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4 weeks to get the ADSL to work…

This is classic blame shifting. Firstly, blame the consumer… must be their equipment then bounce them from Telstra to Voice provider to ISP and back again. All the while blaming the equipment.

Edit – the exchange in question is the South Oakleigh Exchange.

A tale of woe!.

  1. Monday 21 April 2008
    Requested new phone be connected on this date.
  2. Thursday, 24 April 2008
    Telstra technician between 9am and 1pm – called at 1pm arrived 1.30pm.After which phone was working.
  3. Wednesday, 30 April 2008
    ADSL working (Cheers to Internode only 2.5 days since they got the phone number to set up a new account). Phone line still working.
  4. Saturday, 3 May 2008
    First problem with the phone.

    Continuous hiss on the line and engaged sound when dialing from outside line.

    ADSL still working.

    Phoned AAPT and reported fault. They logged a fault report with Telstra.
  5. Monday, 5 May 2008
    Phone line working, but hissing noise when ADSL and phone are plugged in.
    Unplugged everything and replugged everything is every combo possible, still no joy.
  6. Tuesday, 6 May 2008
    *11 am Telstra technician phoned, said there is no problem. Informed him that the phone line began working on Monday, but there is now a lot of static noise on the line. He said if there is still a problem call Telstra back and someone will have to come into the house to check the line in the house.*Called AAPT and told them there was still a problem. They said they would have to log a fault report with Telstra and said Telstra will have to come into the house. Asked if there was anything else we could check, before having to be home for a technician. Was advised purchase another filter.

    Took equipment to old house which still had old adsl active… to confirm equipment ok.

  7. Thursday, 8 May 2008
    *Purchased new filter. Made no difference.

    *Called AAPT and told them there was still a problem. They logged the fault report with Telstra and said Telstra will have to come into the house.

  8. Friday, 9 May 2008
    I spent the afternoon working from home for the Telstra man. Telstra man only phoned rom the exchange. Said there was no problem on the line and he did not and would not come into the house. Advised to get a central filter installed to cut down on line noise ($$$). Did not care about any other problems said problem was my equipment and that was that.

    *AAPT called my wife saying had heard from Telstra who advised there was no problem on the line. Concluded that the issue must be with our equipment.

    *AAPT then called me, talked through all the options I had tried, (two modems, 4 filters, two phones, two phone connections – all of which has worked everywhere else). Still concluded that fault must be with equipment. Wished me ‘good luck’.

  9. Monday, 19 May 2008
    Now find out from Internode that there was a Telstra problem with the exchange on Monday 5 May. There was an exchange port swapped telstra wholesale (this is news to me, and also to AAPT and Telstra by the sounds of things)

  10. Tuesday, 20 May 2008
    Voice line goes down…. This time AAPT state there is a problem at the exchange – 2 Days to fix.

  11. Thursday, 22 May 2008
    Voice line is working again.. adsl is still generating line noise.

  12. Monday, 26 May 2008
    Made a phone call in the evening… standard unplug adsl to make a call routine…
  13. Tuesday, 27 May 2008
    Earliest I could get Telstra to come to the house due to work commitments. Blair from Telstra arrive 10am, at which point I explain everything from the begining again. I go to show him the problem only to find the voice line not working again.
    Blair leaves 10 min later… saying there is a problem at the exchange, not our equipment.
    10.34 – Blair phones line is working again… line noise however still hasn’t gone away 🙂 1 Hour or so later all fixed. Internode call me in the afternoon saying case is closed, new cables or some such at the exchange….

I must thank my wife for the detailed list, or this would have been a much shorter blog post. But this just goes to show you. Take notes, believe what you are saying is true and keep annoying them…

Because 99% of the people that I have spoken to in the last 4 weeks have blamed me and I knew it wasn’t my fault. So one for the little guy I say.

The problem with a gps…

On the way home last night my wife was driving so I got to play with the gps a little more and found one of those little quirks. Now I am sure that the maps are full of quirks, but if I find one not 500 metres from my house one does have to question just how many their actually are.

The following google links show two routes… the first is what google maps told me was the route, and the second is what Nokia Maps told me was the route.

Google Maps Route

Nokia Maps Route

Now, I know the area (I live here so I should :-)) but the Nokia Maps is convinced that I can not drive across North Road at the intersection with Murrembeena Road. That would be fine if it was a small intersection but it is not. It is really quite large. When the new maps beta came out the first thing I checked was another turning bay just up the road. See that has been added, but in the processes they killed a very large intersection. And they make you do a right hand turn across what in peak hour is one of the main feeder roads into and out of the city, instead of at the lights!

Now I don’t for a minute think that Nokia is alone is doing stuff like this, I am sure all the maps and mapping companies are just as bad as each other.

Perhaps one day (all the privacy issues aside) Nokia Maps will upload any route that you take that deviates from the route that the software suggests, then look for patterns in this and create new routes out of the real world travel (perhaps even real time?). Then I might be able to turn right at the intersection and not drive around the block as anyone coming to visit me who didn’t know the way would go.

P.s

The Maps are done making the new Static Maps API… this I am in love with.