What cheeses me off

[VPS]

Subscription payments that renew without a reminder. Disney plus is a major culprit. And apparently Petbarn, who billed me at 1am for cat food for my cat who died last month.

I use PayPal for my subscriptions and when that kind of thing happens I contact PayPal and have had success in retrieving the funds where there has not be a pre charge warning. Only for annual payments as most are on top of monthly ones unless you've cancelled the month prior.

I had that with Amazon. I got free kindle unlimited which is rubbish with my new kindle and then renewed at about $15 a month. I did contact Amazon and they did reverse it but annoying none the less

Wise virtual cards are useful if they won’t cancel your contract. Just cancel the card and get a new one

 

[Pushka]

I had that with Amazon. I got free kindle unlimited which is rubbish with my new kindle and then renewed at about $15 a month. I did contact Amazon and they did reverse it but annoying none the less

Wise virtual cards are useful if they won’t cancel your contract. Just cancel the card and get a new one

Amazon service used to be brilliant. Now it's hard to even find out how to contact them. I think that changed at the time of Bots.

 

[Pushka]

Fortunately they were happy to cancel and refund me. I already have two bags of the expensive prescription food left over, I did not need a third.

Our local Pet Barn (I think that's the bright yellow building?) will take unused pet food and send it to an animal shelter. One of the prescription diets, actually two of the Hills products made our cat yak many times a day. They refunded one bag as it was hardly used and wouldn't the other one so they asked if we'd be prepared to donate it. Was very happy to do that. Hills changed their formula I think during Covid when it was hard to get.

 

[Xrayspice]

Most Hotels bathtubs have a permanent plug...

Not that I have found

 

[JohnK]

I went into Brisbane City near Sofitel right on 9:00am this morning and parked my car. There were already 8 cars parked there.

Huge Clearway signs from 7:00am-9:00am obviously ignored. Then they whinge when they get booked.

 

[blackcat20]

Our local Pet Barn (I think that's the bright yellow building?) will take unused pet food and send it to an animal shelter. One of the prescription diets, actually two of the Hills products made our cat yak many times a day. They refunded one bag as it was hardly used and wouldn't the other one so they asked if we'd be prepared to donate it. Was very happy to do that. Hills changed their formula I think during Covid when it was hard to get.

Yes its the Hills food I have, at over $100 per bag. Poor Bella died last month at 18 years old.

 

[Pushka]

Yes its the Hills food I have, at over $100 per bag. Poor Bella died last month at 18 years old.

Ours is 15 years. I think he's losing weight. Almost time for vaccinations so will check it out. He's still pretty normal, ie sleeping a lot. As they do.

 

[Lost Redditor]

WCMO is Woolies and Coles.

I've been doing mostly online orders from Woolies and Coles since the pandemic started. Recently (last few months) I've been noticing that the meat they pick for me is always 1-3 days from expiring. Makes it really annoying when you try to plan meals. Some times, If I forget to freeze it the day it arrives, it's already too late.

 

[RooFlyer]

A sneaky new trick is that even if you don't update card expiry dates, organisations are able to renew subscriptions if the actual card number hasn't changed.

I don't think that's new. When I cancelled a card a while back, they reminded me to cancel all direct debits etc. I asked what happens if I miss one after the card is dead? Answer was that the card will still be debited and I will still get a payment due on the dead card. So a changed expiry date would be no problem

 

[JohnK]

It just doesn't stop.

Ordered Optus Sim on Saturday afternoon and said I'd like to transfer my number from Circles.life back to Optus. Provided all the details but I made sure to ask that they won't initiate the transfer until I activated the Optus Sim.

My phone stopped working after 1:00pm.

Checked and saw email was sent at 12:39pm that Optus was now active and ready to go. What sim?

SMS at 11:57am from Startrack Express that they were sorry that I wasn't home and left a package at the delivery address. I am home. They have bothered to check. Found package in letterbox.

Oprus Customer service is awful. Why would you they activate a sim when I didn't initiate activation? What if I was out for the day? No phone service?

This is why left Optus 4 years ago. They haven't changed at all in that time.

 

[eastwest101]

It just doesn't stop.

Ordered Optus Sim on Saturday afternoon and said I'd like to transfer my number from Circles.life back to Optus. Provided all the details but I made sure to ask that they won't initiate the transfer until I activated the Optus Sim.

My phone stopped working after 1:00pm.

Checked and saw email was sent at 12:39pm that Optus was now active and ready to go. What sim?

SMS at 11:57am from Startrack Express that they were sorry that I wasn't home and left a package at the delivery address. I am home. They have bothered to check. Found package in letterbox.

Oprus Customer service is awful. Why would you they activate a sim when I didn't initiate activation? What if I was out for the day? No phone service?

This is why left Optus 4 years ago. They haven't changed at all in that time.

Every time someone I know has changed their mobile service provider/ISP/data plan the process of migrating a customer over has been mishandled by one or both carriers, it's just not worth the risk and aggrovation in my opinion, as you only need to have one billing mistake or have a missed call/emai/txt, or lose your existing number and the all perceived savings are wiped out straight away. Put it this way - how do you value your time? How much does your employer pay you per hour? If the cost of changing mobile carriers frequently is hours spent waiting for call centers then its just really false economy isn't it? I prefer to think of it as a cost-benefit analysis based on the assumption that telecommunication companies are all universally incompetent, and will take at least twice as long to migrate carriers as what they say.

 

[SYD]

Every time someone I know has changed their mobile service provider/ISP/data plan the process of migrating a customer over has been mishandled by one or both carriers, it's just not worth the risk and aggrovation in my opinion, as you only need to have one billing mistake or have a missed call/emai/txt, or lose your existing number and the all perceived savings are wiped out straight away. Put it this way - how do you value your time? How much does your employer pay you per hour? If the cost of changing mobile carriers frequently is hours spent waiting for call centers then its just really false economy isn't it? I prefer to think of it as a cost-benefit analysis based on the assumption that telecommunication companies are all universally incompetent, and will take at least twice as long to migrate carriers as what they say.

I switched from Optus to amaysim (also Optus) a few months ago and it was seamless. Took all of a few minutes.

I went with an eSIM for amaysim so no fluffing around waiting for a SIM (although, of course you can pick up a SIM at Coles or Woolies or even from the Telco shop).

 

[Lost Redditor]

If your phone supports eSIM, which most new phones do now, I recommend going with that when possible. No waiting for physical SIM, and frees up the SIM slot for when you travel. I am on Boost eSIM at the moment. unfortunately, as is often the case in Australia, not many providers have embraced eSIM yet.

 

[JohnK]

Good points @eastwest101. My problem is trying to keep costs down for maximum return.

Home NBN is $70-$80/month plus $25 phone for me + $25 wife phone for unlimited phone calls to Thailand.

New Optus plan is $69/month for me + $25 wife phone for unlimited phone calls to Thailand. This plan goes up $20/month in 12 months time so need to shop around again.

In my mind any saving is a good saving.

 

[jkbaus]

I have ported in and out of carriers for myself and 2 brothers several times over last several years.
Activate on line, takes a couple of minutes. Never had a problem.
Change SIM card when old one stops working, usually within an hour.
Can also change to eSIM very simply.

Only use prepaid because much better value.
Use WhatsApp or Viber or Signal or Line for overseas calls and text.

Coles, Woolworths & Officeworks have specials regularly for various carriers and MVNO starter packs

Currently using special from Woolies:
Vodaphone $250 240GB 1 year Prepaid Starter Pack -unlimited calls and text in Australia.
Cost $150 + get 2000 EDR points.

 

[eastwest101]

I have ported in and out of carriers for myself and 2 brothers several times over last several years.
Activate on line, takes a couple of minutes. Never had a problem.
Change SIM card when old one stops working, usually within an hour.
Can also change to eSIM very simply.

Only use prepaid because much better value.
Use WhatsApp or Viber or Signal or Line for overseas calls and text.

Coles, Woolworths & Officeworks have specials regularly for various carriers and MVNO starter packs

Currently using special from Woolies:
Vodaphone $250 240GB 1 year Prepaid Starter Pack -unlimited calls and text in Australia.
Cost $150 + get 2000 EDR points.

Yep there are certainly some good deals out there and provided you are prepared to rely on WhatsApp/Messenger/Signal/Line for talking to people overseas then its worth considering. All of these prepaid plans are great if you never leave Australia, but they are mostly a fail if attempting to roam overseas, cheaper and more convenient to buy a sim in another country but then there is the issue with going to multiple countries. For JohnK it sounds like his travel plans and teleco needs are really just Australia and one other country.

 

[JohnK]

For JohnK it sounds like his travel plans and teleco needs are really just Australia and one other country.

As mentioned I was paying $38/month for 100GB which is enough for me to do work. I was also paying between $25-$40/month for daughter but only getting up to 60GB. I was looking for 250GB but 500GB is a no brainer.

We only travel to Thailand. Both wife and I get AIS 5G Max speed internet for 138baht a week each so for 3 week trip we pay ~$35 for both of us. Much better than paying $5/day roaming.

Still can't work out why Optus would activate the sim when I have not advised them that I am in possession of the sim and ready to activate. Disappointing.

 

[Big John]

WCMO is Woolies and Coles.

I've been doing mostly online orders from Woolies and Coles since the pandemic started. Recently (last few months) I've been noticing that the meat they pick for me is always 1-3 days from expiring. Makes it really annoying when you try to plan meals. Some times, If I forget to freeze it the day it arrives, it's already too late.

Mrs Big John also finds that veges she gets delivered are substandard.

She now orders online for non-perishables only.

 

[RooFlyer]

WCMO in supermarkets are the big carts the staff use for gathering items for on-line shoppers. Often thoughtless positioning in aisles & often those pushing them can't see over/around to see where they are going. FWIW when I see them in the fruit & veg section (in a non metro Coles), they seem to be picking from the selections that anyone would.

 

[MARTINE]

A sneaky new trick is that even if you don't update card expiry dates, organisations are able to renew subscriptions if the actual card number hasn't changed.

Yes
Even on AFF!
I upgraded to Platinum - forgetting to get rid of gold and now have gold and plat for next twelve months concurrently