Some one needs to be shot (winge thread)

[MHD]

Well with the support of the public service Qantas has regained its monopoly over the Canberra to Sydney route... first they forced Virgin out and now REX has stopped thier service... byebye cheap flights!!!

/rant mode

[birddog114]

Welcome back guy!

Forget about them MHD, walk is lot cheaper

[gstark]

And some people wonder why I don't like dealing with Qantas/Telstra etc ...

And why is it that we still don't have a very fast train service in this country? That is something that would be ideal for the Sydney - Canberra corridor.

[meicw]

I'm with you there, Graham. I dont like using the government subsidised corporations either unless I have too. Thats why I fly United when I visit the States. I agree also that our rail system is a joke. I can get from Melbourne to Nashville in the time it takes to get to Coffs Harbour by train!!

Regards
Meic

[MattC]

Last month TC lost all air services. We now have nothing... nada... zip. 500km in one direction, or 700 in the other to the nearest commercial air service.

Dont even get me started on Telstra!!! It makes a lot of sense to privatise the wholesale and retail side of a monopoly together. Great for share value, but lousey for the consumer...

Crikey, I cannot even get a decent dialup connection, forget broadband. Last year, during the wet, there was about 3 weeks where I could not even get 1K!!!!

My rant for the day.

Cheers

Matt

[sirhc55]

Last month TC lost all air services. We now have nothing... nada... zip. 500km in one direction, or 700 in the other to the nearest commercial air service.

Dont even get me started on Telstra!!! It makes a lot of sense to privatise the wholesale and retail side of a monopoly together. Great for share value, but lousey for the consumer...

Crikey, I cannot even get a decent dialup connection, forget broadband. Last year, during the wet, there was about 3 weeks where I could not even get 1K!!!!

My rant for the day.

Cheers



Matt

Matt - rant as much as you like it sometimes gets people listening(!) BTW can you get satellite connection in TC?

Chris

[MattC]

Chris,

Yes, I can get a satellite connection. I checked out a while back (about 6 months ago). Even with the government subsidies (HIBIS) it is very exensive for my usage - too expensive for me. The claim of that scheme is to make remote broadband affordable - ha bl...y ha! There is no access plan that suites my needs and excess usage rates were outrageous the last time that I looked. I curently run an unlimited plan.

About a 18 months ago my local ISP started a list for people that want a broadband service. Apparently Telstra wants 100 (or is it 200?) confirmed broadband users before they will upgrade the local exchange. There are enough people here in TC who will signup, to qualify for an adsl enabled exchange, but Telstra has not acted and has not given any indication if it ever will.
Even if we get high bandwidth connections the price of that connection will be double what city folk pay. As it is, I pay as much for dialup as an equivelant broadband connection in the city.

Cheers

Matt

[sirhc55]

Chris,

Yes, I can get a satellite connection. I checked out a while back (about 6 months ago). Even with the government subsidies (HIBIS) it is very exensive for my usage - too expensive for me. The claim of that scheme is to make remote broadband affordable - ha bl...y ha! There is no access plan that suites my needs and excess usage rates were outrageous the last time that I looked. I curently run an unlimited plan.

About a 18 months ago my local ISP started a list for people that want a broadband service. Apparently Telstra wants 100 (or is it 200?) confirmed broadband users before they will upgrade the local exchange. There are enough people here in TC who will signup, to qualify for an adsl enabled exchange, but Telstra has not acted and has not given any indication if it ever will.
Even if we get high bandwidth connections the price of that connection will be double what city folk pay. As it is, I pay as much for dialup as an equivelant broadband connection in the city.

Cheers

Matt

Matt I feel for you - I use broadband but without being political I would say that we both have the same opinion of government and what they say and what they actually do.

Hang in there

Chris

[MattC]

Chris,

I decided to do a quick search. Maybe, I spoke too harshly of satellite without having current info in front of me. It appears that the cost of satellite has dropped substantially since I last had a look. Here is a link to one company that offers shaped unlimited plans. Considering that an shaped/unlimited adsl connection through the Comdinico network would cost about $100, these plans look more attractive. It is still something that I would need to check out very carefully before commiting.

It still peeves me that the Howard government is privatising a company (Telstra) that competes in the retail market while owning 100% of the telecommunications infrastructure that all other networks are dependent on.

Starting to feel better

Cheers

Matt

[gstark]

Chris,

Small point of order here, if I may.

Matt I feel for you - I use broadband but without being political I would say that we both have the same opinion of government and what they say and what they actually do.

Since when has any government of any colour ever done anything?

[sirhc55]

Chris,

Small point of order here, if I may.

Matt I feel for you - I use broadband but without being political I would say that we both have the same opinion of government and what they say and what they actually do.

Since when has any government of any colour ever done anything?

That’s the problem Gary they have done lots and most of it hurts

Chris

[Killakoala]

Talking about governments. The Prime Minister, who just happens to be my 'boss', is also my local member.... I hope he never puts me on the spot and asks me who i vote for

During the last elections, the (Name With-held) candidate, who's name escapes me now, did knock on my door and ask for my vote. However i explained to him that as he was the most outspoken person AGAINST us going to Iraq, and the fact that i DID GO to Iraq to do my bit for democracy and propaganda, (and got a medal for doing so) that there was no way i would vote for him or his party.

He nicely apologised for disturbing my day and left. I was going to set the hounds on him but i don't have any

[kurokaze204]

I hate monopolies as much as the next guy, but in Telstra's defence we've got it good compared with the USA. I had a car stack in Nova Scotia, Canada one time and I had to take 30 minutes and FOURTEEN operators (in one phone call!) to get through to the insurance company in California. Costs me about CAN$14 in quarters just to connect and then I had to sit on hold with the insurance company!

And while we are talking about monopolistic practices, surely the price of Nikon hardware in this country has to rate a mention??...

[gstark]

I had a car stack in Nova Scotia, Canada one time and I had to take 30 minutes and FOURTEEN operators (in one phone call!) to get through to the insurance company in California. Costs me about CAN$14 in quarters just to connect and then I had to sit on hold with the insurance company!

With respect, that is surely an issue to be taken up with the insurance company?

IME they all have 1800 numbers, and it should be a free call from anywhere within Canada or the USofA.

I have yet to see Hellstra do anything useful; by way oif contrast I was using an AT&T calling card on last week's trip, and (as much as I loathe AT&T) I had no issues whjatsoever.

The only two organisations that I needed to call for service issues were the ISP supplying one of the hotels, and Circuit City because of the lousy attitude (and, it transpires, lies) of the sales manager of one of their stores. Fancy that: a sales manager telling lies? Who'd a thunk it?

In both cases there was an 1800 number to call, and the issues were resolved fairly quickly.

With Telstra I would be doing well to have been taken off hold within the timeframe taken to resolve the issues I was dealing with.

And while we are talking about monopolistic practices, surely the price of Nikon hardware in this country has to rate a mention??...

I doubt you'll see too many arguments about this her; it's a pet peeve of mine, in fact, and was the subject of discussion in another thread just last week, where I was being accused of being too hard on Maxwell's.

[sirhc55]

Gary - I got round the Hellstra problems a couple of years ago when I could not contact my local sales office. I phoned head office, got through eventually, and asked the lady who answered the phone if she could look out of the window for a second. She asked me why and I replied that she should find a carrier pigeon on the window ledge because that was the only way I could get any message to their sales office.

Believe it or not I had about 5 calls from Hellstra that day

Chris

[gstark]

Chris,

Sadly, I find that I need to take that sort of action far too often.

The problem for Hellstra (and other top heavy, treat-the-customer-as-shit bureaucracies) is that I'm actually a very persistant pain in the arse, and just because some dickhead on the other end of the phone says "no" doesn't mean that I have to accept that as their answer; I've never, for instance, signed on to their internal procedures, and so whatever they might wish to tell me regarding those policies is, to me, just a load of irrelevant bullshit.

I'm never scared to push to get to the right person, and I'm never perpared to accept second best.

And when it comes to finding unpublished corporate phone numbers, I have more than a few tricks up my sleeve. While I might not get to chat with the CEO, I canb usually get to his personal assistant, and that is usually more than enough to wake up the sleepy little goblins from their permanaps.

A call from the boss's office (even though it's not actually the boss calling) genrally is more than enough to help them remember just who is paying their ill-gotten wages.

[MattC]

I can appreciate the benefit of having a single telecommunications network (infrastructure) in this country. But really, to have the company who owns the infrastructure competing in the same retail market as everyone else... There is no competition. IMO opinion it is anti-competitive. If Telstra Retail were to be a seperate entity to Telstra Wholesale, then we might see some real benefits in the future. ie competition.

While I do not agree with Australia's presence in the Middle East, I do have to support the servicemen and women there, and wish them a speedy and safe return.

Nikon monopoly? We do have Birddog and Mr poon.

Cheers

Matt

[gstark]

If Telstra Retail were to be a seperate entity to Telstra Wholesale, then we might see some real benefits in the future. ie competition.

Wouldn't make a scrap of difference.

Telstra is Telstra is Telstra.

There's a mindset there, and that is in need of serious rearrangement.

[kurokaze204]

I've worked for Multinationals, Government, SME and even ran my own small business for 8 years. It never ceases to amaze me how much the cororate culture influences every part of business.

On the positive side, I think it's the culture of this forum that makes it oneof the better ones I've even been in.

[MATT]

I have a telstra positive,

I origonaly contacted Telstra about broadband many years ago, and got the message that it was not available in my area but to try back at a later stage. A week later the web site went from cant have to keep watching.

I got as many people as I could to register interest in Adsl, a month later we had a date when the service would be available.

Finaly available, I live 2.7Klm from the exchange and my lines had other infrastructure ( lightning arrestors).I gave up.I also had IHUG oneway Sat connection at the time.

Afew weeks later I contacted my Local country wide rep , he did some seaching around and put a request in to rewire from exchange to my place to emable me and the surounding houses to get ADSL.

It took 2 months to get done. I was very pleased.

I then jioned TPG ADSL and dont even use Telstra.

A few months seems like a long time but they kept in touch each week with what was going on.

My only grip with a SAT connection is one-way uploads still at dialup, download speed was good!!! $59 for 4 gigs 400k or $49 128k unlimited.

MATT

[gstark]

MAtt,

While it's good to hear a good news story about Telstra, what's notable about this to me is that, in the end, what you've noted is that they were only doing their job. Nothing exciting, nor out of the ordinary, really.

Sorry to have to pour a dampener on your experiences ...