It’s safe to say that Australia’s largest telco Telstra hasn’t exactly had the *best* of relationships with the fiery denizens that reside in the deep and swirling waters known as Whirlpool. And who can blame it?
After all, there is no company, issue or individual person that forum posters on Whirlpool like to bash more than Telstra. The big T’s name is constantly invoked with a mixture of disgust, fear and dread — and it’s not just broadband customers. Even the staff of rival ISPs such as Internode have been known to post a few entries at Telstra’s expense.
Throughout the long years since at least 2004, the sole representative of Telstra on Whirlpool has been a man waging a single crusade to resurrect the company’s public image.
That man — that brave, courageous man — has been Telstra spokesperson Craig Middleton, whose efforts in battle we think qualify him for a Victorian Cross medal — at the very least. However, now it appears that the reinforcements have arrived. Middleton posted the following on Whirlpool on Tuesday this week:
Middleton’s post was followed shortly by the entrance of other Telstra representatives such as Nick and Jase (who will now be on Whirlpool duty full-time). We suspect the Whirlpool effort is an extension of Telstra’s highly successful engagement with Twitter.
Generally Whirlpool regulars greeted the Telstra invading force with overwhelming hospitality:
But not everyone was so polite:
And eventually even that level of civility ended and the trolls came out as the debate raged long and hard about the ins and outs of Telstra’s Whirlpool participation. But we particularly feel for Telstra’s Jase, who, it appears, has been tracked down In Real Life by the Whirlpool faithful:
Oh dear.
Image credits: Delimiter screenshots of Whirlpool forums
There was also someone from Telstra posting last week on Whirlpool, in response to the GPS issue with the HTC Desire smartphone.
He was posting as Peter@Telstra, who I take to be Telstra spokesperson/media contact Peter Symons.
Interesting — there are a number of Peters at Telstra so it could be a few. Kudos to them for doing it, but as Jase admitted, they are going to get hammered for a little while at first ;)
Ahhh….I can not believe this made it to another Technology website.
Was a very good discussion i might add.
Thanks guys.
Extreame
Heh no worries. Some good responses! :)
True Renai, but I had it confirmed that it was Peter Symons. My first guess was that it was Peter Taylor, but an industry contact informed me otherwise.
Ah fair enough.
The person (‘Extreame’) who tracked down the representative ‘Jase’ is disturbingly creepy. Firstly, what kind of person stalks ISP employees? And secondly, what kind of person then proceeds to post the results of said stalking.
I am the “said” Extreame, and i know Jase, so as for stalking, meh…….
Comments are closed.