Telstra Problems

My recent dealings with telstra (the telstra shop to be exact) has left me somewhat confused.

See, I've been waiting for a few months for the arrival of the iMate PDA2k EVDO. After the official Australian launch, I popped into my local telstra shop and asked if they had it in. The simple answer was no, and they had no idea when it would start to ship. However, they did put my name in their special book and promised to call me. That was a few months ago.

A little over three weeks ago I got a phone call, as expected, to let me know that the PDA2k EVDO had arrived and was now shipping. Unfortunately I was busy at work, and unable to get into the telstra shop for 3 days. And this is where my problem really begins. See, Telstra shop underestimated the popularity of these devices, and had already sold out. So I asked if they could order in another one for me... "No sir, we can't do that. We just get the phones shipped to us. How about we give you a call when they come in." was the reply.

Last Friday I got fed up with the wait, so I popped in to the Telstra Shop once again, and they still have not received any new phones. It turns out that they have absolutely no idea when they will get more phones in. As it turns out, the telstra shops do not place orders for phones, they just magically turn up, and then they sell them. So, I have to wait until they turn up magically.

I think it's time the Telstra Shop (telstra owned and franchised) need to have a good look at their internal systems, because if any other business ran the same way, they would not last very long.

Anyway, back to the waiting game....