• TheMann (unregistered)

    WTF exorbitant amount of money for a menial task oh its Tel$tra, that makes sense now..

    Yeah iiNet are a good ISP, tho Tel$tra are a bunch of overcharging bastards.

    either way I just fixed the typo in my name on my account, i just could never be bothered calling them up :D

  • (cs)

    You know, most service providers (phone, electric, gas, cable, isp) have ridiculous fees for trivial stuff like this. I've found that if you buck it up to a supervisor, before hanging up, you can usually get it waived.

  • Simon (unregistered)

    Could he have cancelled the account seeing as it wasn't in his name though?

  • PhilxBefore (unregistered) in reply to Anon

    $99 cancellation fee.

  • Martin (unregistered)

    The name change synchronized from their CRM system in the right moment he sent the form. And he believed that it was him who changed it. What a coincidence! It happened to me when I was child. I turned off the light in my room and in the right moment there was car crash outside. I believed that it was me who caused it and for a long time I was afraid to turn the lights off....

  • javabeats (unregistered) in reply to Martin

    TRWTF is the guy complying with this absurdity.

  • Daniel (unregistered) in reply to Adriano

    Agreed. There is no way in hell I would pay $59 to have the name changed on an account. I would sooner switch to another company.

  • Rob (unregistered)

    The sad thing is that in doing what he did; he violated the law.

    As silly as that sounds, it's true. The laws against computer 'hacking' are pretty all encompassing.

  • Eclectic Reader (unregistered)

    While he was in Firebug, he should have changed the monthly billing amount too.

    CAPTCHA: bene. I must have a good idea then.

  • ME (unregistered)

    what about the due date and monthly subscription fee fields? :)

  • Eh (unregistered) in reply to Anon

    This was in Australia - 59 Australian dollars is about 5 real (ie. Canadian) dollars (look it up if you don't believe me)

    Not only that, DSL in Oz (according to every Aussie on the net) costs 10x the average monthly salary.

  • Jay (unregistered)

    Personally, I would have investigated openning a new account in my own name. Most telecommunications companies here in the U.S. offer big discounts for new accounts, and then once you've been a customer for a few months or a year they jack all the rates up. Like, I signed up for cable TV, VOIP, and broadband internet for $75 per month -- for the first year. Then if went to the regular rate of $130 per month.

    Oh, and in the mean time, I'd return the bills addressed to the "former housemate", marking them "no longer at this address".

    By the way, what's a "housemate"? Is that an Australian term for roommate? Tenant? Gay lover? Once again, English-speaking people are divided by a common language.

    Cell phone companies in particular are always offering big discounts for the first six months or twelve months, plus you get a free phone. And then they write articles in the trade journals agonizing over why customers keep hopping between companies, why can't they create some customer loyalty. Umm, maybe it's because your official company policy is to punish people for remaining a customer for more than a year? That theory doesn't seem to have occurred to them.

  • Jimmy Sohoman (unregistered)

    Wow, thats pretty crazy dude!

    RT www.privacy-web.net.tc

  • st0le (unregistered)

    lol!!

  • (cs) in reply to Rob
    Rob:
    The sad thing is that in doing what he did; he violated the law.

    As silly as that sounds, it's true. The laws against computer 'hacking' are pretty all encompassing.

    Nothing was hacked. His user agent merely sent data to a listening Web server. If the Web server wasn't supposed to allow that change then it never should have processed the fields.

  • Pinn (unregistered)

    i'm pretty sure I would have changed my name to "a') drop table customers;--"

  • damnum (unregistered) in reply to xtremezone
    xtremezone:
    Rob:
    The sad thing is that in doing what he did; he violated the law.

    As silly as that sounds, it's true. The laws against computer 'hacking' are pretty all encompassing.

    Nothing was hacked. His user agent merely sent data to a listening Web server. If the Web server wasn't supposed to allow that change then it never should have processed the fields.

    Hehe. :) In the best of world. ;)

  • jay Leno (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    By the way, what's a "housemate"? Is that an Australian term for roommate?

    its a more logical term for someone you share more than just a room with. tricky, I know. buh zing. :D

  • Lucas (unregistered)

    It's a little scary that an ISP is going to rely on the disabled property to prevent a submission. With the "Webdeveloper" plugin for FF, you dont even need to edit the code. There is an option for enabling all disabled elements.

    But this goes to show that even the "average" user is becoming more savvy and has access to better tools. As if you didn't know, don't use javascript or disables on the client side to validate your forms. Developers are going to have to do the server side work too. (drat!)

  • csm (unregistered) in reply to KH
    KH:
    The OP's housemate had a legal service agreement with the ISP. That's what he paid $59 to transfer into his name. If the former housemate was smart they should have cancelled the service when they left. OP could have gotten the service reconnected in their name like a new customer.

    Likely if that happened then the OP would have paid more for the one-time startup fee anyway, so...

  • justsomedude (unregistered) in reply to Helix
    Helix:
    You are now standing in the dense thicket bush of WTF. Beware for once you have found a WTF there are many more buried further below and around you.

    What do you want to do?

    GO NORTH

  • Dave (unregistered) in reply to RBoy

    No.

  • me (unregistered) in reply to Simon Richard Clarkstone

    Why would you use First/Last Name as part of a primary key? There can be dozens or hundreds of "Bob Smith" users out there. If the answer is "Well, include a unique numeric ID and some other fields as well", then the question remains: What good is it to have part of your primary key be something that is very non-unique?

  • mary (unregistered)

    The text displayed was his own name; the blurred "John Doe" was the house mate's.

  • Just Another WTF (unregistered) in reply to justsomedude
    justsomedude:
    Helix:
    You are now standing in the dense thicket bush of WTF. Beware for once you have found a WTF there are many more buried further below and around you.

    What do you want to do?

    GO NORTH

    GO DENNIS

  • alf (unregistered)

    I'm wondering if they'll accept my native surname, '; drop database; --

  • Barry L (unregistered)

    I am pretty sure this would be HIGHLY illegal in the US, at least. They have lots of wonderful new computer security laws of late. Look what happened to Randal Schwartz. Plenty new laws since then, I bet.

  • Barry L (unregistered)

    I am pretty sure this would be HIGHLY illegal in the US, at least. They have lots of wonderful new computer security laws of late. Look what happened to Randal Schwartz. Plenty new laws since then, I bet.

  • Joey Stink Eye Smiles (unregistered) in reply to justsomedude

    It's dark in here. You're likely to be eaten by a grue.

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    By the way, what's a "housemate"? Is that an Australian term for roommate?

    Makes a lot more sense than roommate... How many apartments or houses have you shared with roommates where the other person actually lived (i.e. slept) in your room?

  • Paul K (unregistered)

    Without a doubt this is a breach of the computers misuse act and very much illegal in the US and UK.

    The real epic fail is admitting your crime so publicly!

  • Wolfraider (unregistered) in reply to Helix

    Equip Lamp

  • Wolfraider (unregistered) in reply to Helix
    Helix:
    You are now standing in the dense thicket bush of WTF. Beware for once you have found a WTF there are many more buried further below and around you.

    What do you want to do?

    Equip Lamp

  • AnoniMouse (unregistered) in reply to Simon Richard Clarkstone

    if they are using the name as a PK they need to learn normalization (and common sense) PK = static data, that can not change. first name = it is possible to change a first name last name = it is more likely to change than a first name.

    hmm, primary key... Social Security Number, Autonumber, Account Number, Address, pretty much any of the above.

    Address would only be used if the account was directly tied to the household, not the person living there

    Name as PK is ALWAYS a bad idea.

  • Ozzie (unregistered) in reply to Eh
    Eh:
    This was in Australia - 59 Australian dollars is about 5 real (ie. Canadian) dollars (look it up if you don't believe me)

    Not only that, DSL in Oz (according to every Aussie on the net) costs 10x the average monthly salary.

    59.00 AUD = 52.1543 CAD

  • Ozzie (unregistered) in reply to Some Wonk
    Some Wonk:
    It's probably australian dollars, which comes to around..... .002 dollars American.....or maybe dollars Verizon....

    59.00 AUD = 44.7136 USD

  • (cs)

    So I wonder what would happen if he added or changed some other fields?

  • Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!! Oi, Oi Oi! (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    Personally, I would have investigated openning a new account in my own name. Most telecommunications companies here in the U.S. offer big discounts for new accounts, and then once you've been a customer for a few months or a year they jack all the rates up. Like, I signed up for cable TV, VOIP, and broadband internet for $75 per month -- for the first year. Then if went to the regular rate of $130 per month.
    Don't think too many do that here - Maybe they realise that (most) Australians are Smarter than that...
    Jay:
    Oh, and in the mean time, I'd return the bills addressed to the "former housemate", marking them "no longer at this address".
    The best approach. It is a federal offence to open mail not addressed to you. You point out to the ISP that you are more than happy for them not to change the name, but in the meantime you won't open it because it's not addressed to you. Most companies don't like it when you suddenly can't pay their bills...
    Jay:
    By the way, what's a "housemate"? Is that an Australian term for roommate? Tenant? Gay lover? Once again, English-speaking people are divided by a common language.
    "Housemate" = someone you share a house with. "Roommate" = someone you share a room with (more likely for the gay lover, methinks).

    Once again, a yank having ago at Aussies because the yank terminology doesn't make sense...

    Jay:
    Cell phone companies in particular are always offering big discounts for the first six months or twelve months, plus you get a free phone. And then they write articles in the trade journals agonizing over why customers keep hopping between companies, why can't they create some customer loyalty. Umm, maybe it's because your official company policy is to punish people for remaining a customer for more than a year? That theory doesn't seem to have occurred to them.
    As I say, it seems consumers over here are too smart for that (generally). There's often a small incentive to join, however not significant savings to be made changing frequently (certainly not significant enough to outweigh the inconvenience of changing providers each year).
  • Nulla (unregistered) in reply to Wolfraider
    Wolfraider:
    Helix:
    You are now standing in the dense thicket bush of WTF. Beware for once you have found a WTF there are many more buried further below and around you.

    What do you want to do?

    Equip Lamp

    In the flickering lamp light, you begin to recognize some objects, yes, these classes look strangely familiar. In front of you is a function named RunMe, behind you is a database table with a sign that says tblDateConv. To your right there appears to be a faint outline of a Jet, and to your left still to dark to see.

    What do you want to do?

    [captcha: nulla]

  • Johan (unregistered)

    Yeah I did the same on my Adobe Account a few days ago. Couldn't change it, just opened Firebug and changed the hidden value. And it worked!!!

  • Rebecca (unregistered)

    oh man, I have such a similar problem as iinet put me down as a 'Mr' when I registered, when my name is Rebecca. Yeah, go figure. Off to try this now!

  • Xythar (unregistered) in reply to Eh

    Huh, I thought company names and stuff usually got anonymised out in articles like this?

    Anyway, I can believe that it's a Telstra fee. iiNet is pretty much the best ISP at the moment in Australia except for when Telstra drags them down. The disabled form thing is a bit of a programming WTF, but updating his name in that wouldn't have updated it in Telstra's records. I think that one was purely visual.

    Eh:
    This was in Australia - 59 Australian dollars is about 5 real (ie. Canadian) dollars (look it up if you don't believe me)

    Not only that, DSL in Oz (according to every Aussie on the net) costs 10x the average monthly salary.

    It's about 52 Canadian dollars according to xe.com. Where do you think this is, Zimbabwe? DSL costs around 2% of my monthly salary, and I go for one of the more expensive plans.

  • Rebecca (unregistered)

    it worked! <3

  • (cs) in reply to Jamie Nordmeyer
    Jamie Nordmeyer:
    For a $59 fee just to change the name, I'd have hung up on them, gotten a different provider, then told them where they could stick that $59 fee, and to cancel the service. That's just ridiculous.

    It's a Telstra fee, not an iiNet one. Bloated, greedy monopolies are like that. Anyone in USA remember Sol Trujilo from his glory days at US West? Well, that's the clown we've had running the countries monopoly telco for almost 4 years. These are why we have these stupid fees.

  • Spazz (unregistered)

    $59 is for a name change of the legal lessee of the "phone" service, so a change to the records on telstra's database.

    The billing name on the broadband account can be changed over the phone without cost.

    If a Lessee change is not done, then the account will be billed under the customers name but the phone service will still remain under the current Lessee's name.

    This is no biggie unless time comes to cancel the phone service or lodge a fault and you are told you cannot request actions against the phone service as its owned by your flatmate.

  • (cs) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    Most telecommunications companies here in the U.S. offer big discounts for new accounts, and then once you've been a customer for a few months or a year they jack all the rates up.

    We have that here too... Only when you do the maths, it's usually cheaper to pick someone who isn't Telstra (aka Aussie US West).

  • lol (unregistered) in reply to Anon

    only if you wanted to be out of service.. then wait GOD knows how long for them to send out a technician and establish new service, and bill you for another cable modem.

  • Some guy on the internet. (unregistered)

    The name change on your details costs nothing at all.

    The $59 fee has no internal use at all to iiNet. The name on iiNets records can read JoeBloggs SirWingDingsBongTongFiddlyMoo or Company Name. It is just a string of text that goes at the top of your billing.

    The Firstname and Lastname on the customer records are in effect just records, they don't mean anything. When the Author referred to the line lessee moving out the Customer Service Rep at iiNet was smart enough to know that if you didn't change the leasee information everyone in the house wouldn't be able to change/alter/review/ask about your line service details. The internet would be unaffected provided the line codes didn't change.

    So lets say you lose your dial tone or your the phone gets crackly or WHATEVER, nobody in the house has authority to request work be done to fix it or look into it.

    Just a proactive CSR trying to help out.

    The customer details in fact don't mean anything as long as you pay your bill.

  • Xythar (unregistered) in reply to lol
    lol:
    only if you wanted to be out of service.. then wait GOD knows how long for them to send out a technician and establish new service, and bill you for another cable modem.

    Tell me about it.

    Don't ever sign up for naked DSL anywhere as long as it's still up to Telstra to do whatever the hell they do - mine took eight weeks to set up.

  • jro (unregistered) in reply to Mat

    agreed

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