farmdoc's blog post number 596

Today COP15 – the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference – opens in Copenhagen. Given this graph, it’s for sure the most important conference this year. Probably this decade. And maybe this century. My country produces only about 1% of my planet’s carbon emissions. But we’re the largest per capita carbon emitter. So we have a responsibility to lead at COP15 – not to follow. Despite whatever words prime minister Rudd and minister Wong may utter, it’s actions that count. So in the three days preceding COP15, what’s the highest profile event in Australia? Not a global warming/climate change demo. Oh, no. It’s the Sydney Telstra 500. A 3-day car racing carnival around a street circuit in Sydney’s Olympic precinct. Of course the racing cars aren’t zero-emission Formula Zero, but gas-guzzling V8 Supercars. To make matters worse, the event’s sponsored by the NSW government – which should know better. Damn it. And also Telstra. This week I was invited, and I agreed, to be a panellist in My Telstra Experience – an online group of Telstra customers who feed back to Telstra their telecommunications and media experiences. I’ll be telling Telstra what I think of motor racing. And especially its sponsorship of it. I’m only one person, but I’ll do what I can. Meantime COP15 runs until 18 December. I’m pessimistic about the outcome. I hope I’m wrong.

farmdoc's blog post number 590

I don’t read newspapers in hard copy. And I certainly don’t read any newspaper comic strip. But I’m aware that For Better or For Worse is a comic strip that ran from 1979 to 2008. And, for better or worse, I’m a customer of Engin telco. For better because for $14.95 a month I get unlimited local and STD calls. For worse because Engin’s customer service standard is meagre at best, and downright pathetic at worst. My latest example? Last Tuesday I realised that due to the lightning strike late the week before, my Engin Voice Box 3102 – a vital hardware item for my Engin VoIP service – wasn’t working. I reckon the lightning dealt it a mortal blow. So last Tuesday morning I phoned Engin and ordered a new Voice Box. I stressed my situation’s urgency. They said they’d despatch it by Australian Air Express [AAE] that night. By Friday it hadn’t arrived. So I phoned Engin who said they’d despatched it on Tuesday afternoon. Then I phoned AAE who said they’d only received it on Thursday afternoon. When I phoned Engin back, this time they said they’d passed it to AAE on Wednesday afternoon. As a consumer/customer, I ask but two things, i.e. good service, and the truth. Last week Engin failed on both counts. So I’m nominating them in the 2009 Worst Customer Service Awards. I predict Telstra will beat Engin for an award, though. What is it about the customer service of telco companies? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

farmdoc's blog post number 410

Nowadays Sweetheart Vivienne and I don’t argue much. But a perpetual source of friction is that when I shop in the supermarket I write down the price of each item I buy, and after the checkout I compare the docket prices with my shopping list prices. I often find differences. But I only report those when I’m overcharged. Which happens much more frequently than undercharging. Whereas random chance suggests overcharging and undercharging should happen equally. So the die’s loaded in the supermarket’s favour. No surprise there. And the same with Telstra. The billing errors I find are almost all in its favour – including a recent one of a few hundred dollars. Last Monday Telstra announced it’s ending the pip tones that for the last 40 years have been heard at the start of all long distance calls. It’s labelled its phase-out part of the transformation process that’s turning Telstra into ‘a world leading media communications company’. And it said ‘the removal of STD pip tones will give fixed line users a consistent experience’. What horse shit. It sounds like corporate types are incapable of honesty when spin’s an option. The upshot, of course, is that no more pip tones encourages people to talk for longer without remembering they’re on a long distance call. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 363

Mole Creek, a village of 223 people at the 2006 census, is a mobile phone black spot. Always has been. And now Telstra’s private, always will be. Barring an unforeseen technological advance, that is. Though since 3 March I’ve owned a T7, I’m content to live in a black spot. Because the only prizes won by people who must be accessible 24/7, are early funerals. My friend Haydn, who once owned and ran the Mole Creek Guest House, used the black spot as a positive marketing tool. Successfully, he says. Actually, on reflection, I’m ambivalent about the black spot, i.e. I have simultaneous conflicted feelings. A love-hate relationship. For I’d feel safer working alone around the farm if there was mobile phone coverage. Another local issue I’m ambivalent about is the installation last week of an ATM next to the supermarket. As you see, it’s new and bright and shiny. Oh so pretty. But does our tiny village need one? It’ll be used, so I suppose it’s needed. And I predict I’ll use it too. Occasionally. My fear is not the ATM, but what’s next. No longer are we one of the few places in this nation with no mobile phone coverage and no ATM. In this era of homogeneous mediocrity, Mole Creek still has a chance to remain uniquely technologically under-provisioned. Which I see as a mighty asset. Becoming like any other tiny village will be to our detriment, I’m certain.

farmdoc's blog post number 12

At midnight last Monday Telstra shut down its CDMA mobile phone network because, it said, it was outdated. Since 1999 CDMA had been the core of mobile phone services in rural and regional Australia. It covered 98% of the population. The other 2% includes Mole Creekians, even though a few years ago a petition was reportedly signed by 100% of us. The CDMA network was duly replaced by a new 3G network, later named Next G. And the fact is the coverage of Next G is no greater than CDMA. Well what did you expect from a privatised Telstra, eh? That they would spend millions on infrastructure to extend Next G to the outlying 2%? Oh no. The microsecond Telstra turned private, its shareholders became its most important stakeholder, and be damned the Australian public. Shame on successive governments – ALP and Coalition, Federal and State – who have privatised public utilities. I wish their arrogant negligence would haunt these privatisers for the rest of their days. But it won’t happen, because despite their media bleating they don’t have consciences, and they probably own shares in the very companies that have devoured the public bounty at bargain basement prices. Now Telstra is advising farmers who are still experiencing Next G problems to call the 1800 888 888 hotline and lodge their concerns with Telstra. Big bloody whoopy do!