For something that was meant to be the best thing since sliced bread...it is a disappointment. Sure the speed is  OK  as I pay extra for super-boost speed (still not good enough to buy Foo Fighters tickets on Ticketek, though, my mobile did a better job on 3G). It is the dropouts using NBN that are common problems in my house that I never had with ADSL+2.

 It just randomly is unavailable for brief periods of time, but just enough to be very annoying. 

Technically all is perfect they tell me and I probably shouldn’t whinge as some households will not be given the opportunity, but I’m wondering if anyone else is in the same NBN boat?

Tracey Ambrose, Dapto

 I recently wrote about my disgust at the way neighbourhood trees had been cut and inadvertently directed my comments at Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery.  

I should have directed my disgust at Endeavour Energy.

 Since my letter was published I have had it brought to my attention that the same brutality has happened to a vast amount of trees in the Illawarra  via a tree-lopping company, which clearly has no skills in horticulture.

Many people share my concerns about these trees, including our Wollongong Lord Mayor, who informed me that he made this known at the recent Local Government Conference.

 I believe we as ratepayers from all councils in the Illawarra area should get this treatment stopped and have companies contracted to do the job the correct way. 

 I agree these types of trees do need to be trimmed, but not butchered they way they have been.

Christine Matias, Dapto

It was with amazement that I read the letter to the editor from Ann Fowler congratulating Mr Devlin on getting his letter published in the Letters to the Editor.

 Mr Devlin gets more than his fair share of letters published in the letters section and sometimes two in a week. If you research past editions of the Mercury, you will find evidence that refutes your claim.

 On the other hand, try getting a letter published in the Murdoch press if you have progressive or left-wing views. 

By the way, I believe  Mr Devlin has a right to express his opinions even though I am diametrically opposed to them.

Paul Lelli, Windang

The days of escape spending from Wollongong to the former bargain hunters’ paradise of Miranda Fair have definitely ended forever.

Severe parking restrictions, enforced by state-of-the-art surveillance, make  any shopping expedition to our north a very expensive proposition.

Wollongong should introduce free parking everywhere for the duration of the  festive season, to entice deserters back to our once-more great shoppers’ paradise. We have just three weeks to harvest the care-free madness of the spendaholic mob, and it seems  stupid to throw away a huge treasure trove for the sake of a few miserly parking fees.

Instead of traders uttering ho-ho-ho, they could be chanting dough-dough-dough.  Parking fees make enemies of big spenders.

Dave Cox, Corrimal