Heavy Weather Podcasts

Ep 46: Hyper V, LCD manufacturers admit to price fixing, 3 Launches Affordable Facebook Phone, Optus, iiNet put filters to the test, Big is not necessarily beautiful when it comes to large screen tvs. During the course of last week I had the task of re-connecting to mobile broadband service as a result of the theft of my broadband card the previous week. A task which on the surface should be relatively simple, painless, and quick, but in the wash up of the week was one of the most arduous tasks I’ve ever undertaken. The process was simple. Replace my Next G SIM and un-suspend the service, purchase a new Mobile Broadband card outright, and set up my lap top. Easy. Well it should have been. It all started last Tuesday when I paid a visit to my local Telstra shop to get a new SIM card and re activate my Next G account. I stood in a queue at the Camberwell branch for what seemed like an hour but was more like 20 minutes waiting and watching while 3 staff members stood around a counter pc arguing over a product code. When I was finally served, the sales person tried the up sell of a Telstra Xpress card valued at $450 of which he didn’t have one. Gotta give it to them for trying! The approximate time spent in store to replace my sim card – 45 minutes. Having a Telstra SIM in hand, I headed off to my local 3 shop to buy a Xpress net connect card at a more realistic price of $199. The guy at three was most helpful, sympathetic towards my lost network card and associating my new network card to my existing account. Time spent at three was about 15 minutes – no waiting but most of it paperwork. At this point, the process was as I expected it, so back to work I went, new SIM and Mobile Broadband card in hand. All that was left to do was unlock the card and get back online. Next, I called Three support to unlock the card. A process that I’d done before and which at that time, took no more than 5 minutes to unlock the card. This is when things started to go down hill. The Mumbai telemarketer had no problem to perform the task I had asked him, it was now a technological challenge to get the device unlocked and on air. To cut a very long story short, the card could not be found in the account, and as a result he didn’t have the IMEI number. We then proceeded to dispute the IMEI number – he said it should start with the numbers 5353 and I had told him the 15 digit IMEI number printed on the Mobile broadband Card and on the receipt. I think he had found a Mastercard number instead. At this point in time it was time to terminate the call and move on. Cutting a long story even shorter, I thought I’d subscribe to a new 3 broadband service and have the new card I had bought assigned to that. That was bound to fix all the problems. I did this first thing Wednesday Morning. Normally a service comes alive in 15 minutes or so, and Threes standard answer is 4 hours. After 4 hours nothing so back to Mumbai I went. This time my focus was to get the card working on 3, the broadband card’s home network. That’s got to be fool proof. Not so. Three support could see that everything was in place, but the service would not work. They tweaked things at their end, and assured me all would be well in 4 hours. Fixed I thought, and back to work I went. By 6pm on Wednesday, the broadband card could find three’s network, but couldn’t connect, but if I put my 3 SIM from my telephone service in the card – it worked, so I knew it was a network related issue. Back to Mumbai I went. This time, Mumbai sent me back to my three shop to get a new SIM Card as he thought the SIM I had was faulty. On the way to work at 9am, I collected a new SIM and was told the standard line – “Give it 4 hours”. 4 hours came and went but still no go, so back to Mumbai again. This time an incident report and job number was raised and I was told they’d look into it with no time frame for a resolution. By 2pm Thursday I was starting to get very annoyed. Later that day I rang Mumbai again to express my disappointment in threes service and inability to connect a mobile broadband service. This time the service telemarketer started to try and convince me the problem lay with my equipment, not the network. I tried to convince him that if I put my phone’s 3 SIM card into the broadband card it worked and it was not my equipment, but this fell on deaf ears. Friday morning had arrived, and it had now taken three days, and counting, to connect a broadband service which normally takes 15 minutes. Another call to three’s support had rendered the same result, so drastic measures were now required. I arrived at my local Three shop lap top and broadband card in hand and so I befriended Nick, and informed him of my sit in. I was not going to leave the store until my laptop was online using three’s network. Nick’s customer service was excellent. At no stage did he give up or try the 4 hour line, but the challenge at some staged seemed insurmountable. By 1pm on Friday, I was on air, an hour and a half after arriving at the store. This time it was poor Nick who had spent all the time on the phone to support. 3 SIM cards and 3 and a half days later I was connected again. It’s at this time you have to ask yourself is it worth it? Let’s face it, we need to be online, but all up, I would have wasted 10 or 12 hours getting things working. With telecommunications, do you get what you pay for or is this just the nature of the telecommunications beast? Maybe both. Three – Lift your game. Now back to unlocking the device. Wish me luck.  Also on This Weeks Show Adam answers the questions that can cause more problems in the house hold than any other - Does size matter? Is 50 inches too big? Virgin plucks Broadband at Home from retail shelves LCD manufacturers admit to price fixing Battery-powered credit supercard fights fraud and 3 Launches Affordable Facebook Phone read less