More Customer care from Telecom

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sarnold

61 posts

Master Geek

#18382 8-Jan-2008 20:25

For a variety of reasons I need to know all the cell phone calls I make and their cost. When Telecom ceased routinely providing this information on their bills in respect of calls covered by the fixed cost of my plan I requested that they continue to be itemised, which happened until recently.

The correspondence follows:

Me:

"We are no longer getting the calls itemised when they are free. Can you please go back to showing these."

Customer Care Online - email address: Your Telecom Support [yourtelecomsupport@custhelp.com] (sic)

"Thank you for your email.

"Unfortunately, this option is no longer available.

"Telecom has removed this option due to the large amount of wasted paper each month and also the fact that they are an unbilled item. If you still wish to view these calls, you may do so by signing up to "Your Telecom". www.telecom.co.nz/yourtelecom .

"If we can assist you any further with this matter we will be happy to help."

Me:

"Has Telecom considered how they will look when it becomes clear that they are refusing to itemise bills when they:

* have specifically be asked to provide itemised bills when they dropped this from general accounts some time ago
* are charging a fixed amount for a certain level of service, are willing to itemise charges for additional service in their printed bills, but are unwilling to justify the individual items they are claiming against the fixed allocation (if you think the charges are ?unbilled? can I perhaps arrange to have the corresponding fixed charges removed from my account)
* I need a printed copy of the details so there is no ?wasted paper?, just an argument about who does it

"I?m happy to accept a single item for a commodity item like texts, but individual calls do not fall into that category.

"I?m happy if Telecom decides to go to complete electronic bills for all customers, but with a reduction in your prices to compensate.

"I am however not happy for you to arbitrarily decide that you are unwilling to justify the calls (and charges) against the fixed allocation

"Regard this as a specific request for you to itemise on your invoice the calls you are claiming against the fixed allocation. "

Am I just old fashioned or something :(

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#103657 8-Jan-2008 20:32

sarnold: Am I just old fashioned or something :(

Yeah, sorry to say, I think you are actually (no offence intended)

Telecom have the same policy with many of their services; for example, the Mobile Data Calls on my Mobile Broadband plan.

If I want to see the details of what I'm being charged for, they are available on-line for me to print out or save to hard disk file. Whereas if I rely on the paper bill, they just show the all-up total for these calls.

Personally, I don't have a problem with that policy. The info. is available for me to print out if I want to, but how many people would actually bother?

For that reason, I side with Telecom on this issue in the interests of saving trees

sarnold

61 posts

Master Geek

#103662 8-Jan-2008 20:47

Then why itemise any part of their bill?

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#103665 8-Jan-2008 20:54

sarnold: Then why itemise any part of their bill?

It's a good question. Maybe there is some legal requirement to list the calls you are being individually charged for?

sarnold

61 posts

Master Geek

#103670 8-Jan-2008 21:05

But that's the point - I'm being charged for them all.

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#103673 8-Jan-2008 21:13

sarnold: But that's the point - I'm being charged for them all.

Yeah but some of the calls are being covered by the "Fixed Cost of your plan" as stated in your original post.

Whereas others are being individually charged for.

A fine point of distinction I agree, but generally I think the move to reduce numbers of pages printed makes sense, so long as customers still have the ability to access that information should they have the need to do so.

sarnold

61 posts

Master Geek

#103686 8-Jan-2008 21:41

I pay for a fixed number of minutes (200) and then get charged by the minute there after. Why tell me about the call that uses the 201st minute but not the one that uses the 199th. Telcom is still claiming the 199th minute call as a charge against the fixed allocation, and so is just as much real money as the 201st, and requires the same level of documentation.

Damoz101

31 posts

Geek

#104019 10-Jan-2008 14:37

I see both points here, but whats the problem if you can see it online then what is the big problem.
I personally prefer it this way and its good to see that they are fighting that paper war, if you think all the accounts that are getting this done on them saving average of about 2 bits of paper.
Dont know what telecoms customer base is like but thats alot of paper.
Would it really be that hard to logon and print it out online or even save it to you pc.
You could itemize them all from there.

Im sure it wont be long till bills arent coming in the mail at all. (welcome to the digital age)

Unfortunatly im with telecom on this one aswell.

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sarnold

61 posts

Master Geek

#104038 10-Jan-2008 16:29

Fortunately Telecom's with me. Full bill reinstated.

Damoz101

31 posts

Geek

#104039 10-Jan-2008 16:31

Tree Killer :p

bazzer

3438 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#104164 11-Jan-2008 10:09

Damoz101: I see both points here, but whats the problem if you can see it online then what is the big problem.
I personally prefer it this way and its good to see that they are fighting that paper war, if you think all the accounts that are getting this done on them saving average of about 2 bits of paper.
Dont know what telecoms customer base is like but thats alot of paper.
Would it really be that hard to logon and print it out online or even save it to you pc.
You could itemize them all from there.

Im sure it wont be long till bills arent coming in the mail at all. (welcome to the digital age)

I agree with you too, but if a customer has a specific need for the itemised account (most wouldn't) then I can't believe they'd refuse that request.

It's good to see that they've reinstated your full bill sarnold, but a bit worrying that they originally said "Unfortunately, this option is no longer available". Basically, they lied to you to get you off their back. What they meant was "This option is available but we'd really rather not give it to you unless you make a big fuss (which we hope you won't bother to do)."