Telecon

There have been several instances where we feel like living in New Zealand means going back in time. Sometimes this is a good thing, others it's annoying. One of the examples that falls into the latter category has to do with the national telephone company, Telecom, which John's termed not so affectionately as Telecon.

Since there's only one phone company in the country, we're kind of held captive to Telecom. We think this is what it was like back home before privatized phone companies. The frustrating bit is that besides having enormously expensive charges for everything involving phones and cell phones (they practically charge you for looking at the phone) there has been a problem with our bill every month. It takes enormous effort to get the problems remedied, and this month the problem came back to haunt us.

We have (we think) solved the current problem (again) but there is a funny story in all of this. John called the customer service line the other day to sort things out. When the automated voice asked what he was having trouble with, he answered, bill. The automated voice detected him to say mobile, as in cell phone. He was asked if this was correct and answered no. When asked to repeat his answer, John tried a Kiwi accent. I was across the room and didn't know what he was up to but heard him say, Bee-uhl. Then he paused and started laughing hysterically because, of course, the automated voice transferred him correctly to the billing department this time. I guess his accent is getting pretty authentic!