Well, that WAS an option, but I was hoping to actually complete the install, rather than have him crying in a corner and reporting it couldn't be done... ;)

They were Telstra linesmen for almost all of the visits. The contractors actually bothered to contact me when they were coming - the Telstra tech's just turned up, did the work incorrectly, and then left. The last one who came was a contractor, and he fixed up the patching to the MDF from the building sub-exchange on all six lines. Even he couldn't believe how badly it had been botched. Crossed pairs, pairs tagged incorrectly, and since Telstra only issued one job for one line at a time, this had meant so many different visits.

To be fair the building sub-exchange was a confusing point for them all. After the 8th visit turned out to not have any tags at the MDF, I put up a sign on the sub-exchange door. As to the following 5 visits, well, who knows what those morons were smoking.

I agree re helpdesk, and I'd like to agree with you re linesmen, however at my former employer, it took 13 visits by linesmen to get 6 lines installed at new premises, over the course of 3 months. It was an absolute disaster.

You should've seen the installation tech who came to install Bigpond Cable at our office. He needed a PC to activate it, I brought out my linux laptop - I've never seen anyone so confused. He asked for Internet Explorer, I told him he could have Firefox or Chrome. I think he nearly cried.

Telstra are a notoriously dodgy company with a history of being idiots when it comes to customer's privacy and account security. Have a read of this for one of their latest privacy blunders...

I envy your experience, I've worked with some truly evil people.

After all, everything wrong with the place is the fault of the last person to leave!

Quite possibly one of the best ideas I've ever read on Slashdot!!! :)

Hey, don't knock the clueless PE teachers. I got out of running around the oval repeatedly by telling one I had a comptuer virus! :)

iTunes wishes it was as good as Steam!!! This should be awesome, it'll be good to have some L4D2 games with the guys at work on our lunch break. We're running a mix of linux and mac systems here, so everyone should be able to play :)

I'll take any beer from Little Creatures, White Rabbit, Mountain Goat, Mildura Breweries, Holgate, Mornington Peninsula Breweries or even Coopers over a New Zealand beer any day, and they're just the ones from the top of my head. The only NZ brewery I've tried recently has been Monteiths, and I liked their Pilsner, but didn't like their winter ale or black beer, whereas the Little Creatures "Day of the Long Shadow" Spiced Winter Ale was just absolutely incredible in comparison.

;)

The 6 times that I or my immediate family have been hospitalised in the last ten years we've been admitted straight away, the problem identified promptly and when necessary, in surgery having the problem fixed within 2hrs of presenting to emergency. This is not an isolated incident - and not at a major city hospital either, at a small outer suburban hospital in Melbourne. I can also go see a doctor at no cost to myself 24hrs a day at a general practice surgery which is a 15 min drive from my home.

Whereabouts do you live that your options are so utterly craptastic? I want to make sure I never move there.

well played! ;)

Sorry, the deadly creatures and the super hot chicks are a package deal. ;)

Also, in case he does actually read articles about himself - I also hope he's checked out where it's been rolled out to already and where it is scheduled to be rolled out to before purchasing/renting a house... because otherwise he will have to deal with Telstra instead.