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It worked okay and at the time, only Telecom offered reasonable coverage in the area where I lived so there wasn't another option.

Because of my rural location and reliance on a 24/7 dial-up internet connection, I frequently had to ring Telecom's fault service on 120 when my phone lines stopped working -- something they did with monotonous regularity.

Of course calling 120 from a Telecom mobile is a free call so having an 025 mobile turned out to be quite convenient.

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Eventually Vodafone extended its coverage to the area where I lived and I decided to upgrade my phone to an 021 unit.

Shortly after that I moved to my current location, where Telecom and Vodafone both have good coverage.

The phone lines here are also somewhat more reliable than those I used to endure up north, however something went wrong on the weekend and my dialtone disappeared.

"I'll ring Telecom and report the fault" was my immediate thought.

So I dialed 120 and (as usual) was told that I was in a queue and that once they'd finished their scones, biscuits and cup of tea, one of Telecom's faults operators would eventually get around to answering my call.

To be fair -- the operators are generally very nice people, it's just a shame that Telecom seems to set staffing levels that result in customers sitting in a queue for several minntes before their calls are answered.

It was then I wondered whether this was costing me money.

So I hung up and rang Vodafone's customer service number to ask.

Yep, dialing 120, 123 or any of those "convenient" Telecom numbers from your Vodafone mobile will result in normal call charges being levied.

So what am I to do? Why should *I* pay to report a fault on Telecom's phone network?

The nice lady at Vodafone suggested I ring 0800 TELECOM and ask to be transferred to the faults department.

Brilliant idea -- that'd save me spending over a dollar a minute (Vodafone pre-pay rates) while waiting for that final scone to be consumed over at Telecom.

Alas, it was not to be.

Attempting to call 0800 TELECOM from my Vodafone mobile just got me the message that my call could not be connected due to "technical problems".

I ended up calling a friend (using my mobile) and asking them to call 120 to report the fault -- and asking them to get Telecom faults to ring me on my mobile.

That worked -- about 30 minutes later I got a call from the nice scone-laden lady on the fault desk and she confirmed that my line was faulty.

I queried her about the 0800 TELECOM problem and she admitted that "yes, we know about that, we can't even get through to that number ourselves".

So there you have it folks. If you're a Vodafone customer and want to use your mobile to report a fault on your phone line then make sure you've got a deep wallet. Or maybe you should just keep an old Telecom mobile around for such emergencies. It shouldn't be hard to pick up an old pre-pay Telecom mobile that will do the job.

In the meantime, it seems as if Vodafone customers don't qualify for free calls to the faults department.

Nice one Telecom!

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