h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Having had a very smooth ride here in NZ so far, I now have two wee hassles which are a) irritating and b) time-consuming to deal with.

Neither are life-threatening or likely to give me sleepless nights, but are more like buzzy wasps in my ear. And I need a rant ;-P

One is with my NZ bank.

One is with my telecom provider in Australia.

Probably no surprises there then

It turns out that my new bank (which is the same as my old bank in Oz, but with "NZ" in its name) doesn't provide the same internet bill-paying and money transfer service Silly me to assume that because they have the same name and logo, they'd provide the same service. Consequently I shall have to set up *another* account here with another bank (one which does allow me to transfer money internationally) in order to send money to Australia to pay off my credit card The credit card, incidentally, is with the original Oz bank

And my telecom provider in Australia is still sending me phone bills to my old address - both landline and mobile. Both were cancelled in mid-September (I know it worked, because they stopped working ). In order to sort it out, I am informed that I must phone a landline number in Oz during working hours - at my expense. The current state of play is that I am refusing to do so: I want either an email address to write to, or an international freephone number (if such a thing exists). What a bloody nerve... their mistake, but I have to pay to sort it out. I don't think so thank you very much.

Frenchbean on the Warpath.... you have been warned

Isn't burocracy just wonderful

Its petty fogging mimpishness like this that makes me want to crush a grape

It's kind of comforting that I find I'm not the only one


Hang on in there girl

OK, which wunch of bankers is this? I'll avoid them and make mocking gestures in their general direction.

As for the telco - h'mmm. They're all pretty thick, in my experience; I've had stand-up fights with the one that used to be in public hands, but the billing services of the other main one are somewhat bizarre at the best of times.

Good luck...

It's the red W logo bank, Ivan. Useless And it's the telco that was previously in public ownership with whom I'm fighting about billing

Nice to see you here, Ev. You've not been around recently. I hope you're feeling chirpier? It is a hugely comforting place this: I always find somebody is experiencing the same things as I am

Ah. The W-logo mob are very, very strange at the best of times. As for *that* telco...

I know it doesn't help, but I can understand why you're having issues with those two entities.

Hi, Frenchbean,

With regard to banks and telcos nothing would surprise me. I think you need a few to hand if only to vent your frustration.

I don't blame you for refusing to phone Oz at your expense cheek So much time and money has to be wasted dealing with such buzzy wasps. I would have thought (but then I am sensible and rational - most of the time) that there would have been quite a lot of interaction between Oz and NZ and vice versa, so that two banks within the same organisation would do transfers and everything easily.

Oh, that was in my dream world, not Real Life.

sorting the s out.

Websailor

Why do you have to call from a land line? Lots of people don't even have land lines anymore.

Can't you Skype them?

Hey, go get 'em, girl!

(It's anagram time again, isn't it? Happy Hallowe'en from The Recumbent One)

I have to call their landline, not necessarily from my landline, Hyp. Not that I'm going to of course

Common sense doesn't come into anything to do with banks/telcos, Websailor. Don't be silly

Hello R'man - I haven't got skype set up on my computer (mainly because none of my friends/family have it either), but if I had I still wouldn't give the telco the time of day. Pah!

Today's job is to set up a new bank account with a blue bank which has a straightforward internet / international banking service. I spent an hour last night investigating the sites of all the NZ banks and found that only three have international internet banking My choice came down to (apparent) ease of use and plain English.

Me, silly - it took you long enough to find out



Websailor

to you too, Websailor

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/22/2398665.htm?section=justin Oh, look, lots of other people think Australian telcos suck too. What a shock. You could knock me down with a heavy object of some description.

The ombudsman in question: http://www.tio.com.au/

The latest from the telco is that if I phone the Australian landline number using a T****a mobile from anywhere in the world, it'll only cost me 27.5c The whole point is that I *no longer have* one of their mobiles, but they are still billing

As for the bank problem: I opened a new account with the blue bank (let's call it A) at lunchtime and have just transferred a large sum from W to A. Of course, now it will probably take days to appear in my account as both banks hold onto it in space for a while to make a few cents' interest. I hate being screwed

So I may shift all my banking to A in due course. I'll see how efficient they are first...

A isn't too bad; I had one of their accounts once, and would have kept it if I hadn't been seduced away by a credit union. Good luck...

I went past a T***** office earlier today and thought malicious thoughts about them on your behalf.

you're having problems Fb,but then you're dealing with a bank!!!Sounds like they're all much of a sameness wherever you live!!!
As for your other problem......all i shall say is we're with virgin media,that should be enough
Stick to your guns ,i'm sure if anyone can sort them all out,you can

Sorry to hear about your problems, FB. I wish I could say I was surprised! I had problems with that telephone company when I'm not even with them. (I think I put it in my journal ages ago). I'm with the 'Other' company ("Yes") but because the problem was with the first companies lines, we had to wait for one of their technicians.
The other company ("Yes") were really nice, and reimbursed me for three weeks loss of service!

As for the banks, they're all much the same, but I've had pretty good service from A. Except when I had some mail returned (even though the address was current), so they wiped my address, not bothering to contact me to ask what my current address, therefore leaving me without an ATM card for over a month!
If they don't have an address to send the card to, the computer doesn't do it's thing and tell someone to send a card out.

Hello Taralome I remember the tale of the bank card Let's hope that doesn't happen to me. Actually, it can't yet as I haven't arranged to have a card with them unless/until I decide to transfer everything over to them.

How interesting to hear a good story about "Yes"... I've only ever heard grief about their service (usually related to overcharging).

I have finally been provided a snailmail address to write to the telco. And I received an apology for the length of time it took them to provide it. Now I just need them to stop billing me

Fb

Glad you got a snail mail address. Finally!
I once got a bill from them for $0.00! I kept it.

I got a bill for $0.00 from them too. Twice. I think they just found it hard to say goodbye...