MicroSims cost $60 from Vodafone Store!

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › MicroSims cost $60 from Vodafone Store!

zaf

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#64842 23-Jul-2010 18:06

Went to the Vodafone store in Silvia Park today, and was told to buy a prepay Micro Sim to use on my iPad, it would be $60. $30 for a standard prepay SIM, then $30 to convert it to a Micro Sim.

Doesn't this seem a little excessive?

I thought so, so I tweeted @vodafonenz, who said the price was $30, and told me to go back to the store and tell 'em. Tried that, and the store guys said no, its not $30, its $60 and @vodafonenz is wrong. Unfortunately @vodafonenz appears to have knocked off for the day (nice to knock off at 4pm eh?), and haven't said anything else.

@telecomnz were nice enough to let me know they were only charging $30 from next week, but of course that would mean waiting.

I finally rang the vodafone call centre, and they said $30 for a new prepay iPad sim.

Went back to the store, and the manager of the store said $60. I explained that everything I'd been told by two different channels said $30. So he sold it to me for $30, but not without the other sales people in the store all giving me evil eyes.

Has anyone else brought a prepay micro-sim today? If so, how much did you pay? Did you buy a new one, or did you "swap" an existing Vodafone sim?

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73 posts

Master Geek

#355486 23-Jul-2010 18:10

Didn't pay for mine. Got given one (price stickered $0.00) when I purchased my 3G iPad from Harvey Norman.

heavenlywild

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#355492 23-Jul-2010 18:20

Didn't Vodafone say somewhere that the iPad would come with the micro-sim?

freitasm

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#355495 23-Jul-2010 18:23

zaf: Went back to the store, and the manager of the store said $60. I explained that everything I'd been told by two different channels said $30. So he sold it to me for $30, but not without the other sales people in the store all giving me evil eyes.

Typical... I am getting to the conclusion that some of these stores are just traps. Mind you, they only "Vodafone-branded" not Vodafone-owned (very few are).

zaf

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#355505 23-Jul-2010 18:36

Update: This was buying the micro SIM by itself, I already had an iPad from overseas.

@freitasm, this is actually a vodafone owned store. Store is registred as Vodafone New Zealand Limited.

I have rung Vodafone Glenfield, $29.95 for a prepay micro-sim, no further requirements, brand new customer.

Henderson not answering, nor is New Lynn, or other open late stores I've found.

I had another friend go in to the same Sylvia Park store, and the manager said "$60", and when asked whether that was right, the manager said he'd had a customer in earlier (me) who had asked the same question, and the manager said he'd rung the helpdesk and confirmed the price is definitely $60.

So on Monday I'll be ringing the complaints department, and if *ANYONE* reading this paid $60, please get ahold of me directly, as I'm sure you are entitled to a refund.

PoLiGnAc

113 posts

Master Geek

#355575 23-Jul-2010 22:21

Strange. If you go to the online store (http://www.vodafone.co.nz/ipad/), and get a SIM there you only pay for the delivery charge...

michaelmurfy

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#355579 23-Jul-2010 22:36

PoLiGnAc: Strange. If you go to the online store (http://www.vodafone.co.nz/ipad/), and get a SIM there you only pay for the delivery charge...

+1 - I don't think the salesperson knew how to provision a sim;
If you were wanting a Prepay Sim what they possibly need to do is get a Sim Pack and then do a Sim Swap on the system to a MicroSim, unless if there is Prepay MicroSims.

I would just recommend getting a sim off the VF Site.

As said above also, some stores kinda disguise themselves as a actual "Vodafone" store, I know for a fact that the First Mobile stores in Nelson were a bit bad at that.

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raftcomm

93 posts

Master Geek

#355735 24-Jul-2010 11:20

You definitely shouldnt be paying $60 for a micro sim. I do believe the store owner has been mis-informed. Ive advised the product manager so hopefully the right information will filter down.

For now, its probably best to get from the stores that have indicated that the price is $30.

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Ham

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Ultimate Geek

#355825 24-Jul-2010 16:02

zaf:

So on Monday I'll be ringing the complaints department, and if *ANYONE* reading this paid $60, please get ahold of me directly, as I'm sure you are entitled to a refund.

Why should you be entitled to a refund? If you said "How much for a micro SIM?" and they said "$60.00" and you said "OK" and gave them the cash... That is how it works, is it not?

robbyp

1199 posts

Uber Geek

#355846 24-Jul-2010 16:51

zaf: Went to the Vodafone store in Silvia Park today, and was told to buy a prepay Micro Sim to use on my iPad, it would be $60. $30 for a standard prepay SIM, then $30 to convert it to a Micro Sim.

Doesn't this seem a little excessive?

I thought so, so I tweeted @vodafonenz, who said the price was $30, and told me to go back to the store and tell 'em. Tried that, and the store guys said no, its not $30, its $60 and @vodafonenz is wrong. Unfortunately @vodafonenz appears to have knocked off for the day (nice to knock off at 4pm eh?), and haven't said anything else.

@telecomnz were nice enough to let me know they were only charging $30 from next week, but of course that would mean waiting.

I finally rang the vodafone call centre, and they said $30 for a new prepay iPad sim.

Went back to the store, and the manager of the store said $60. I explained that everything I'd been told by two different channels said $30. So he sold it to me for $30, but not without the other sales people in the store all giving me evil eyes.

Has anyone else brought a prepay micro-sim today? If so, how much did you pay? Did you buy a new one, or did you "swap" an existing Vodafone sim?

That is just plain poor service. You should complain to vodafones head office, and they may give it to you for free or credit the amount onto the card, due to the run around you got. I wonder if they will be refunding all those cusomters who they overcharged.

zaf

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#355860 24-Jul-2010 17:31

Ham:
zaf:

So on Monday I'll be ringing the complaints department, and if *ANYONE* reading this paid $60, please get ahold of me directly, as I'm sure you are entitled to a refund.

Why should you be entitled to a refund? If you said "How much for a micro SIM?" and they said "$60.00" and you said "OK" and gave them the cash... That is how it works, is it not?

Because they advertised $30, and what they did is essentially bait-and-switch. Draw you in at one price $30 for a iPad micro-sim, then advise, oh, sorry, thats only available if you already have an Vodafone prepay sim that you are willing to convert over to the micro-sim.

You wouldn't want to do this with your phone's sim, as you wouldn't be able to use it anymore in your phone, and the iPad isn't a phone. You wouldn't want to use your vodem sim, as again, you wouldn't be able to use it. The only way I can see you'd have a prepay sim you'd be willing to swap over is if you had a SPARE sim just floating around, that was still active, that you didn't want any more.

That aside, I've since learnt that the store manager didn't have a clue about the product (iPad sims). He was offering, and selling, micro-sims on both account and prepay, but vodafone doesn't "offer" the micro-sim on account. Their position for the iPad is its a prepay only. (check http://vodafone.co.nz/ipad ).

That said, you can certainly - as this guy did, convert any sim to a microsim, and you can put the iPad on any account you want, but here's the glitch with that:

The iPad doesn't have any SMS facilities. So you can't just simply buy a topup card, and txt the number to top up. You can't txt to buy more data, and you can't create a My Vodafone account, as the system "helpfully" txt's your sim with the authorisation number. After speaking extensivily with Vodafone's iPad team, they have confirmed that *UNLESS* you are on an iPad special account, the only way to top-up is to ring them and either use credit card or read out the top-up voucher code over the phone. (Or you, before converting the sim to micro-sim, setup the my vodafone account, etc).

If you have an iPad account (which is prepay), then you gain access to the special vodafone ipad website (visit www.vodafone.co.nz/ipad on your ipad when its using GSM, not Wifi), which gives you access to account balance, and facilities to top-up, etc.

Now this is all speculation, as I have to wait till Monday to get my SIM sorted.

ahmad

1937 posts

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#355882 24-Jul-2010 18:43

PoLiGnAc: Strange. If you go to the online store (http://www.vodafone.co.nz/ipad/), and get a SIM there you only pay for the delivery charge...

Why free online but $30 in-store? What gives?

robbyp

1199 posts

Uber Geek

#355913 24-Jul-2010 20:52

ahmad:
PoLiGnAc: Strange. If you go to the online store (http://www.vodafone.co.nz/ipad/), and get a SIM there you only pay for the delivery charge...

Why free online but $30 in-store? What gives?

Those stores charging $60 must be making a killing then, and no wonder they didn't refer the OP to the website.

It is good that they are not charging for them online, although $6.95 delivery fee for a tiny card is a bit steep though.

JarrodM

969 posts

Ultimate Geek

#355949 25-Jul-2010 00:27

Bought a 32gb iPad with 3G yesterday and went into vodafone today and asked for a microsim they asked where I got the iPad from (nz or overseas) cause they said all ipads sold here should come with a free microsim (ours didn't). So we went back to Noel leeming and yes the guy had forgot to give one to us so we got one for free from there. Vodafone said they could give one to us for $60 - $30 to buy a normal sim and another $30 to transfer the number to a micro sim, because they only had blank microsims without numbers. I assume it would only be $30 if you already have a regular vodafone sim that you could swap.

Edit: by yesterday I mean Friday and by today I mean Saturday. I lost track of time.

Ham

462 posts

Ultimate Geek

#355954 25-Jul-2010 00:50

Isn't Telecom cheaper, and has better receptio? What is the advantage having one on VF?

JarrodM

969 posts

Ultimate Geek

#355958 25-Jul-2010 01:15

Ham: Isn't Telecom cheaper, and has better receptio? What is the advantage having one on VF?

They have the advantage of having released their microsims. We're going to go telecom after this month.

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