We recently disconnected our Telstra service as we were about to move out of their service delivery area. As arranged, the technician arrived on the day of our move (mid Dec), disconnected the service and took away the modem. At the time he gave us a receipt which he casually suggested should be kept in case 'they' tried to bill us for the modem. Not thinking too much of it at the time, the receipt was thrown in a box with other papers and consigned to a flat full of belongings heading for a lengthy storage period while we build our new home.

6 weeks or so later we receive a bill from Telstra charging us not only for the returned modem, but also full line rental on the phone number even though we did not have any phone service at all. We had asked to have the number held pending the new porting options, but a one off fee of $16 was quoted for that.
Subsequent correspondence has included the following
- follow up accounts for the amounts owing, including late payment fees, plus more months line rental,
- our letters explaining that we had the modem uplifted, have the receipt but will have to unpack an entire homes worth of goods to get our hands on it, and that we do not have an active phone line with them
- firstly an apology for the charge, with a request for the receipt number so they can follow up, followed by silence bar the acctounts.
In the interim we have spoken with a few people about the chain of events and have had some concerning feedback, indicating that we may be amongst an increasing number of people who have been in the same situation.
Is this a procedure familiar to the GZ community? Any comments would be welcome.