Transurban tollways 2009 customer service
November 12th, 2009 Posted in GeneralWorst. Post. Title. Ever.
Bear with me. A few weeks ago I had occasion to drive a government car from Canberra to Sydney for a day.
To do so, I had to traverse an automatic tollway near my destination. This road is a toll road with no toll booths to stop at to pay a toll. As a visitor, you must call a 13xxxx number within 48 hrs of using the road, set up an account, and pay your toll.
So after a day where I drove my car to Mitchell to collect the government car, drove to Sydney, conducted the business I had to attend to, drove back to Canberra, collected my car and drove home… I was tired. Then I realised that I hadn’t recorded the registration number of the government car to use on the phone to the tollway operators. Never mind. A 50km round trip and I had the number.
I hit the web site and created an account with a user name, a password, a credit card number and the vehicle registration. In due course, the credit card would be charged for the road tolls.
Fast forward a few weeks to credit card reconciliation time. This is for work, so I need invoices for all expenses. The bank statement comes through with the debits and I see that the toll is over $20 and it’s $1.50 to add my visitor pass to the database.
I need an invoice, so I look at the web site to see if I can log in to get one. No. I read the email I received when I set up my account. “Call our toll free number to get a GST invoice.” So I do. The customer interface on their help line only requires me to hang up and try again four times before I find the magic combination needed to ask for an invoice.
And I again have to supply every single detail (name, car rego, email address, physical address) that I did when I created an account. But finally… (in just under 28 minutes) they agree to email me an invoice. Yay!
Two days later, after sifting carefully through my junk mail, I can see no invoice. I rang again.
This time, the operator was surprised. “That should have been out within 24 hours.” (Yeah, emails can take that long). “Do you mind holding? I will refer this to my supervisor.”
He came back on the line before I fell asleep. “Yes sir, that has been done for you. It will take five to seven days for you to receive that by email.”
Just think on that for a moment.
I could not resist. I asked, “Is it two thousand and nine where you are?”
He had the good grace to say, “I am wondering that myself.”