Today we went to Courtenay Place for a stroll and coffee. In the Couternay Central shopping/cinema complex there used to be a Blockbuster store, which closed last month.

Instead they now have a TelstraClear store. I was curious to see what's going on, so walked inside. Very nicely done, with lots of plasma TVs on the walls around, with different channels, plus lots of Apple Mac computers, each with different connections (4Mbps, 10Mbps) to show off the TelstraClear cable modem "experience".

They also have a small side room that looks like a home theatre, with a nice widescreen TV, a home theatre setup with surround sound, comfy sofa, etc.

Apparently they do all sorts of things there - help with new accounts and inquiries that would be otherwise handled by their help desk. When I said that sometimes you can be on hold for 45 minutes on the help line, the person pointed out they have a "new call centre in Kapiti, but still not fully manned, but we'll be soon over those problems".

When I asked if I could take a picture of the store to post on my site (I didn't name it), the manager said he couldn't allow that. What a shame. We always talk about the bad things, but can't help with the good things. I am pretty sure if it was a newspaper he would be begging for a photo.

I noticed the manager was browsing the Internet. No, not Geekzone, but 10layers. Well done guys! You are on the radar screen!