ELSMORE pensioner Dave Kydd has won his ongoing battle against an overseas phone company.
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He had been fighting Singapore-based Sure Telecom for months over a service he claims he never agreed to take, and ever-mounting bills.
But it seems Sure picked the wrong pensioner to phone one night last summer.
Mr Kydd claimed the company phoned him at about 9.45pm, long after legal call-hours. He said the call woke and confused him.
Not long afterwards, he began to receive bills for the service though he was already committed to Telstra.
The 73-year-old is a slight man, his body broken from decades training horses, chasing down buffalo, years out mustering and living a life largely unknown in our modern world, but he has a steely resolve.
He was determined to clear up the issue and send a message to other pensioners not to get taken in the same way.
Since then, he tenaciously tackled the problem, seeking advice, help, trying to obtain the transcript or recording of the initial phone call, and enlisted legal assistance to battle the company.
Mr Kydd recounted a recent conversation he’d had with a WA-based Sure Telecom representative when he re-explained the night in question.
“She was intelligent and we spoke for about, oh, 25 minutes,” Mr Kydd said.
“I told her what had happened. They rung me up and they’re trying to sell me something. It was about a quarter to ten of a night-time. And I said ‘I’m not real-happy when I get out of bed at that hour’,” he chuckled.
“And I said, ‘Let alone this company I never joined. I said I live out in the country, I don’t live in town, send me your paperwork and I’ll have a look at it.
“And they sent me all the paperwork and they joined me up. And I had not joined them at all. And they cut me telephone five times all up.”
Telstra reconnected the line each time and Dave said they had been a great help though the ordeal.
He was contacted last week by his solicitors who said the matter had been cleared up and the hundred of dollars charged, dropped.
He was visibly relieved. He would like some restitution for all the trouble taken from his life to address the matter. He said one lot of legal costs were paid up front and he was prepared to go on until he found resolution.
“I told (the WA Sure rep), ‘You owe me nearly $1000 dollars. Like on business I didn’t get on the telephone; I had to drive to town and stuff like that. That all mounts up; the cost of time, the vehicle and everything else.
“If I put it down to $40 an hour, at $1000, they’re getting out cheap,” he said.
If pensioners are ever a target for telemarketers, Dave Kydd might be the exception.
“Well, if they seen me walking up the street, they wouldn’t give me a second glance.
“But if they get in the ring with me, or down behind the shed or something, they’d remember me for a long time,” he said, eyes twinkling.