I for one absolutely despise the current style of modern communication.
A phone call to any major service company ie:- Telstra, Insurance Company, Bank etc etc will see one having to listen to a preamble re company policy etc.
After explaining in a few words my reason for the call I am then put on hold and hold and hold and hold.
Then, the wait to be connected to a customer service officer, I like that.. a customer service officer.
These companies do not know what the words Customers and Service mean.
Finally, someone comes online, only to be a person from the Philippines or India or some other overseas company who I have to say that:-
I AM LUCKY IF I CAN UNDERSTAND 2 OUT OF 5 WORDS SPOKEN DUE TO THEIR ACCENT.
From my point of view, I am the most important component in the equation of this modern communication and I get treated as the least person.
At times I think to myself we were better off when you had to dial the exchange and be asked by a young lady.
Welcome to The World of "De-Humanisation", same as Self Checkouts we will not use them if possible.
Had a win recently though, phoned ANZ credit cards to get a balance on my Elder Brothers Credit Card to pay the account as he had lost the Statement and wanted pay the outstanding balance.
After a good 15 minutes on hold the Lady was unable to give me balance no matter what information we gave. My Brother is 88, fairly deaf, so I was making the call. After about 10 minutes with this Lady I asked to be put through to somebody of more Authority. Finally I was transferred to Complaints. After once more explaining the situation in detail, she told me the only solution was to go to the nearest Branch. I advised her that he is no longer allowed to drive, (which is True), he would need to take a Taxi there and back and would. be at least $50-00, which is correct.
She then apologised profusely for the long waits etc., but that was the only solution, so kindly Credited his card account with $50-00 to offset the cost.
I duly took him to the Branch where they could only offer a piece of paper from the Teller Machine in the Wall with the balance to the current time, not at the end of the month. Statements could only be ordered from Head Office and could take up to a week.
I have just had a most exciting time with our postal service (non service really)
It all started because of the dead grass on the foot path, nature strip for the modern people. Me being stuck at home thought I would repair the grass to make it look like someone lives here, when the caravan is home it looks like someone maybe home.
After planting a good lot of runners, watering, thinking how clever I was along comes the post person on a electric tike, drives though 5 out of repaired 7 patches approximately half metre square each, my thoughts brain dead people and we go weeks without recieving mail, the next neighbour is the same, come to think about it, there not much mail for anyone.
So in goes 3 tomato stakes, rope across with 3 over size yellow & red flags, now they will need to drive on the road. We receive 3 delivers one week and 2 the next.
We received a note reading give the postie acess to your mai box or. 2 of these we received.
So on to the phone I go, 40 minutes later spoke with a customer service person in Melbourne, explained, no I tried to talk to her. "The Australian Post has the right and you must not interfere". So I addressed the my barrier so the postie had just enough clearance to steer a bike around to the mailbox but would still need to swing onto the road.
Next thing I know we have calling cards from our council. So don't mess with Auspost they are a law until themselves. The council officer thought I was reasonably and gave me 3 days to take it down.
But Auspost sent a text message asking how they did?
Like every other person we are over it. So every chance I get, the car is left on the drive way, garbo knock the bins over, caravan gates are left open, what will I do next week to annoy the femail postie.
-- Edited by Radar on Monday 28th of December 2020 12:45:09 PM
I have just had a most exciting time with our postal service (non service really)
It all started because of the dead grass on the foot path, nature strip for the modern people. Me being stuck at home thought I would repair the grass to make it look like someone lives here, when the caravan is home it looks like someone maybe home.
After planting a good lot of runners, watering, thinking how clever I was along comes the post person on a electric tike, drives though 5 out of repaired 7 patches approximately half metre square each, my thoughts brain dead people and we go weeks without recieving mail, the next neighbour is the same, come to think about it, there not much mail for anyone.
So in goes 3 tomato stakes, rope across with 3 over size yellow & red flags, now they will need to drive on the road. We receive 3 delivers one week and 2 the next.
We received a note reading give the postie acess to your mai box or. 2 of these we received.
So on to the phone I go, 40 minutes later spoke with a customer service person in Melbourne, explained, no I tried to talk to her. "The Australian Post has the right and you must not interfere". So I addressed the my barrier so the postie had just enough clearance to steer a bike around to the mailbox but would still need to swing onto the road.
Next thing I know we have calling cards from our council. So don't mess with Auspost they are a law until themselves. The council officer thought I was reasonably and gave me 3 days to take it down.
But Auspost sent a text message asking how they did?
Like every other person we are over it. So every chance I get, the car is left on the drive way, garbo knock the bins over, caravan gates are left open, what will I do next week to annoy the femail postie.
-- Edited by Radar on Monday 28th of December 2020 12:45:09 PM
I and a few adjacent neighbours have located our mail boxes so that the postie rides along the roadway & can reach the boxes from there. Been like that for about 15 years with no complaints.
Way back when Noah was building his ark my mother had pay tv installed. 15 years ago I moved into the house with the pay tv and at that time started to pay the monthly account. The account is in my mothers name but all other details such as contact and payment details are in my name. Have been for 15 years. Now my mum is 95 and in fulltime care in a nursing home. I have approached Foxtell numerous times to have the account changed over to me. Foxtel-"Sorry can't do that". Me-"why not?" Foxtel-"Only the account holder can change account details". Me-"But you were happy to change payment detail". Foxtel-"Oh but when it comes to money we can change anything". Well you can see where this is going. My mother isn't with it. She may not even remember what Foxtel is. But Foxtel wont change anything without her written permission. Now mum can nolonger write. Long long story is this. Foxtel will sue for the account money if I stop paying the account. If mum dies Foxtel will sue for any balance. So I cant stop payment or get mum to change the details.
Oh by the way. How do you contact Foxtel? I'll give a large slice of Christmas pudding to anyone who can tell me how to talk to a person at Foxtel. Unless it's for a new account. Oh and it helps if you're good with accents. They no longer have hop fronts because I keep asking questions!!
We still have Foxtel only because I cant get rid of it.
I could write a letter and tell them it came from mum. I pay many of her on going bills, rates etc. But where to send it? The thing is that Foxtel make it as hard as possible to contact them. I recently had the original set top box fail. I gave up a few times talking to a computer. Eventually I complained to a REAL person who gave me a number to call. I called that number and the first question i got was "how did you get this number?"
It's not the end of the world. We enjoy wasting money to watch advertisements. But at sometime I'll have REVENGE. I'll watch the ABC. That'll fix em.
BGT I'm not a legal expert but I believe that if someone is granted a Power of Attorney they could then act on her behalf, if you say that your mother is "no longer with it" then maybe that needs to happen anyway. Personally I would be seeking proper legal advice I imagine people find themselves in this sort of situation all the time especially when a close relative suddenly passes away. Our Foxtel account is with Telstra and in the past I have gone to the nearest Telstra shop when I wanted to talk to someone face to face (like Apple you have to make an appointment).
Speaking of Apple I went with my wife to the Apple Store last week to buy her a new iphone 11 to replace her old iphone 6 and they wouldn't let us in the front door because we hadn't made an appointment. The security guy asked us what we wanted and I said we just wanted to go in quickly and buy a new phone - he said ok he would try and get us on the list but it would be at least an hours wait. I said to him don't bother mate JB Hi Fi are straight across from you and have the phone we are after for the same price so we will just go over there - 5 minutes later we walked out of JB with the new Iphone it just meant that I had to set it up myself..
Way back when Noah was building his ark my mother had pay tv installed. 15 years ago I moved into the house with the pay tv and at that time started to pay the monthly account. The account is in my mothers name but all other details such as contact and payment details are in my name. Have been for 15 years. Now my mum is 95 and in fulltime care in a nursing home. I have approached Foxtell numerous times to have the account changed over to me. Foxtel-"Sorry can't do that". Me-"why not?" Foxtel-"Only the account holder can change account details". Me-"But you were happy to change payment detail". Foxtel-"Oh but when it comes to money we can change anything". Well you can see where this is going. My mother isn't with it. She may not even remember what Foxtel is. But Foxtel wont change anything without her written permission. Now mum can nolonger write. Long long story is this. Foxtel will sue for the account money if I stop paying the account. If mum dies Foxtel will sue for any balance. So I cant stop payment or get mum to change the details.
Oh by the way. How do you contact Foxtel? I'll give a large slice of Christmas pudding to anyone who can tell me how to talk to a person at Foxtel. Unless it's for a new account. Oh and it helps if you're good with accents. They no longer have hop fronts because I keep asking questions!!
We still have Foxtel only because I cant get rid of it.
bgt, try 1300 657 346 for existing cust, or if you have an account number, log in online and you can message them.
I went to cancel mid year as it was getting too pricey and going up again, and they were like why? what do you watch? etc and I said sport mainly and they gave me basically the same package I was on for $49 a month, instead of $93.
About 2 or 3 channels less than before, no contract time frame and all done by text back and forward, cos the call centre was closed due to Covid, which was good cos I couldn't understand them anyway.
Folk I'm aware of the POA issues. I'm also aware of the legalities. I've discussed it with my lawyer. Foxtel are within their rights. We/I may not like it but I would guess Foxtel also have lawyers that drew up the terms and conditions. Mum has to be seen to be capable of understanding what she is signing. She's not. When she passes away the contract between her and Foxtel is void.
I just raise the issue as talking sense to these companies is all but impossible.
I could tell you how one of the 4 big banks chased us when our son died. But I would only get angry. VERY ANGY.
