Mother is a mchine

This afternoon a miracle occured. I mean a real bonafide miracle. Not just the insane ramblings of a woman hocked up on antihistamines trying to get through the school holidays with grace and dignity and all three children still containing their limbs and breathing abilities, but the real McCoy, walking on water, parting the sea, turning water to wine kind of deal.

Unfortunately the miracle that occured did not contain a long lost Daddy Wharbucks, or the floor of my sons bedroom becoming visible; nor did my ass suddenly regain it’s former glory and lift itself from banging against the backs of my knees; but a girl has her right to a fantasy or two…..

What did happen was this.

A few months ago, I got WiFi broadband. It lasted two days. Whilst I could connect to the internet, I couldn’t actually DO anything on it. I couldn’t log into my account, I couldn’t even log into ebay. So I pulled it all apart and sent it back to telstra with a big thanks but no thanks.

A month later, I recieved a bill. For $470. (The modem and the early termination of contract fee.) I couldn’t believe it. Not only had I sent the modem back, I had the service for two days! I was outraged. Especially considering that I only signed up because the guy flogging bigpond to me specifically said I had ten days in which I could peruse and then terminate should I choose. Of course there is a lesson in there on not taking anything at face value and actually reading the TOS. (Red face moment there, I should know better)

To cut a long story and several tirades short, I recieved an outstanding notice today. Because I had paid the phone and mobile bills, but not the bigpond bill (I was contesting, I sent the modem back, there was no way I was paying for it and I figured I had no choice with the ETF, but the ETF wasn’t due until tomorrow anyway.) there was an outstanding debt. It didn’t state it was a bigpond issue, it was just an amount. So I called Telstra. Because aside from the bigpond charges, my bills were up to date. I have issues with bills, I cannot have overdue notices, they induce insomnia- so generally my bills are always paid either well before or on the date they are due.

It must have been my lucky day because I got Kelly. Kelly was wonderful. She went through the last three bills with me, item by item and amazingly took my anal retention in her stride. She managed to do the unthinkable. She reduced a $710 bill to a mere $236!! She tracked down the modem I had sent back, she even had my ETF taken care of. In short, Kelly restored my faith in Telstra. Big corporations are generally machines, with no ethics or thought of the people who pay for their services, their sole obssession profit margins and top dollar for shareholders. Finally, some common sense prevailed. Someone actually decided that charging a woman $330 for terminating a service she had for two days was ridiculous.

See, bona fide miracle. Thank you Kelly. Telstra is lucky to have you.

when what you wanted turns out to be shit

Two carboard boxes sit patiently in my study waiting for me to take them back to where they came from. In short, I am extremely unhappy. Sad even.

It all started many many moons ago. Back when I only had two children (and a smaller backside).  My son was born with a rare abnormality. I needed to know more. So I begged and pleaded and I was allowed to get the internet.  (This is 1999) We got bigpond. BIG mistake. We lived on the outskirts of a major city. But our internet connection, was dodgy at best, non-existant any other time. So we cancelled it. Around 2002, we thought we’d try again. This time we went with AOL and have been happy dial-up customers since.  but I want broadband.

Greedy little goat aren’t I?  Finally after years of pleading, cajoling, pouting, making promises  not fit for a PG13 veiwing and just generally being a pain in my husbands arse, he gave me the all clear to get broadband.

My little box arrived and I unwrapped it with glee. OMG wires much? It was horrible. I use the laptop at the kitchen bench because it’s the only phone outlet, I could not have a broadband modem and fifty freaking wires littering my tiny kitchen bench. So I requested WiFi. The box arrived two days ago, I was so giddy.

I set it all up and went to log into My Bigpond. A big fat nothing happened! I rang, and after talking to Craig for an hour (who has the hots for his boss) he decided there must be something wrong with my laptop.  I should also state that whilst I could get on the net and browse and that I could log into this here blog, I couldn’t post anything. I could read blogs, and read my own, but I couldn’t use any active features. And this seemed to be true every where.

So I jammed the wireless thingy in the PC, (which has no access to a phone line which is why we wanted wireless broadband in the first place) and the same thing happened on it, which made me question Craig’s theory of my Laptop being on the fritz.)

So i rang bigpond yet again, spent half an hour talking to Michael and he told me others were having problems logging into my bigpond but no one had complained of not being able to access other components of other sites.

So this morning I did a little experiment, my dial up connection works fine. Bigpond has just lost a customer. And I am probably never going to convince myhusband to get an updated version of internet access until dial up becomes defunct.

*sigh*

sometimes, the internet sucks.