'paying more'
hasnt given me better electricty
or better gas or better water

paying toll hasnt made the road faster
paying extra bus fare hasnt made the ride any better

lets face it
those 700 telstra workers[in oz]
was under the current price regeme
[will the 'savings be passed on?
[will the caller price fall?

no the shareholders will claim it all
or whats left ..after the ceo's get their bonus

cheaper for them
dont equate to cheaper for us

look at the maintance of the rail network
or privatisation of power/phone/water

their bottum line
is charge all the market will bear

and igf they can cream off the cream
and add in the whey..[like they do with brand name milk]
they will do it

Fair point, oug.

>>'paying more' hasnt given me better electricty or better gas or better water<<

But Hasbeen's concern is not the product, but the extra service he demands.

If the phone, electricity, gas and water utilities didn't have to talk to you, they would not need to charge so much. We create the problem by expecting them to drop everything they are doing to answer a question on what grade of oil to use.

Do we really need to be so helpless? Have we reached the point where we expect somebody else to do our thinking for us, on everything? And then complain when they don't have the right accent...

Strewth. We deserve everything we get.

Where do we get the employees from, AU is near full employment, immigration is on the outer, and hasbeen wants more employment.

Not sure whether the following would have happened whether the "job" was overseas or not.

I had a bundled phone and internet with OPTUS. The internet went very slow one day, a tad above dial -up speed. Checked everything. No luck. I knew I was in for a problem. I rang OPTUS and got a very pleasant Indian voice. Explained the problem. He said, (translated from what he actually said) "Your speed is not slow enough for us to take action." Incensed, I demanded a supervisor. Same stuff. I tried again the next day, lost any sense of politeness and screamed at them. Went up through the layers and got a "we'll look into it".

Days later, I got a call from from a TELSTRA technician who told me I had problem. Yes.... "I'll call you back".

Some hours later, the tech did ring back. Problem fixed, the faulty equipment had been replaced.

I closed my OPTUS account immediately and went to TELSTRA. At least, they tell you where they are when you call with a problem. Usually Ballarat. So I did tell OPTUS. Did they care? Of course not. Another punter will get sucked in to a too good to true offer.

What I don't get, is that this guy was a member of an oil companies' racing team, and yet cannot work out what grade of oil to use in a standard car?

Owners' manuals are very informative as well. Many of them are downloadable these days.

Oddly enough I know many people of Indian extraction that work (or have worked) in local call centres. They say most people automatically assume they are being routed to an overseas centre because of their accents. Apparently the hours suck, as well as the pay and the many rude buggers on the other end of the phone don't make the working conditions all that good either. Just the ticket for casual student work that most Aussies wouldn't touch with 10 foot flagpole.

Pericles, there are some stupid people in this world, & you appear to be one of them. Running off at the keyboard, without gathering the facts is typical of these folks.

Also typical of the stupid, is breaking an engine that is a little special, & far from ordinary, then deciding to ask for advice after it is too late.

The company involved will still have a competition department, & a research lab, where clever people learn from their customers experience. This move off shore has reduced access to these departments, for those like me who are no longer involved in the top level of the sport.

This is probably reducing their usefulness, but this is what you would expect from the bean counter department, who would not know the first thing about how oils are formulated.

In this age, where almost any company can supply my requirements, they spend huge sums on promotion, & advertising, trying to win my business. If they realise that the few cents saved by sending their call centre offshore is negating this huge effort, I'm sure they will wake up. We just have to make sure they know.

When it comes to phone companies, & the like, where the only thing they offer me is service, it is even more stupid. My first & probably only contact with them, apart from my bill, will be with their call centre. If I was running one of these companies I would have the call centre answer to the sales department. That's where their effect of their quality, or lack of it will be felt.