Troy Kelly

Do not upgrade the firmware on your PCMCIA card if you are using NextG Wireless HSDPA broadband on a Mac. The Telstra BigPond connection manager does not support the card with the upgraded firmware. This is contrary to the information on the Firmware upgrade page I know… but trust me - don’t upgrade.
Since my upgrade I now have a (very light) paper weight as Telstra BigPond does not support downgrading the firmware on the Option GlobeTrotter (GT) Max cards back to a supported firmware.
Excellent… and very helpful - another example of BigPond’s excellent support for the NextG network on Mac.

There is currently a network outage in Western Australia, that has been an ongoing issue for the last three days. Essentially it involves the name servers for the NextG network going offline. For some unknown reason Telstra & BigPond technicians are unable to work out a solid resolution, nor can they work out a way to get them working when they do fail in less then 9 hours.
From the BigPond support center I have been told the following:
- There are only five technicians that work in the wireless broadband support center;
- Telstra is aware of the network outage, but do not update the network / service status page;
- Their name servers go offline every evening at 2200 and it takes the network support team until 0700 the next day to resolve the issue.
I am really at a loss as to how a name server issue can take so long to fix (even temporarily) and how it can be allowed to go on for so long.
NextG connectivity costs me over $180 per month. Sitting in a phone support queue for excess of one hour every time I need support is not acceptable. If I was with dodo, and was paying $34 a month for my internet, I wouldn’t expect customer service - but the price point is vastly different.

Both Telstra and BigPond (yes, they are the same company I know - but they have different product offerings) advertise support for wireless broadband on OSX computers using their NextG infrastructure (their name for HSDPA).
My concern here is that there is no real “support” behind their offering. Yes, there is software that is available for OSX to run that allows you to connect to their network - but that is the extent of it. None of their support staff offer telephone support for the product - with the response I got today (and I quote) “I hate Mac OSX”…
The reason I am so thoroughly unimpressed with all of this is that I have a reminder that comes up when I connect at the moment - telling me to upgrade the firmware in my modem. The biggest draw of the upgrade is this:

Great news: your BigPond Wireless Broadband device can now go even faster – and it won’t cost you any extra!

The page is obviously specifically for OSX users - as the link URL ends in “osxoption_pccard.html”. On clicking the link on the page to get the download instructions you are taken to a page which says:

If you have a MAC
Currently, we don’t have a Mac OS firmware upgrade application. We’re working with our vendors to develop one shortly.
If you have access to a Windows computer, then you can upgrade your firmware as follows:

It then details the windows upgrade procedure…. very helpful.
At every turn with this device, I run in to a brick wall. There really is no support at all for the card beyond a piece of software that may or may not work on your computer - and if it does not - you are on your own.
In short, Telstra’s NextG is not supported on OSX at the moment, and they have no right to advertise it as such.

We have just arrived in Kalgoorlie-Boulder touring the show. It has a population of a little over 32,000 and is 600 kilometers or so East from Perth. It is an amazing old town with a lot of history, including a Super Pit gold mine which was started by Alan Bond.
One of the things that has been immediately apparent upon arriving in town is that customer service is not really a priority. I know I harp on a lot about it, and I find it really embarrassing that Australia is know the world around for our poor customer service. When we arrived in town, and I could not get the address of the hotel out of my computer because there is no NextG coverage in Kalgoorlie, I called to ask what the street address was. When my call was eventually answered, I was told it was on a particular street. I said that I thought that was the name of the street but that it does not appear in my GPS, so I asked if it was also known by another name. She answered that it was the main street and then hung up.
Obviously, either an assumption was made that I was a local and that was all I needed to be able to find the motel or if that was not it - that I was a visitor and obviously any visitor to town stupid enough to not know where the main street is shouldn’t be staying at their motel.
We have had a few other negative experiences in town including one of the cast being denied entry to a shopping area by a group of locals. All of this has thrown the cast and myself a little bit - because, architecturally, Kalgoorlie is a beautiful town.
Hopefully we will have some positive experiences in the next couple of days to share with you.

I recently misplaced my phone, and because I had no idea where it was or if it would find its way back to me - I immediately called Optus Mobile Technical Support (1300 307 937) and asked for an outgoing call bar to be placed on the service.
After a couple of hours, my phone was found and I called Optus again to have the service bar removed. At that time I asked the operator to confirm that all of the previously active services / products would be restored to the same state that they were before the bar was put in place. After the operator confirmed that, I again asked the same question - but this time specifically about my SurePage service. Again it was confirmed that everything would be restored as it was but that it could take up to four hours.
Several days later I have found out that several clients have been trying to get in contact with me unsuccessfully - so I tried calling myself to find that I got a recorded message about my message bank not being set up.
I immediately called Optus, and asked for the services to be restored. The duty supervisor - Doug - restored the services. After I pushed him he then offered a $20 compensation (Optus calls it a “good will” payment). I was somewhat offended, given that my time bills at considerably more then that per hour.
I don’t really have the time to keep chasing it, so I will just let it go. But - the lesson here is that you have to confirm for yourself that everything gets restored, as Optus will take no responsibility if they mess everything up.

I am currently staying in Perth after a “travel day” on tour. We leave for our next city on Tuesday and have a day off tomorrow. After my experience checking in to the hotel, I am going to need tomorrow to calm down.

Below is an excerpt of the email that I have sent their manager, in an effort to make them aware of a possible short coming in their procedures. I think it is all pretty self explanatory, the only details omitted from the email are the full detail of the hotel - which is:

Assured Ascot Quays Apartment Hotel
150 Great Eastern Hwy, Ascot, Perth, WA 6104

eMail: ascot@assured.net.au
Phone: +61 8 9479 0000
Fax +61 8 9477 2475

And now the email…

We had previously stayed with your hotel on our travel day last week,
without incident. I found both the staff and facilities at that time
to be fantastic. And no issues were raised with me on our departure -
so I can only assume that the hotel had no issue with either myself or
the group of professional performers that I am touring with.

On-route this afternoon, I called in advance as is standard procedure
to confirm our rooms approximately one hour out from Perth. I was
pleased to find that the same front desk person was on (Emma) and that
she had already confirmed our booking and everything was in order.

Once we arrived, I was greeted by Emma who went through the normal
check in procedure. She had graciously re-used the charge back form
from our previous stay as it was over looked by our Brisbane
production office for this second booking. At the end of my check-in
and after receiving room keys for all the cast, Emma asked me to sign
an additional form that we were not required to sign on our last stay
pertaining to extraordinary requirements that the hotel wanted to
place on myself and the cast during our stay.

At this time I informed Emma that I would not sign such a form, as I
see it as unnecessary and that if they absolutely required a signature
they could send it to our Brisbane production office, have them review
it and if necessary seek legal advice and that they would then provide
a response in writing.

It was at this point in time that Thomas who was identified as the
front desk manager then involved himself.

I was taken aside and Thomas asked to explain the form to me. I
re-iterated my stance on the additional “contract” to Thomas and again
offered for the form to be sent to our Brisbane production office for
the Producer to review and comment.

During my discussion with Thomas, there were several comments made by
him that further aggravated the situation. Some of these were:

“Are you just having a bad day, is that the problem?”; and
(after a prior comment about the appearance of the cast) “Well, they
are acting like they are underage”.

I strongly resent that based purely on the appearance of the cast your
hotel would require the signing of an additional form for any purpose
at all. I find it discriminatory and exceptionally insulting.

I expect a written apology from Thomas that can be either delivered to
my room, or faxed to our Brisbane production office. If this is
“standard procedure” I would suggest that in future you make the
parties aware of the additional paperwork when the booking is placed,
not at check in when it (rightly or wrongly) appears like it is a form
used only when your staff evaluate the guest as a risk.