Blog
Fastway do it again!
Yet again, Fastway couriers fraudulently forge a signature to "prove" delivery. At least this time they didn't forge my own name. In this case, the courier didn't bother to knock. We were in bed at the time and heard the delivery.
If you run a business selling things by mail order, do not use Fastway couriers. There's a reason they're the cheapest! You pay less and gain extra disgruntled customers.
In other news, my fruit trees have arrived! Can't wait to plant them out.
06 Aug 2008 11:52 [category: /grumble] #
Do not call!
I just had a call from a telemarketer at my private health insurer (don't get me started on being forced to have one) trying to get me to sign up for their "Extras" cover. In case you don't know how this scam works, it's basically where you hand your insurer some more money, and they hand some of it back to you for things like running shoes, glasses and gym membership.
Now to my mind, insurance is all about things you can't budget for. Your house burns down. You get some debilitating and expensive-to-treat illness. I know I need to buy shoes, glasses and gym membership occasionally, and I budget accordingly.
What I've taken to doing with telemarketers who aren't covered by the government's Do Not Call register (like this one, where I am already a customer) is to point out that even if I wanted their product, I would very specifically not purchase it from a telemarketer. Here's hoping some of these places have a "does not respond to telemarketers" flag in their database. Saves both of us time and money.
30 Jul 2008 14:36 [category: /grumble] #
Why steal music?
Wow, can't imagine why people might download music illegally when the legal avenues are just so easy. I just tried to buy Gotye's first album Boardface from Creative Vibes. First, their system charged me twice somehow, so I've ended up US$19.80 when it should have been US$9.90. Next, to download the files they send an email with a link for each file in the album, rather than something that's a convenient single download. The downloads also all seem to cut off around the 1'30" mark. Then they're tagged as the artist being "Creative Vibes". Ferfuxxake, the quality of experience is vastly superior with torrents!
I won't be buying from Creative Vibes online store again. And I'll now need to try and get a refund.
08 Jul 2008 13:46 [category: /grumble] #
Goodbye St George
I've been a customer of St George Bank, and before that one of the previous incarnations, Advance Bank, for many many years. Since I was a teenager. They had one of the first online banking systems, and their service has always been pretty good -- pretty good by Australian bank standards, which is admittedly a pretty low standard.
It seems they're about to be gobbled up by Westpac, one of the behemoths of banking here with a well-deserved reputation for baroque systems and surly service. St George seem to be preparing for the merger by degrading their own service.
When we moved house last December, I changed the address online and, from what I could see, it was all there. We haven't been receiving our printed statements. Earlier this year I used their online contact form to ask about this, and received no response.
Now I need those statments to reconcile mortgage payments. Online records only go back 90 days. I phoned up to have the address updated properly and request the statements, and they want to charge me $4 for each statement going back to December! They offered to send me the last two for free, which isn't very useful given I can see that online. Given I pay $6/month for my account, which includes statements, and their system fault means I didn't receive them, it's pretty bloody rich!
I've lodged a formal complaint and will see where that goes -- though given the last time I tried to contact them through the same channel (I can't find a postal address for complaints!) I received no response, I'm not holding my breath. Their response to this will determine whether they keep my business. Though to be honest, if the merger with Westpac goes through I'll be looking for another bank anyway.
11 Jun 2008 12:17 [category: /grumble] #
Fastway: such great couriers
I've ordered something online and been given a tracking number from the company supplying it. Here's what I just saw when I looked up the tracking number.
I can tell you three things: One, I haven't taken delivery of the device. Two, I wasn't at home at 09:09 this morning. Three, that's not my signature. So whose signature is it?
I can only hope they've delivered it to my neighbour or something, otherwise the courier has committed fraud. Moral of the story: don't use Fastway!
