In late August, we received a bill for a free car kit, which had come with my mobile phone. Not realising that ‘free’ meant that you had to pay for it, I rang and explained that the salesperson had actually offered us two free car kits but when I told him we only had one car, he offered a new car kit for my new mobile and a $50 credit, in lieu, for Nigel’s new mobile. Now here I was staring at this bill for $49.01 for the car kit ………. and no sign of the $50 credit.
After various phone conversations with different staff and being transferred around to different departments with no luck, I tried a different approach. I rang the sales department and pretended to be interested in buying two new mobile phones.
I said that I’d heard about a free car kit offer if I bought a particular phone and asked about buying two phones. When the sales person verified the offer and asked if she could sign me up for the phones, I came clean and said that I’d already bought and received the phones and the car kit and had just received a bill for the free car kit.
There wasn’t much she could do to get out of it ………. Although to give her credit (pun) she did try. But eventually, after checking with her supervisor, this person was kind enough to cancel the car kit bill.
Feeling quite chuffed at this minor victory, I decided to push on and ask about the $50 credit for Nigel’s mobile. Remarkably, she replied that the free car kit was actually the $50 credit and so we wouldn’t be getting any $50 credit.
Faced with a statement that seemed to defy all logic, I decided to quit while I was ahead and thanked her for cancelling the bill for the kit.
Two weeks later we received another bill – this time for the first month’s usage – plus another bill for the car kit.
After many, many phone calls, it was only the threat of involving the ombudsman that made them back down and annul the bill.
The moral? Beware of Telcos bearing gifts.
On a happier note, Bear, Nigel and I took off for 3 days to Mildura – in Victoria (I say that for the other people out there who never studied Geography either).
We stayed in Buronga Riverside Caravan Park and Bear enjoyed his first swim for a couple of months (a reward for the 3 nasty booster needles at the Mildura Vet Hospital).
Married to a Country Cop 