Since reporting the fault on Tuesday 1 May I have received only one piece of unsolicited information about when it would be fixed. That information came from the Telstra technician who rolled up at about 4.00 pm on Friday 4 May, discovered that the cable in the street was faulty and told me that contractors would rock up the following week and replace it.

The week came and went with no sign of contractors and no phone line. Whenever I tried to find out what was happening I had to resort, as when I reported the fault, to calling AAPT's customer service number: something of a misnomer as sales and potential customers seem to take a much high priority than real customers who want service.

You might think that some priority would be given to customers wanting to report a problem, but no, that option is right at the bottom of a seven level IVR-cum-speech-recognition hierarchy of menu options.

It goes like this: 'billing', press one; 'other' press two; then 'Internet technical support' (1) (why isn't phone support up here as well?); 'Mobiles' (2); ;Sales; (3); 'changing address' (4)' 'other' (5). At level three speech recognition cuts in instead of dial tone input (why?) and we get: 'sales' (again!; billing/payments'; 'support' (ah getting close!). Saying 'support' elicits a fourth level of options: 'telephone'; 'internet; 'Foxtel'; 'general'. Saying 'telephone' gets to choice level six ('mobile' or fixed. Finally, at level seven!, it's: 'report a fault', 'moving', 'more lines' or 'general'.

Having reported the fault, AAPT was able to access Telstra's line testing technology and able to ascertain that the problem lay somewhere between my handset and the exchange, and submit to Telstra a request for a technician to attend.

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However, when he had not turned up after two days and I called back, all they could tell me was what the Telstra system told them: that he would arrive by the end of the following business day.

Same deal when days had gone by and there was no sign of contractors hauling cables: all AAPT could tell me was what Telstra told them: that the job had been assigned to the contractors.

So when I called AAPT a third time almost two weeks after the Telstra tech's visit, that was still all the information they had. However, the very helpful AAPT customer rep offered to call Telstra, find out what was going on and call me back. Which she duly did, but which of course imposed additional workload and costs on AAPT.

So I asked: "doesn't Telstra keep AAPT up to date on the status of and progress towards repairing faults on AAPT customers' lines?" Apparently not. I seem to recall that in the past when the line was with Telstra direct, information on the status of fault repairs was much more forthcoming. At least I can look forward to a few dollars compensation under the customer service guarantee.