Way to undifferentiate a product!

I think the changes are ill considered, why do they want to compete against skinny?   

Spark should perhaps be hiring some 2degrees staff?

sbiddle:

 

kryptonjohn:

 

Looking at Spark today it seems to me you still get Spotify and Lightbox on the rollover plans (I'm looking at the 7.5Gb plan).

 

Have kids' phones on 2D and VF, and next year kid#3 will need a phone. Looked at Spark's shared plans... they cost $30 per sharer WTF? They can get a really good prepay deal for $19 why would anyone want to pay $30? Surely you should enjoy a discount for adding sharers, not pay a premium?

 

 

 

 

I too can't believe the Spark $29 price. Vodafone only charge $19 for additional users and there is a retention deal that's only $10 per user.

 

As I posted about a few days ago the family / group plan is something being pretty well ignored in the NZ market yet is huge elsewhere. It's completely untapped so far.

 

 

 

You're totally right.  It would be a great option if a telco did something like 4 lines for $150 and you can self manage those lines i.e. how much text/talk/data each line gets.  So parents have unlimited text/phone and 4gigs of data each, 1 kid get unlimited text/phone and 1gig of data the other kid gets 2gigs of data etc.

skewt:

 

https://www.spark.co.nz/shop/mobile-plans/prepaid.html

 

Old Plans: https://web.archive.org/web/20170724041659/https://www.spark.co.nz/shop/mobile-plans/prepaid.html

 

Disappointing plans..

 

• now with 28 day rollover
• caps on the rollover minutes/data amount
• No longer includes full spotify on any plans
• Minutes went up but no increases in data

 

 

 

 

 

 

• The new Pay Monthly Rollover plans include complimentary Spotify Premium, Lightbox and 1GB of free Spark WiFi per day.

I just did two chats with Spark staff - the first got cut off because the wait was so long I forgot to check the tab.

The first told me the old $19 prepay plan "music pack" is still available to new customers. The second told me it is not available to new customers. I expect the second is true, not available, but a bit annoying that they can't say for sure.

@timmmay I am sure Spark will retire the old plans this is generally what happens when new plans are introduced

Linux

I should've signed up on Friday. Bugger. I'll stick with Skinny then.

Skinny look good - they have a $16 plan with 1Gb rollover data, 150 rollover min, unlimited text, and a $9 plan with minimal 100Mb data. Ideal for the kids.

Just something to note for everyone who is with Spark just for Spotify, there is also Apple Music out there which I think is well priced.... $12.99 per user /month or $19.99 /month with it shared over 6 users.

Makes me feel that Vodafone's $20 /month per share option is the best deal, but of course still waiting to see what they do with their plans given Spark and 2D have tinkered with their ones.

Seems to me Spark is all heart (Not)

I'm with 2 degrees, and have a roll over period of 12 months,  Currently I have 19.5 GB and over 3.5K min.

the Data was mostly because I 'won' 10GB in the data hunt earlier in the year so I'm all good thanks Spark. 

Also lucky enough to have free wifi at work which helps too, when they ring me to try and change me over to Spark,

I say offer me what I have and I will, replies always the same, and that is one reason why I left spark and then Vodafone.

DjShadow:

 

Just something to note for everyone who is with Spark just for Spotify, there is also Apple Music out there which I think is well priced.... $12.99 per user /month or $19.99 /month with it shared over 6 users.

 

Makes me feel that Vodafone's $20 /month per share option is the best deal, but of course still waiting to see what they do with their plans given Spark and 2D have tinkered with their ones.

 

Also Google Play Music for a similar price, then you get free Youtube Red, the main bonus is ads are removed.

tdgeek:

 

skewt:

 

https://www.spark.co.nz/shop/mobile-plans/prepaid.html

 

Old Plans: https://web.archive.org/web/20170724041659/https://www.spark.co.nz/shop/mobile-plans/prepaid.html

 

Disappointing plans..

 

• now with 28 day rollover
• caps on the rollover minutes/data amount
• No longer includes full spotify on any plans
• Minutes went up but no increases in data

 

 

 

 

 

• The new Pay Monthly Rollover plans include complimentary Spotify Premium, Lightbox and 1GB of free Spark WiFi per day.

 

Thats the 'premium' pay-monthly contract-thats-not-really product ($40), his snippet refers to the contract-really-a-monthly-plan-but-we-all-call-it-prepay $19-$29 ones the youngins use. note the URL he sample being prepaid vs paymonthly where you locate that

Don't worry, it caught a few people I warned about out also. Really should all be 'plans' but budget vs premium or similar.

michaelmurfy:

 

People seem to forget that unless if they're ditching Spotify this is still good value. There is no other provider in NZ with a music addon. Yes, there are "better" providers (looking at you Skinny) but you'll then be paying $14 for Spotify too.

 

yeah - but I would be ditching premium spotify - not worth the $15/m or 6.90/4wks for me - I would go back to normal ad every so often spotify when at home and on wifi, and reload my phone with my 1000 odd old mp3 again for the car - it what i mostly play anyway on spotify, and then can move to more data with rollover and and same minute talk time with rollovers for the same price. Spotify is a nice to have and spark plan was ok for most of what i needed so hit top provider for me, with them dropping of premium spotify it will not be the top for me when i can not get my grandfathered plan / other plans leave grandfather plan for dust. It was setting them apart, now it not.

muppet:

 

DjShadow:

 

Just something to note for everyone who is with Spark just for Spotify, there is also Apple Music out there which I think is well priced.... $12.99 per user /month or $19.99 /month with it shared over 6 users.

 

Makes me feel that Vodafone's $20 /month per share option is the best deal, but of course still waiting to see what they do with their plans given Spark and 2D have tinkered with their ones.

 

 

Also Google Play Music for a similar price, then you get free Youtube Red, the main bonus is ads are removed.

 

Make it $20 a month and you can get a Google Play family account and share with 4 other people.

After a good run with Spark, I'll be switching over to the blue team for their $55 plan + $25 sharer once my credit runs out. Essentially for $5 more, I get 6GB more data + rollover but lose one Spotify premium account.

The second Spotify account was always just an added bonus and a way to justify the higher share cost compared to other networks, however with no added data allowance with the new plans, there's no competition that 2D win on value which is what Spark really pushes/takes pride in. 

Let's be real, most people do not use their 'free' Lightbox and realistically you won't be sitting around a WiFi point to use up the 1GB every day. I could justify staying with Spark and paying the 50% Spotify cost if they increased their data allowance to 7.5GB (or even 6GB) OR if they kept the 4GB data limit but allowed me to swap my Lightbox code for another Spotify code. 

Would have gone with the $79.99 Spark Unlimited plan if there was no tether restriction. The decreased speed is no biggy as 22GB is quite reasonable, but again, their silly restrictions means you're losing out on 'value'. Unless I'm on Youtube all day, there is no way I can finish close to 22GB without using my laptop for work which is something I often do as it gets extremely tedious switching between Word, PDF etc and the web browser on my phone given the screen size, not to mention the slower typing ability = less productivity.

Maybe I'll move back in the future if they decide to allow even 5GB of tether etc