Careful!...they will hear you...

I've been spending a bit too much time lately getting acquainted with my new Mac Book and have fallen behind on listening to podcasts such as Richard Fidler's conversations and Chicago Public Radio's 'This American Life'. These podcasts are important for my leisure and more importantly improve my general knowledge.

Some of my distraction has simply been the time spent on working my way through the workings of the Mac Book and then there have been the formal training sessions, three of them so far. There are no further sessions scheduled but my purchase includes twelve months of training should I really want that level of assistance. That seems unlikely.

Then there have been the practical issues of getting everything to work. The latest hurdle was getting the Mac Book to recognise my Telstra Wi Fi Modem. I spent an hour trying to set it up without success. So off I went to a nearby Telstra Shop for assistance.

Telstra has adopted Apple's style of service with 'floor managers' wandering around with tablets in hand recording your arrival and listing you for service which means getting you to join an informal queue. No standing in line as such but a queue nonetheless. The young floor manager at this store was...how can I say this?...well....he was a queen...of sorts. There's no escaping it. He waved his arms around like a windmill and flounced about from customer to customer, mincing backwards and forwards generating a lot of movement but less apparent actual achievement.

When finally it was my turn...not yet for service...just to advise the nature of my enquiry...I was relieved to hear my difficulty was not a one-off problem. It turns out Mac Books require a special download to accept the Telstra Wi Fi Modem. I would have to see Telstra's Tech Bar which appears to be their answer to Apple's Genius Bar. Obviously no geniuses at Telstra, just solid techos.

So, with my name entered into the tablet I 'joined' my own personal queue for service. Regular readers will be aware that I have a love/hate relationship with Telstra and what passes for their service. It rarely goes smoothly for me.

Whilst perched on my chair in my invisible queue I filled in time by tweeting a message...

I'm queued at the Telstra shop waiting for 'service'

Well, I've often smiled to myself when blogger mate Andrew writes something critical of an organisation like Telstra and then mentions that they will be monitoring his posting. Yeah, dream on Andrew, I have thought.

Well blow me down with a feather but only minutes after my tweet what should be tweeted in response to my Twitter name but...

telstra and Facebook.com/telstra24x7 are available to help 24x7 - why not try them out whilst you're in the queue

Wow. I have an even greater regard for.....Andrew...now.

Anyway, after thirty minutes in my invisible queue I was finally called over to the Tech Bar and ten minutes later, download completed, I had access again to my Wi Fi Modem.