The good old LG TU500 was acting up, phoning people at random, shutting itself off etc so being a few years old I ventured into Telstra to get it fixed...............
Young guys serve me, says your phone is out of Contract I shall replace it for you. What type of phone would you like sir? (not your Grace, simply "Sir") I said one that I can make calls on that gives me good service in the sticks.
Oh dear.... wrong thing to say.....In the end I opted for one that is "retro styled in chromium" alas it does everything - video camera with zoom, still camera ditto, voice recorder, daily scheduler with reminder alarms, Internet of course, emails, world time, Free weather forcasts for 90 days, MP3 player with graphic equaliser and Bass Boost and of course is easy to schyronise with "any" laptop or computer.
I was astute enough to realise what abargain this was so swapped phones over for the princely sum of $0.00 on my existing $30 plan. "Sir if you wish I can offer you a good deal for $45 a month and the phone has all the features but includes a GPS navigator", I declined - I just want to be able to make & recieve calls....

hell Basil, you got ripped off, I think mine makes coffee, just got to press the right buttons, or am I getting mixed up between the phone and the dragon, I know they both go off if i miss a call gone are the days when all you got was a box that let you ring out almost anywhere, I remember my first, it was of course a bag phone, the size of a toiletry bag and the battery power to jump start a 747, which gave you about two minutes worth of calls and of course you needed an aerial with it the size of a broom handle

How funny guys. I got my old mobile phone out that I had in 1997 and couldnt stop laughing at the size of it bigger than my current home phone and I'm sure i could reach other planets with the antenna.I dont care what my phone does I just want to call telstra in Australia and now I have a number to call at 8 in the morn when I think they may be asleep in the Phillipines which is where i normally get to talk to and have been trying for eightweeks and getting nowhere and would love to be telling telstra they are stuffing up my account and charging me $50.00 more than i'm supposed to be paying since they gave me my new beaut account number. Pleasssssss....e one day let other companies have better coverage so I can dispose of my Big T account.

after reading this posting again, I went through my stockpile of old phones just out of curiosity now because these things cost me a lot of money I am very loathe to turn them in to the telephone eating boxy thingy now let me see at last count I have uummmmm!!!! 14 plus the current one am I the only derelect phone hoarder or is there some other confused drongoe out there who wont get rid of his/her phones for fear some little afghanny grot is going to keep ringing singapore on my account and cost me mobs of doe we live in an age of disposal but I was brought up to repair, reuse and recycle, then recycle only if it cant be beaten into submission to the first two rulings and then hang on to it "just in case" for a minimum ten years, it might come in handy one day

They had a Telstra Prepaid Samsug C540 at Big W on Saturday for $29.00 with 3 meg camera and $10.00 credit , making it $19.00 for the phone surprisingly it made phone calls to other phones without bluetooth or ipods or mp3 and you didn't need to wear a phantom ring to use it. Only had 14 at my outlet and I was 15th in line, maybe next time . I always go prepaid that way I can keep track of what I'm spending

chezgo wrote:

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Pleasssssss....e one day let other companies have better coverage so I can dispose of my Big T account.

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Hi Chezgo

We are with the new Thuraya GSM/Satellite phone that works a treat. Better coverage that the big T, because as soon as you are out of town the phone switches to Sat mode. Numbers different than normal, 014 instead of 041, a little like the old analogue phones. Oh the days of analogue, how good were they.

Anyway, this one uses Optus mobile and Optus satellite. Call 1300850698 and they can go through it for you. that is where I bought it.

Bob

Thanks for that Bob will look into that next year I still have 9 months to go on my contract and then will want an alternative do they have some sort of cap with those or pay as you use. I actually got to speak to someone in Australia from Telstra which shocked me but still waited for 25min on hold but there service in general is not all that great so it will be time for a change when contract is done. cheryl

The longest I have ever waited for on the phone to the place I bought it from was 3 rings of the phone, and I spoke with a person instantly. When I asked questions about the phone that they didnt have they called back with the answers.

Dont think Telstra would have done that.

We have a cap on the mobile side and when we go away we activate the satellite side on a month to month basis.

Works really well, and with this one the calls people make to us dont cost us, unlike our old satellite phone. When we call out it costs us on satellite 65 cents per 30 seconds.

When we were with Telstra, all we got was heartache calling their stupid staff, and when they told us that something was going to be credited on the account and when next months bill came in it was again wrong, we spent another hour on the phone.

Mind you we did want clarification on the first bill from the new phone, and when we rang they explained that the billing cycle started 10 days after we connected, so the bill was higher than what we expected on the first one, but now it is fine. Again 3 rings and we spoke with a person who helped.

Good luck when you change, has to be better than the Big T. 2 tin cans with a piece of string sometimes would be better.

Bob

Hey, using my new phone as an MP3 player has benifits..... I was asked by a nice young woman today what was I listening too and how did I find the phone. Any oportunity to talk face to face with any female half my age must be good..... Oh and I have changed my ringtone from the "blue hills theme" to a Reginald Dixon Classic at the Blackpool tower organ.... A Happy days are here again, the skyes above are clear again....... medly..... Naturally I have the Bass Boost on max.....
Am I becoming a technophobe?

Basil you've out technoed me!!! left me way behind

chezgo wrote:

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How funny guys. I got my old mobile phone out that I had in 1997 and couldnt stop laughing at the size of it bigger than my current home phone and I'm sure i could reach other planets with the antenna.I dont care what my phone does I just want to call telstra in Australia and now I have a number to call at 8 in the morn when I think they may be asleep in the Phillipines which is where i normally get to talk to and have been trying for eightweeks and getting nowhere and would love to be telling telstra they are stuffing up my account and charging me $50.00 more than i'm supposed to be paying since they gave me my new beaut account number. Pleasssssss....e one day let other companies have better coverage so I can dispose of my Big T account.

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Christ Chezgo you will be lucky to actually talk to anyone  from Telstra  who has one head and can speak English  to  talk you through a problem,  Daughter spent 90 minutes trying to find out why Telstra had changed her email address  and then shut it down  completely .  Maybe  she would've been better off with a  techo in the third world fixing the problem no one her could but the bill keeps rolling in every month without fail . 

 

-- Edited by Wombat 280 at 20:48, 2008-11-18

Isn't it amazing how mad we all get with Telstra?
Any problems I have with my mobile or Bigpond I go straight to the nearest Telsta shop where you can use their phones or internet connection, or better still let them sit on the phone for hours to sort out the problem. As one assistant told me," we are paid to do this"!!

you are of course right helen, any large company that extorts huge sums out of us unwilling cash cows and then leaves us with a second rate service is bound to get a few danders up,
 
I remember a few years back I upgraded to the new next "g" thingy. my phone bill doubled and I rang to ask why, placed in the cue, service personnel 1 couldnt help, back to cue, 20 minutes, service personell 2 couldnt understand bill back to cue, 30 minutes, personell manager 1 didnt understand why I was getting charged twice, 40 mins 

anyway to cut a very long story short after an hour and a half I had learned how to read telstras acc. numbers and was able to explain to the manager of the northern region that they were still charging me for the phone that I was no longer using,
 
it took three months to get a refund the way they describe "coverage" is again very misleading, they claim up to 90% coverage for next g but dont tell you that is 90% of inhabited areas, mostly east coast 

cant complain about the service personell they are always freindly and polite, its just such a simple issue made complex

perhaps we should go back to the old landline where one would wind the handle on the bakerlight phone and the girl on  the switchboard (usually a freinds daughter) would answer with "number please" and then proceed to "listen in" on your conversation, until you told her to "nick off" or you would get a "party" line with up to a dozen yakking women, ahhhh!!! those were the days!!

-- Edited by dave06 at 10:49, 2008-11-20

I must be getting old.... I remember "Telephone Poles" in Sydney with a maze of wires on them each pair a dedicated line back to the exchange... All run with great efficiency then by the Post Master General.... Remember the yellow Meowrice Minor PMG vans?

I was driving through northern vic recently and saw a Telstra box with a mess of wires going in and out hanging on a farmers fence wire.

WOW, you were talking about the wires in Sydney with the old PMG vans, this made me laught to think that back in those times they did take some pride in their work and would never allow a farmers fence to be a junction point.

Bob

one other thing about those telephone exchange buildings, if you waited outside around ten o'clock there was always a girl wanting a ride home, try that with your modern automated exchange, I am still drawn back to the exchange building now, even though it has been closed for 30 years

dave06 wrote:

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one other thing about those telephone exchange buildings, if you waited outside around ten o'clock there was always a girl wanting a ride home, Yes Dave you rascal!!!

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Presumably quite ameniable to a diversion to some place of isolation where no doubt the 2 of you expressed your undieing love for each other and promised to respect each other in the morning.... OH Yeah Dave, I can remember except I used to hang out at the Surf Club which closed at around 9:00 pm unless there was a do on, then it could be at any hour. Funny though as I recall through the vast eons of time since the girls had an unwritten understanding of exactly what the fare was for a ride home... especially from Coogee to Paramatta, and in that era the girls who liked the surf scene and who lived west of the CBD had to be incredibly discreet because the "Westies" would not tollerate one of their girls being a "surfie chick"..... No mobile phones back then.... You had to roll 4 pennies down a slot.... Simpler to ask a fellow "surfer guy" if he had a car and "pay the fare".....

Trekker wrote:

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I was driving through northern vic recently and saw a Telstra box with a mess of wires going in and out hanging on a farmers fence wire.

WOW, you were talking about the wires in Sydney with the old PMG vans, this made me laught to think that back in those times they did take some pride in their work and would never allow a farmers fence to be a junction point.

Bob

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Bob, I think that applies generally these days. You speak to any mature tradesman and they will tell you that "JOB SATISFACTION" was a big deal, these days no one seems to worry about that as long as you think you are getting adequate financial recompense you stick at your job. Job satisfaction is something an employer will wax lyrical about in an effort to pay less....
As one of my sons told me "Dad job satisfaction won't pay my mobile bill!!"
We live in a different era, one that I am not totally at ease with.

Being a true agent provocateur and having nothing to do and being outside the T shop this morning waiting for SWMBO in the shoe shop next door ( and spured on by Daves remark about how his phone made coffee).......
So I fronts the PFT at the counter brandishing the new phone and said " Buddy this phone has a little coffee cup symbol on it (it does this to tell you it's "waiting") and I can't find anywhere to put my cup to get the coffee out of it"... stunned silence.... " ah Sir just a minute I'll speak to the tech"......he dissapears only to return a few momets later wanting to see the phone... showed him the coffee cup symbol.... he turns and says to a mature bloke standing in the door smirking.... "Jim, it does have a coffee symbol".... Jim says "Oh yeah that model does have the coffee symbol but it only works when you are in a coffee shop".....
I nod my head in a gesture of understanding and leave....

that cracked me up Basil, these young fellas have no idea, speaking of fares for rides home, I remember the little daliances with the girls from the exchange, thinking back I was a farmer then as well, in so far as I would sow my wild oats on a saturday night and pray for crop failure on a monday!!!

That was great. I would have loved to be a customer in that shop to hear that.

They get some brain dead people working in these telstra shops dont they.

Last Telstra phone I had I went into an inner Melbourne shop and asked them why my signal keeps dropping in and out, and the kid there said that I had broken the antenna because he could not see it.

It was an internal antenna phone!!!!!!!!!

After I told him this he said that it might be because the satelite could be moving around and the signal dropped out.

It was a mobile phone, not a satellite one.

Then he said that they still go through Satellite though when the call leaves the mobile tower.

Was this idiot serious! I asked for the manager and to top it all off he said that he was the one in charge for the day.

I am not too bad when it comes to techno things, and this drain on the human gene pool did not deserve to be in a position to advise anyone.

I would have loved to bring in the coffee cup phone, and he would have told me that I broke the spout off so the coffee is stuck inside!!!!!!!!!!!! GET A STRAW!

Bob the (techno) trekker.