Shamsiya Hussainpoor
Emerald resident Gail Knightbridge has been left with no internet and landline phone since the heavy storm six weeks ago.
The major storm on Tuesday 13 February caused power outages and significant damage in areas of Dandenong Ranges.
Mrs Knightbridge said the whole street is in the same situation and they are not getting any answers on when it will be back on.
“After the storm, the internet and my landline telephone went down, that was six weeks ago and we still have no internet,” she said.
“I have no telephone landline to get help; from Telstra you get no help, and nobody is explaining anything.”
“I understand from other people’s investigations, this has got something to do with the NBN waiting for a new poll,” she said.
“I don’t know what sort of poll, but it shouldn’t take this long.”
Even though Mrs Knightbridge has had no internet or landline working, she still received the internet bill from Telstra to pay.
“I phoned them and explained to them I wouldn’t be paying the bill because I hadn’t received any service of any kind over the period the bill is covered, and the young lady told me that if I didn’t pay the bill, I would be cut off,” she said.
She tried calling Telstra but it takes over an hour for somebody to answer her and sometimes the call hangs up on its own.
She has also booked a technician twice to have a look at the system.
“He hasn’t turned up, didn’t call, didn’t apologise, didn’t explain, just simply didn’t turn up,” she said.
“I’m very cross and the whole street is annoyed.”
A Telstra spokesperson said they’ve spoken to Mrs Knightbridge and they’re sorting out her bill for her.
“We provide credits to customers affected by a long-running outage after the issue’s been resolved, to ensure we can accurately calculate the cost of the impact,” they said.
Mrs Knightbridge told Star Mail that people in her street run businesses online, and they are all left in limbo.
With the internet down, Mrs Knightbridge has become dependent on her neighbour to take her to the Emerald library once a week to do her banking.
“You’re pushed on to the internet because everything is online, which is fine when you have access to internet but once it goes down, you’re in a real pickle.”
“What is worse is all these companies – they keep sending me emails, like the insurance company that I’m dealing with…they are all replying back to me on emails but I’m not getting my emails so I can’t read them.”
“It’s just a nightmare, no explanation, no apology, nothing,” she said.
A tree fell on her house and her car and all her fences were downed during the storm.
“I’m trying to work with the insurance company to get all that done, but it’s difficult because I can’t talk to them on the internet.”
“We can’t reach NBN, we can’t talk to them – there is no way of contacting them.”
“I got the local MP and Telstra to contact them, because I can’t do it myself – it’s not allowing me to do so.”
She said other areas of Emerald and Cockatoo that were impacted by the storm have all got their internet back to normal.
An nbn spokesman said damage to infrastructure poles hosting nbn equipment needed to be replaced.
“The work has been complex, with an arborist first required to remove fallen trees and foliage and then the damaged poles removed and replaced,” he said.
“The poles were installed today, and we are working as quickly as possible to have nbn cabling reinstated and restore services to local residents.”
“We’re sorry for the length of time this has taken to fix.”
