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You know what really rustles my jimmies

Rhino_NQ

Immortal
Messages
33,050
the leading hand i need to work with on site, was talking to him at prestart this morning and at the same time thinking how satisfying it would be if i pushed him underneath a scraper as it went past
 
Messages
15,545
1. Telstra

I have cable broadband with them and it comes via my Foxtel cable. Because of this, you can't just go to Dick Smith and buy a new wi-fi modem if your current one shits itself.

Recently the wi-fi signal on mine has declined to the point where I don't pick it up if I'm more than 2 metres away. "I'll just go to the Telstra store and pick up a new one" says I, thinking that this will be the easiest thing in the world to do. I mean, originally when I set the thing up, they sold me the kit over the counter and I just came home and installed it myself.

"No" says the lady at the Telstra store... "Sorry, we no longer carry things like this in stock. You'll have to order it via the bigpond site."

Ok, I thought. That couldn't be too hard, so off I went back home and placed an order that night and yeah, it wasn't all that difficult. They deliver by Aus post so I asked for it to be sent to my work address. (This point becomes important later).

Of course, this is how Telstra get you in. On the surface, things seem easy but its not until your tumbling backwards that you realise you've gone down the proverbial rabbit hole.

A week after I placed my order, I think to myself - I've not even seen so much as an email from Telstra about that new modem, let alone a delivery. I might just log into my account and see whats going on with my order.

Sure enough, as I click on the "Order tracking" icon, I am greeted with the words "Order cancelled". "Curious" says I as I reach for the phone to call Telstra customer service.

"How can I help you sir?" the lady on the other end of the line says with that familiar twang to her bastardised American sounding English accent that immediately tells me that although Telstra would like me to think I'm talking to someone in Sydney or Melbourne, I am in fact talking to someone in some massive call centre in Bangladesh.

"I placed an order with you last week and it has been cancelled"

We go through my details and all the other guff you have to get through to prove you are who you say you are nowadays and then the nice young lady confirms

"yes, your order for a modem has been cancelled sir."

"Why, may I ask?" I say in my nicest possible tone. "I will have to check sir" comes the reply.

After ten minutes on hold she comes back-

"Sir, our records indicate that you already have a modem with this account."

As the frustration in me begins to build, I ask the lady, "Is there some law that I am unaware of that prohibits a person from owning two modems?"

"Oh, no sir."

"Then why have you cancelled my order?"

As the lady searches for a reply, I go on to tell her my predicament, I then ask politely - "Is it possible, considering that my modem is not functioning correctly, that I may be allowed to replace it and that you can re-instate my order?"

"Sorry sir, I will have to check"

Ten more minutes on hold...

"I can't re-instate your order, I will have to place a new one for you." So the lady goes on to place a new order... After she has put me on hold again... This takes a further 10 minutes...

"Ok sir, your order has been placed again. Would you like to upgrade to cable 3.0? It's our new standard. Your new modem won't work without it."

Completely frustrated now... "Well if the new modem won't work without it, of course I'd like to upgrade. What will it cost?"

"Nothing sir, it's a free upgrade. I'll jut process that now"

5 further minutes of hold music later...

"Ok sir, thats all done now. Your next internet bill will include a $79 charge for the new modem and a $70 fee to upgrade to Cable 3.0"

"Uuuummm sorry, I thought you said that there was no charge for upgrade to 3.0?"

"When you get the bill, just ring our customer service again and we will credit this charge"

At this point, I am totally bemused and I thank the lady for her wonderful assistance and hang up. Sure it was an ordeal but at least I will get what I want right?

So Tuesday, I haven't heard anything further and I've not seen my new modem. I log into my account and am greeted by - "delivery attempted. No one available at premises to receive."

I check the order... It has been sent to my billing (home address). Of course I'm not frigging home, I work for a damn living. Thats why, on my original order I asked for delivery to my work... This leads to the second organisation that rustles my jimmies.
 
Last edited:
Messages
15,545
2. Australia Post

I live in Sydneys west, near enough to Parramatta. I work in North Sydney. For anyone unfamiliar with Sydney, it's about 45 minutes drive in the good times, an hour and a half in traffic to get from North Sydney to Parramatta.

I generally don't drive as the traffic is a nightmare. I catch a bus from my house to Parramatta station and an express train from Parramatta to North Sydney. This takes between 45 minutes and an hour depending on how "express" the train is and the connection with the bus.

Anyway, after my ordeal with Telstra I am lucky enough to receive a message from work that on Wednesday afternoon, I will be required to log into a web conference with some of my European work colleagues. It will start at 6 and go for a couple of hours... (I'm actually listening to it now as I type this... lol).

The understanding at my work is that when such an event occurs, you can leave work an hour or two early so that you can get home, get the laptop set up and ready for the conference... Great, if I work it right and things go my way, I can just squeeze into Australia Post on my way home and pick up my modem! I'm usually stuck at my desk from 8:30am until 5pm so this is a lucky break for me.

4 o'clock rolls around and I am out the door, knowing I'm on a tight timeline. The train at 10 past gets me to Parra at around 4:45, if I'm lucky I can get a good connection with the bus and be home with 5 to spare. Jump in the car and get to the post office bang on 5.

All goes to plan except for the bus which takes 5 minutes longer than I wanted, I run from the station to my house, about half a k at a dead sprint, jump in the car and despite a bit of traffic I get lucky with a parking spot and I think I'm half a chance. I get to the post office at about 5 minutes past after another dead sprint from the car to the front door... The door is being slid closed by a Lady of Asian background who looks to be about 50 odd... Sweat is beading off my forehead after my 100 metre dash, surely I must look like I've made a serious effort to be there... "Sorry sir, the post office is closed"

Me - "I just need to pick up a parcel"

Lady - "Come back tomorrow"

Me - "I can't, I work 9 to 5"

Lady - "Come back tomorrow"

Me - "I've just come all the way from North Sydney to get this parcel, I won't get another chance. I can't make it tomorrow."

Lady - "Sorry, we are closed, come back tomorrow"

Me - "Surely you can see my predicament, please just help me out?"

The Lady flips the lock and wheels around. She strides back into the closed post office.

So after all that.. f**k you Australia Post and to a lesser extent, f**k you Telstra.

Unfortunately there is no other alternative to Aus post so I can't do anything but complain, but the first chance I get, I'll be up there looking for the manager to give him a piece of my mind and perhaps tell him a thing or two about customer service. Not that it will make a tiny bit of differece but boy am I going to vent. Unfortunately also, there is no alternative to Telstra as Optus and Vodafone are just as shit, but I will ring them in a moment and tell them to jam this modem up there arse and deliver me a new one, to North Sydney as I originally requested, or else they can shove their cable up their arse.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I needed to vent.
 

BDR

First Grade
Messages
7,526
Problem with Aus Post is they don't give a flying f**k about customer service because they have no competitors.
 

Dragon2010

First Grade
Messages
8,953
Problem with Aus Post is they don't give a flying f**k about customer service because they have no competitors.

Pretty much this in a nutshell. What are you going to do? Not receive any post? They know they control the market they work in so they can "afford" to have poor customer service. Their a bloody rip off anyway.
 

HowHigh

Coach
Messages
12,819
Australia Post is f**ked

The past 5 things I've bought online haven't been delivered to my house. As far as I know they haven't even attempted to deliver at all.

It's one thing for the delivery guy to be lazy and not want to come up stairs (I live in an apartment but have a lift and there is no security door so being lazy isn't really an excuse), but on not one occasion did they even bother to leave a note in my letterbox notifying me they tried to deliver or that I now have to go pick up the parcel at the local post office.

I check the parcel and the address is correct every time but the main point is how the f**k am I supposed to know its even there if they don't even leave a note in my letterbox?

I complained to Australia Post after the 3rd time in a row it happened but pretty much got nowhere. Today makes it the 5th time in a row.

Now when I order something I just have to give it a week and go to the post office and ask if there is anything there for me.
 

Jason Maher

Immortal
Messages
35,991
Ordered a watch for my wife for her birthday from the US (New York, to be precise), for less than half what I would have paid for the same watch retail in Australia (this is after factoring in shipping). I ordered it Friday morning, had it delivered to my door this morning. 4 days from f**king New York, courtesy of FedEx! And that's factoring in a weekend and bad weather in the North-East United States. I mention this as a contrast to the "service" offered by Australia Post, who'd struggle to deliver me something from the other side of Brisbane in 4 days.
 

madunit

Super Moderator
Staff member
Messages
62,358
The biggest issue i have with Aust post is its reluctance to cooperate with the times of working people.

From a business perspective its costing them shitloads in potential revenue.
 
Messages
15,545
The biggest issue i have with Aust post is its reluctance to cooperate with the times of working people.

From a business perspective its costing them shitloads in potential revenue.

Exactly. For the average person who works 9-5 with 45 mins to an hour travel each way on public transport, Aus post is impossible. It's ok to say that you should just get everything delivered to work and this is great for small packages, but when you order anything larger than a toaster, it's a military exercise getting the damn thing home.

They need to start opening later hours or at least for a few hours on Saturdays. Problem is, they couldn't give a shit about their customers or even revenue for that matter. If ever there was an argument for privatisation, they are it.
 

madunit

Super Moderator
Staff member
Messages
62,358
I go to the effort of pissing them off royally by getting a shitload of big deliveries for the in-laws, my parents etc sent to my postal address at the same time.

They usually ring me up complaining and I tell them I leave at 6:45 every morning and get home at 6pm in the afternoon, Mon to Fri and I'm available anytime after midday on weekends and I'd be happy to pick up the packages anytime outside those hours.

Worked a treat, because they'd get someone to stay behind til after 6pm to let me pick them all up.

til this year, the merkins went and built a second post office, now they spread the pacakges between the two venues.

Motherf**kers.
 

Jason Maher

Immortal
Messages
35,991
The biggest issue i have with Aust post is its reluctance to cooperate with the times of working people.

From a business perspective its costing them shitloads in potential revenue.

They don't give a shit. They're a corporatised Government entity.
 

9701

First Grade
Messages
5,400
1. Telstra

I have cable broadband with them and it comes via my Foxtel cable. Because of this, you can't just go to Dick Smith and buy a new wi-fi modem if your current one shits itself.

Recently the wi-fi signal on mine has declined to the point where I don't pick it up if I'm more than 2 metres away. "I'll just go to the Telstra store and pick up a new one" says I, thinking that this will be the easiest thing in the world to do. I mean, originally when I set the thing up, they sold me the kit over the counter and I just came home and installed it myself.

"No" says the lady at the Telstra store... "Sorry, we no longer carry things like this in stock. You'll have to order it via the bigpond site."

Ok, I thought. That couldn't be too hard, so off I went back home and placed an order that night and yeah, it wasn't all that difficult. They deliver by Aus post so I asked for it to be sent to my work address. (This point becomes important later).

Of course, this is how Telstra get you in. On the surface, things seem easy but its not until your tumbling backwards that you realise you've gone down the proverbial rabbit hole.

A week after I placed my order, I think to myself - I've not even seen so much as an email from Telstra about that new modem, let alone a delivery. I might just log into my account and see whats going on with my order.

Sure enough, as I click on the "Order tracking" icon, I am greeted with the words "Order cancelled". "Curious" says I as I reach for the phone to call Telstra customer service.

"How can I help you sir?" the lady on the other end of the line says with that familiar twang to her bastardised American sounding English accent that immediately tells me that although Telstra would like me to think I'm talking to someone in Sydney or Melbourne, I am in fact talking to someone in some massive call centre in Bangladesh.

"I placed an order with you last week and it has been cancelled"

We go through my details and all the other guff you have to get through to prove you are who you say you are nowadays and then the nice young lady confirms

"yes, your order for a modem has been cancelled sir."

"Why, may I ask?" I say in my nicest possible tone. "I will have to check sir" comes the reply.

After ten minutes on hold she comes back-

"Sir, our records indicate that you already have a modem with this account."

As the frustration in me begins to build, I ask the lady, "Is there some law that I am unaware of that prohibits a person from owning two modems?"

"Oh, no sir."

"Then why have you cancelled my order?"

As the lady searches for a reply, I go on to tell her my predicament, I then ask politely - "Is it possible, considering that my modem is not functioning correctly, that I may be allowed to replace it and that you can re-instate my order?"

"Sorry sir, I will have to check"

Ten more minutes on hold...

"I can't re-instate your order, I will have to place a new one for you." So the lady goes on to place a new order... After she has put me on hold again... This takes a further 10 minutes...

"Ok sir, your order has been placed again. Would you like to upgrade to cable 3.0? It's our new standard. Your new modem won't work without it."

Completely frustrated now... "Well if the new modem won't work without it, of course I'd like to upgrade. What will it cost?"

"Nothing sir, it's a free upgrade. I'll jut process that now"

5 further minutes of hold music later...

"Ok sir, thats all done now. Your next internet bill will include a $79 charge for the new modem and a $70 fee to upgrade to Cable 3.0"

"Uuuummm sorry, I thought you said that there was no charge for upgrade to 3.0?"

"When you get the bill, just ring our customer service again and we will credit this charge"

At this point, I am totally bemused and I thank the lady for her wonderful assistance and hang up. Sure it was an ordeal but at least I will get what I want right?

So Tuesday, I haven't heard anything further and I've not seen my new modem. I log into my account and am greeted by - "delivery attempted. No one available at premises to receive."

I check the order... It has been sent to my billing (home address). Of course I'm not frigging home, I work for a damn living. Thats why, on my original order I asked for delivery to my work... This leads to the second organisation that rustles my jimmies.

To be honest if it was just the wireless not working i would of disabled the wireless in the modem spent around $30 and bought a wireless router and been up and going with no hassles, but that's me.
 

perverse

Referee
Messages
26,704
To be honest if it was just the wireless not working i would of disabled the wireless in the modem spent around $30 and bought a wireless router and been up and going with no hassles, but that's me.
This. You don't need your wireless to be served by the router that is routing your internet connection... you can easily use another wireless AP or even an adsl/adsl2 router with wireless capability plugged into your network.
 

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