3 Bills

3 is at it again. You know, the 3 network. The telco.

Last month they charged me $2.07, 2 months after I cancelled my contract. No, it wasn’t just $2.07. It was 7c. 7c “credit card surcharge” for paying with their “preferred method of payment”, direct debit, and $2 for the paper bill (which I naturally did not change to an electronic bill as the charge only came in July and I wouldn’t have received a bill if it wasn’t for that 7c).

Now they’re at it again. Just today, I received a bill for $2. For what? PAPER INVOICE CHARGE!

Yes, they charge me $0 and then charge me $2 for sending the paper bill over to charge me $0. How nice.

Here is exactly what happened: the $2.07 was debited off via credit card, and therefore a 1c credit card surcharge was applied. That 1c surcharge was credited back by the last person on the phone. So “Balance brought forward” was $0.01cr, then + $0.01 credit card surcharge, and somehow they throw me a $2 “paper invoice charge” for telling me I wasn’t owing them anything. Or I wasn’t until they charged me that extra $2.

And the worse part is that the person I paid to last time said I wouldn’t get billed again! Also, I couldn’t change to electronic billing as my phone’s sim card has been long deactivated and therefore my 3 account has also been deactivated.

So I called 3 care at 13 33 20. Unfortunately, my account number was not enough to keep them happy. They also needed my passcode and previous phone number. Then they said that I had $2.00 to be paid by 26th August. I asked them politely to cancel that, as I explained the previous customer care support’s response. Then they couldn’t access the invoice. So I asked to be escalated (transferred to a supervisor, if somebody somehow doesn’t know what it means). Aha, after 1 minute of being on hold it was the same person telling me they’ve figured it out and that the bill has been credited and I was switched automatically onto electronic billing so I don’t have that $2 charge.

Amazing what a “Please transfer me to your supervisor” can do.

Beijing Olympics – Opening Ceremony

Face it. It was cool. The drums, the paper, the kids, the flags, the torch, everything.

But what I didn’t know was that person in the Beijing Olympic flag was actually derived from the Chinese letter “jing” in Beijing. And “Beibei” “Jingjing” “Huanhuan” “Yingying” and “NeiNei” actually spells out Beijing huan ying nei. (Beijing welcomes you). Well, I actually found that out ages ago, but it’s still cool.

The ceremony went on for way too long. But aren’t ceremonies like these always that long? The coolest part was the last Olympic runner rising and then lighting the huge torch. Cool!

Too bad Channel Seven went all wonky and played advertisements all over the place. WTF? Advertisements on “Live” TV? Doesn’t it mean that it’s either delayed or we missed part of the ceremony? What’s wrong with you? Still, it seems like it worked. Stupid Qantas “Spirit of Australia” and Telstra NextG Network “Watch Olympics live on your NextG mobile” and Bonds “short”… I still think Qantas’s old ad was better, the one with the whole song “I Still Call Australia Home”. I wish I could do what the Bonds guy did… lol.

Anyways, the Olympics kind of went like this:

Ads, Commentary, Ads, Opening Ceremony starts with no commentary, Opening Ceremony continues with some people whispering in the background at the commentary place, ads, commentary in opening ceremony (finally), ads, ceremony, ads, ceremony, ads, ceremony… and so on. Oh, yea, it finished with more ads. So yea.

Fireworks were the best! Especially the ones with the footprints going towards the stadium. Who would’ve thought of that?

7’s VOD of some of it can be found here: http://au.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/video/-/highlights/ceremonies/

And here’s a picture of the Olympic “Cauldron” being lit (which I’m linking to because I don’t have a picture of it that I took).

ABC Playback finally available…

…as ABC iView. Visit it at http://www.abc.net.au/iview/. You’d probably need a decent broadband connection, and lots of bandwidth to waste.

I just got the email about it today, inviting all ABC Playback testers to use ABC iView, the “renamed” version of the same thing with some extra features.

In my opinion, the service is great. If only other networks would do the same thing and not hide their content for viewing only on the TV. Truly Australian

Update: O.M.G. iiNet internet subscribers rejoice: ABC iView is on iiNet’s media lounge. And guess what that means? FREE quota, so you won’t ever run out of quota from viewing ABC iView programs, which when I checked included Dr Who… Don’t believe it? Look for yourself. Here and here. This confirms it’s in freezone.

First Post on WordPress

Everything has a 1st.

The old merelyexisting.com will be back someday. I know it will. But for now, a WordPress blog is enough.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete

In my opinion, this has way more suspense than Cloud being stabbed in the shoulder. Nice to see him suffer. And that is why I want to buy and watch the “Complete” version when it comes out… Mmm, hopefully they added more blood.

See More Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete Various at IGN.com