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Oh God! The same mathematically-challenged morons who think there’s something special about years which end in zero, and falsely thought 2000 was the start of a new millennium, century, and decade are now pushing the same bullshit about the current decade ending at the end of 2009. For f*cks sake… The first year AD was 1 AD. (NOT 0 AD, no such bloody thing as zero AD!!!!!!!!!!!!) The first decade therefore started on January 1, 1 AD and ended on December 31, 10 AD. (A decade is not over until the end of its 10th year. Count on your fingers if you don’t believe me!) The second decade therefore started on January 1, 11 AD and ended on December 31, 20 AD. The third decade therefore started on January 1, 21 AD and ended on December 31, 30 AD. Notice the pattern? Decades start on January 1 of years ending in ‘1′, and end on December 31 of years ending in ‘0′. Similarly, centuries start on January 1 of years ending in ‘01′, and end on December 31 of years ending in ‘00′. Finally, millennia start on January 1 of years ending in ‘001′, and end on December 31 of years ending in ‘000′. It’s shopping day, so I needed to transfer some money from one Suncorp account to another. Sounds easy? Nope… I log onto the Suncorp online banking and the helpful “An error has occurred” message appears. I try again over an hour or so, but the same detailed and meaningful message appears. Grumpy Whinge 1: Why waste people’s time logging on before saying NO? How about a message on the logon screen, or a splash page to TELL PEOPLE, or a meaningful error message? Too hard apparently… OK no real problem (or so I thought), I’ll call their (usually) helpful phone assistance. I mention Internet Banking is down and ask for a simple transfer. I’m told that a transfer can be done, but it’s not an immediate one. I ask what that means and am told the transfer doesn’t happen straight away, and the funds will be there tomorrow. Quickly glancing at the calendar and seeing 2009 not 1909, I ask why it can’t happen straight away. Am told that’s the way it is, and am offered Telephone Banking assistance, which I decline, thank the person for not very much and hang up. Grumpy Whinge 2: It’s nearly 2010 and I have to wait a day for a transfer from one of my Suncorp accounts to another of my Suncorp accounts? Ironically, whilst waiting to be answered I heard a glowing piece of phone spam telling me how wonderful Suncorp is, and another telling me about the joys of a particular Suncorp account type. The same account type I am so desperately trying to transfer some money from and to, but being bludgeoned by Suncorp idiocy at each attempt. Then I try Internet banking repeatedly, connections are opened, but nothing loads. I wait 10 minutes and try again. Log on screen appears, and I log on (or so i thought). 10 minutes later nothing has appeared, so I close the window and try again. Am now told that I’m already logged on, and have to wait 15 minutes before trying again. I close the window, and mutter several appropriate adjectival expletives followed by the word “Suncorp”. Then in desperation I try Telephone Banking and am asked for a Telephone Access Code. WHAT !@#$%^& TELEPHONE ACCESS CODE???????????????????????? I scream… Grumpy Whinge 3: Why suggest Telephone Banking as an option, when it needs an unknown or long forgotten Telephone Access Code to use. Now I’m totally pissed off at their bullshit, so I drive to a Suncorp ATM to pull out some cash for shopping. Nope, the account I want to transfer from is not listed. Grumpy Whinge 4: What’s the point of setting up an account, and not giving my card access to it??? I manage to transfer a few dollars from another account, and go shopping but being hamstrung by Suncorp’s iron grip on most of my money, I buy only the things on my shopping list that I really need. An hour later, and Internet banking is now (some 4 hours after this nightmare started) allowing log ons again, but am still greeted with the exceedingly helpful “An error has occurred” message. But thank God, I’m assured by the log on screen telling me that some Suncorp customers are having trouble logging on (no shit!), and to try again later. You’re hopeless Suncorp, seriously hopeless! Bigpond is the largest ISP in Australia, but it has some major problems that really pisses off many of their users, including this one. One of the worst is Bigpond’s inability to attribute Internet usage to the correct day, and their reluctance to do anything to fix the problem. Plenty tell their woes on the popular Whirlpool forums of evening usage on the last day of their billing cycle rolling over to the next day, so starting the new billing cycle with a hole in their quota. Here’s some examples… http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1177052&p=51#r1011 http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1177052&p=51#r1012 http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1177052&p=52#r1038 Even Bigpond Technical Support have no clues, some CSR’s advising the only way to avoid rollover is to not connect after 4 pm on the last day of the billing cycle. I have no doubt that the advice will prevent rollover, but why can other much smaller ISP’s update usage in nearly real-time, but Australia’s biggest ISP struggles to do it within an 8 hour time frame? It seems their brain-dead Usage Update process (incorrectly) attributes usage to the day that the process runs, not (correctly) to the day on which the usage happened. I sent a lengthy complaint to the Telstra CEO’s Office. Received a boilerplate reply, but more importantly it has a reference number and the name & title of the person who responded. He tells me to call Bigpond support when it happens and get them to apply a credit. My “Get out of Jail Free” card… Be easier to just fix it, it’s not rocket science… Went grocery shopping today, at the checkout I wanted to pay by EFTPOS… I grab the EFTPOS gizmo and swipe my card, and then the checkout person says “Swipe your card”. I press “Savings” to select the account, and then hear “Select your account”. I’m half way through entering my PIN, when I hear “Enter your PIN and…”. I finish entering the PIN and press Enter, then hear “…and press Enter”. I then point out that prompting after I do something is at the very least pointless, and at worst annoying. I guess they’re programmed to do that, but a little independent thought would be welcome. |
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Copyright © 2012 Grumpy Old Aussie - All Rights Reserved |
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