Update: Taxis Combined nightmare

Well, while Taxis Combined clearly isn't even trying to provide a decent service, they do at least respond to feedback. This is their reply, sent via a series of Twitter messages:

Thanks, Frank. We will pass this on to our Driver Services Team who will address with the Driver in accordance with our codes of conduct. While we are not permitted to discuss exactly what occurs with the Driver during this process, we can advise that action taken will depend on the Driver's past feedback & driving history. Action can include counselling, additional training & cancellation of the Driver's affiliation w/ Taxis Combined. This incident will also be recorded on their permanent record. Please accept our apologies for your experience. It by no means meets the standards we expect from affiliated Drivers. If you could DM your preferred postal address, we would like to send you a Cabcharge voucher to both apologise & thank you for providing this feedback. - Cass

For the record, they have in the meantime mailed that Cabcharge voucher (AUD 20) referred to in the above response.

The rest of it, namely the part about "possible action" to be taken against the driver does come across as fluffy and meaningless; or to put it more bluntly, outright bullshit. The fact that this driver was on the road at all clearly indicates that Taxis Combined tolerate that kind of performance. I have no doubt there must have been previous complaints about this guy (people very rarely turn from decent human being into nausea-inducing pig overnight), yet Taxis Combined obviously didn't see a problem with keeping him driving for them.

Adding to that the fact that while this was by far the worst experience with this taxi company, every single previous ride with them was, awful (all of their cabs I've been in were filthy, and every single one of their drivers was either rude, lazy (no help with luggage), incompetent with directions, downright dangerous in their driving (n most cases a combination of several of these); I can say with certainty that my resolve to never use Taxis combined again has not changed.

Avoiding them is of course easiest when booking a cab; just call someone else … anyone else.

But also keep in mind that at taxi ranks, you are under no obligation to take the first cab in line; and at places like airports etc, you don't have to take the cab the hi-vis-wearing wrangler directs you to.

For the record; yes I do have a preferred taxi operator in Sydney; and no I won't name them; I don't want this whole episode to be perceived as an endorsement or promo-stunt for any one particular provider. I also am not affiliated in any way with any commercial, private, or public transport providers of any kind.

Taxis Combined – another trip from hell

I'm the first to admit my own mistakes, and just accepting whatever cab the taxi wrangler at Sydney airport directs me to definitely qualifies.

On Wednesday, August 31, 2016, just before 8pm, the next available cab in the queue at the international terminal of Sydney airport happened to be Taxis Combined taxi # 2203. I had bad trips with these guys in the past, but this one beat them all.

The actual driving brought no surprises; quite a few heart-stopping lane changes, a nearly missed turn; nothing you wouldn't expect from any taxi in Sydney.

The driver, however, was another story. Constantly sneezing and coughing, he soon explained that he had, in his words, "a cold, or maybe the flu". For the entire trip, he continued to rub his nose and wipe his face. And just in case that wasn't gross enough, he not only constantly chewed on his chewing gum in an extremely vomit – inducing manner, but also used those same hands that would later handle my luggage (again) and potentially touch my credit card to extensively play with said chewing gum.

We can only hope guys like this, and indeed companies like Taxis Combined who manage to provide consistently appalling service, will be put out of business by competition like Uber sooner than later.

Sydney by night - again

I better post this, so nobody can say I've gone a full year without putting up anything. And to get back into it, I might as well pick up where I left off.

These nighttime shots were taken from Mrs Macquaries Chair (Sydney).

Sydney by night - part 2

And because it was so much fun, some more nighttime shots, this time of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.



The Sydney Opera House at dusk



The Sydney Opera House by night



Wide angle shot of the Sydney Harbor Bridge



The Sydney Harbor Bridge

Sydney by night - part 1

Some dusk and nighttime shots of Sydney, more specifically the city, taken from across the harbor



Sydney harbor just before sunset (panorama image composed of 11 photos; panorama generated by Hugin).



The skyline of Sydney at dusk (with some inevitable light streaks from passing ferries)



The skyline of Sydney by night



Another image of the city and harbor by night, but with much more colorful reflections on the water

Conquering the hills of Sydney Harbor

Apparently, Sydney Harbor either is riddled with hills hidden under those deceptively flat waters, or I must have slept thru a series of massive, Hollywood – worthy breakers on my recent ferry trip. What's more, even though the harbor runs directly into the ocean, it seems to be between 16 and 47 meters (52 to 154 feet) above sea level. I really must go check out that waterfall between North Head and South Head.

Also, even though this particular trip started upstream, the ferry seems to have traveled uphill, starting at 17 meters (56 feet) above sea level, and finishing at 23 meters (75 feet).

Conclusion: I'm not sure I can really trust the GPS module of my Nexus 5.


Elevation profile from GPS log of ferry trip, as recorded on my Nexus 5. Recording started and ended on ferry, no on-shore traveling

Sydney Harbor - High above the sea

Sydney Harbor … now 34 meters above sea level.

Parramatta Centenary square

From the Better late than never desk: A couple of photos from Parramatta's Centenary Square (formerly known as Church Street Mall), taken around Christmas.




Another attempt at HDR


For the artsy fartsy inclined: Colorful Xmas tree in an otherwise b/w Centenary Square


Panorama image created from 10 individual photos, stitched together with the help of Hugin.

Adios Telstra

After recently discussing my first impression of the Optus experience, it's only fair to also share the final moments of my relationship with Telstra.

As mentioned before, the Telstra account becomes inactive the moment you transfer your phone number to another carrier. Once this happens, your online Telstra profile will only say "No active account for this profile", with no option to access pending bills, usage data, or any other details.

Unlike the Optus Life Chat, which is prominently advertised and even (annoyingly) pops up whenever you linger on any given Optus web page for a while, the Telstra chat thingy is well hidden. It takes a fair bit of navigating thru the Support pages before you eventually arrive at a Contact Us page that actually lets you pick the Life Chat feature.

The one positive thing about the Optus chat was that in all instances, I was connected to a consultant almost instantly. Not so here; the Telstra chat window informs me that I'm currently number 24 in the queue. Definitely not a promising start.

It takes approximately 15 minutes to make it to the front of the queue; then, I'm greeted by Joan (and yes, I almost did reply "Watson, is that you?"). Joan quickly sends me a link to their Pay a bill page, where you apparently can make payments even after your Telstra account has been deactivated. After I inquire about access to the actual bill details, Joan offers to send a copy of the bill to my email address.

I submit the payment while I'm still online with Joan (just in case it doesn't work; this is Telstra, after all). But I need not worry, the payment actually goes thru quite smoothly; it seems they at least have the parts needed to take our money running well.

The actual support chat took about 5 minutes; plus the 15 minutes I waited in the queue.

So, this time, the support staff turned out to be the best performing part of the system.

Suggestion to Telstra: When an inactive account still has a balance that's not zero, include a link to that Pay a bill page on the online account landing page.

And now I'm done. Hasta la vista, Telstra.

The Optus experience - summary

As regular readers might have picked up, I've switched my mobile phone to Optus Prepaid. It's been a somewhat bumpy ride with cunningly hidden information, well-meaning but mostly clueless customer service staff, and the inevitable spam. If you have the time to read it all, please do:

• Part 1: Research
  
  
• Part 2: Signing up
  
  
• Part 3: First steps
  
  
• Part 4: The spam
  

To sum up:

What
Optus My Prepaid daily

• Prepaid semi-flat rate plan based on daily usage. The first outgoing standard national call, SMS, MMS, or data use triggers the basic daily rate of $ 1.00. After 30 mins of talk, or 40 MB of data, that daily rate automatically jumps to $ 1.50, giving you unlimited talk, and another 40 MB of data (SMS / MMS are unlimited with the intial $ 1.00).
  
  
• Once the extra 40 MB are also used up, increments of $ 0.50 / 50 MB are added, up to a total of $ 5.00 for the day. After that, you can obtain additional data blocks at $ 2.00 / 200 MB and $ 5.00 / 500 MB, but you must actively purchase them, they're not automatically added, so you keep in control of just how much you spend.
  
  
• Non – standard items like international messaging, international calls, etc, are charged by the item.
  
  
• If you use a lot of data, you might wanna look at My Prepaid Daily Plus, where the initial flat rate of $ 2.00 gives you 500 MB (as well as unlimited standard national calls), and another $ 2.00 adds an extra 524 MB, leaving you with 1 GB for $ 4.00, plus all the national voice calls, SMS, and MMS you want.
  

The Good

• The plan itself seems to suit my particular usage pattern; days with no use whatsoever (yes, that happens) won't cost me anything, the daily cost for standard national stuff (talk, messages, a little data) seems acceptable, international rates seem surprisingly reasonable, and roaming, although expensive, is available if necessary.
  
  
• The web site is easy to use, most (but not all) information can be found without too much trouble, support (although not always helpful) is easily available via the prominent Live Chat feature.
  
  
• Sales assistant at the Parramatta store is friendly efficient, and at least to some degree, seems to know what she's doing
  
  
• Once set up, the service works as expected
  
  
• Online account provides a good overview of the account status, credit, usage, as well as easy access to account settings and extras
  
  
• Account status info via basic text message (that therefore works on even the oldest of phones) provides comprehensive summary of current usage, credit, and remaining talk / data
  

The Bad

• Roaming rates are obscenely expensive
  
  
• Although the plan boasts a 6 months expiry of credit, it turns out that in order to keep the service active, the account must actually be recharged at least 30 days before credit expires
  
  
• Some information is more difficult to find than necessary. Some relevant parts are not directly linked from the product page
  
  
• After the plan has been set up and activated, the online account to actually manage your plan must be set up separately
  
  
• Online account does not show data usage
  
  
• No mention of, or reference to, the settings required for MMS. You have to find your own way to the page where you can request these settings to be sent to your phone. Go to Support, search for MMS settings. That brings up (at least at the time I'm writing this) the APNS & technical settings. This page lists all the settings you could ever want, and also provides a link to the online tool where you can select the make and model of your phone and have the settings you're after sent to your device. As a side note; the settings page warns, under the details for streaming, that videos and TV can use large amounts of data, and advises to "monitor your usage thru My Account - where, as stated above, the MB usage is not listed!
  
  
• Usage details not available as csv file (print (to any printer, including PDF) is available)
  

The downright ugly
The extent of complete and utter incompetence and indifference you're likely to encounter both face to face (Merrylands shop, I'm talking about you) and via the Live Chat support channel is something to behold. Be prepared that perfectly ordinary questions that one would expect to be part of those people's everyday work are probably going to be met with an absolute inability to even point you in the right direction. If you ever need to explain the term "Stunned Mullet to someone, just take them to an Optus store, ask the staff a simple question, and observe.

The end
So there you have it. A product that's appealing enough to lure me away from Telstra; a relatively smooth transition; some extremely useless customer service staff spoiling the, well, customer experience somewhat; and some serious doubts about Optus' hiring policies.