I was all excited yesterday to buy a replacement phone at a (relatively) bargain price ($220 cheaper than in the apple store). I had to shop around a few stores to get it, Telstra stores not having a clue that it was available (despite it being all over their website), JB Hifi coming to the rescue (as ever).

I also had to get a new sim card with my phone number on it, to replace the lost one, which I did in the first telstra store I visited.

You can already tell where this is going …

I got home and tried to get everything set up but could not. My service hadn’t been provisioned (despite the claims of 4 hours to activate) and I couldn’t activate the phone itself and install my apps because I have 2 factor authentication enabled and it needs to send me a text, which I can’t receive because my number hadn’t been activated and because I cancelled the number when I lost it. The cancellation cannot be removed until the number is activated. The activation, which after I called telstra support, could take 24 hours**, not the 4 as promised in the store. I just know that after 24 hours there will still be issues and I will have to call a third time.

I couldn’t receive the phone authentication message (to install the apps to the phone) to my ipad, because the OS wasn’t the latest version. I tried to update to the latest version, but now the ipad is not functional because I need an activation code which needs to be sent to the phone, which I can’t use because the number hasn’t been activated.

I’ve called apple, who were very helpful, but nothing they can do – I need to wait for the number to be both activated and un-cancelled. Then I need to put the sim in another phone, receive the activation message and set up the new phone and my ipad.

I’m not quite sure what the universe is trying to tell me here, but in essence this makes me want to move to. 1. another mobile provider and 2. samsung or sony (and give my new iphone to Joe/Frank).

xxx

** 24 hours? I thought we were living in the future? This lengthy time-frame seems utterly ridiculous.

xxx

Updated (at 2:30pm) to add: Now it will apparently be 96 hours until my number is activated. Really? This is absolutely preposterous. And I had to follow-up twice, despite two separate promises that they would call me back with an update by a certain time – telecommunications ombudsman, here I come.