Another brickbat for Telstra Customer Service

Telstra continues to elicit negative perceptions……………….

An ongoing Telstra torment

I CAN'T begin to explain the torment I've experienced this past 12 months at the hands of Telstra.

I must say though my feeling of futility and stupidity was somewhat allayed when reading our glorious Bonnie's letter to you on December 20.

Bonnie is a business woman I admire and it brought me great relief to know that someone of her capability and knowledge of the world of communications could also struggle in her dealings with this once great telco.

I could detail in excess of 20 examples of monumental Telstra stuff ups involving my personal and company phones and internet connections over this year, however, the one that brought the most chuckles and pain was their recent disconnection of my business phones.

Without detailing the events leading up to this - which were quite bizarre and confusing to say the least -a day arrived, a Thursday, about four weeks ago when all my telephones - the business line, the EFTPOS line and all three company mobiles were dead.

When I tried to dial it told me I could only dial the billing number on my bill -which I did but it still didn't let me ring out.

So in frustration and fear I tried the Telstra business number - miraculously I got through. I explained I had called the billing number on my account as instructed -but had not been able to get through.

The only remark then was they were aware the wrong number is printed on those bills -no apology, no explanation.

The woman I spoke to told me that I hadn't paid my account which I explained I had in dribs and drabs over BPAY -and that Telstra had only just reconciled all the errors of the past 12 months.

The woman explained that I needed to pay another $473 if I wanted the phones reconnected.

I told her I simply didn't have that money on the day and asked her how she expected me to pay this amount given my customers couldn't call to order nor could they pay with EFTPOS and nor could they buy any pre-paid telephone or internet. She didn't care.

She said to call back when I paid and they would arrange to have my phones reconnected.

The irony was as she went to end the conversation she asked me which number was the best one to contact me on?

I said: "Are you serious? You've disconnected every single line I have."

I managed to get an email through to my son, who is currently serving in Afghanistan, he paid the account via BPAY and emailed me the payment details.

I actually have my own designated Telstra person - with an email address and direct number - as a result of the Telstra trauma

I've experienced this year. I couldn't call that person because the phones were disconnected - and as it turned out he was on an RDO anyway.

I emailed the payment information immediately to this chap, who returned to work on the Friday and he gave instructions that my phones be reconnected immediately.

Well immediately in Telstra terms was the following Tuesday morning.

My store is open 6am-6Pm every day of the week and my business number is used to book appointments for the acupuncturist and remedial masseuse who work from the clinic I've established at the rear of my store.

So almost six days with no phones, no EFTPOS and no sales of pre-paid internet or phone.

Over that weekend I needed to speak to my father.

I had a brainwave -I'll use the telephone box outside my store - hmmm ...it was out of order.

But the most painful part of this whole experience was that on the Sunday, December 5, my baby boy turned 26. He promised to call me from Tarin Kowt where he is currently serving as an Australian soldier.

For the first time in those 26 years I didn't get to speak to my baby boy on his birthday.

Thank you again Telstra -a most memorable year.

Oh, and some advice, stop spending buckets of money on sending out copious volumes of expensive marketing materials and direct that budget towards improving your customer service.

URSULA TUNKS

Managing Director, Premium ldeas and Marketing

[The Daily Examiner,letter to the editor,28 December 2010]

Japanese Antarctic Whale Kill 2010-11: If there are official photographs of the slaughter why aren't we seeing them?

Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown in The Sydney Morning Herald on 21 December 2010:

Greens leader Bob Brown says he has met with Japan's ambassador and told him that whaling is doing his country "great damage".

He says he told Shigekazu Sato that whatever victory Japan thinks it has in killing whales is "a pyrrhic victory".

"I did describe this bloody business of whaling in very direct terms to the ambassador.

"I was able to ask him if he, as a Christmas gesture, might not give me the co-ordinates of the whaling fleet and update them every other day. He declined to be so generous."

Senator Brown also called on the federal government to release the most recent whaling photographs, which he said are being kept hidden "in the minister for the environment's drawer".

"That sort of cowardly approach to Tokyo is not representing what the Australian people think about the cowardly business of whaling," Senator Brown told reporters.

"If they want to go down there and slaughter whales in our oceans or the oceans south of New Zealand, let the rest of the world see what they're doing."

The intransigence and blatant hypocrisy of the Government of Japan and its agencies having oversight and operational responsibility for these annual whale hunts begs the question of why the Australian Government continues to take such a low-key approach:

Japan's Fisheries Agency has admitted its officials accepted gifts of whale meat from the body that runs the country's so-called scientific whaling program.

Six months ago the ABC broadcast allegations by two whaling crew members that officials and crew were illegally taking thousands of dollars worth of whale cuts.

At the time the Fisheries Agency denied the allegations, but it has now reprimanded five of its officials for taking more than $3,000 worth of whale meat.

The Federal Opposition, which when in government was not inclined to pursue legal action against the Japanese Government, now calls for:

… an interim injunction be taken out against Japan to prevent it whaling in the Southern Ocean this summer.......

Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says the federal government should be doing more to stop the annual whale hunt.

And an interim injunction should be sought through the international court, or the tribunal on the law of the sea.

Australia's efforts through the International Court of Justice has been "torturously slow", Mr Hunt said, noting the court's decision isn't expected until at least 2013.

While the Sea Shepard’s methods of directly confronting the whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean raises concern in many quarters, sometimes it is hard to stand back from the fact that this group is the only one physically standing between whales and painful, unnecessary, early deaths from unnatural causes.

Japan's Insitute of Cetacean Research has sent out a media release and two short videos which allege to show an 'attack' on its whaling fleet on New Year's Day 2011:

2011.01.01 Antiwhaling activists aboard a zodiac boat throwing glass bottle projectiles against the Yushin Maru No. 3 (2.91MB)

2011.01.01 Antiwhaling activists aboard a zodiac boat prepare to deploy a rope aimed at the Yushin Maru No. 3 propeller and rudder (794KB)

Although last year Japan reiterated its intention to again hold off plans to slaughter humpback whales like Migaloo the White Fella, there is no guarantee that this decision will not be arbitrarily reversed.

McDonald's rubbishing Yamba in 2011 - Part One

While Petering Time is away chasing that illusive fish catch of a lifetime it has fallen to me to keep the McDonald's Yamba fast food outlet 'rubbish pile' evidence.

So here is the first installment for 2011 of Maccas branded litter found in Yamba public spaces within a few metres of and/or or less than a kilometre from the McDonald's Australia fast food outlet opened in December 2010.

Yes, Virginia, there is a bright future out there

The following impressive study undertaken by British primary school children aged between 7 and 11 years of age shows that the world still contains much human potential - Blackawton bees.

The abstract is here, the full report is here and here is the list of the young science enthusiasts and now published authors and their support team:

1. P. S. Blackawton1,

2. S. Airzee1,

3. A. Allen1,

4. S. Baker1,

5. A. Berrow1,

6. C. Blair1,

7. M. Churchill1,

8. J. Coles1,

9. R. F.-J. Cumming1,

10. L. Fraquelli1,

11. C. Hackford1,

12. A. Hinton Mellor1,

13. M. Hutchcroft1,

14. B. Ireland1,

15. D. Jewsbury1,

16. A. Littlejohns1,

17. G. M. Littlejohns1,

18. M. Lotto1,

19. J. McKeown1,

20. A. O'Toole1,

21. H. Richards1,

22. L. Robbins-Davey1,

23. S. Roblyn1,

24. H. Rodwell-Lynn1,

25. D. Schenck1,

26. J. Springer1,

27. A. Wishy1,

28. T. Rodwell-Lynn1,

29. D. Strudwick1 and

30. R. B. Lotto2,*

1 Blackawton Primary School, Blackawton, Devon, UK

2 Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London,

11-43 Bath Street, London EC1V 9EL, UK

*Author for correspondence (lotto@ucl.ac.uk).

Confronting, curious, intriguing, questionable and amusing quotes read or heard over the festive holiday period

"cows do not belong in fields."
Nocton Dairies,UK,on its development application,2010

Norad is tracking Santa. Let's hope they don't overcompensate for 9/11 failures by blowing this bearded fundamentalist out of the sky.
Darryl Mason,on Twitter,2010

We are the only non-singing Welsh on the planet, me and my family. We migrated because we were polluting the gene pool.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Labor TV interview with Corinne Grant

Manning related to me on December 18 2010 that he does not receive any substantive exercise and cannot perform even basic exercises in his cell. When told of the Pentagon's statement that he did indeed receive exercise, Manning's reply was that he is able to exercise insofar as walking in chains is a form of exercise.
Statement allegedly made by Private Bradley Manning being held in the Quantico Marine Base brig,2010

"Voting in Oz these days is almost always a choice between the ignorant or inept and the corrupt"
Petering Time, in conversation,2010

MADGE Australia Inc is happy to be the conduit for totally confidential leaks coming out of @FSANZnews
MADGE Australia Inc,onTwitter,2010

And if anyone should sue for mental distress surely it should be a teenage girl taken sexual advantage of by grown men, allegedly impregnated by one of them, then tossed aside like a used jockstrap.
Derryn Hinch,on the St. Kilda football club,2010

Australians remain uniquely exposed to mistreatment by bureaucrats and government. We want better protection of rights – the polls show us that – but not having them provokes little concern round the kitchen tables of the nation. We muddle through, hoping and trusting. It's the Australian way.
David Marr, 10^th Human Rights Oration,2010

According to my local federal member, the legislation for internet filtering was shelved. However, the software was still developed, so who knows if they have implemented it anyway. I have had problems with some sites in the last few weeks, and no idea why.
Theresa,onYahoo!7 Answers,2010

But it's interesting you're raising that particular question, because it's something that appears to be coming out of attempts to conflate media activities with espionage. That's a serious business.
Julian Assange,CBS interview,2010

Earlier in the negotiations with Tony Abbott, he said in no uncertain terms that he would be prepared to double the humanitarian intake into Australia in return for my support.
Andrew Wilkie MP,ABC PM interview, 2010

Several doctors across Australia were recently caught out publicly ridiculing patients on Facebook, labelling some "whingers" and "dissatisfied housewives" to their online network of friends. Some doctors were even found to have disparagingly named patients on social networking sites."I feel like an adviser to a women's knitting club, having to suffer the whines of Mrs X and her daughter Ms X," one doctor posted.
"Warning to docs over mocking patients",2010

Pope says God suprises us whats he gonna do jump out of a closet and go BOO
retiringoldchap‎,onTwitter,2010

The Department of Health and Ageing, was the heaviest user of market research services. In the past five financial years, the department spent almost $24m on surveying the public mood.
"$31 million to read public's mind",2010

''Our current unfair dismissal system encourages Australians to behave like greedy whingers. A no-fault dismissal system would set our heads right on the issue and provide for dignity of exit, allowing people to focus not on legal conflict but on managing departure in the chosen way whilst being encouraged to embrace the future opportunities that are always just around the corner.''
Grace Collier,industrial relations consultant to H.R. Nicholls Society,2010

This is not an argument for kicking a million disability pensioners and long-term unemployed people off benefits .
Australian Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott, on his 'fairer welfare' policy,2010

Armenia's Chief of Police, Alik Sarkisian, claimed that emo could "damage our gene pool". "We should fight against such phenomena because they are morally harmful to our people,"
"Armenian police target teenage rock cult",2010

Watching the Walking Dead. Creepy similarities to the Australian cricket team...
Rod McGuinness, on Twitter,2010

The Department of Housing is collecting almost $7 million from private renters living in what is supposed to be public housing, while almost 50,000 people are on waiting lists. Central has found that Housing NSW uses realtor Run Property to lease 20 properties to private renters, including apartments and houses, in the inner city and three elsewhere in NSW.
"Housing NSW cashes in on private rents",2010

"The success of the Labor Party at the next election depends entirely, as it always has done, on the people who work."
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally, allegedly quoting Ben Chifley,2010

Ways you know you've enjoyed the #boxingdaysales:
1. you need to phone the bank at the checkout after overspending daily limit...
2. you can't physically carry it to your car.
3. you can't FIT it in your car.
4. thought of getting upstairs is like a TAbbott marathon.
5.you forgot what you actually bought.
Journalist Latika Bourke, on Twitter,2010

Take your pick: flooded, fried or frozen
The Australian, headline commenting on extremes of weather across the country in late December, 2010

SOUTH Australian couples wanting to end their marriage are increasingly using the internet to do so. More than 250 people in almost 18 months have applied for divorce using an online service.The Federal Magistrates Court introduced its "e-filing" separation option in September 2009, allowing unhappy spouses to take the first step towards official separation over the internet.In the past 15 months, 268 South Australians applied to end their marriage online.Another service, where men and women are alerted via a text message when their divorce has been granted, has also been flagged by the Federal Magistrates Court.Earlier this month Australian Bureau of Statistics figures revealed the number of people divorcing nationally increased by 4.7 per cent in 2009, the first rise since 2001.
"E-divorce on rise as couples disconnect",2010

Today approximately 1.8 billion people use the Internet to do everything from conduct business, communicate with friends and family, keep up with current events or simply entertain themselves playing games or watching videos. Each individual and each Internet-connected device presents a certain footprint that is exposed and often manipulated for criminal or political gain. Malware, or malicious software, is often the catalyst for this manipulation, while targets span the gamut from corporate and national secrets to personal information that can be used to directly steal money or another crime. Technology and the Internet provide the means and opportunity, while global socioeconomic trends provide the motive to perpetuate these crimes.
"State of the Internet 2010",CA Technologies white paper

MELBOURNE'S Catholic Archdiocese has failed to announce or fully implement changes requested by Victoria Police to the church's sexual abuse inquiry process, more than a year after serious deficiencies were exposed...........
Sources close to the church have said that police have requested it to revamp its inquiry process to ensure that priests under investigation for sexual offences by detectives are not in effect tipped off by the church's chief abuse investigator, Peter O'Callaghan, QC, that they are the subject of a police probe.
Church sources also confirmed to The Age that the police had serious concerns about Mr O'Callaghan's practice of comparing himself to a royal commissioner, despite the fact that he is appointed and paid for by the church.
"Church 'silent' on abuse reforms",2010

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was found guilty of rape and other sex crimes on Thursday, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a sad day for the Jewish state.
"Former Israeli President Found Guilty of Rape",2010

Every Aus media is controlled by this corruption, all bar Crikey and @BernardKeane.Shame on the lot of you. #MDBA
qwadja on Twitter,2010

Jules Faber in The Daily Examiner, 2010

One of the reasons so many people choose to live on the NSW North Coast

Dolphin in flying leap
Photograph taken by Matt Deans
just south of Split Solitary Island off Coffs Harbour
in December 2010
Published in The Daily Telegraph
Click on photo to enlarge

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year
from all at
North Coast Voices

Image found at Oohm