Compare Broadband
It's also fair to say the big players are only offering savings in the three main centres thereby denying other areas of savings or more broadband for a fairer price. This happens repeatedly through many other services too, but it does indicate that the providers are happy to get more custom from those city areas and keep the emphasis on the upgrade of hardware in those areas only, thus denying smaller cities and rural areas access to what the others get. This really sucks.
But the gist of this post is not to extol these offerings and the politics behind them. This blog is about how current customers of one provider, Vodafone, are being ripped off. For a short while now Vodafone have altered their main plan (accessible nationwide) to offer 30Gb as their main plan at a very reasonable $75, basically on a par with the opposition. That's fine, I have no issue with that. It makes sound economic sense when trying to attract new customers. But here is my beef. A majority of their existing customers are still paying $80 a month for Home Line and Broadband packages (at 12Gb) which in effect says we are paying $5 more a month then new customers and missing out on 18Gb a month data!! In effect, the current accounts are a cash cow for Vodafone as they have in no way offered existing customers either the 30Gb less $5 package as standard, or even better, offered existing customers a discount on their existing plan to reflect the 12Gb usage.
Why bother you say? Go to Flip, Orcon or other opponents. No I say. I have been a Vodafone customer for over 6 years and in that time have never had any drop off of service, so reliability rules my surfing world. All I ask is that Vodafone stop treating it's loyal customer base as imbeciles and restructure their plans to better suit the customers own requirements. I use around 8Gb a month, I don't want to pay for an extra 22Gb. I do want to pay my bill based on fairness.
If you too see your telco offering deals and feel your current plan is not being fairly presented in light of those deals, let your fingers or voice do the walking and make contact and get things changed. I know these companies are set up to make a profit, but if they don't treat their consumers fairly they lose custom and bottomline profit.
Ok so it's official, Telco's don't offer "flexible" plans. Got a response by phone to my email query asking them to charge me for what I use (8Gb max) and their answer (and only answer) is to switch me to the cheaper 30Gb plan at $75. Now I won't use 30Gb, in fact I'll be lucky to use 8Gb so I am paying money for 22Gb I won't use. If this was a Power Company there would be hell to pay, but nope, Telco's get away with murder. It is however interesting to note that that same Telco offers very flexible plans for their Mobile network?? Yeah odd.
ReplyDeleteAnd this got me to thinking too. Landline charges. Whilst Broadband is getting cheaper and cells are comparatively cheaper now with myriads of plans available, why are landline rental charges still hovering between 45 and 50 dollars a month? Bear in mind too with Cell Phones being used more and landlines less surely landline rental charges should be dropping. But they aren't??
ReplyDeleteOk folks Pet Beef time. Some of you may have read my blog on Broadband charges, but this has lead to a burning question. Over recent years Broadband offers have cheapened the actual product to consumers, and comparatively cell phone charges have dropped too with a myriad of good plans available.
ReplyDeleteBut what about Land line charges? Sure they have not increased markedly but comparative to Broadband and Cells, the charges have not gone down. So the question, how cheap should land line charges be? I'm guessing now many folks use cells and their landline usage has dropped hugely, yet these changes are not reflected in land line charges. I would say that I receive at minimum one call a day per month on my landline and maybe make 1 call every three days. So in effect I'm paying around $1.25 a call in and out. Is this too much? Well yes, clearly.
Most of the charge component I think in Land lines is a maintenance charge. How hard is it to maintain a landline when most cables are now buried and free from damage? How much maintenance is carried out in the Exchange with the switching unit? The short answer is nil. Once the phone is set up, it's largely maintenance free, so what justification do Telco's have for maintaining high land line charges? The only thing I can think of that keeps the price high is the rental component paid out to Chorus who maintain the base set up (ex- Telecom)?
If you feel Landline charges should better reflect the service provided, feel free to share this post. There has to be a voice made to challenge the Telco's.