought the dongle at a Telstra Shop, the girl there told me that sometimes people have trouble getting them to work with Windows 7 and to bring in my laptop and dongle if I couldn't get it to work.

So I did this but got another girl who told me I would have to go to a pc tech. I refused, telling her what I had been told and that it was a Bigpond problem not mine if it wasn't compatible with Windows 7. She then used their pc and mine to open the stick account properly and get it loaded, took about 3 minutes.

All working good now.

BobnBev · Senior Member

Funny how things happen,just last week I to wanted a bigpond email add. tried on line, zip, went in to see the shop people and was told money was the go. Told them I had a telstra phone with a data pack." it sends me to bigpond on my phone"?? still had to hand over money????. need I say what I said.......
We have 2 M phones with telstra and a home phone .What do you have to do..
Hi CG...
Bob n Bev

Dunco · Senior Member

If you have a Bigpond account your email address can also be with a Telstra ending...such as...

123@bigpond.com

You can also use

123@telstra.com

Try it

Cruising Granny · Guru

Turtle Trekers wrote:
Good morning CG
From what retail outlet did you purchase your new computer from?? Have you checked with them as to what the problem may be? If it was purchased from one of the larger stores sometimes the salespeople do not have a clue (the same as the people in Telstra shops) and a visit to a smaller computer fixing place could be an option. Just be careful if you go down this track and that you do not fork out a heap a money.
Is the little "wireless" light/switch on?
Good luck

Louise

I purchased the new laptop from Office Works and have been back to check if there was a problem with the comp's internet connection capability. Further investigation revealed the Optus and WiFi can be connected with no problems.

So despite updating my USB "dongle" I cannot connect to Bigpond with the new comp.

Unfortunately my old laptop is not as reliable as I'd like, and is 2.5 years old. So I caught between an ASUS rock and a Toshiba hard place.

And no one can explain it.

Cruising Granny · Guru

Dunco wrote:
If you have a Bigpond account your email address can also be with a Telstra ending...such as...

123@bigpond.com

You can also use

123@telstra.com

Try it

I currently have a Bigpond email address and this is what I want to keep for business reasons. I hate changing email addresses and having new business cards printed etc.

The new 10GB, 12 month $150 pre-paid internet account is issued by Telstra. Go figure. I always understood the Telstra section was phone, and the Bigpond department was internet. I've learned something again.

So I proposed to get the pre-paid internet, AND keep my Bigpond address. In this age of technology I thought it would be a breeze. Not so! If I can connect to Yahoo or Gmail email why can't I have Bigpond?

I'm just getting savage about the crap. As consumers we get bumped around for every dollar. There is no such thing as customer service, and the customer is always right. The customer is only right if they pay for the privilege of being right. Privatisation has wrecked this country and consumer affairs are really a love affair with the almighty $$$$$$$'s.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

I dont really understand what they are on about either Chris. We bought one of those $150 telstra dongle thingies and it works well, and we still can access our usual e-mail address (which isnt bigpond).... although we still pay for that service, and had to change something in the settings on the laptop to allow for it when using the dongle.
I prefer my gmail account actually, can use it anywhere on any computer. Never a worry about inbox being full which happens a lot with grapevine.

Cruising Granny · Guru

I have never had a problem with the Bigpond email and for all sorts of reasons I want to continue with this.
It never fills up either. I've had more than 80 emails in the inbox with no probs.
It seems with the pre-paid Telstra dongle thingy I can have any other free email except Bigpond. To keep it I'd have to pay $25 a month for the privilege. Once again the $ talks.
I hope the Telstra-Bigpond shareholders are doing better than the customers who keep the money rolling in so the fat cats can keep getting fatter. It seems the executives of these corporations take the cream and everyone else gets the rest, but there's no reward for the consumers who keep the dollars coming in from the ground up.

jimbo · Guru

Telstra shops are a type Francise and do not cooperate wit Telstra....When we had dealing s with Telstar We ended up with Grey hairs

milo · Guru

maybe they should call them something else rather than telstra shops.. biggrin

Cruising Granny · Guru

Not all the Telstra shops are franchised agencies. Some are supposed to be genuine Telstra agencies. I've been to 2 of these and the first one was helpful to a point, but at the second on in the Elizabeth Shopping Centre was where I had the debate with a staff member about the ownership of Telstra vs Bigpond being separate companies.
They don't seem to keep their staff up to date with corporation matters, or technical matters. Very frustrating for the customer.

Smokeydk · Guru

I have telstra house and mobile accounts.........I dont have dongles on my laptop yet but I guess I will have to if I'm travelling.....my home internet is Internode 30gig month $49.95.......and use yahoo for emails last 14 years

Boroma577 · Guru

Cruising Granny wrote:
So despite updating my USB "dongle" I cannot connect

Granny, I had the same or similar problem when I upgraded my laptop....spent over 3 hours on the phone one evening to numerous people in the Philipines only to have tell me they had no idea.

Took both the dongle and my lappie into a Telstra shop in Toowoomba (I was visiting in the area) and had a lovely young man install a different 'driver' onto my lappie and hey presto....all fixed. My problem ended up being related to Windows 7.

Cruising Granny · Guru

I've been to 2 Telstra shops hoping someone might be able to help. One tried and failed, and told me I'd have to phone Bigpond to get a new USB device.
The second one told me they only deal with Telstra because Bigpond was not associated with Telstra so I left in disgust.
I've spent hours on the phone with the techs with no success.
I've given up. Use the old machine for internet and the new one for business stuff on external hard drive, or the old one.
Does that make me special? Having 2 active laptops? I don't feel special. I just feel like a dumb idiot.
I bought the new laptop because the old one is not reliable at times, so I thought I'd get in first before it really let me down.

spida · Guru

Same - have Elite nextT stick in Toshiba satellite Laptop. Worked anything from 5 minutes - 2 hours but almost always froze the computer.

turned the eco button on by mistake but seems to have solved the problem - havent frozen for a while now. Telstra changed the unit originally but made no difference. Using windows 7 also on laptop and on XP on PC - stick works fine there also.

I have a telstra prepaid phone and the prepaid stick - can check them both through Telstra 'my account'. Use a bigpond email address - son's account as an extra mailbox - all works fine together.

-- Edited by spida on Friday 9th of March 2012 08:13:58 PM

Fried Rice · Guru

Ths may be of interest here.. smile smile

Our mobile phone purchased specially for trip around Oz last year is a cheapy

ZTE T100... bought at Telstra shop, I think paid $59 (might be $49?). Main benefit is to connect via USB to our computer. With software programme called "Join Me" the phone becomes a modem allowing internet connection wherever 3G is available. It also has connection point for external antenna to help where reception is poor but available. I bought antenna with magnetic base for about $70-80. This little unit has worked very well all around.

Our normal ISP is TPG, and we're happy with that; have to adjust laptop to send emails via Big Pond when using the phone/modem setup. (i.e. while we're away travelling).

I just got a Telstra mobile plan called Freedom 49, $49/month includes $500 calls and 1.5 GB data and free SMS.. should work well for us.

Happy travels Fried Rice.

-- Edited by Fried Rice on Saturday 10th of March 2012 07:54:18 AM