Today i recieved a call from a friend of mine who is an invalid. He is stuck at home and cannot leave the house due to a medical condition and he had a pre-paid mobile that we could call him on to see if he he is alright. When i recieved the call it was from a number that i did not recognise, it was my friend, He told me that Telstra had cut off his phone and asked if i could get it reactivated (Credit ran out and had not been recharged in a year but calls were still recieved and there was no notice of disconnection) to which i said yes and off i went at lunch to get it done.
Prior to going to the Telstra shop i phoned up their help line and explained what had happened and they said that it would be not problem as all i would have to do is get the number transferred to a $10 casual plan as the number was now in quarantine(?). So having all the appropriate paperwork i went down and tried to get it reactivated and they said that they could not do it. After some brief explaining that Telstra had advised me to get the number transferred and reactivated they informed me that the number was locked in quarantine and it would take six months for it to be reactivated again.
This annoyed me so i rang the Telstra people again and told them what had happened and i was told what the people in the shop had said, so then i asked if i could speak to a team leader, after being on hold for 10 minutes I finally got to speak to someone with a very strong Indian accent and a very western sounding name who told me it would take at least ten days to fix as it was now a software problem.
My issue is that my friend could die at any moment and having a way to get in contact with him is very important. I know some of you will say that the credit should have been topped up but my friend is on a limited pension and cannot always afford this. I am going to get another number for him from a different carriage service as this has really given me the sh!ts. It is a real hassle as many people have this number and it will be costly to inform them of this change. I thought that i would share this with you all as it seems a bit weird. Has anyone else had this happen to them?