Aaaarrrggghhh!
This lovely change of cool weather has had one VERY annoying drawback. Since the clouds have arrived my internet service has slowed to less than a crawl.
On a normal day we here in Australia shake our fists jealously at you people out there in fast internet countries. In many places ours is dismally slow most of the time and I often think I can tell when one of the rats in the internets-generating wheel goes off for a toilet break.
I won’t be so silly as to say that the internet is never fast, sometimes I can actually watch a YouTube video without having to pause it and wait for it to load first but that is a rare occurrence. Generally any page loading stops when my email checks for new messages though, so I can’t really say too many nice things about it….*
I had no inspiration for a blog post this morning as it is nearly 10am well after 11am and I have had to disconnect and re-connect so many times already that I am ready to turf the laptop through the front window!
The Sydney Morning Herald 28 Jan 1925 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16191136
I did come up with the search term “inefficient phone service” and was rewarded (eventually) with this article from 1925 bemoaning the phone service that was too deplorable for words.
Hmmmm…. are the same people still running the shop all these years later? It sure sounds like it!
___________________
*I have complained about the bad service to them and was told that we needed to be closer to the aerial to get it to work better.
Really?
Our house is near the top of one hill, the aerial is on the top of the next. We have camped deep in the bush, miles from anywhere and had far better service. Sorry Telstra, it’s not me, it’s you 
Oh yeah, we love to hate them, but they are still better than the competition.
Aaarrgh! That makes it even worse, doesn’t it!!!!! Grrrrr…. *stomps off howling in rage*
I sometimes wonder if two soup cans and a string might be more effective….
Probably. Maybe I should try that…
It’s infuriating… “too deplorable for words” still applies, as well as appalling, disappointing… and dishonest. These “service providers” take our money and give us ????
I may have mentioned this but just in case it bears repeating… I had an Optus mobile broadband wireless modem, which was sold to me for use at my inner city residence, as well as 2 mobiles… Did they work? Not much. Until I reported Optus to the Telecommunications Ombudsman because they weren’t delivering the service I paid for that they said they would, they didn’t care. Then I got 6 months free phones while Optus upgraded the service they hadn’t disclosed was under par while they were running my around trying to blame [non-existant] issues at my end.
I changed internet providers to Telstra 4G which is fine in the city but at Taylors Arm we are in a no coverage area for mobiles & mobile internet. Half a kilometre away residents have good coverage. We are in unfortunate location to the tower. Hence the purchase of the so far useless aerial fitted to the TV aerial so were can run a lead plus a patch lead to the ‘mobile’ broadband dongle. Now I’m trying to get Telstra smart phones that are specially branded for the “rural network” and have a port for a [different] patch lead that fits to the same aerial. It’s taken 3+ weeks for the Telstra dealer to get them in stock, still no word on the patch lead – only one member of staff knew what it was. Accessories, like protective covers, for these Telstra phones aren’t available via Telstra we have to buy them on EBay or from the Chinese Manufacturer…
If your modem can take a small [cheap] aerial, try that because it did make a difference in the city with the old Optus modem and my TA neighbours use one successfully for their mobile phones. Or talk to your local Telstra Dealer about rural network options – the guys in Kemspey were very knowledgeable, but can’t perform miracles unfortunately. If you feel you aren’t getting the service you pay for and Telstra are not trying to resolve the issues fairly, I suggest lodging a complaint with the Telecommunications Ombudsman.
Good luck
I laughed as soon as I saw the length of your comment before I had even read a word, I knew a subject like this would stir up some simmering anger from a few Aussie readers!
I can’t believe (scratch that, I CAN believe it, it just annoys me) that they sold you phones for a service that didn’t exist yet… grrr… I think the 4G in Melbourne only works within sight of the GPO but nevertheless they have it working so they can market themselves as high tech even though most of us live on dial-up speed.
They take such advantage and really have us over a barrel don’t they? Telstra is crap, but the others have even less coverage so it is them or nothing unless you live in a major centre.
It isn’t just me suffering from bad coverage, it is the whole valley. In some places it works and others it doesn’t. A nearby friend has one small spot in her house where the phones work and so a small shelf was installed in that spot and phones would be deposited there for the duration of your visit. I have to sit in the loungeroom at home as the dining room (5 steps away) has far worse coverage.
I use one of those wireless sticks so I can take my laptop when we go away, I have contemplated getting proper broadband for the house but giving them one more way of them screwing me for money is just too much to bear! I might have to look at a small aerial for it as there is a hole in it for one.
It is working well at this minute (touch wood), but about 5pm it will fall in a heap again and not return sufficiently until about 10pm. Oh well, I guess we just need a Telstra executive to buy a holiday house in the valley, that might cause a service upgrade. I hear that is how a nearby town finally got their own upgrade!
Don’t get me started in re coverage in Melbourne… my phone came so close to becoming the hood ornament on a tram
We are the same re wireless vs home broadband. I’m hoping I migh have solved it as the new Telstra mobiles we’re getting also work as a wifi hot spot, so when the mobile wireless contract is up next year, I’m going to cancel it and tether the laptop to the phones’ wifi and use their data allowances, put the aerial on the G.O.’s 4WD for travelling, and once at TA look at home broadband options… but of course it’s not certain it will work…
While your internet is still working maybe go on to Domain and search for details of desirable properties to email to those Telstra Execs
Good thought!
Let me know how you go with your alternative internet if you get it going, I am definitely interested in one that actually works!
*Since I replied to your last I have reconnected 5 times and resorted to restarting my computer to get it going again…. grumble grumble grumble….
I agree about lodging a complaint with the Ombudsman. Telstra started out as Telecom, a government owned, public service run institution. Telstra is now publicly listed and plays the corporate game but there is still a lot of that old mentality floating around. You know the kind? “I’ll do the bare minimum unless someone higher up puts a rocket up my bum” type thinking.
Yeah, I probably should but I am scared that the solution for the valley will be a shiny new tower on the top of my own hill. Great service, right in my own backyard….
Oh…. not good.
I’d rather be annoyed about bad reception than glow in the dark
lol – like those genetically engineered bunnies? Could be an interesting look…
Could really freak out the neighbours if I started wandering around at night…
Wait… aren’t these the neighbours from hell? They might enjoy it.
They seem to be scared-of-the-outdoors neighbours, the only time they go out is to get in the car or get the mail. Perhaps they might start driving to the letterbox if there was a glow in the dark monster out at night!
How strange. Well, we don’t want them wasting energy so you’d better stay away from that fluoro rabbit food, or maybe just let Jack have a little bit. Bright green dog anyone? BOO!
After I lodged the complaint about Optus I saw something online that indicated how I was treated prior was the standard policy and Optus only effectively dealt with or compensated for issues once the complaint was lodged with the T.O…. if it hadn’t have happened to me, I wouldn’t have believed it!
No wonder we have such little faith in them. They really ARE out to get us!
I think the days of the benevolent corporation are long gone, if they were ever here at all. To me they feel like ‘the enemy’.
Agreed.
Ungh
I sympathize completely. I moved my internet connection to Internode years ago and recently moved my mobile phone service away from Telstra as well. As they own most of the infrastructure moving away shouldn’t make a difference but strangely it does, at least for my ADSL service.
Perhaps there’s condensation somewhere? Or maybe the rats are doing a skeleton shift while they scamper out and enjoy the rain?
Deepest condolences, but please feel free to rant again.
p.s. That article is eerily like something I’d write in 2013 (^.o) [that's a wink]
I think that article could easily be published in today’s paper and it would be as though no time had passed at all…..
Deplorable I say!!!!
Hear, hear! Dethspicable too.
Yosemite Sam?
Daffy Duck I believe!
lmao – I was way off! Thanks young’un.
I think Sam says it as well, just with less saliva…
Oh that’s a relief. Memory is such a precious commodity these days.
Following a different train of thought……the author of that letter, which, if I have peered closely and correctly, was written in ’27, complained that it was the worst service in 40 years. Does that mean we have had an inefficient telecommunications system since 1887? What have they been doing for well over 100 years?
By the way, I love his letter. It achieves such a tone in so few words!
I was surprised to think that we have had phones for such a long time too. I guess they were probably only in the major post offices and largest businesses in the beginning. Just imagine being important enough to have one but finding there was no-one to call!
I loved the tone of the letter too, I was ranting and raving when I found this, and it summed up my annoyance in a far more succinct way! It’s deplorable I tell you!
The date on the paper the article came from was 28th Jan, 1925, I guess the letter was written on Jan 27 and published the next day. Now they are reminding me that the postal service used to pick up and deliver more than once a day. Public services really ARE slipping!
You’re right, surely they could have done a better job of the system with such a long time to get it sorted…
There is always something in a new technology to deplore. One day the Internet is a marvel — the next it’s never fast enough. The fax machine was a miracle and then it became too slow and sloppy. I bet my great grandmother loved her toaster and then… it didn’t toast the bread evenly every time…. We grow accustomed so quickly and then impatient and then frustrated and it’s even worse when there’s an outage.
Yesterday my parents (they are both 85 years old) lost phone, cable TV & internet service because the cable company was working in their apartment building. So glad I gave mom an iPhone! She called them and yelled… you can’t leave two old people disconnected for long!
I went over there and reminded them they could watch a DVD, read on their Kindles, listen to the radio and use the cell phone, but they felt completely bereft.
After losing power (heat & light & hot water too) for 5 days during the big hurricane in October, I’m so happy when things actually turn on! LOL…
We are ridiculously dependent on our bits of tech aren’t we? I wouldn’t even consider leaving home without my phone but it wasn’t that long ago we didn’t have them at all. They creep their way into our lives and we don’t even notice until they stop working and our lives come to a grinding halt.
I often wonder what would constitute The End Of The World these days. The complete breakdown of law and order? zombies? giant meteorites? Maybe just no electricity would do it. After all, those things we depend on so much won’t last long without it! I think that once the batteries start running out, never to be recharged, people wouldn’t even know what to do with that kind of life.
You know I love the idea of having a cell phone etc, but I am losing some of my hearing now and can not hear as good…I am pondering if this loss is a good thing or bad…OMG….I might not hear the zombies coming.SHIT! LMAO!!!
The zombie apocalypse is definitely a time when you want the phones to work!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfDUv3ZjH2k
Now I am seeing you starring in your own version of the opening scene of Shaun of the Dead
In it Simon Pegg’s character is wandering distractedly through his normal morning without noticing that the world is coming to an end around him.
lol
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