I’ve had an ongoing problem with my 3 mobile service for the last four months. I’ve spent hours on hold and spoken to at least 9 people about it; all of them assured me it would be addressed within 24 hours and I would receive email confirmation. Not only has the problem never been fixed, I have never received an email and there is no record of my calls.

The majority of times I’ve called 3’s so-called Customer Care, I’ve been greeted by a recording which says the system’s down and “is expected to resume shortly”.

So two weeks ago I hammered out a detailed complaint via the 3 website. I outlined my issues and detailed the response I expected as a customer - especially as it’s costing me money they longer they do nothing about it.

And this was the response. It is the corporate equivalent of “Thank you, come again!” It’s perfectly polite, but what’s missing is any sense of action – or that my email was even read. This email cannot be responded to, which means in order to follow it up I have to start all over again.

Fix it, 3.

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your patience and for writing to us regarding your 3 service. We appreciate and value your feedback. Not only does it allow us to diagnose and fix any difficulties with your 3 service, it helps us to provide a better service for all of our customers.

Thank you for taking the time to express your concerns and advise us of the difficulties faced with your 3 service. We do appreciate it and take your feedback on board to improve our service.

If we can assist you further, please contact us again via email or call 3 Care on 13 33 20. When replying to this email, please ensure you include your 3 mobile number and four-digit account PIN.

Regards,
Manju
3 Care
www.three.com.au
It’s good to be 3

To mark Recycle A Blog Post Day, I’m republishing something I originally posted way back in November 2007.

If you are a 12-year-old girl you may skip to the next post. The rest of you, pay attention.

Meet the tween phenomenon that is the Jonas Brothers (left to right): Kevin (b. 1987), Nick (b. 1992) and Joe (b. 1989). They’re Hanson for the 21st century with an extra dollop of Disney.

They have a totally poptastic “history”:
March 2007 - Performed the jingle in an ad for Baby Bottle Pops. “You can lick it, shake it and dunk it!” (You can – and must – watch it here or the “music video” version here.)
April 2007 - Recorded “Kids of the Future” (based on Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America”) for the Meet the Robinsons soundtrack and “I Wanna Be Like You” for DisneyMania 5.
June 2007 - Began a 10-week prom-themed summer tour, The Jonas Brothers’ School Invasion, sponsored by Baby Bottle Pops. One high school won a competition to have them “invade” their school.
August 2007 - Released self-titled album. Jonas Brothers went to number 5 on the Billboard chart in its first week.
August 17 - Guest starred in an episode of Hannah Montana called “Me and Mr Jonas and Mr Jonas and Mr Jonas” that aired after the finale of High School Musical 2, breaking all cable ratings records. They performed “We Got the Party (With Us)” with Miley Cyrus (who plays Hannah Montana, duh) in the episode.
August 24 - Performed two songs at the same Miss Teen USA contest that spawned the famous Miss Teen South Carolina “US Americans” video.
August 25 - Performed at the closing ceremonies of the Disney Channel Games. (The what?)
August 26 - Co-presented an award with Miley Cyrus at the Teen Choice Awards.
October 18 - Opened the first of 54 dates of the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds Tour which finished on 9 January 2008. People were willing to pay $2000 a ticket to get their kids in to see it.
November 17 - Performed at the American Music Awards.
November 22 - Appeared in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

You might notice a gap in their timeline between the end of August and October. Well, they weren’t on holidays. Not with a Disney contract. They were filming a TV series called J.O.N.A.S! (Junior Operatives Networking As Spies) as a trio of government-hired spies, which screens later this year. There’s also a movie called Camp Rock in the can and a concert special in the works.

And there’s still more to come. They start their own tour called When You Look Me In The Eyes on January 31, the day before the release of Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Film in 3-D.

Yes, they’re everywhere.

Just to let you know what we’re dealing with, here’s some fan art.