Rubénerd :)

You know what’s interesting? Tethered internet. Here’s a long story to read if you have nothing better to do.

Read this post >

And if Optus had checked their records, they’d have seen I already did this and could have saved themselves the money of sending this message! Its funny sometimes to see companies ruled by indiscriminate computer systems that don’t have common sense programmed into them.

When registering for Wireless@SG a few years ago, I chose Qmax as my provider because they worked well with outlets supplied by SingTel and StarHub. Unfortunately, both Starbucks at Ion Orchard and the Coffee Bean at Bishan Junction 8 have inexplicably adopted M1 over SingTel, and Qmax is no longer listed as a provider.

My mum had a phone with M1, and the experience taught us to never use them for anything serious again. I suppose this is their way of seeking revenge :P.

Another quick Optus fail to talk about this morning, this time to do with being disconnected after not paying a bill. Problem is, I did pay it! Budda-boom!

Read this post >

So here’s the problem, our home internet has now been down all week and I haven’t been able to blog much at all during that time, and the timing could not have been worse! Consider this a whinging blog entry to end all whinging blog entries!

Read this post >

Unfortunately one of the problems with essentially living in two different countries is things like bills from phone companies are easy to forget when you’re living in the other place. When I’m in Singapore I have a 3G and data plan with SingTel Mobile, in Australia I have a 3G and data plan with Optus.

Despite technically being an overseas subsidiary of SingTel, Optus couldn’t be more different. To their credit (puns are hilarious!), an Optus account is far easier to apply for than a SingTel account and has much less fine print, but you pay for this initial convenience by having far slower data speeds, spotty 3G reception and a tiny amount of data. Granted Singapore is microscopic compared to the metro area of Adelaide despite having five times as many people, but in Singapore I have full 3G reception everywhere except in lifts. I also have six times the data, for cheaper.

The other thing has to do with late payments of accounts. With SingTel if I’m late they send a series of warning letters and disconnect me, but they’ve always had me reconnected within an hour of my bill payment, even if it’s on a weekend (yes, even Sunday!). With Optus they claim a business day before reconnection takes place, but it’s taken 4 business days each time it’s happened.

I’m not denying for a second it’s entirely my own fault for not paying my bills, but the difference in support and service is huge. Optus needs to get their act together. I’m bullish that they’re capable of it, they just need a nudge. By a huge bull. I’d be scared into changing if a bull came charging at me. Charging… like charging a phone. I’m a genius!

Given I use my iTelephone with these plans, I wonder if Neal from iPhoneUserNews.com has anything to say about this? Wonder if you get a free Guinness and a potato when you sign up for an Irish telco?

The Twitter client episode!

Scaring people who think I’m a chick (ha!); late Friday night train journeys; nostalgia for 2007 Twitterland with Twitterrific; TwitterFon inserting advertisements; moving over to Tweetie on the iTelephone; obsessively using the huge but efficient TweetDeck; and the spectacular cost of mobile phone company text messages!

Download MP3 to listen 21:30 10.0MiB

You can also view previous episodes, subscribe via iTunes or another client, stream this episode and view its Internet Archive page.

I always liked their flag, even if I can’t call some of them now!

Here’s something I didn’t know, as an Australian with an Optus phone line, I’m not allowed to call certain places. When did this happen?

Because of an increase in the number of unauthorised call activity and modem-jacking incidents Optus has barred all direct dial calls to the following destinations:

• Diego Garcia
• São Tomé and Príncipe
• Guinea-Bissau

If you need to make a call to any of these destinations, contact Optus Customer Service on 133 937, as access to a specific number may be able to be restored.

Alternatively, connections can be made through Operator Services by dialing 1225 (charges apply).

Anybody know anyone in the British Indian Ocean Territory I can call? What about Santo Antonio? Guess I’d better brush up on my Portuguese if I’m going to call someone in Bissau. Wait, I can’t!

Do you all remember that long winded rant post I wrote on Sunday where I was having so much trouble paying my phone bill with Optus that I gave up doing it online?

Well I was told by a person at the Optus shop today that as an iPhone user I was registered automagically with their Optus Zoo service and that they’d sent me a password to it. By logging into Optus Zoo, I can pay my bills online there instead. Brilliant I thought, so I rushed home and attempted to login to Optus Zoo.

What was it that Homer Simpson said when he was laughing at the never ending previews at the beginning of a movie he was watching? "I’m laughing! But it’s a laugh of impatience!"

Lesson one of website design: never create sites that only work with JavaScript or Flash. ALWAYS provide alternatives if they’re not available.

Optus has sunk to a new low with me. Despite having much better coverage than Vodafone who I was with previously here in Australia, their 3G coverage still woefully bad outside the Adelaide CBD [Google Maps]. Coming from Singapore where I can even use my phone in most lifts I come across and onboard ferries between Singapore and Batam, Indonesia this definitely takes some time to adjust to when I come back here to study.

My latest adventure with Optus involves paying a bill online. I’ve never understood why companies go out of their way to make their online billing services so cumbersome, it’s so much cheaper for them to let their customers interface directly with their payment systems with their computer than paying somebody at one of their retail stores or over the phone to take payments. But I digress.

I went to Optus.com.au and clicked the conspicuous Pay a bill link. It took me to a secure page that fortunately doesn’t use MD5 and contains a few simple fields for credit card information and the amount owed. So far so good.

The problems started when I attempted to click some of the important information links in the page’s description. When I clicked on the Payments link which I was instructed to do to learn about their rich 1% credit card surcharge, I was told such a page doesn’t exist.

When I clicked the Privacy Collection Statement, nothing happened at all. As it turns out the hyperlink consisted of some JavaScript which NoScript in my Firefox browser had blocked. Why does a website need to use JavaScript to link to another page?

The most frustrating bug with the page though was its help system. When you click on any of the question mark links next to the form fields, you’re redirected to an explanation on another page. I didn’t know what they meant by a Card ID, so I clicked the question mark. Because it loaded another page in the same window, my 16 digit credit card number and my almost as huge 14 digit Customer Account Number were reset!

The fun didn’t end when I clicked the Pay Bill button though, for instead of processing my request I was tersely thrown back a 1990s era error page:

The question is, did my payment go through? I don’t want to enter my details again if I did because I’d be paying twice and from experience I know phone companies never give you money back they owe despite sending threatening letters to you when you reciprocate their lack of respect by not paying a bill.

We really need WiMax or city wide WiFi systems so we can get rid of these phone company peoples.