And Uh - Yeah...

I have my ADSL back. Telstra may find themselves at the receiving end of a lawsuit now, I'm considering my options.

Lessee now - I give my ISP a sum of money every month, of which they give Telstra a certain amount to provide the broadband connection. Telstra take what is ultimately my money and they contract to my ISP that they will provide a service. Now normally, if a company contracts to provide a service for a month and then doesn't provide that service for over 25% of that time due to electrical mechanical or other failure on their part, they can be sued for breach of contract.

So lessee some more - my landlord is a separate person to me, they rent the telephone line here and Telstra agree to supply broadband over that line, see paragraph above for their responsibilities in this pair of contracts.

Then my landlord defaults payment and the phone is barred. Telstra still supply my broadband over that line though, for another three weeks. Then, they disconnect the broadband too. Which they are still taking my money for, mind you. And which, despite the contract between Telstra and myself and my ISP, they are now insisting I must also pay a reconnection fee for. This is not a mechanical electrical or other failure, either. This is a deliberate act of refusal to provide a service I have paid for, in order to coerce a payment from an third, unrelated, party.

Anyone out there have any idea if this is legally enforcible? If I find out that it is, I'll post my findings here. I'd also welcome anyone's comments and views on this.