Hong's venting thread

[Umbra]

Hong, I feel for you.

Hong,
As a fellow Austrian I am wondering why you were expecting anything less from Telstra?

Ditto. My hate of Telstra knows few bounds. (A few more interactions with them and it will be 'no bounds'. )

Examples:

1. Move from a share house and someone else takes over the phone number. Asked for last bill to go to new guy and they said not a problem. Ten months later I'm served with papers from a debt collection agency. Grrr.

2. Retired parents in mid 70's, neither very well, and there is a problem with the phone line. Telstra - "Upto 10 working days to repair". What the!!!!

3. At work, our bill turns up with a government department name on it. Call to find out whats happened. (The short version follows...)
Telstra - "Someone has changed it."
Me - "Who, when, why?"
Telstra - "Can't tell you."
Me - "How can someone change the name of account with no authority?"
Telstra - "Can't tell you."
Me - "Put me onto your supervisor please."
Telstra - "No-one's available"
Me - "Take my details and someone can call me back"
Telstra - "ok"

Four weeks later and I have heard nothing and I can't be bothered.

4. Office uses Bigpond for internet. Over the last year we have lost over 3 days of access due to problems. And this is from the largest provider in Australia who owns virtually all the infrastructure.

I do my personal business elsewhere. "Yes!" -For non-Aussies, another companies advertising gimic.

 

[Eremite]

To be fair to Telstra, (snip)

Never!

Never be fair to Telstra! it's not that I'm some sort of Mike Moore-like anti-corporate leftie (far from it), but Telstra is a disgrace.

Anyone have recommendations for a good ADSL ISP in the Sydney area?

Yes... move to Brisbane and with the money you save in cost of living (even after the drop in pay), start up your own ISP and give yourself really good service!

So far I've looked at Pacific Internet, Optus (pricey unless you have other stuff with them as well), iiNet and OzEmail. I might also go with Unwired, but hey haven't been around that long, and cost more than ADSL.

I've given up on high-speed access. I simply use Dodo dial-up: it's cheap and reliable, the latter being critical for me because I run my businesses from home. I don't have that many large downloads (except for Fane of the Witch King which I will be clicking on shortly), and when I do I just practise my patience.

4. Office uses Bigpond for internet. Over the last year we have lost over 3 days of access due to problems. And this is from the largest provider in Australia who owns virtually all the infrastructure.

It's this lack of reliability that stops me from paying the extra for a high-speed service.

 

[Sugarmouse]

Out of curiosity hong, did you have a handset plugged in at the time when installation was supposed to occur?

I work for a Telco (one who has been doing really annoying adds lately) and a dead line on a reloc usually occurs because the switch does not get a response signal when hooking up the line. Its such a simple problem, and Teltra have still not come up with a simple fix. (Once had a Telstra tech try to do a muls test for a customer with the same issue - sheesh, but that was back in my customer service days.)

Pacific has always given me good luvin' and I hear good things about Froggy...although I think they still only do dial up.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

You think you have problems

All of you with your lack of internet. I was attacked by a dog yesterday. Apparently, its idiot owner (who I have seen yelling at the dog) decided to leave for Christmas break and left the dog outside. Its probably 80 lbs. of mutt with some Rotweiler in it judging by the face and color (both of which I got to see very closely). Two days ago it just threatened me. Yesterday it lunges at me gets a good bite on both my arms (luckily because of the cold weather I had a long sleeve shirt and a heavy coat on, so the teeth didn't penetrate, just left bumps and bruises). I had called the cops the night before and nothing was done (nor will that take responsibility for nothing being done) and Animal Control "can't find the animal" and they will try to contact the owner. So today I had to walk out of my way to avoid another incident.

But then again, since dogs do 1d4+1 hp damage, and I got attacked twice, that means I have more than 7 hit points, so a friend of mine thinks I am at least a 3rd level expert (being a scientist and all).

 

[Barak]

bah

I was attacked by a stray crazy mutt on a saturday. Called animal control, their offices are only "open monday to friday, 7-3". Called the cops, they said to call animal control. Told them their hours, they said "oh well". Told them :"Oh. Ok, I'll just shoot the #$^# mutt". They sent a car.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

But then again, since dogs do 1d4+1 hp damage, and I got attacked twice, that means I have more than 7 hit points

Wouldn't that mean you have more than 4?