Did you jump from the XT NOTwork to Slingshot's "Better Place"?
Were you one of those that rushed onto Slingshot mobile's hot offer for:
* A FREE Nokia 2730 3G phone (valued at $199)
* FREE monthly access for 12 months (normally $20/month)
* 20 FREE calling minutes, and 100 FREE TXT messages EVERY month
Were you one of the many customers that instead received:
* A bill for the first (pro-rata) part month from date of joining to the next Slingshot billing cycle?
* A bill for all calls made even though you made less than 20 minutes of calls?
* A bill for TXTs even though you were promised 100 FREE?
I know from personal experience and those of friends, colleagues, and family that joined up to this offer that it was not what it was made out to be. Misleading business practice is frowned upon by the Commerce Commission, who would be interested to hear from affected consumers.
The issues are this:
* People were billed for the first part month and expected to pay this even though the offer clearly stated that you were to receive "FREE monthly access for 12 months" - nowhere in any fine print does it say "free monthly access begins following the first billing cycle period". Some people have had this charge credited back to their accounts on enquiry, but others have had Slingshot Customer Service tell them that the charge stands.
* Some accounts did not have the 20 FREE calling minutes EVERY month correctly applied to the account - this means that these accounts did not receive any free calling minutes as advertised
* Some accounts did not have the 100 FREE TXT messages EVERY month correctly applied to the account - this means that these accounts were charged 20c for every TXT sent, again not as advertised
I know of people that have had problems having these issues resolved with Slingshot despite promises of action. Therefore I have notified the Commerce Commission of my concerns and they are interested to hear your experiences.
There are several ways that you can contact the Commerce Commission and tell them your experiences:
* Use their online complaint form: http://www.comcom.govt.nz/online-complaint-form/
* Phone them during office hours on 0800 94 3600
* Email them at contact@comcom.govt.nz
This complaint may be looked at the next few days in more detail, so the faster you forward your stories to them the better. Ideally by the end of this week or over the weekend.
You may have had your complaints resolved already by Slingshot - that doesn't matter. Think big picture - there are many out there who have not been as fortunate, and may still have credit owing to them from Slingshot. Let's help those that have not had any success resolving what should really be a simple case of keeping to the terms of a promised offer.
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Author's note by ahmad, on 29-Jul-2010 13:20 , user id: 31335)
So glad to hear that your issue was resolved. If you have a little time, would you mind sending a brief note to the Commerce Commission in one of the ways listed above just so that they can collate information on how widespread and how many customers are likely to be affected?
Your fellow eCitizens thank you 
Comment by Hawk, on 29-Jul-2010 14:01 , user id: )
I've had little problem with this promotion I also signed my parents up with the promotion with little to no issues.
Comment by cokemaster, on 29-Jul-2010 16:21 , user id: 9469)
I strongly suspect that if Slingshot was a member of the TDR scheme, this would not happen as there would be an incentive to fix the issues when they are raised.
Comment by Linuxluver, on 30-Jul-2010 16:11 , user id: 20622)
Slingshot have always felt, to me, like a company I should avoid if I don't want a capricious, arbitrary provider operating on the edge as my service provider.
I've done that. I'll keep doing it.
Stories like this just make it easier for me to justify that gut feeling.....
Comment by paradoxsm, on 31-Jul-2010 12:36 , user id: 8664)
I signed up, a free phone and no plan charges for th first year is a pretty amazing deal
Had all the issues mentioned, no free sms/minutes placed on until it was rectified by me calling in. Took two months to get right but it seems to be rating correctly now.
Also be wary of their data rates. Whilst "casual" is 25c per min, the 25c is levied the minute you connect, rather expensive if polling a email.
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Comment by FreakyKiwi, on 29-Jul-2010 13:10 , user id: 41435)
I switched my partner over - her issue was the part month charge - it took the intervention of a slingshot employee on geekzone to resolve the issue! (After 3 months!!)