My experience joining Spark mobile

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › My experience joining Spark mobile

FletchNZ

113 posts

Master Geek

#160569 12-Jan-2015 10:23

I'm writing this purely so people dont get stung by spark like I have.

For Christmas my wife and I decided to move to the Spark Mobile music pack from 2degrees since i'm already paying for spotify.
Thinking this would be a breeze, I popped in to my local store and picked up 2x $19 Music Pack Sims.

My wifes 2degrees plan was expiring first so I swapped her first, put in the new sim and filled out the online form to swap the number and 4 hours later he was up and running, easy. However soon I realised there was no $19music plan on her account, I called the mobile help desk and they said the plan was tied to the original number on the sim and there was nothing I could do, tough luck. End up paying for another 19 music plan to get her going. I did check the paper booklet that came with the sim, no warning anywhere but it did recommend I bring my number.

I then think well at least I know for my sim so I wont waste my money again. I activate my Spark sim, I don't transfer my old the number and then go and activate the spotify membership with the number that came with the sim - Get error message - Number not recognised, would you like to try again(I have tried numerous times since Christmas). So sims that come with a music pack don't seem to get the spotify membership unless I want to pay an other $19 to activate it.

Moral of the story, don't by a $19 music pack sim. What should have cost $38 cost me $76.

meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1212334 12-Jan-2015 10:42

Thanks for that, I've been looking at switching to that pack from 2degrees and bringing my number over.

FletchNZ

113 posts

Master Geek

#1212360 12-Jan-2015 10:58

Well I'm glad I helped someone, my mission was achieved!
I posted this not knowing if it was common knowledge but I couldn't find any info on this anywhere and I wanted to do something after getting burnt.

old3eyes

9119 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1212371 12-Jan-2015 11:17

OP. Did you try to find out from Spark what the problem was ??

Regards,

Old3eyes

plambrechtsen

1948 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1212376 12-Jan-2015 11:21

Talk with the online chat folks. They should be able to sort out those sorts of issues.

If it has been pre-activated on the old number then it does make sense that you can't move it. But a normal port shouldn't require an "old" number, just port in and get a blank sim and you are away.

There have been some odd porting scenarios from a code change I put in just before brownout that may have affected you. But the fix should be going in sometime this week. Plus there is a process to fix it via online chat.

Have you tried them??? they are pretty awesome at fixing these sorts of things.

eXDee

4032 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1212384 12-Jan-2015 11:31

If it was $19 for a music pack sim, then one would assume it comes with the music pack and it should be clear if its tied to the number included and/or whether moving it to another number is possible.

FletchNZ

113 posts

Master Geek

#1212387 12-Jan-2015 11:38

plambrechtsen: Talk with the online chat folks. They should be able to sort out those sorts of issues.

If it has been pre-activated on the old number then it does make sense that you can't move it. But a normal port shouldn't require an "old" number, just port in and get a blank sim and you are away.

There have been some odd porting scenarios from a code change I put in just before brownout that may have affected you. But the fix should be going in sometime this week. Plus there is a process to fix it via online chat.

Have you tried them??? they are pretty awesome at fixing these sorts of things.

No I haven't tried the online support, only the mobile help desk and they made it very clear there was nothing to be done about it. Ill give them a go and see if I get any joy.

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1212714 12-Jan-2015 19:45

meesham: Thanks for that, I've been looking at switching to that pack from 2degrees and bringing my number over.

Just to ensure readers don't think it's all doom and gloom, my experience of porting my wife's 2 degrees number over to Spark with the music pack was fine, so don't be put off by one reported negative experience, but just learn from what went wrong.

We were in the same boat - paying for a current Spotify premium account, so it made great financial sense. The port went completely to plan - I ordered it off their website if that makes a difference. I did ring them to get the music pack enabled after the port went through as initially it wasn't loaded against the account.

My biggest concern was losing our playlists and/or downloaded music as our normal Spotify bill was due about five days after the port and one must cancel the payment arrangements to enable Spark to take them over. While there was no such confirmation sent, it all went fine and my wife now has a perfect plan for her mobile (given she has a work phone), for the net cost of $6. Did erroneously assume that Aus calls and texts were part of the plan, being used to Skinny and 2 Degrees, but won't make that mistake again!

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meesham

973 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1220532 23-Jan-2015 09:06

jonathan18:
Just to ensure readers don't think it's all doom and gloom, my experience of porting my wife's 2 degrees number over to Spark with the music pack was fine, so don't be put off by one reported negative experience, but just learn from what went wrong.

We were in the same boat - paying for a current Spotify premium account, so it made great financial sense. The port went completely to plan - I ordered it off their website if that makes a difference. I did ring them to get the music pack enabled after the port went through as initially it wasn't loaded against the account.

My biggest concern was losing our playlists and/or downloaded music as our normal Spotify bill was due about five days after the port and one must cancel the payment arrangements to enable Spark to take them over. While there was no such confirmation sent, it all went fine and my wife now has a perfect plan for her mobile (given she has a work phone), for the net cost of $6. Did erroneously assume that Aus calls and texts were part of the plan, being used to Skinny and 2 Degrees, but won't make that mistake again!

Mine didn't go so smoothly. My SIM arrived early so I rang up around 9am to get the number ported and was told that they couldn't do it early (even though it says they can in their email) so I said fine and would wait until the scheduled port date/time. Then around 1pm my 2degrees SIM stops working so I check my Spark SIM, that's not working either and doesn't start working until 8am the following day. Then my music pack isn't activated, I contacted them via online chat and was told I didn't purchase a music pack, I ended up having to speak to another 2 people until they found my order and saw that I did in fact order the music pack (and paid the $19 for the first month) and they got their manager to manually apply my credit and then add the music pack. I've not received my Spotify details yet, I'm hoping that goes a bit more smoothly.

In short I've not been that impressed so far.

FletchNZ

113 posts

Master Geek

#1220579 23-Jan-2015 09:42

Yeah, I didn't get any joy in the end either by the time I went to call them there was a week left on the plan on the other number making it pointless to transfer.
Although the music pack on my other un-transferred sim number did start working so I got to enjoy that for a couple of days before it expired.

All up I wasted $40 on mobile packs I didn't use, not ideal but not the end of the world. I did try the phone support who told me to suck it up and nothing they can do so I wasn't going to waste any more time on it.