Mobile

Communication is they say key.Also it is expensive when abroad. I have a contract with 3Three chosen because it allows me to use my mobile in lots of countrys for the same cost as it is in merry England and particularly Spain , Australia and New Zealand. Well not quite. It does allow usage in these and other countrys but it is capped at 3 months. The idea as the young lady in three explained is to allow you to use your phone abroad on holiday not as a permanent arrangement.  My ever southerly sojourn pushes the boundaries . I cant complain its fair enough. But bit of a pain.
I did after something of a battle get Vodaphone to unlock a spare handset I had. I took it to Spain and put a Vodaphone chip in it. It never really worked and it only works in Spain. No international calls so if I ever get it working it will be ok but as Three allowance is likely to be available again probably not so useful.
In Tasmania I bought a Telstra phone and credit for the Telstra network. Everyone assured me Telstra was the one to have as it gave maximum coverage in TAS which given the terrain and infrastructure can be difficult. It has never worked. I made one call and that's it. First and nobody told me you have to register the phone. When I said no to do you have an Australian Driving license it refused to move on. I phoned Telstra and spent ninety minutes with a rep who did not speak very good English , called me Michael and kept insisting my Medicare contract had expired even though it was aweek old. Finally patience exasperated I got him to put me on to his supervisor who apologized said he was new but tended to persevere when he should have asked for help but also confirmed my medicare had expired. She patched me through to medicare where I waited 30 mins for an answer and who confirmed my cover was valid until December and everything I had told Telstra was correct. They refused to confirm this with Telstra and rang off. I gave up. A day later I got a text from Telstra saying the phone was working and what did I think of the service. I told them but it said message not sent. The phone didn't work. I went into Telstra in Beanie where the girl kept saying OK , yeah ,didn't listen said it should be OK and tried to sell me a case for it for more than the cost of the phone. I found another agent in Burnie who took the chip out and put it back and this seemed to work until I got to penguin where the phone said it had no signal even though my iPhone was indicating a strong signal from Telstra would you believe.
Back in Hobart I went into the main Telstra shop saw a Techy who wasn't interested thought everybody was an idiot and finally told me I needed to put 30 dollars credit on it to prime it. I said I had bought 20 dollars worth . He said that wasn't enough it was only a top up amount It had initially to be 30. I said can I pay the extra 10. No he said taking a deep breath it has to be 30. can I have a refund of the 20 ? No he said taking another deep breath. Why? Because we don't have it Woolworths , where you bough it have it. Nonsense I said they are your agent they pass it to you , your help desk confirmed the credit was on the phone. H remained unmoved. I was by chance back in the Woolworths where I bought the phone and the credit and they confirmed they couldn't refund it without contacting Telstra and even then they were doubtful as Telstra had it.. Any way as this sort of thing always happens to me I think it probably my fault in some way and I should be a better person.