via my beloved's LJ:
http://nakedteddybears.livejournal.com/386214.html
Awww - this really made my day :)
Friday, 12 December 2008
Family
Yes I am an Auntie again apparently.
I sent a gift and it was very much "squee-ed" over.
Christmas presents sent for both offspring. Auntie duties over for another year.
Monday, 8 December 2008
Meme - Scattergories
SCATTERGORIES. ..it's harder than it looks!
Have fun - COPY all , PASTE it in a new form, erase my answers, enter yours, send it on.
Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things.. nothing made up!
Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
| WHAT IS YOUR NAME: | Mel |
| BOY NAME | Matthew |
| 4 LETTER WORD: | Mate! |
| GIRL NAME: | Melusina |
| OCCUPATION: | Mechanic |
| A COLOR: | Mauve |
| SOMETHING YOU WEAR: | Mittens |
| BEVERAGE: | Milk |
| FOOD: | Melon |
| SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: | Masking Tape (what else do you hold light fittings together with) |
| | Melbourne, Australia {grin} |
| REASON FOR BEING LATE: | Making Out |
| SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: | MOVE! |
No - not really ....
This is ridiculous !!!
It's December. Why is it cold enough that I'm wearing a jacket to work and wishing for the umteenth million time that I had bought gloves this winter? I'm freezing and my hands feel like blocks of ice.
Friday, 5 December 2008
One for the crochet people
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17297175
Have a look at their other dolls too ....
I really need to get this pair - and send one up to Sean - whenever we discuss Mythbusters he takes Jamie's side and I'm with Adam :)
Have a look at their other dolls too ....
I really need to get this pair - and send one up to Sean - whenever we discuss Mythbusters he takes Jamie's side and I'm with Adam :)
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Phones AGAIN
Just heard from Dad.
His phone has died - so he's asked for my old one. He doesn't know the saga of the new phone yet. So I've cleaned out my old phone and I'm posting to him today.
PLEASE DELETE THE OLD PHONE NUMBER FROM YOUR LISTS!
Unless you WANT to talk to my Dad.
I can still receive txts and phone calls on my new phone - I just can't reply or ring out until tomorrow when it gets fixed.
His phone has died - so he's asked for my old one. He doesn't know the saga of the new phone yet. So I've cleaned out my old phone and I'm posting to him today.
PLEASE DELETE THE OLD PHONE NUMBER FROM YOUR LISTS!
Unless you WANT to talk to my Dad.
I can still receive txts and phone calls on my new phone - I just can't reply or ring out until tomorrow when it gets fixed.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Male dominated Retail
I wasn't going to blog about this but I just had to.
As some of you know I've been having hardware issues with my iphone. We bought it Monday, the touchpad developed a dead strip on Friday and I've been trying to find where/how to get it fixed since Saturday.
We bought it at a retail outlet, not direct from the Telco. This was a retail chain that both Mr Bears and I have used before on a regular basis and quite appreciated their levels of customer service.
When we bought the phone on Monday in Perth they were their usual wonderful service. I flew home that day.
Friday I discovered that my touchpad was developing a dead zone, where the finger pressing wasn't working. This went straight over the settings button and the keypad, so I couldn't text or type in new numbers etc etc.
On Saturday I went to a local outlet of the retail store and was told "you didn't buy from this outlet, we can't help you".
I went straight to my Telco's outlet, who told me they couldn't help me, I had to put all my enquiries through the retail outlet, as I didn't buy the phone direct from the Telco.
I came home, rang the Perth outlet. The manager apologised and said he would find me a friendly Melbourne outlet and call me straight back.
Saturday came and went. Monday came and went. I rang three times in Tuesday, twice the Manager was not in yet, the third time he was in but informed me his computer network was down. He would ring me as soon as it was back up.
Tuesday went. Wednesday came and went. I skipped lunch today because I was in back to back meetings, so I left early at 3pm and visited another outlet of this retail store.
Waited for over 30 minutes while the two lackeys couldn't help me - I had to talk to the manager apparently. He was too busy chatting up the just out of high school lollipops. Every time I said "excuse me, I've been waiting here" I got a got a "you will wait. I will get to you". I was patient. I waited and endured this treatment for another 20 mins. Then I blasted him. I completely told him exactly what I thought of him and the way he ran his store and the way he treated his customers. He shrugged, turned his back on me, and continued chatting up the lollipops.
I seethed all the way home. Rang the Head Office who listened and then said "we'll put your through to Melbourne Area Manager". That's it. Not apology, no explanations, nothing.
I went through it all again with the local area Manager. His only response was "well those are the only two stores on your side of town, which one do you want to return to?" He also informed me that I needed to return the phone to them. They would post it to the Telco to check and fix and then it would be returned to me. It would take 4-5 weeks and I would not be getting a replacement phone.
I hung up and rang my Telco.
The first operator could barely understand English and kept asking me to repeat myself, so I asked to speak to his supervisor. He hung up on me.
I rang back and got a different operator. After to-ing and fro-ing for over 30 minutes, me pointing out that I've been a customer for over 10 years, I will be writing to the Telecommunications Ombudsman and the local news media, I was pushed up the chain to someone who told me that I should go to directly to an Apple authorised repairer. This operator gave me his name and extension number, and he's waiving the contract costs for the time I am without a phone.
I rang a local Apple Authorised Repairer who informed me that he can repair and service every single Apple product except the iphone. Apple will not let their authorised repairers repair or sell iphones in Australia. This is an Apple US decision and he gave me Apple Australia's number so I could confirm this for myself. He did offer to look at my iphone free of charge tomorrow morning and at least determine for certain that my problem is a hardware issue.
I rang Apple Australia and went through to their iphone support centre. It transpires that all iphone purchasers in Australia automatically qualify for 90 free service direct from Apple. Gee the Telco's never mention this !!!
He talked me through restoring factory settings on the handset and other limited diagnostics (difficult when I can't access half the buttons because of the dead zone - including the Settings button!)
He then determined it is definitely a hardware issue and made an appointment for me to see a Mac Genius (yes that is their official title) at the Apple Retail store on the other side of Melbourne on Friday morning. They will test my phone and confirm the diagnosis and replace my phone free of charge then and there.
So I've gone from "Sorry can't help you" to "send it to Perth who will send it to the Telco and it will take 4-5 weeks" to "we'll have you back up and running within 15 minutes of you being able to visit the Apple store".
Now if I could just get over my unreasoning desire to castrate the managers of the retail outlets, I think everything would be fine.
Moral of this story: Never go into an outlet of only male staff without a great looking woman beside you.
Fact -gathering information: Every iphone purchaser in Australia is entitled to 90 days free iphone support direct from apple. If your phone plays up within the first 90 days, ignore the telco and go straight to Apple!
It only took me 2.5 hours this afternoon, five days after the phone broke, four days after we bought it, to discover this.
As some of you know I've been having hardware issues with my iphone. We bought it Monday, the touchpad developed a dead strip on Friday and I've been trying to find where/how to get it fixed since Saturday.
We bought it at a retail outlet, not direct from the Telco. This was a retail chain that both Mr Bears and I have used before on a regular basis and quite appreciated their levels of customer service.
When we bought the phone on Monday in Perth they were their usual wonderful service. I flew home that day.
Friday I discovered that my touchpad was developing a dead zone, where the finger pressing wasn't working. This went straight over the settings button and the keypad, so I couldn't text or type in new numbers etc etc.
On Saturday I went to a local outlet of the retail store and was told "you didn't buy from this outlet, we can't help you".
I went straight to my Telco's outlet, who told me they couldn't help me, I had to put all my enquiries through the retail outlet, as I didn't buy the phone direct from the Telco.
I came home, rang the Perth outlet. The manager apologised and said he would find me a friendly Melbourne outlet and call me straight back.
Saturday came and went. Monday came and went. I rang three times in Tuesday, twice the Manager was not in yet, the third time he was in but informed me his computer network was down. He would ring me as soon as it was back up.
Tuesday went. Wednesday came and went. I skipped lunch today because I was in back to back meetings, so I left early at 3pm and visited another outlet of this retail store.
Waited for over 30 minutes while the two lackeys couldn't help me - I had to talk to the manager apparently. He was too busy chatting up the just out of high school lollipops. Every time I said "excuse me, I've been waiting here" I got a got a "you will wait. I will get to you". I was patient. I waited and endured this treatment for another 20 mins. Then I blasted him. I completely told him exactly what I thought of him and the way he ran his store and the way he treated his customers. He shrugged, turned his back on me, and continued chatting up the lollipops.
I seethed all the way home. Rang the Head Office who listened and then said "we'll put your through to Melbourne Area Manager". That's it. Not apology, no explanations, nothing.
I went through it all again with the local area Manager. His only response was "well those are the only two stores on your side of town, which one do you want to return to?" He also informed me that I needed to return the phone to them. They would post it to the Telco to check and fix and then it would be returned to me. It would take 4-5 weeks and I would not be getting a replacement phone.
I hung up and rang my Telco.
The first operator could barely understand English and kept asking me to repeat myself, so I asked to speak to his supervisor. He hung up on me.
I rang back and got a different operator. After to-ing and fro-ing for over 30 minutes, me pointing out that I've been a customer for over 10 years, I will be writing to the Telecommunications Ombudsman and the local news media, I was pushed up the chain to someone who told me that I should go to directly to an Apple authorised repairer. This operator gave me his name and extension number, and he's waiving the contract costs for the time I am without a phone.
I rang a local Apple Authorised Repairer who informed me that he can repair and service every single Apple product except the iphone. Apple will not let their authorised repairers repair or sell iphones in Australia. This is an Apple US decision and he gave me Apple Australia's number so I could confirm this for myself. He did offer to look at my iphone free of charge tomorrow morning and at least determine for certain that my problem is a hardware issue.
I rang Apple Australia and went through to their iphone support centre. It transpires that all iphone purchasers in Australia automatically qualify for 90 free service direct from Apple. Gee the Telco's never mention this !!!
He talked me through restoring factory settings on the handset and other limited diagnostics (difficult when I can't access half the buttons because of the dead zone - including the Settings button!)
He then determined it is definitely a hardware issue and made an appointment for me to see a Mac Genius (yes that is their official title) at the Apple Retail store on the other side of Melbourne on Friday morning. They will test my phone and confirm the diagnosis and replace my phone free of charge then and there.
So I've gone from "Sorry can't help you" to "send it to Perth who will send it to the Telco and it will take 4-5 weeks" to "we'll have you back up and running within 15 minutes of you being able to visit the Apple store".
Now if I could just get over my unreasoning desire to castrate the managers of the retail outlets, I think everything would be fine.
Moral of this story: Never go into an outlet of only male staff without a great looking woman beside you.
Fact -gathering information: Every iphone purchaser in Australia is entitled to 90 days free iphone support direct from apple. If your phone plays up within the first 90 days, ignore the telco and go straight to Apple!
It only took me 2.5 hours this afternoon, five days after the phone broke, four days after we bought it, to discover this.