John Linton ...and now I remember why.
Nice to be back in Melbourne after so many years, 6 or so I think. I went to the Charles Dickens for a Carlton Draught (that was actually draught) and remembered what real beer tasted like - how that NSW brewery has survived f0r more than a century is beyond my abiity to comprehend.
Sky was still grey of course and the $60.00 taxi fare from the airport to the hotel was a bit of a jolt (the city traffic was appalling). The 'Paris End Of Collins Street' is still a shopper's delight as is the whole four block by four block area and the atmoshere on a Friday evening/night is totally diferent to any part of Sydneyand, almost as the ads that promote Melbourne show, vaguely cosmopolitan European.
I eventually got the hotel broadband connected and caught up on my email after a really top class Italian dinner and then did some work on the revisions that may be possible to the ADSL1 and Naked ADSL2 plans. There have been some interesting customer suggestions on the Exetel forum threads and we have already incorporated some of them and made them avaialble on the 8192/384 ADSL1 plans and the ADSL2 incTelephone plans:
1) More download allowances for both types plans
2) A new low end ADSL2 plan
3) A no minimum VoIP plan for Exetel customers
4) A new concept for the off peak perio
The Exetel forum has always been a great source of ideas and, over the years, we have improved almost every part of Exetel's services based on customer suggesions and ideas - virtually the whole of the Exetel User Facilities has been built from customer ideas.
The Exetel forum was created on the 4th of January 2004 - 3 days after we put up the first version of the Exetel web site and it has been a major part of how Exetel helps its customers and how Exetel's customers help Exetel and each other ever since. I don't think Exetel would be where it is today if the forum hadn't been created and hadn't had the huge positive inputs from its volunteer admins and continually contributing knowledgable long term users.
I don't know whether it is because I took a day away from the office or the 'different atmosphere' but I feel more confident that the new ADSL plans will give Exetel a very positive push in the right direction in the ambitions we have to double the business over the next year.
Hopefully I can make my own decisions before returning to Sydney tomorrow.
Time will tell.