ajft

Almost half an hour on the phone to Bigpond/Telstra trying (unsuccessfully) to change the billing address for my broadband connection to go to Monash.

The online form has a number of small, fixed-length fields and no conceivable abbreviation of Rm 232, Bldg 28, ITS Division, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton 3800, Vic. can be made to fit in the small, fixed length fields.

The Bigpond telephone staff tried, but finally admitted that they too were confronted by "the new billing system" with its small, fixed-length, fields and could not change the address. They transferred me to Telstra, who they explained could enable "single billing" of broadband and phone service, but then split this and send the broadband to a different address!

Telstra staff reviewed "the notes attached to the account" and stated that while they could change the billing address for the phone account, they couldn't do anything about the broadband. They transferred me back to a Bigpond billing consultant.

The Bigpond billing consultant stated that I'd initially ended up with sales staff, but promised to work it out. He tried several ways, but eventually admitted that he was confronted by the same small fixed-length fields and could not make the supplied address or any variation fit.

The only other option I was presented with was to receive email bills, but these cannot be sent to any address other than my bigpond one "for security reasons". So I now have to receive my bills at my Bigpond email address, automatically forward these to my Monash email address, then manually forward them each month to the administration staff to be paid!

Determined to keep Mr Damage running by riding it at least once a fortnight, and hopefully once a week, I rode to work yesterday. Tried to leave only to discover that the ignition switch had no effect. No amount of swearing or checking fuses would get power to the bike. Today I brought in the multimeter, spanners and screwdrivers and an optimistic attitude. Viking provided a few handy pointers on where RC17 electricals are likely to go wrong. My lunch break involved the followng:

Remove fairing, swear, curse, confront row of connectors. Unplug, plug, unplug, plug, unplug, plug... unplug, aha! Scrub scrub scrub, plug. click lights, etc.

One very crusty burnt multi-way connector appears to be the culprit. Cause or effect of the high voltage that the bike seems to be plagued by. I cleaned it up as best as I could and plugged it all back together.