Self serve checkouts are the greatest! No incompetence with a machine, haha.

I was in Big W the other day while my dad and sis waited out on the chair. She's found her voice so she yells sometimes to hear the echo. Anyway, while I was at the checkout the woman working on the other register says "oh there's that kid again, its been screaming all day".

I said "That's my little sister you're talking about, and she's only been sitting there for two minutes" well didn't she shutup. As if one kid is going to sit there screaming just to annoy her all day.

people complain about my kids too being nosy or chatty or like Arabella and Amando, are just starting to talk in sentences.

I always reply:

I bet you were a quiet obedient little Angel that doesn't cry or get gassy or poop in a diaper when you were his/her age.

Should we call your Mother and find out?

they'd always shut up after that

Hahaha. Exactly. As if they were never kids. All kids scream and chat, it's a part of learning and growing up.

I've sat down with my laptop, put the tele on, and there's a top 30 chart countdown on -- years ago I would sit and have all the music playing, but now, it's all just wannabe rappers and wannabe pop singers. I honestly cannot stand it, this stuff isn't music. Now I love myself some good rock music and I don't mind some good beats, but whatever happened to songs that told a story and weren't just a string of incoherent words? It seems so rare these days. Not once have I seen a new music video from Florence + The Machine or Evanescence's new albums on these shows. Then again, maybe I'm just getting older and I'm out of it?

Edited March 24, 201214 yr by Morph

Hahaha. Exactly. As if they were never kids. All kids scream and chat, it's a part of learning and growing up.

I've sat down with my laptop, put the tele on, and there's a top 30 chart countdown on -- years ago I would sit and have all the music playing, but now, it's all just wannabe rappers and wannabe pop singers. I honestly cannot stand it, this stuff isn't music. Now I love myself some good rock music and I don't mind some good beats, but whatever happened to songs that told a story and weren't just a string of incoherent words? It seems so rare these days. Not once have I seen a new music video from Florence + The Machine or Evanescence's new albums on these shows. Then again, maybe I'm just getting older and I'm out of it?

I'm stuck in the 80s!!

I long for a return to the old MTV when they actually played Music Videos from 1981 to 1987!!

Without MTV we would not have Madonna and today's Britney Spears and Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera and J-Lo and Beyonce and many others female artists.

Without MTV Michael Jackson would never had become famous!!

Without MTV we would not have Hans Zimmer http://en.wikipedia....iki/Hans_Zimmer

Without MTV we would not have many of today's Directors like David Fincher http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/ and Michael Bay http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000881/ and F Gary Gray http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0336620/

Edited March 24, 201214 yr by J7Dadda

I was just thinking about how bad the music industry is! I was listening to Queen and wondering where all the good music has gone. There's no room for experimentation or anything beyond sex these days. It's all about the bottom line .... money. Muse is the only current band that I listen to, otherwise I'm stuck in the 70s and the 80s.

I've sent my internet service provider 3 emails this past week asking if there's any news about the issues I've been having with my internet and also to arrange a payment plan as I'll be a bit short this week, and I have had no replies. I can't call because the phone doesn't work properly -- which they told me was due to a power supply problem and gave me another to put on it, but the problem remains, and I have no mobile credit. I am really sick of them not sorting things out, but am I now just being flat out ignored? Should I email a telecommunications ombudsman and ask them to handle it for me? I tell you I'm ready to demand all my money back, every cent, it's really only worked properly for the first two weeks after installation, and I payed $400 to have it installed on a 2 year contract -- its the only way I could get internet. They've been "looking into the packet loss issue" since October, so it took a year for me to even get them to this point.

I would be going nuts if my Internet service wasn't working properly for such a long time!!

Don't they have a toll free number you can call from a regular phone outside of your home?

You have no idea how much it stresses me, James, lol. It doesn't help that when people do use the phone i get "What's wrong with it!? Fix it" etc...I can't fix it, I've tried so many different things.

I'll have to look into the toll free number. I'll be getting some credit tomorrow for my mobile, so I'll need to call and make an arrangement. I don't wanna get stuffed around with them adding $10.00 onto my bill because they can't read an email, lol.

Edited March 27, 201214 yr by Morph

Well, I've just come home today, after attending a funeral, and still, no reply from the ISP, but they've quite happily emailed me my monthly bill. Excuse my language, but I am quite p'd off at this point. Come Friday and no reply, I'm getting an ombudsman onto them. I can understand waiting a while for help, I'm not the only customer, but to take this long is just insulting.

EDIT:

Now I've gotten an email saying that they have a new VoIP ATA for me and I can come and swap it over when I'm ready to. That's great...but what about my packet loss issues? I think the other issues with the VoIP come from the packet loss, since it's working on the internet connection.

Edited March 28, 201214 yr by Morph

Are there any other ISP's besides the one your using. Sounds like they're pulling the old bait and switch, so don't go for what they're telling you if you know what i mean.

There's one more local, but they're too expensive. That and I'm still in a 24 month contract with this ISP, it'll end in a few months, so if they're going to stuff me about, I'd like to sort them out before that contract ends. Couldn't I claim it as a breach of contract on their behalf or something?

I picked up the VoIP ATA, that the technician actually said is "new", but to be honest, it doesn't look new. I mean, sure they've taken it out and done all of the settings for me, but surely they wouldn't have put so many scratches on it, right? Not even the one I had was marked like this one, I took good care of it. I asked the girl at reception if she could get him to email me back about the packet loss issue and that I wanted to know if the signal sattelite's lights are supposed to be constant or not, because they only stay on for about half an hour after a power cycle. He only replied about the lights, not the packet loss. I just cannot win, lol.

Edited March 29, 201214 yr by Morph

I wish I was in AU, I would be raising hell and taking care of it for you!!

I had problem 2 years ago with my AT&T DSL and they just ignored me and tech support was useless, you get morons in Philippines that hardly spoke any English much less understand your problem.

So I took it all the way to the top and got a call back from the President of AT&T and everything has been working perfectly ever since.

You are the best confrontationalist, James, lol.

The receptionist said that tech support is pretty busy at the moment, but I still see this as no excuse to take a week to reply -- unless its all of their customers who have this same problem? These issues are constant, so, bugger 'em right.

Any pointers on how I can get the best results when I talk to an ombudsman?

put him in your situation:

if he was the customer and he was experiencing the same problem for so long as you have and not getting any results from Tech Support and still have to pay for it with his HARD EARNED MONEY, how would he feel.

That's the diplomatic part, make them feel guilty and empathy toward you and give them a reasonable amount of time to resolve the issue.

But let them know if that doesn't solve it, you will take it to a higher level which is the AGGRESSIVE PART, which means their job may be in jeopardy:

Hey, I spoke with your tech support many times for so long and they are not doing their job at resolving the issue and satisfying the customer so now I am going over their head.

No one wants to see their job in jeopardy.

Isn't there other phone numbers you can call besides Tech Support?

Who is this ISP?

Like I'm with AT&T and if I spend enough time google it, I can find all kind of phone numbers.

There is also a website here that lets you get help when the ISP not helping you:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/ilec,swbell

there MUST be a website similar to it for Australia.

Ah, a forum for the provider -- no, mine doesn't have one. They bloody should though!

You can tell a lot about a young person's life prospects by how well they can run a cash register at a grocery store. I had the stupidest encounter in the whole history of stupid encounters the other day.

I had put together a salad at the salad bar and brought it to the front end for purchasing. She sees that the lid is starting to come off, so as she is pushing her hand down on top of the lid to reseal it, she is ALSO WEIGHING THE SALAD at the same time. She tells me that the salad is $7.33 (it's 5.99 a pound). I suspect she was holding the salad down, but I don't want to accuse her of being incompetent, so I ask her to reweigh the salad. I was sure I had not gotten more than a half-pound of salad, but according to her I've purchased a 1 and 1/3rd pound of salad.

She's not sure how to void the salad, so she asks her manager to help her. I instantly detect trouble. He doesn't look very bright and doesn't appear to be able to speak English very well, but to his credit, he reweighs the salad and I was correct. The computer also takes off nearly 4.00 from the price, so at this point the final bill is correct.

But then girlfriend goes and weighs the salad AGAIN, thinking her manager had voided the entire item. He comes back over and, not understanding her what she needs, reweighs the salad. Now the salad is on the receipt THREE TIMES. But we're not finished yet. I explain to him that he's merely added the salad back on to her mistake, so he weighs it AGAIN. Now I'm really pissed. The salad is on the receipt FOUR TIMES!!!!

He's totally confused, so he simply voids the whole order. She can't communicate the problem because she doesn't understand it, so this front-end supervisor then takes my salad and weighs it as OLIVE BAR (the olive bar is 9.99 a pound; the regular salad bar is only 5.99 per pound). Now my salad has gone from costing me 3.59 to 5.99.

I have to try and explain again to these idiots (both of them) that it is from the salad bar, not the olive bar, and that the salad weighs only .6 pounds when your hand is not pressing down on it. Finally they got it right, but it was a case of DUMB and DUMBERER being allowed to handle money and supervise the people handling the money. I'd boycott the store if they weren't the best grocery store in the area.

Edited April 17, 201214 yr by J7Dadda

OMG, that's...that's just bad. That's the most simple thing to work out, any fool should know you don't hold down the item down on the scale.

OMG, that's...that's just bad. That's the most simple thing to work out, any fool should know you don't hold down the item down on the scale.

Hi Morph!

Like I said, you can always predict a young person's future by how they perform at a simple, job like running a cash register.

I'm in my own retail business for almost 20 years now and I have stories I can tell you about some of the people that worked for me.

Like the girl that got all nervous at the cash register when a customer brings up a shopping cart full of items.

1-5 items, she's alright, but a shopping cart?

She'd started panicking and screwing up and punching the wrong things on the screen.

Now add more than 1-2 people in her line: OMG!!

Her Register RED light would be constantly on!!

Hi James!

Hahaha, I admit, I get nervous with things, but only until I pick it up and know how everything works.

I'm actually just taking a break from a bit of retail study now. I thought I'd be able to get quite alot of the work done during the school holidays, but when I logged into my account, there was no work there for me to download, so something's buggered up in the access that they've tried to give me to their network and it's not recognised me as a retail student.

Edited April 18, 201214 yr by Morph

Right, an update about my internet. A couple of days ago there was a bloke next door installing wireless internet from the other local ISP so I had a chat to him about my wireless, he asked who the ISP was, then told me they used to be his ISP too, and he left for the exact same issues I'm having. He also said that he knows for a fact almost everyone getting a signal from my ISP's tower in my town is suffering the high packet loss issue, because he knows someone that works there, coincidentally, it's the same person that's been handling my case since October. Needless to say, I'm really not happy that this is something that has been concealed from me and their other customers here.

So I have a question, should I call a telecommunications ombudsman and ask them to take care of getting my contract voided? Because this just seems to me like a serious breach on their behalf. And also to get all of my money back from the day it was installed?

Morph: I would.

No reason to throw your money away for service you are supposed to be receiving and not getting and your ISP apparently doesn't care about taking care of its customers.

I would use the $ to change ISP and then file a complaint against them, over here will be with the BBB (Better Business Bureau), the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), Attorney General of Texas Consumers Protection Division, PUC (Public Utility Commission).

Not sure what you have in Australia that's the equivalent of all those.

I filed a complaint against AT&T DSL and Southwestern Bell with all those agencies about my $200 rebate (for signing up with them) that they didn't send me and then they want to say I took too long to send in the paperwork when I'd never even did receive the paperwork to fill out.

To get the paperwork I had to fill out, I had to go online to their rewards website and enter a code.

To get the code, I had to request it by mail.

The code never came in the mail but for 2 months, AT&T kept telling me they send it.

So without the code, I couldn't request the paperwork; without the paperwork, I couldn't put in a request for my rebate.

It was AT&T way of dragging their feet so my 90 days redemption period to get my $200 rebate would run out and when it did; like I'd already said, they used the excuse I took too long to request my rebate and I no longer qualified for it.

2 weeks after I filed a complaint with all those agencies, the Executive Secretary of the President of AT&T called and apologize profusely and begged me to withdraw my complaints.

My check was in my mailbox within 48 hrs and they also refunded my Deposit and cut my monthly service fee to $19.95 a month.

I never did withdraw my complaints, they are still on file in writing at those agencies I filed with.

Edited April 29, 201214 yr by J7Dadda

I've done some research and all I can really find is the Telecommunications Ombudsmen who handle complains and take action against them on behalf of the person who contacts them, they're the most popular in the country, and they do get results. There's also Consumer Affairs, but I'm not 100% if they handle issues in the telecommunications industry or not.

I'll give the ombudsman a call tomorrow and see what they say. Still no reply today, but there's the monthly bill, they never forget that.

And the "new" VoIP router has started doing the exact same thing as the last one. It's all dodgy -- goodbye rubbish net, I'm switching! Got another provider lined up already.

EDIT: It took 2 minutes to save this post...

Edited April 29, 201214 yr by Morph

did you ever post anything at that forum I'd found for you or get any help or suggestions there?

Not posted anything yet, I've been busy with tafe and organising a sale, but I did read through a few topics on there that were useful. They have a list of ISP's and tips about technical things. Thankyou again for finding that site, James.

Edited April 29, 201214 yr by Morph

Typical, the TIO is closed until tomorrow for system upgrades, lol!

EDIT: I've contacted the TIO and filed a complain with my ISP, the ombudsman has given them 10 days to respond and sort everything out.

Edited May 1, 201214 yr by Morph