Earlier today I realised I didn’t have much credit left on my phone. Ever since 2002, I have had the same phone number; been with the same provider; been on the same plan. Today I decided to make the change and go with a plan that suits me a bit better – that has better bonuses. I’m with Vodafone, and maybe someone will make me change my views later down the track, but Vodafone are very unreliable. Primarily because their customer service is terrible. Their plans are fine, and their network coverage seems fine, but their customer service is about as useful as a toe sock with all the toes cut off. I’m not even joking.

I don’t really like watching current affairs shows on television because they tend to be ridiculously tantalised and over-the-top, and above all, simply stories that are exaggerated to gain viewers. However, I took their report on phone companies rather fairly and not as some kind of seething scam. Vodafone turned out to be the worst phone provider in terms of customer service.

This morning, all I wanted was the Text/Talk plan, plus an extras pack of mobile data so I can use internet on the move without incurring ridiculous charges ($2 a megabyte is frankly preposterous, I might add). Previously, I had been on a simple plan with just $30 of credit that would expire in 365 days. I’ll be honest, being on that plan was very depressing. I felt like I had to wait as close to 365 as possible before recharging my credit again. I felt like I was being horrible if I used up all the credit in just a month. Either way, I ran out of credit easily and it annoyed me to be low on credit, so I was constantly trying to make sure that I wasn’t, which meant that I avoided replying to people and calling people and spoke very fast when I called people.

I handed my phone to the sales representative at the Vodafone store just after my interview this morning so that he could set up my new plan. I asked him all possible questions I had before I decided to ask him to move me to the new plan. I watched what he did on my phone, I was happy with his explanations and when completed, he said my phone was ready to be used with my new plan. Thinking all was well and good I went on with my day, using the internet on my phone just as I pleased.

I was, however, not pleased to discover that when I went home, I was being charged for my internet usage instead of having it taken from the mobile internet quota I purchased. I was confused, so I called Vodafone for assistance. I had to wait on the phone for nearly half an hour before I was spoken to by a person (and trust me, the phone waiting music is bad). After that, I was told that I would get a refund but I would need to be transferred to someone else regarding the mobile internet as it didn’t seem to be “working” on my phone. While I waited to be transferred, the call was disconnected. /poo

This happened another two times. Once, the person on the other end just said to me “thanks for calling Vodafone, have a nice day” and hung up. Then, I was disconnected while being transferred to technical support, at which point I gave up. Apparently, because I bought my phone outright and not from Vodafone, I’m not allowed to have mobile internet.

What kind of ridiculous floozy is this? It’s preposterous. I can’t believe that they won’t let me use mobile data without paying ginormous fees, because I bought my own phone. It’s my choice, and I’m paying for their service either way. And either way, I am very angry and will most likely change providers very soon because I will be needing mobile internet more in the future, seeing as I got the job I had an interview for this morning, aaaand seeing as my future will most likely be a career in something related to the internet and the world wide web –

Oh, yeah. :) I start the new job next Friday. You might wonder about my other web designing job… well, I haven’t been called for a while, and I’m only a casual there, so I’m looking for another part-time job for the summer. Looks like I have my hands on one now.

The Jebediah tickets have been sorted, and tomorrow I’ll be going with Seb. I really want to photograph with my DSLR but I doubt I’ll be allowed; I’ll definitely get some photos either on my phone or one of my point-and-shoot cameras. I’ll let you guys know how the show goes – which should be in my next post on Sunday some time. /bounce