Telstra has been ripping you off and you may not have realised

If you’re a Telstra customer things in recent months have been difficult and it’s about to get worse with consumer advocacy group Choice revealing that you’re paying up to 92 per cent more than other telco customers to get a substandard service.

The Telstra network has suffered several outages, which has frustrated customers across the nation.

Now, Choice says you should be entitled to fight your way out of your contract with Telstra without having to pay an exit fee.

Choice says for ADSL 2+ broadband you are paying 92 per cent more than other telecommunications plans. If you’re on a SIM-only mobile plan, it’s about 68 per cent more. Broadband, phone and TV streaming bundles are roughly 41 per cent more than other suppliers.

“Consumers are trapped in fixed term contracts that are not getting the premium service they signed up for,” Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Choice suggests that to get out of your contract without penalty you should log your outages, record your loss and take up the fight to Telstra.

Telstra however says Choice’s comparisons are flawed and don’t tell the full story. A spokesman for the company says, “Choice has not selected our most comparable plans and the analysis doesn’t consider the elements our customers tell us are important.”

On the list is ‘network quality’, but outages over six months have brought this into question.

Are you a Telstra customer? Have you been affected by network outages this year? What impact has it had on you?