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In August 1967, I found myself in a situation so precarious, so surreal, that it would etch itself into the marrow of my memory. I was aboard a cargo ship docked in China, surrounded by Red Guards stationed on board twenty-four hours a day, spaced no more than thirty paces apart. After being coerced into writing a confession—declaring myself a U.S. aggressor and a supporter of Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist leader in Taiwan—I was told by the second steward, who handled the ship’s correspondence, that I had about two days before a response to my letter might reach me.

I affectionately refer to her as Ronda.

Ronda's unwavering and compassionate support for the Casualties of Telstra (COT) began in August 1994 and continued until July 2021. This was a period marked by the relentless cruelty of arthritis, a disease that not only confined her to a wheelchair but also stripped away her ability to provide hands-on assistance to fellow COT members and me.

My name is Alan Smith, and this is not merely a tale about faulty telephones; it is a harrowing account of ordinary small businesspeople — the COT Four — who found themselves caught in a treacherous battle against one of Australia's largest corporations. For years, Telstra, with its powerful grip on the telecommunications landscape, flatly denied our plight, dismissing each desperate complaint with the same hollow refrain: No fault found.