Vodafone Supa Prepay & Vodafone You Lose (oops You Choose)
From today Vodafone's base Supa PrePay account has call charges of 89c per minute 24/7 with topups required every 3 months and also features $2 capped calls for up to w hours. Two monthy addons are also available - $6 per month for BestMate offering you the ability to nominate a single Vodafone number that you can voice call/video call/txt all you want in a month, and $10 for 2000 Vodafone->Vodafone SMS.
While this account is good news for many PrePay customers it's not suitable for all, and some people will be better off on their existing accounts which offer 49c calling 24/7 and per second billing after the first minute until Supa PrePay which is rounded up to the nearest minute.
What Vodafone have done yet again however is shafted customers on their You Choose plans. Yet again PrePay customers who have a substancially lower ARPU are being treated as special customers yet those customers who choose to enter into a contract with Vodafone are yet again being completely and utterly shafted by a company who obviously has very little idea on how to maintain customer happiness & loyalty.
If you're a customer on You Choose 20 you're currently paying $19.95 per month for 20 minutes of airtime with excess airtime charged at 99c per minute and can choose an AddOn and pay $9.95 per month for 1000 Vodafone->Vodafone SMS's.
If you're on this You Choose plan I would suggest you make contact with Vodafone and personally thank them for shafting you once again. You're currently trapped in a minimum 12 month term contract and your mates on PrePay are now getting a far better deal.
You Choose? More like You Lose.
If Vodafone has a single person in their marketing department right now with a brain they would would currently be offering some sort of sweetener to all their on account customers. We know that the above scenario will change early next year once on account customers are moved to the new billing platform but to be ripping your existing customers off while new customers get a better deal is just plain dumb.
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Comment by chiefie, on 31-OCT-2006 17:50
After reading that paragraph, I got this in my head!
"You Choose, You Lose!" *LOL*
Forgive me if I find this funny, but I understand what you're saying and it sure seem like Vodafone is taking care the prepaid customers more than the On Account customers. And yet, it is the On Account customers that help funding most of the PrePaid customers' "luxury" if there's any...
Well I hope to see more beneficial On Account stuff, and for once value the On Account customers like they really deserved! I have been with Vodafone from the very first day they took over Bellsouth, and I used to get get good loyalty upgrade offer but not anymore :-(. My sister was with BellSouth and yet she's not getting any loyal-customer incentive at all!
Truly, I sometimes too think being Prepaid customer wins out better in most deals!
Comment by Kezzainc, on 31-OCT-2006 18:30
I agree with everything said. And sadly i'm on a You Lose plan. (Stuck with me too now)
Because i could never get myself to be a Telecom client it means my only option really left is to carry 2 cell phones.
Gee, Thanks for the shafting Vodafone. Pitty they didnt ask first.
Lets just hope we could be jumping the gun here.
Comment by alasta, on 31-OCT-2006 19:00
I don't see why On Account customers have to be migrated to the new billing system before Vodafone can offer them a deal which is competitive with what Supa PrePay users are now receiving. I mean, if they can currently offer 1000 Voda-Voda text messages for $10 on You Choose, then surely they only have to push a couple of buttons to make it 2000 Voda-Voda text messages!
Comment by chiefie, on 31-OCT-2006 19:21
hehe Alasta, sounds easy as that. But maybe need to send the launch request to Vodafone Group first. (hehe)
Comment by cokemaster, on 31-OCT-2006 20:22
Remember they have talk zone zero which must have some form of zerorating calls...
Comment by paradoxsm, on 31-OCT-2006 21:47
yes exactly, I have stayed with the status quo on Telecoms 6PM 200 free mins off peak plan and the $10 txt, I have had some terrible dealing with vodafone reliability wise and have almost lost faith, I have a vodafone only to abuse the special deals pretty much now.
Comment by paradoxsm, on 31-OCT-2006 21:51
Vodafone are full of excuses why they cannot/can do this, can't do that etc, we now have some incredibly complex matrix of plans on Vodafone. Something like flexi is just so SIMPLE! same with $10 TXT, just pay for 50 as usual then another 450 are zero-rated and it apples to ANY plan you are on, not just "you have to be on plan XXXYYYZZZ to get TXT XXYYZZ and plan 5566fg to get deal ###$$$$ ARGH!"
Trackback by the power house, on 1-NOV-2006 00:14
So, BestMate was actually an 'add-on' to Vodafone NZ's newly-released Supa Prepay plan (the wording kind of made this obvious beforehand, though), and not the main offering. But before one signs up, best to look at one's usage patterns. Steve...
Comment by Jonathan Ah Kit, on 1-NOV-2006 00:29
Yes. Some of it seems nice, but I just don't see anything that fits my patterns. I'll admit I agree on one thing -- it just seems like an attempt to lift ARPU to me.
Comment by juha, on 1-NOV-2006 07:52
As an On Account customer, I'm officially hacked off with this.
We badly need a third (and maybe fourth) mobile operator in New Zealand.
Comment by chiefie, on 1-NOV-2006 08:09
Hehe.. This sounds crazy, maybe Vodafone NZ should rename itself as Vodafone PrePaid Limited.
Comment by cokemaster, on 1-NOV-2006 16:47
Exactly... I don't really buy the billing system excuse given what excuses VFNZ have made in the past about things like Take 10, Let yourself go (which did actually feature on On account till they let it expire) , and prepaid double topups.
Given that that they actually offer plans with 'free calling' like Talk Zone Zero must say something too.
But again we'll probably get the marketing excuses or 'We are giving what people want and you can get a great deal in You Choose where you're punished for bringing an existing phone (2g/3g be damned) into the contract while we offer better deals to our prepaid platform.
For me its just being left out yet again... and them just taking us for fools.
Comment by cokemaster, on 1-NOV-2006 19:54
From having experience in both retail and call center environments... I can understand.
Comment by snag2006, on 2-NOV-2006 18:07
I agree with all the above comments
If the marketing turkeys actually asked the customers opinons
then there would be no need for their jobs.
I would have thought (and this goes with a lot of businesses)
Why can't Vodafone e-mail out a survey to all its customers
and find out what WE want, rather than leave it up to some
desk jockey with a degree, making it up as they go along.
I am an On account customer too all I want is a couple of simple add ons, I want to give Vodafone money, but I want something I can use in return.
As someone told me yesterday, If Vodafone & Telecom did it right, there would be no need for a third player here, and surely they would want that.
Comment by snag2006, on 2-NOV-2006 18:08
I agree with all the above comments
If the marketing turkeys actually asked the customers opinons
then there would be no need for their jobs.
I would have thought (and this goes with a lot of businesses)
Why can't Vodafone e-mail out a survey to all its customers
and find out what WE want, rather than leave it up to some
desk jockey with a degree, making it up as they go along.
I am an On account customer too all I want is a couple of simple add ons, I want to give Vodafone money, but I want something I can use in return.
As someone told me yesterday, If Vodafone & Telecom did it right, there would be no need for a third player here, and surely they would want that.
Comment by al, on 13-JAN-2007 08:54
In vodafone's faq there is a question "why can't i get bestmate or txt2000 on my You Choose plan?" with the answer "watch this space, you will be able to early next year".. now I'm assuming that by next year they mean 2007.. but what I don't get is, why didn't they launch it initially on their contract plans? Wouldn't that make more business sense, to try and rope people in for longer? Not to mention, look after those people that have been loyal to vodafone for a long time?? *sigh* business 'logic' escapes me...
Comment by Hayden1245, on 18-APR-2007 16:57
HI there, after trying voda supa preapy for a month it is crap we get ripped off for calls SMS to 027 is 20c, not only have i changed to 027 and saved $$$$ they offer me better calling rates and 500 text to anyone not just to 027 customers
Comment by Toto, on 3-DEC-2007 23:14
Talofa lava everyone,
Thank you for the 'heads up' on the You Choose Plan!!! I just saved myself more money than I have! Have a great day, I know I will have a better one knowing the truth about this plan!
Regards,
Toto
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Comment by cokemaster, on 31-OCT-2006 17:30
Pretty much sums up my opinion too