Beta trial ending now (mid October)

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scottjpalmer

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#27169 16-Oct-2008 13:50

Just got the call, the beta is over already.

What are your thoughts? Remember to not breach the Ts and Cs you agreed to at sign up.

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#171522 16-Oct-2008 13:55

Personally, I expected the beta to run until such time as they were ready to launch publicly. In my view, they are far far far from that point! Unless of course they have a big switch ready to flick now, enabling lot's of things to even bring them back on par with the service their competitors offers (the ability to check your account balance being the most simple.)

One of the main selling points of the beta was to assess usage to enable plans to be tailored to the market, I'm no analyst but 2 weeks is surely not long enough to be that effective?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not sour that I'm losing the perks of the beta, I just won't be staying with B+W where the bang for buck is currently far less than I can get elsewhere.

ChrisNZL

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#171525 16-Oct-2008 14:14

Aye, it's over a bit too soon.

Their plans aren't that bad (I guess) but their website needs a lot of work. It feels like a thing of the past compared to what Vodafone's site can do you for you. Account information / user integration hardly seemed to be implemented...

freitasm

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#171531 16-Oct-2008 14:26

Interesting.

I am not in the trial, but I will post something that crossed my mind - perhaps B+W will read it here and post an answer.

The actual question for me is billing. We all know how all telcos around here seem to have billing/charging problems.

I would expect a beta to last at least three months, in billing terms:

1.Open account
2.Charge
3.Bill
4.Receive money
5.Charge
6.Bill
7.Receive money

This would be the minimum cycle to make sure the whole thing is covered - from the start to the second or third billing cycle, whn payments should have been completed, applied to accounts and all.

Testing just the technical side seems to be missing a lot of potential problems...

steveonz

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#171535 16-Oct-2008 14:37

I would suspect that this would not be a problem. I know Telco billing is fairly different from a generic online service, but speeding up the billing cycles can easily overcome this issue. Changing the periods from Hours to Minutes speeds up testing significantly

dan1elle

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#171536 16-Oct-2008 14:38

It seems that some of you at least got connected. There appears to be a handful of us who are still trying to be connected. Surely that would be one reason to have the Beta running longer. It seems to involve only 021 number on 027, who want to move to B+W. With this not even sorted how can the trial be over?

scottjpalmer

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#171540 16-Oct-2008 14:48

dan1elle: It seems to involve only 021 number on 027, who want to move to B+W.? With this not even sorted how can the trial be over?

Is that a typo?

I ported my 021 from Vodafone to B+W

dan1elle

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#171544 16-Oct-2008 14:56

Is that a typo?
I ported my 021 from Vodafone to B+W

No, but I might not have been clear enough.

Those who are currently with Telecom, but using an 021 number, are having trouble porting to B+W. I have been told it is not just me, but they are having the same problem with a number of people. Apparently the hold up is at the Vodafone end.

I spoke to helpdesk again about 30 minutes ago, and still no resolution in sight. I ended up with no phone at all for 3 days while they tried to sort something out, but am now back on Telecom while they try to fix the problem.

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ajobbins

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#171545 16-Oct-2008 15:00

The lady who called me said "The Beta programme is FINALLY coming to and end this Friday" - she said it like it had been dragging on or something...
I'm about to call Telecom and start the port process back to them. I am very unimpressed with B+W.
They have a *lot* of work to do or they are doing to go bottom up before they even hit the ground running. 'Nuff Said.

freitasm

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#171548 16-Oct-2008 15:07

steveonz: I would suspect that this would not be a problem. I know Telco billing is fairly different from a generic online service, but speeding up the billing cycles can easily overcome this issue. Changing the periods from Hours to Minutes speeds up testing significantly

I understand you can speed up the process - in a test environment that's ok. But we are talking about real people, with real accounts here. Real payments.

dan1elle

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#171553 16-Oct-2008 15:15

Maybe they assumed there would be no issues as all payments are by Direct Debit to a Credit Card.

scottjpalmer

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#171563 16-Oct-2008 15:30

I emailed my concerns to B+W and I have just had a phone call. My concerns are largely being addressed in the coming weeks and there are a few other changes being made which are nice so I will be sticking with them for now.

I recommend your individual concerns be voiced to B+W to give them a chance to fill you in on how they can address them.

benny

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#171584 16-Oct-2008 16:07

Do we need to contact B+W about leaving? Or can we just port our number......

bazzer

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#171589 16-Oct-2008 16:23

scottjpalmer: I emailed my concerns to B+W and I have just had a phone call. My concerns are largely being addressed in the coming weeks and there are a few other changes being made which are nice so I will be sticking with them for now.

I recommend your individual concerns be voiced to B+W to give them a chance to fill you in on how they can address them.

Isn't that kinda the idea of a beta? I thought that's why most of you signed up, to test them and help them out. Maybe it was only for the free plan?

ChrisNZL

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#171591 16-Oct-2008 16:35

I joined B+W's beta programme because it was free and I wanted to see what they had to offer. Competition is a good thing.

Now that the free period is coming to a close, I need to decide where to put my money.

Unfortunately for Black + White, I believe Vodafone offers better value and I don't see the point in sticking around with B+W.

scottjpalmer

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#171597 16-Oct-2008 16:38

bazzer: Isn't that kinda the idea of a beta? I thought that's why most of you signed up, to test them and help them out. Maybe it was only for the free plan?

There was no free plan.

That is why I signed up yes, my post was in relation to the beta testers terminating at the end of the beta period rather than staying on as customers once they go public.

UPDATE: In light of Hervard's post, there was a substantial "kick-back", but no free plan.

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