My time at Telstra - Wow, Blatant Fraud.

Required preamble:

For a period of about three years ending in 2017, I worked at Telstra as a Salesman/Customer Service representative. I was one of those guys you would see when you came into a store, selling mobile phones, internet plans, Foxtel deals, and more. I worked for a franchisee who, at the time, owned two retail stores and a business centre (a business centre being a by-appointment-only B2B sales hub). During my time at Telstra, I didn’t fit their mold of a ‘successful’ salesman, mainly because I refused to push unnecessary products onto people just to meet sales targets. It just didn’t sit well with me. So if you haven’t already read the first part of this (probable) series, go check it out.

Buuuut, once I parted ways with that franchisee, and while without work, I actually applied for a position at another Telstra store. The difference being that this store was owned by Vita Group, which was essentially a franchisee with a super wide network of stores throughout the nation.

Onto the story

For a period of about a few days in 2017, I worked at the Telstra store in Werribee. Again, as mentioned above, it was owned by Vita Group, so large enough that they had their own targets (which actually seemed a bit more reasonable). I had started on a Wednesday, came in with two other new starts, met the team, and while they were being educated on products and processes I had already known about, I was doing some shadowing and the typical online courses that you’re required to do.

Being frank, the processes were a lot more manual. I wasn’t too big a fan of them, but I guess the level of manual process creates prime opportunities like the one in this story.

I think it was on my third day there, I was sitting in the back of house area doing my onboarding training (again, this stuff took ages and was based on Flash), when a consultant walks in.

Store Manager: What did you sell?

Sales Rep: New bundle.

Store Manager: Good, did you get a Foxtel on it? (a new Foxtel subscription)

Sales Rep: No.

Store Manager: Did you get a Platinum on it? (A $15/m over-the-phone tech support package that could be bundled onto anything, pure gross profit for the store)

Sales Rep: No.

Store Manager: That’s fine, just add a Platinum to the contract and invoice it out.

[I think there was a mention about photocopying the signature, can’t remember, I was pretty much in shock having heard that exchange, “wow, blatant fraud” I thought.]

Store Manager: If they come back we’ll just credit them the amount.

and that was it, the deal was invoiced there and then.

Later on in the day I was standing around in an empty store and was approached by another sales rep, who had started maybe a few months earlier if I recall correctly, he asked me how I was finding it and if anything differed compared to my previous franchisee, I told him that while I had seen sus activity and fraudulent stuff before from people I had worked with, I never once saw management openly back it. Explaining what I saw earlier and how alarmed I was, he seemed to agree. Then walked away.

I think it was about an hour later, Megha walks up to me in the middle of the store and beckons me to the back of house area, following her in as she instructs other people to leave the room.

Store Manager: So why were you telling [Sales Rep one paragraph above] that you saw fraud?

Me: Because I did.

Store Manager: Would you tell me what you saw?

Me: Yes, I saw you telling [other sales rep] to add a platinum to a new bundle.

Store Manager: You didn’t see anything, do you understand me?

Me: I know what I saw.

Store Manager: If you would like to stay here you’ll need to understand that you didn’t see anything.

An intense staredown ensues.

Store Manager: You can go back to the floor now.

After going back out, I resolved that I wasn’t sticking around after that week. I spent the rest of the afternoon shadowing and just idling, I wasn’t allowed to sell yet as my account wasn’t fully provisioned, so at that point I was just getting paid to stand around, take lunch and apply to more work on my phone. I did do a search through my training material for a number for Vita Group’s internal fraud line, though didn’t call it just yet, I wanted to make sure I had a new job to fall back on before I did anything.

Pic related: Typical western suburbs Telstra employee, Circa 2017 (nah, just an image from the training materials).

The next day while on the store floor, I got a call from a prospective employer who asked me a few technical questions (after an interview that Monday), and in closing told me I had won a role. Standing out front of the store, I looked inside as he asked me when I could start, and as I stared at that manager, I said “I can start whenever you want”, and just like that we were set for Monday, my first real IT gig.

I walked in, grabbed my satchel bag, and walked out to my car. I was quick and I didn’t think they realised I had left, because that next morning while sitting at home and making a bowl of Fruit Loops I got call after call that I declined.

Epilogue

• That next week after I had started at my new role and was driving home, I called the Vita fraud/assurance line and told them what I had seen. I got an email shortly after and filled out the rest.

• A few years later, Vita Group went out of business!. Their site now gives off a 404, any links to materials or pages are dead, the TXT entries (for any services they used) in their domain records are gone.
• It seems the manager of that store doesn’t even list her time with Telstra on her Linkedin (was that a product of my call?), and has gone to residing in India.

And, aside from these small write-ups I do from time to time to confirm that, yes, Telstra was pretty scummy, I never looked back.