Never ever cut through a Telstra lead-in line

 Our fencing contractor did this last week and he is $3000 poorer. I don't think insurance companies pay out claims for those that don't dial before they dig.

A lead-in line isn't the phone line. Well it is but it is Telstra's infrastructure carrying phone lines for more than one house. In this case our lead-in line carried 10 phone lines. It was buried under our fence line in a galvanised metal pipe. Our fencing contractor chainsawed through said metal pipe...

What ensued was a debacle of ridiculous proportions over a week and a half to get a permanent fix. Interestingly the actual Telstra employees who worked on the issue were excellent. The contractors to Telstra, however, were abominable.

 If you want the full story, read on.

If not just remember - always Dial before you Dig. Always.

 Full debacle:

• Thursday June 16 I report that our phone lines are dead.
• Friday June 17 3.30pm - Telstra contractor arrives to fix the phone line. There are 10 lines that need repairing but he only fixes one of them because that's all his order sheet said to fix - despite the other nine lines, which came out of the same cabling flailing about in the breeze. He explains that the other neighbours would have to call for him to fix the other lines, at a cost of $105 call out per line. I tell him that the job was to fix all the lines and he wasn't going home until it was done. This would have taken a total of 10minutes to do. He then grabs his stuff and walks (very quickly) to his van. In a movie-like sequence I run after him but he runs to his van and speeds off, leaving all the other lines dead.
• Friday June 17, evening - I talk to a genuine Telstra employee who cannot believe that this has happened. We arrange for a genuine Telstra technician to rectify.
• Saturday June 18, 2pm - Telstra Joe turns up, fixes all phone lines, is courteous and has a cup of tea and swaps italian recipes with my neighbour Linda and I. Explains that we need to call Silcar (a Telstra contractor) to replace the lead-in line. This will be charged to our fencing contractor.
• Friday June 24 - Silcar sends a sub-contractor to replace the lead-in line. The line they assumed was the lead-in line was actually our neighbour's Foxtel cable leaving them without phones, Foxtel and internet all in one swoop. After some not so gentle conversation they deign to fix this problem before heading off to the pub. They need to return on Monday to finish the job.
• Saturday June 25 - Another sub-contractor turns up on our property to fix the lead-in line. I explain that we've already had someone over to start the job. They produce official paperwork saying it's their job. I get the two contractors to talk together and to Silcar - turns out that Silcar have double-booked our job to two sub-contractors. If I wasn't at home at the time we would've been charged twice for the work and had a fight on our hands.
• Monday June 27 - the first Silcar contractor comes back to finish the job.

None of these sub-contractors had services maps of our property and didn't seem to understand the issues. None of them could relate to the services issues in an old suburb viz the easy to maintain new suburbs on the outskirts of the city.

 Aaaargh.  All of this happened in the last week of term with seemingly a gazillion school events and while my husband was away overseas. I hate first world problems.