Amazing Customer Service - From A Telco No Less!

My missus lost her pre-paid mobile phone recently. As she doesn't use it much it took a few days to notice. The usual trick is to call the mobile and then find it pretty easily. Didn't work on this occasion. Maybe the battery was already dead. Searching the car, house, shopping centre, etc, failed to turn it up.

I did something unexpected. I called the customer service on my mobile account. Surprisingly there was an option not too deep within the menu to talk to a customer service person and I didn't have to wait very long. As I didn't have the password/code for the wife's account they needed to speak to her for verification. I asked if they were able to pinpoint the phone's whereabouts, from the triangulation with the towers that happens constantly but the customer service rep informed me that only iPhones have that tracking ability. She started up an online account for the mobile, after trying to call it herself, and that would enable us to check the last 60 calls and SMSs from the phone. Lastly she put a block on the phone so that no outgoing calls were possible but incoming calls could still be received.

Two separate emails provided the username and a temporary password to this online account. I did make an error using the password, as it contained a "," as a special character at the end of the code and I didn't notice it. Quite frustrating and I made another call to customer service who quickly put me back on track. Few minutes later and I have a complete list of the last 60 calls/messages and the phone numbers that they related to. Brilliant - as the SIM wasn't backed up that meant that all of the contacts had been lost.

Next weekend the wife remembered that she had an old phone, and it turns out that she liked that one better than the newer one, and so we took it down to the Optus store. Before we got there we had a bit of shopping to do and noticed at Woolies that they were selling Optus SIM cards for only $2. Still, I wanted to talk to the Optus people first. It turned out that they were selling SIM cards for $2 as well. The guy, a trainee, even deactivated the old SIM card and reactivated the new one. As my wife had credit left we didn't need to top it up. It certainly cost more than two dollars of his time.

Back home and the phone wasn't charging properly. That was until I rummaged through one of my drawers and found the original battery charger. That was bound to happen as I'm a hoarder and never throw anything away. Few hours later and one perfectly working mobile phone without any contacts. Only cost a phone that the owner wasn't happy with and two bucks for a new SIM card.

Can't believe the trouble that Optus went to to provide customer service. They were so helpful in the store and on the phone. Being pre-paid customers we certainly aren't high revenue by any means. But we are happy Optus pre-paid customers and not afraid to say so. Who would have thought that in this day and age a telco was capable of providing outstanding customer service? Thanks Optus.

How To Save Hundreds Of Dollars Purchasing A Mobile Phone

I have some advice for you on how to save literally hundreds of dollars when you're about to purchase a mobile phone. The wife's phone had been playing up and she couldn't hear me when she was at the shops. She couldn't even hear me if she was at home. My phone wasn't so good when I was next to a busy road or in a crowded, noisy place either. We'd had enough and determined that on Thursday night, when we have late night shopping, we'd go and get a new mobile each. Was going to cost a couple of hundred each.

At work on the day before we planned to go shopping I asked one of my colleagues about the volume on his phone. He said that it was just a setting. I went through the settings and there was nothing about adjusting the volume on the mobile. He rang my phone and I played with some of the buttons on the front and hey, presto. The volume can only be changed when you are actually on a call. My volume was set at 1 out of 7 or 8 and I discovered that my wife's phone was set at 2 out of 8 or 9. No wonder we had a communication problem. Now she complains that the phone is quite loud.

How do you save hundreds of dollars on a mobile phone? Don't buy a new one coz you get your old one set up properly. Phew. Could have ruined my reputation there.

Definitely Not A Smartphone

My wife's phone is quite ordinary. It allows her to make and receive phone calls and send and receive SMSs. It's certainly not a Blackberry, HTC Desire or iPhone which are almost computers in mobile phone size, aka smartphones. Who wants to pay $1000 for a phone or $80-100/mth for a plan?

The proof this morning that it's not a smartphone came when it informed us that the date and time could be automatically updated, as it had detected that these details might require updating, to Jan 4th 29:29. Um, no thanks. I'd rather stick with the 24 hour clock. It makes a bit more sense.

Interesting Happening On The Bus

Just when you think you've seen it all you realise that you haven't seen it all. There's always something happening on the bus. At a stop only about three stops from where I was due to alight tongiht some guy started banging on the window. He noticed a mobile phone at the bus stop and thought that it may belong to a passenger who had just boarded. The bus driver took possession of it and then started to call base to report it. Another guy crossed the road and stood in the middle of the traffic, not far from the lights which turned to green, and proceeded to describe the mobile he had just lost. The first guy had informed him that the bus driver had it. Once it was verified that it was his phone he was certainly happy to receive it in one piece.

And all the while that light was green and not a single beep from drivers behind the bus.

Rigged!

I have an Optus pre-paid mobile phone. Whenever I recharge Optus sends me a text message inviting me to a Website to collect a prize I have won. Oh, it's exciting. There is the possibility of winning free text messages (only to other pre-paid Optus customers now), mobile phones, cameras, trip for two to NYC for the MTV Awards and the like. I always win free texts but live in hope.

Just now I entered the competition and started it - this is where it runs through pictures of the prizes and they slow down to reveal the prize. Much like a spinning wheel does. Only this time before the prize was revealed I received a text message informing me that I had won 40 free SMSs. So, it was already decided what the prize would be. Rigged I call it.

What Do You Do When The Law Enforcers Break The Law?

In this country it is illegal to use a mobile phone whilst driving. The studies show that you are four times more likely to have an accident in this situation. Those figures probably relate to just talking on the mobile. I've seen numerous people texting whilst on the freeway. That opens my eyes.

You can imagine how astounded I was yesterday to see a police divisional van pull into the police headquarters with the driver on his mobile phone. There were at least two passengers and everyone was in a uniform. Karl O'Callahan, our police commissioner, this is something you should hear about. Three law enforcement officers with one breaking the law and two doing nothing about it. What is the common man supposed to do in this situation?