by cameron | Aug 6, 2007 | Uncategorized
Here’s the latest chapter of my saga with 3.
As regular readers may recall, about 8 weeks ago I dropped my 5 month-old DOPOD 838Pro into a 3 store because it had stopped working. They told me they had to send it away to get it repaired and it would be back in three or four weeks.
When I called them four weeks later, they told me it would be ANOTHER 3 weeks.
When I called them three weeks later, they told me it hadn’t even been looked at yet and they couldn’t tell me how long it would be before I had my phone back.
So I asked them to give me a new phone but they couldn’t do that because they didn’t have any DOPOD 838 Pros in stock.
So I asked them to just terminate my account and let me go get a phone from somewhere else. They told me that would cost me a $900 fee.
So i fumed and waited.
Today they called me to tell me my phone was fixed and ready to be picked up at the store. After 8 weeks.
When I went to pick it up from the store, the guy told me it was all fixed. But when I tried to check it, the battery was COMPLETELY dead and I couldn’t even get it to turn on more than 5 seconds.
So I brought it home, charged it up – guess what? They hadn’t fixed a GODDAMN THING. The same problem I had 8 weeks ago – namely that the thing is a brick, won’t make calls – is still the there.
So I called the store back and they told me they now had their own repair center in St Kilda Road and I should take it there. I rocked up at St Kilda Road, only to be told by the girl there that they don’t actually open until September and don’t repair DOPODs anyway.
I told this girl I was furious and explained the story. I then sat there for an hour while she called everyone from the manufacturer to the repair center to “priority support” trying to get me a solution.
After an hour, I had no explanation why they returned me a phone without fixing a damn thing, and they gave me two options:
1) Take the phone MYSELF down to their REAL repair center in Nunawading, lose it for 5 days, and take my chances.
or
2) They had a refurb unit, another DOPOD, not the same model as mine but similar, which they will send me. It will take three days. It doesn’t have a battery. So I need to go online, order a battery, pay for it, then after the battery and phone arrives, I can call 3 “customer support” and they will refund the amount of the battery.
Because I wanted a working phone as soon as possible, I took the last option.
I cannot WAIT to get out of the contract with 3 and I would highly recommend you avoid 3 if you can.
Yes, Hugo, you called it mate.
UPDATE: Looks like I’m not the only person with a gripe against 3. Check out this thread on NotGoodEnough.org.
UPDATE 2: Looks like the NGE people didn’t like my post for some reason, they took it down and deleted my account I think!
by cameron | Aug 6, 2007 | Podcast
Richard Giles and I chat about some things that have been on my mind lately, including:
How Christians who justify Yahweh’s kill count in the Old Testament just prove my point that they are crazy and dangerous.
Some history on the Bhagavad Gita
WIRED: How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life
Some history on Fidel Castro If you want a quick overview on why the US hates Castro, watch this video.
Rich is going to be on the Boing Boing “Rule The Web” podcast this week
And “G’Day World” is on the first page of Google results for the search term “G’Day”! Thanks for the tipoff Molly! I knew you’d come in useful for something someday!
Become part of the G’Day World conversation.
I’ve created a couple of groups inside Second Life. You can now add yourself to the following groups:
Friends Of G’Day World
MODM
The Podcast Network
If I knew how to link directly to those groups from here, I would. But I don’t. So for now you just need to search for them in-world. Or you can add “Cameron Switchblade” to your friends and check out the groups I belong to.
If you’re a member of Facebook, you can ADD ME AS A FRIEND and then ADD YOURSELF TO THE G’DAY WORLD GROUP.
Add me to your Twitter account.
Do me a solid and digg the show.
Get the TPN version of Particls.
Don’t forget to make use of my new comments line – +613 9016 9699.
You can now buy transcripts of this podcast from Pods In Print.
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed and leave us a voice comment!
The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
by cameron | Aug 5, 2007 | Uncategorized
Back in SL for another Ayn Rand “Atlas Shrugged” discussion. One of the avs here is Lauren Weyland who was interviewed recently on the in-world show “The Late Show with Madelena Rossini”. Check it out for a trip.
******
Tom Reynolds has uploaded some photos from MODM 4. This one is of me and the guys from the much-discussed MyLiveSearch. They are coming on the show this week for a yarn.
by cameron | Aug 4, 2007 | Christianity, Podcast, science vs religion
Aaron Heath sent me this image:
Reminds me of the Point of Inquiry podcast I listened to this morning with Peter Irons. Irons is “a noted constitutional scholar, historian, and lawyer, he is the author of the bestselling May It Please the Court; The Battle for the Constitution; War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution; and A People’s History of the Supreme Court. His newest book is God on Trial: Dispatches from America’s Religious Battlefields.” In the podcast he mentions that the “Founding Fathers” of the US were very clear that the country was NOT based on Christianity or any other religion. They were fighting FOR separation of church and state and yet, somehow, many Americans seem to have turned that on its head.
For all our problems (and, having just watched BLOOD DIAMONDS, we don’t have many), Australia is at least not run by the religious right. Not yet, anyway.
Aaron also has this video on his blog. Nicely done.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OruQy-X32O0]
by cameron | Aug 4, 2007 | technology
The original shield on my video ipod (the “invisibleShield”) was starting to look very tacky after almost a year – the edges had started to slightly peel away and all manner of disgusting shit was getting stored under them, I was starting to worry I was breeding a new form of life – so yesterday I dropped into an Apple store and bought a packet of eShields. Got home, peeled the invisibleShield right off, and the iPod was covered in gluey shit. So this morning, like an idiot, I pulled out some nail polish remover to try to remove the glue.
Yeah. Idiot.
Especially when I tried to use it on the screen.
A tip for the kids out there – DON’T DO THIS. My screen is now covered in smudgy patches which look like microscratches. Gah! Of course, I googled it AFTERWARDS and there is like a million sites warning DON’T DO THIS which I am reading too late.
Now I’m trying to figure out if the much-ballyhooed BRASSO strategy from last year is worth a go or will just make things worse. Anyone out there tried it or got a better idea?
