[LINK] Telstra and Whirlpool

stephen at melbpc.org.au stephen at melbpc.org.au
Wed May 5 16:46:28 AEST 2010


Telstra comes to the mountain

by Renai LeMay 05 May 2010, 1:36 PM (2 hours 55 minutes ago.)
<http://apcmag.com/telstra-comes-to-the-mountain.htm#>


Whirlpool users have had some of the biggest fallouts with Telstra over 
the years. Now, Telstra is making up with them. http://whirlpool.net.au

It’s safe to say that Australia’s largest telco Telstra hasn’t exactly 
had the *best* of relationships with the fiery denizens that reside in 
the deep and swirling waters known as Whirlpool. And who can blame it?

After all, there is no company, issue or individual person that forum 
posters on Whirlpool like to bash more than Telstra. 

The big T’s name is constantly invoked with a mixture of disgust, fear 
and dread — and it’s not just broadband customers. Even the staff of 
rival ISPs such as Internode have been known to post a few entries at 
Telstra’s expense.

Throughout the long years since at least 2004, the sole representative of 
Telstra on Whirlpool has been a man waging a single crusade to resurrect 
the company’s public image.

That man — that brave, courageous man — has been Telstra spokesperson 
Craig Middleton, whose efforts in battle we think qualify him for a 
Victorian Cross medal — at the very least. 

However, now it appears that the reinforcements have arrived. Middleton 
posted the following on Whirlpool on Tuesday this week:

 <http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1437305>

"After many years of me being the main and often only official Telstra 
rep and on WP, we now are expanding our online customer service and 
support presence by having a range of official Telstra representatives 
engaged in the Whirlpool forums.

Nick, Jase and I will be joined by a Telstra Operations rep so we can 
provide responses and advice on customer issues, technical and billing 
problems.

We hope that as well as helping individual members, others will benefit 
from our input.

Telstra continues to recognise online and social media as a bi-
directional communication channel to connect with our customers, and the 
boost to our Whirlpool presence is all about supporting our customers.

regards

Craig"
--

Middleton’s post was followed shortly by the entrance of other Telstra 
representatives such as Nick and Jase (who will now be on Whirlpool duty 
full-time). We suspect the Whirlpool effort is an extension of Telstra’s 
highly successful engagement with Twitter.

Generally Whirlpool regulars greeted the Telstra invading force with 
overwhelming hospitality. (see APC article)

And eventually even that level of civility ended and the trolls came out 
as the debate raged long and hard about the ins and outs of Telstra’s 
Whirlpool participation. 

But we particularly feel for Telstra’s Jase, who, it appears, has been 
tracked down by the Whirlpool faithful: http://i39.tinypic.com/w1ahhh.jpg

--

Cheers,
Stephen



More information about the Link mailing list