Marie Kruss has a bone to pick with Telstra.
The great-grandmother and long-term shareholder was at the telco giant's annual general meeting on Tuesday to make plain her displeasure at the performance of the company.
"This is just terrible. I am not happy at all," Ms Kruss told Fairfax Media ahead of the meeting in Melbourne.
Ms Kruss was far from alone. Shareholders lined up to blast the company's performance with many picking out the move in August to slice Telstra's cherished dividend by one-third as a particular grievance.
"I invested ...for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The dividend has been cut and the share price is dropping," Ms Kruss.
Another to speak ahead of the meeting was Peter Curran who has watched unhappily as the Telstra share price has fallen from $5.09 a year ago to $3.55 as well as having to stomach the dividend cut.
He would like to see a sharper retail offering.
"I think they need to have a little more stronger focus on the Australian conditions as well as customer service on the retail side," he said.
Robert Devereaux was willing to so say Telstra was "running reasonably" but there was "definitely room for improvement" and, again, service was front of mind.
"I would love to see better linkage between the customer and company, as well as the speeding up of telephone enquiries," he said.
Aziz Eeraer was one on the optimists.
"I feel it's a good company, but my shares are going down and I don't know what is the reason. My shares should be appreciating," he said.
"I remain hopeful however???I will just have to wait and watch to see what happens."
Aziz Eeraer struck a more optimistic note Photo: Joe Armao
The reception didn't improve for chairman John Mullen and chief executive Andrew Penn once the meeting got underway with shareholders lobbing pointed questions about the dividend and broader performance.
One shareholder noted that Andy Penn's $2.3 million in fixed remuneration came to $6000 a day, which most ordinary Australians would relish.
Mr Penn also got $1.49 million in short term incentives and $1.04 million in long-term incentives, bringing his total pay to $5.21 million.
Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn got a tough ride from investors. Photo: Joe Armao
"Telstra used to be a good company", another shareholder told the board, but it was no longer pointing to its lower share price.
He labelled Telstra's strategic plan as a "wish rather than a plan".
He said Telstra was driving people away with its poor customer service, noting that going to a Telstra shop to pay a bill took an hour and incorrect phone bills took months to fix.
"If you have a problem you get nowhere. Nowhere," he said.
Another shareholder noted that despite seven out of every 10 people using mobile phones during all hours "this isn't converting into revenue for Telstra".
Call costs were too high and data costs were too low, he said. He was also worried that public pay phone boxes "are vanishing quickly" but said they were needed for emergency calls.
An 85-year old gentlemen said Telstra expected customers to solve their own problems and do their own troubleshooting.
He said he was having numerous issues with bills and called on the company to do more to help older people.
The dividend cut would particularly hurt those on lower incomes and seniors who relied on them, he said, and so there should be an associated reduction in board and management remuneration.
