Grumpy Again.

This morning's fluffy clouds.... will they later thicken up, & produce rain... I wonder.And last evening's little red anger flares- though perhaps they denoted fine weather for today. And perhaps my anger is colouring the meaning of the picture, for me.

I just want to have a little rant! I changed plans for the computer. I got one that included, Broadband, (a version of which my friend calls 'Fraudband' which would seem a very adequate title for what I have.) and it has a mobile phone plan included.

Yes, they assured me. You can bring your current phone number with you. No problem. In someone elses name? No problem. We can change that. Yes it will work, No problem.

Now my Granddaughter, gave me her old mobile, or as some call it 'cell' phone. She got me a new number, & gave me credits, which have lasted me months, as I rarely used the phone, but have found it very handy to have, nonetheless. It was a prepaid phone, so I never suspected it could be a problem. Hah!! How ignorant am I!!

When I put the new sim card into the phone- yes, I have learnt a whole new language!- no joy with service. How puzzling! So I begin the hopeless round of phone calls, to try to find out who what or how. After screaming at the automated phone answering service, trying to make a computer understand my accent.. or something, I am finally put on further lengthy 'holds', until finally a real live person comes onto the phone.

She is really short, sharp & rather rude- to my ear anyway. She finally tells me I will have to phone the previous company & get the phone checked out for a lock on it. OK. I spend another hour or so, waiting on line with ghastly music grating upon my soul, who craves calm, & peace. Another person comes on eventually, living I think, ....but wouldn't guarantee. A heavily accented voice, with some improbable name like Haireee Turrrrnerrrrr.

Haireeee proceeds to tell me he needs to speak to my granddaughter, who of course is not here. Foiled again.

So, I decide I will use GOM's old steam version of a mobile, which is in pristine condition, due to his hardly ever having used it, & when he did, almost always cutting himself off. I got it for him to use to alert me to traffic jams, & delays when he worked a long way from home.

So, I charge up the battery, insert the sim card, & try to get mobile again. No such luck. So, once more I begin the long wearying task of phoning phone companies. OMG it is enough to turn you grey! I makes me want to beat my head against the bricks outside! What rotten thing in my past is making me now pay in Karma? Must learn to be patient, must learn not to raise blood pressure.

I finally get someone , very pleasant, who tells me there is no lock on this phone, but she cannot help me.... she will put me through to the 'prepaid' department. Where I get another extremely heavily accented person... who is so accented I can barely understand a word they utter...could this be India I am speaking with??? Bearing in mind, it never does to piss off people on the other end of the 'help line' - oh hahahahahaha, what a misnomer!!! I try to patiently explain the problem. He snarls impatiently at me, & guess what... after lengthy questions, & me reeeling off hundreds of numbers, the phone is now rendered utterly dead & useless... How did he do that!??

And I swear, I never let on that he cheesed me off to the max, I was polite, I only begged his pardon about 8 times... I am left minus a phone, but still paying for one, of course.

And the Fraudband crawls along, because I have used my quota, in the first week or something ludicrous. One cheery soul told me in every other country in the world, what we call Broadband, is their normal speed! How come we lag so seriously behind...

Could it be that Telstra has a strangle hold on things.

And yet... I am 'lucky'. Friends have much worse tales to tell, & have had to resort to the Ombudsman to get some sort of satisfaction... which is still not forthcoming.

No wonder I am grumpy!!GGGGGRRRRR!!