Why I avoid calling Telstra at all costs

For years the only two things have stopped me from giving Telstra the flick are

1. that I would lose the personal email address I have had for ten years
2. that even calling Telstra to give them the flick would put me in a world of pain induced by errors

On Friday I made the call. We're moving house while we renovate and I had no option but to call to have a phone connected at our temporary abode - I wanted my number to follow me, you see.

I had a lovely hour-long conversation with a consultant who was only too happy to help me - actually getting me up to speed with the modern world a little and putting me on a plan which was far better cost-wise that the current arrangement. I was even a little chuffed when I got off the phone. Telstra's not that bad, I thought. And when given the opportunity to give feedback to the automated survey monkey, I gave positive feedback.

Little did I realise that at that very moment of giving positive feedback the Telstra gremlins were hard at work. Within 30 minutes I discovered I had no internet connection and no email access.

A phone call later I discover that the consultant that I was so happy with inadvertently sent a disconnect order for my Bigpond account. I had lost my 10 year old email address.

Bigpond disconnection was not discussed or asked for.

Panic. HOW MANY people have my email address and how would I contact them? School, online accounts, I get online statements, newsletters, all the people associated with our renovation. Cripes.

Worse, a disconnection which took seconds would take days to 'fix'. And no guarantee of getting my old email address back.

I am now back online using a mobile broadband stick and a new gmail account. I'm not sure I can see the point of taking up the ISP email address again...