Why I have bought my Last Hyundai !

I have been a Hyundai owner for over 15 years, first buying a Santa Fe in 2001, and then an Elantra in 2003, In fact I just bought a new 2014 Elantra in early last year. For the most part I am very happy with my HYUNDAI Cars.

However my 2001 (GLS) Santa fe in 2013 needed a new right hand outer transfer case seal after leaking started to occur . I bought the part from Hyundai, and checked it was indeed the correct part , ordered against the vin number of the vehicle, (ordered by Hyundai) , but when it come to fit it, it didn't¹t . I ordered a second one from Hyundai , It was even ordered against the VIN NUMBER AGAIN it did not¹t fit again, after extensive calling and phone calls to their parts supplier  it was found that no one stocks the correct part. I even rang Hyundai customer service and spare parts in Sydney (head Office) , and they said that both the right hand drive and left hand drive appear to be the same size , which is incorrect, ( the right hand drive shaft seal is slightly larger than t he left hand one). This part has been used on Santa Fe¹s for over 7 years, well within the 10 year limit!

Unable to find a genuine part, I had no alternative but to fit a third party seal, this failed within 6 months, again I went through the arduous process of trying to get a real part from Hyundai, to no avail, thus I fitted a 3rd party part again, it too failed within 8 months, so again, THE FOURTH time, I got the so called correct part, it also doesn't fit, so I called customer care, and they basically said, the cars over 10 years old now, so we don't have to help you, you are on your own. 

With that response and so called "customer care" I will never be buying a Hyundai again.

While I understand they don't have support the car for parts after 10 years, there are cars 40 years old you can still get parts for, and people help you to find them, to be fobbed off and told "go away", unacceptable!! 

You have lost a customer forever Hyundai !!!

MY OPTUS FAIL

I, like many others,  pre ordered my iPhone 6 from optus within minutes of the online store opening, I ordered myself a 64GB space grey iPhone 6, the system said I would get it the following Friday, the day of release!! Yea I thought!  On the the Thursday before delivery,  Optus rang me and said there was a mix up in the order, and that a "16GB iPhone had been dispatched to me instead, so don't accept the order , we will send out the correct phone on Monday". Sigh, I thought, but no big deal, Friday come, the order was delivered and refused, then come Monday.   Monday I get my iPhone , its an iPhone 5S !!! I rang them (after spending hours on hold), and explained that they had sent the wrong phone again !!! THEY ASSURED me the correct one would be dispatched and that I would finally get the correct phone later in the week.

So Yesterday afternoon, I get a message,  I have a delivery waiting for me at the post office, so thinking its finally my new iPhone 6, I take off from work early, go to collect it, and find out, ITS THE WRONG PHONE AGAIN... another 16GB IPHONE 6!! After spending hours on hold again, trying to sort out oputs's mess, I cancel everything, I don't want them to try and deliver me any more phones, as clearly their logistics system is broken, and they are unable to deliver a correct device, further more I am going back on my old sim only plan, and sticking with my iPhone 5, Until I can  walk into a store and walk out with a new iPhone 6,  I am not interested.

I am waiting for optus to pick up the two incorrect iPhones I have.

The problem with this,  it shows that Optus, is completely incapable of handling the massive demand of the iPhone , from massive long on hold times on the phone, their social media staff no longer respond to problems on twitter, and the online chat people just get you to call a phone number and waste your time on hold to fix their mistakes. This leaves the customer with a very poor customer experience.  I have been a customer of Optus for over 15 years, and never had much of a problem, billing issues would be a problem now and again, but they were always quick to fix, but this is a whole new level of incompetence and mishandling of the situation.

As it is I will be looking at alternative sim only plans from other vendors to get a better value for money and a better customer experience.

If anyone from Optus would like to call me and actually explain why this experience went so bad, Id love to hear from you. 

an update at 1.30pm

OPTUS delivers a NEW Iphone 64GB 6 !! 

4th time lucky ? 

GET A SKIN CANCER CHECK !

A few weeks ago, I went for to the doctor just for a checkup on a cold virus I was having, as the doctor performed his examination of my back and chest, to check on my lungs etc, he noticed a few moles that looked a bit strange (lucky for me my MD is a skin cancer specialist). He asked me to come back when I was well for a full body check. A week later I come back for a full check, during that examination he said he didn't like the look of 3 of them, and a special tool he was using determined that 3 moles needed to come out and be checked with pathology. I said "when do you want to do the surgery?," he said "right now!".  So I got the moles removed and the surgery was done. 2 days I went back to the doctor as the surrounding areas where getting very sore, it seemed I got an allergic reaction to the adhesive tape and skin was being chemically burned, so the nurse changed the pads to something with a more natural adhesive. While she was changing my pads over, he come into the nurses office and said I just got your results in, we need to talk now. So I went into his office and he pointed out pathology had found 2 of the moles were bad and one very bad, so much so it would kill me if I leave it, as it was starting to matatsizse, so I asked when could he do surgery , he said in 30 mins, we need this out now. So right then I prepared for surgery and had 3 areas removed on my back with many stitches.  He seems confident that all of it has now been taken, but I am waiting on my latest pathology results. After a very sore and exhausting week, I am now on the mend, but as he  put it on me, if I had done nothing then by July next year, I wouldn't be having anymore conversations. It was a total fluke I went to the doctor and he picked up this issue. 

All I can say, if you have never had your skin checked , go do it.  I am always very careful in the sun, and always wear hats and sunscreen and always have shirt on. But as he said this damage was done before you were 10, so nothing you have done in the last 30 years IS the issue here. 

Glad to still be here, is all I can say. 

http://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/what-is-cancer/facts-and-figures.html

Update  I just got my pathology results , I am all clear ! 

The future of the content producer.. updated...

The advancements of technology available to the content producer of the future could be as influential as the internet has been in the past decade to bring democracy and a voice of the people in those disadvantaged countries in the past 10. It could be the biggest advancement of our species has seen since the industrial or computer revolutions of the past. There is one key element to this advancement, the 3D printer:  I will explain..

The 3D printer will be the biggest revolution to our planet since the printing press, yes,  more influential than the computer, the transistor or the internet.  3D printers will change the way every part of our lives are affected, from food crops, to transport to computers to filmmaking. Why do I think this?  Eventually,  I see 3d printers making everything from our food to our cars to devices we shoot or capture video or communicate with, even recording our feelings or dreams. They will simply be able to draw from all the elements in the periodic table and you will pay to download what ever it is you desire, from the chemical composition of existing items you will simple download the pattern for the latest food item, or computer or indeed a communications/video device, (think the star trek replicator). Initially it will start out in major factories, changing the way every device and item we know being made, and eventually make it in to the home, we can already get a basic device to print 3d stuff in our homes that are mostly made of plastics! Carry this forward a few decades and we will be able to print anything that has been invented.  This will eventually lead to bio engineering , when we simply ingest or inject a nano bot/s that will perform functions like fixing medical issues, or upgrading the existing nano tech in our bodies that will allow us to communicate and share our life experiences with whom we wish, or make experiences, and fabricate them into entertainment or training. I will explain this later on. 

The commutations revolution will continue at a rapid pace over the next 20 to 30 years, many governments and societies, business etc  will see the need for optical rollouts of a broadband infrastructure, to ensure 1TB to 1 petabye per second communications and beyond, as optical has no theoretical data limits beyond the speed of light!  Already in Australia  the current government has seen the need for all citizens to have optical connections to every single house hold.  Even though the vast majority of people will be communicating wirelessly the backbones of many houses and business will be optical. Wireless merely being the last leg of the communication infrastructure.  The invention last year of the photonics router will ensure speeds into the petabye range or even zetabyte. These speeds will allow instant capture and storage of video/audio information, most of our "local" storage will disappear, instead being favour of "cloud based" storage solutions which will allow which ever tech we have either embedded into our bodies at a atomic level (increased storage capacity of our brains to retain information and access for example). Indeed most dedicated capture devices will move beyond the current google glass idea, to embedded bio engineering, initially it will be contact lens type devices that will present our world in a augmented reality style presentation, to capturing that information. Indeed the way to capture some ones memories and replay them to other hosts (see old 1980s film called Brainstorm), this wont just included all the sights and sound of the person who originally captured it, but also the feelings, skin responses, emotions of that captured, it will make 3D look like B & W film.  Editing this "memory" type movie will indeed be a challenge of content producer, but it won't be just a way of delivering entertainment, but will be the next revolution of how we train people, educate or even manipulate.  

The video game industry constantly out performs the traditional based media, games that often have 100 million in development costs return 5 times that amount in profits, more money per year is spent in the video games industry than is spent in the traditional based media the movie industry!! Many A grade films barley make a return on investment, thus more money will be thrown into games development. The very sophisticated games of today that allow for interactive entertainment (like Mass Effect Trilogy of games by Bioware) which essentially allow you to write you own story as you go, and make decisions that will effect other elements of the game will continue, the consumption of linear or passive based entertainment will still be present, but not be the mainstream, people will want to have more and more control of the stories they participate in, rather than be a passive observer. The call for very talented script writers and directors who are no longer writing one story but several depending on the players decisions, conversations and actions will be paramount. Even today the story writers for these games involves an incredible amount of effort, and development even more so with thousands of extra lines of dialogue being recorded and scenes being directed that may never be seen by the player. 

The longer term future based upon the current scientific endeavours to map brain functions will allow us to create simulations and stories that we can plug directly into the brain, that will allow us to participate  or observe what to us will be indistinguishable from real life (like the Matrix). The possibilities to entertain, educate in this medium will be light years ahead of any concepts we can imagine today. But of course none of this is going to happen autonomously, (well not until we have real Artificial Intelligence), we will still need people whom can create content, be imaginative, have an ability to tell a engaging story, or convey an idea, or create art, or music, people will still be producing content, just with a different set of "paintbrushes". 

No technology is evil or good, it will be just like the tech of today, can be used for any purpose, it just depends on the person who created it , what their intent is.  

How this is all implemented will be like technology is now, depending on governments and countries willingness to share this tech with other not so advanced or low socio economic countries.

We can do this!!

For example: We already make enough food to feed to world, its just its badly distributed, 20 % of the food in the western world is thrown out or wasted.  The same with the advanced tech in the next 100 years, its up to us in the "privileged " parts of the world to try and ensure that all humans on this planet can have a equal quality of life.

We wont be able to just feed the world, but we will be able to bring quality of life to everyone. Its all up to us and our children of how to improve this, and the content producer of the future may indeed have one of the most important roles to play in the improvement of our species. 

ANOTHER TELSTRA FAIL - A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

I have an iPad, like many a person these days, and as I have wi fi in most places I use that. I don't need a plan for data or anything like that, but on the odd occasion , business travel etc I need to use 3G data on a pre paid Telstra sim. On a recent work trip I tried to recharge my 3 year old sim, which I top up every 4-5 months..... but it wouldn't work... so I rang Telstra, its expired they say.. you haven't used it in 6 months so we have cancelled it,  of course Telstra never told me it was going to expire. They told me go buy a new one, or better yet get one on a discount at a supermarket. So while a bit disappointed , I did exactly that. I got a pre paid sim for half price , great deal I thought, then I tried to activate it, that went ok, despite the instructions in the booklet I got from Telstra pointing me to the wrong web address.

Ok all going good, or so I thought, I find out the iPad keeps saying sim faulty, invalid etc... so spend 30 mins on tech support trying to figure it all out. I told them 3 times I bought this from a supermarket, they kept telling me take it back there, so I did, the supermarket refused , they said I have to take it back to Telstra shop.  I rang the support people, and they said same thing, take it Telstra shop and they will just swap it. Mind you I live 45kms from the nearest Telstra shop.... anyways take it back.. they just say, "NOPE,  YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT BACK to Woolies"....  so now here I am again about to waste more time and more efforts and more petrol to get a simple sim card from Telstra to work!!

No wonder I have not been with Telstra for years, their customer service is terrible, one part of the company says one thing, the shops say another, I only use Telstra for the odd times my Optus service is no good. I wont be going back with Telstra once I finally get this sorted out.

UPDATE: AUGUST 15TH

After 30 mins on the phone again with TELSTRA support, I managed to convince them to send me another SIM card in the mail, after my very poor experience with the TELSTRA store, so now I await the new sim, lets see if this works!


UPDATE: August 16th.

New sim arrived, and active, wow only 4 days to solve this.. but at least its solved.

Astronaut Tips: How to Wash Your Hair in Space | Video

The arcades of USA!

I recently went to the USA.

here are some pics of retro arcades and some modern ones !