ISP protester's problem solved by police called to remove him from store

http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/police-called-to-remove-man-from-telstra-store-instead-solve-his-internet-crisis-20171231-h0btca.html

by tankenmate • 9 years ago

64 27 9 years ago

smh.com.au

abtinf• 9 years ago

Are Australian police trained and measured on their ability to resolve civil disputes on the spot?

will_hughes4• 9 years ago

They're trained to keep the peace. 'Measured', I don't know about.

I can imagine they're personally motivated to try and resolve things without resorting to arresting someone as that would result in paperwork/processing/etc back in the office.

It's not too uncommon to see police get involved in negotiating disputes where there's no specific powers they can exercise (other than removing/arresting the person for trespassing/breaching the peace/failure to obey a 'move on' order).

Have the cops turn up makes both sides treat things a bit more seriously - the store manager wants them gone ASAP to stop making a scene, and will be more likely to do whatever it takes to escalate the issue to someone more senior if the police ask.

Simulacra• 9 years ago

Imagine if American police could be trained to use negotiation tactics, and de-escalation methods.

ars• 9 years ago

They are.

Remember: If it's in the news it's rare. This means that Police violence in America is rare, and Police negotiating with an ISP is rare.

Kostchei• 9 years ago

..sort of.. I agree that is probably a civil dispute, but that doesn't help if the outcome is "violently arrest someone on camera" What they are supposed to do is act with authority, use their position to resolve situations efficiently and rapidly. They almost always end up between unions and corps during strikes for example- and these sort of "civil" disputes often escalate into violence. So, solve it before it gets there. (15 years LE, LE trainer in use of force, recently retired)

chris_wot• 9 years ago

No, this was exceptional. Try having a mental health issue, call Lifeline with suicidal thoughts and see what happens. They call the police, hours later after the episode has ended the police turn up, refuse to listen to you or your loved ones and you get to stay overnight at hospiral with no medical attention whatsoever (yes, you read that right - no medical attention).

cyberferret3• 9 years ago

A case of a successful police negotiation with Telstraists? :)

NB for international readers - Telstra is our local Australian national carrier and the telco at the centre of the story.

Maybe I should call in the police to negotiate my case with them too - my office line redirection has been down for weeks, and no support agent can solve it while on the phone. They have 3x now given me a callback text with a web link to resume the call that never works. First thing in 2008 I am cancelling my Telstra phone service!

will_hughes4• 9 years ago

First thing in 2008

Hello time traveller. While you're at it, buy/mine Bitcoin. It seems crazy, don't worry - it doesn't get any less so. Sell it Mid December 2017.

Also, if you're not getting anywhere and it's a business line service - find out who your account rep is, and call them up to fix this kind of rubbish.

Otherwise, yeah, go sit in a Telstra store until the cops turn up to fix the issue.

cyberferret3• 9 years ago

:D I can see now that my failing this year will be typing '2008' rather than the more common mistake of '2017' for the next few months!

Actually, we do have a Telstra business rep, and I have spoken to her twice now with no result either. Very disappointing.

But on to a more positive note - Another HN user who actually works for Telstra saw my post above and reached out to me via email to try and reach a resolution. I really appreciate that he did this on (a) a public holiday and (b) took some effort to find me email address to reach out to me on.

Fingers crossed that he can sort things out where others have not been able to.

lathiat• 9 years ago

Google "TIO Complaint", then instead of clicking the link to make an actual TIO Complaint, click the Google ad from Telstra asking for "one last chance".

Best I can figure it goes direct to the same complaints team as the TIO complaints, just a little faster.

merb• 9 years ago

well the problem is that most problems can be helped with first level support where the personal isn't trained for deeply technical stuff, they just need to follow their checklist. most often if you are not somebody who has an easy problem your pretty much screwed. since telekoms have a very bad way of escalating stuff to their trained personal. (probably because it's not cheap).

ajeet_dhaliwal• 9 years ago

Good for the police. I don’t live in Australia but after reading this story Telstra sounds like a terrible company. Are there no competitors?

tardoe• 9 years ago

Yes... but the Government failed to ensure Telstra didn't becoming the monopoly on infrastructure.

skissane2• 9 years ago

When the government decided to privatise Telstra, they had two choices: (a) split it up and sell the bits separately, or (b) sell it whole. Option (a) would have maximised competition but reduced the sale price, option (b) means less competition but more one-off revenue for the government. So, which one does the government choose? Option (b), of course!

hvindin• 9 years ago

They own all the actual cable in Australia. So are essentially our only tier 1 ISP. Everyone else just needs to buy services from them.

caf2• 9 years ago

The copper pair and HFC lines in NBN areas are transferred into the ownership of NBN Co (though the ducts that they lie in remain Telstra assets).

will_hughes4• 9 years ago

Telstra is the current product of a hundred years of monopolistic government owned telco.

They were forced into competition through providing wholesale access to the copper network in various formats, but they've retained ownership of the CAN.

Basically no matter who you get your landline or DSL services through, it's going over a bit of Telstra owned copper at some point.

Things are changing somewhat with the NBN rollout, but not necessarily for the better.

ISP protester's problem solved by police called to remove him from store

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