Fee to Return as a Telecom Customer

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Fee to Return as a Telecom Customer

1 | 2 | 3

1819 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#300949 22-Feb-2010 11:57

Sorry. I was not stating any facts, just my view on how it looks to me.
No I don't hate Telecom and not I don't think Slingshot can do no wrong.

It's a charge that used to be waved for new BB customers and now it isn't.

Cymro

283 posts

Ultimate Geek

#300954 22-Feb-2010 12:25

hellonearthisman: Sorry. I was not stating any facts, just my view on how it looks to me.
No I don't hate Telecom and not I don't think Slingshot can do no wrong.

It's a charge that used to be waved for new BB customers and now it isn't.

I think you might be mistaken, the charge in question here is for the re-connection of the PSTN service to Telecom, $53.85 (http://www.telecom.co.nz/homeline)

The Broadband installation charge (wires only) is seperate, and is currently free for new customers until the 31st March 2010 (https://www.telecom.co.nz/broadband/select/1,10627,205732-204473,00.html?action=/option)

Hope that clears things up

hellonearthisman

1819 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#300957 22-Feb-2010 12:29

I made mistaken, sorry and thought I deleted that statement. sorry again.

nzbnw

2374 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark NZ

#300958 22-Feb-2010 12:31

Thanks for the clarification hellonearthisman.

You are correct that Broadband connections are at no charge.

nzbnw

pressF1

77 posts

Master Geek

#301028 22-Feb-2010 15:14

But why charge for the access connection? I had teh same issue with my parents homeline and broadband over the Xmas period, they ended up with TelstraClear, no connection fees at all and first month free. Telecom makes more than enough margin to waive these fees, but did not even offer to waive them on a contract term. Competition clearly doesn't always change the incumbents approach

ariosto

46 posts

Geek

#301034 22-Feb-2010 15:39

The connection fee is charged because there's an actual cost to send a technician out to hook up a phone line (not to mention the salaries of the provisioning folks who do the network allocation, etc.) If other providers waive it as part of long term contracts, you can bet they make it up elsewhere in their prices.

Keep in mind that there are differences between an install (connecting a new line on the network) and a reassignment (taking a connected line on a carrier network and simply changing the preferred billing provider). You generally won't see connection charges on a reassignment because it's just a billing change for the most part. Of course porting blurs this picture a little (as you're taking an existing number and transferring it to a new carrier network and preferred billing provider) but at the end of the day, there's still a real cost in allocating network and having someone connect it up.

robbyp

1199 posts

Uber Geek

#301047 22-Feb-2010 16:21

When I closed my dialup account with telcom a few years ago, I was told that if I ever want to resignup in the future for internet, they would charge a reconnection fee. I still had all my phone line through them, and was already using another provider for braodband over telecom phone lines.

GoodSync

GoodSync. Easily back up and sync your files with GoodSync. Simple and secure file backup and synchronisation software will ensure that your files are never lost (affiliate link).

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#301053 22-Feb-2010 16:43

Yes, it's a strange approach from Telecom for sure. A few years ago, I wanted to switch back from TelstraClear's Homeline service, to Telecom:

- There had been no fee for me to join TelstraClear
- The physical phone line was still provided by Telecom who then wholesaled it to TelstraClear
- So, nothing physically needed to be done at the exchange in the way of re-jumpering wires etc.
- Yet Telecom still insisted on charging me the $45 fee as it was then

The conclusion I drew from this was pretty obvious:

- TelstraClear wanted the business, so they waived the joining fee
- Telecom did not want my business, so they were not prepared to waive the joining fee

If Telecom are serious in wanting to gain market-share, they really need to look at this. The costs involved in a technician reprogramming the exchange are simply part of doing business, and need to be looked at as such. Here is an extract from the answer I received from a Telecom spokesman:

Hello Grant

Good to talk to you the other day - and thank you for taking the time to email me.

I have checked out the situation and it is this: we do charge a uniform $45 for connections. If we differentiated and charged customers who were coming back from a competitor a different price (or no price) from the price we charge other customers, say customers moving into a flat and wanting the connection in their name, then we would be potentially creating difficulties. You may recall a couple of years back there was a storm of media stories about a promotion because it was perceived that we were treating new customers or those coming from other providers, differently than we were treating normal customers.

So we apply a standard fee which is to cover administrative and other associated costs.

So, maybe not the answer you were hoping for, but Telecom is delighted you are coming back and really glad that you are seeing better long-term value from our plans.

So ... a nice polite answer, but it didn't really address the issue, so I started looking at other options and ended up going down the VoIP route, which offered even greater savings than Telecom could at the time. That situation still applies now.

As I say, it's a strange way to try and win business.

richms

28173 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#301055 22-Feb-2010 16:50

Probably if they did offer a deal, then the other less compeditive telcos would run crying to the commerce commission who would rule against telecom in general screw with their ability to do business.

Telecom for ages couldnt offer any deals because of the wholesale being charged at a retail minus pricing. Huge handicap to them which didnt affect other ISPs, yet they still managed to do ok out of it.

To me the insult is having to pay to connect a service that I have no desire for. Naked bigtime would be great. Come on telecom, get out of the 1980's with providing landlines that noone wants.

Richard rich.ms

robbyp

1199 posts

Uber Geek

#301057 22-Feb-2010 16:51

As a telecom shareholder, yes they definitely need to look at charging people a connection fee for internet, for simply resigning up, when they often have free connections for brand new connections. Otherwise they will just get people joining those companies which have free signup. Strange that they would justify their policies.

nate

6473 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#301075 22-Feb-2010 17:16

robbyp: When I closed my dialup account with telcom a few years ago, I was told that if I ever want to resignup in the future for internet, they would charge a reconnection fee. I still had all my phone line through them, and was already using another provider for braodband over telecom phone lines.

Are you sure? I recently (last six months) went back to Telecom BigTime after being with Vodafone for broadband and wasn't charged (my phone line has remained with Telecom for yonks).

CYaBro

4583 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#301094 22-Feb-2010 17:52

All I can say is be thankful you don't live in a "rural" area.
When we built our house a few years ago, we got a phone line put in and I wired up the inside of the house, but we didn't actually get a phone connected at the time.
About 8-12 months later we deciced to get the phone connected and it cost us $500!!
$500 to do the same thing that you had to pay apprx $50 for??? I realise that it was probably a bit different in my case as it was a new connection and a tech did have to come out and connect the house to the street.
Made me laugh though as the tech couldn't even do that, my wife had to help him (I wasn't home at the time), as we had run Cat5 cable to the ETP and he had never seen this before. Then my wife showed him the patch panel in the garage so he could test the line, and he wouldn't touch that either.
So we paid $500 for something we could have pretty much done ourselves.

Another thing that made me laugh was after the phone was connected there were major problems with the line on the road side and they had to dig it up to find the problem and fix it.
That would have cost them more than $500 :D

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#301216 22-Feb-2010 21:00

richms: Probably if they did offer a deal, then the other less compeditive telcos would run crying to the commerce commission who would rule against telecom in general screw with their ability to do business.

this. they either charge retial customers for a reconnect, or can't charge other providers when they want to connect a customers.

Telecom for ages couldnt offer any deals because of the wholesale being charged at a retail minus pricing. Huge handicap to them which didnt affect other ISPs, yet they still managed to do ok out of it.

iof by 'doing ok' you mean their market share in broadband has plummeted then I suppose you would be correct

To me the insult is having to pay to connect a service that I have no desire for. Naked bigtime would be great. Come on telecom, get out of the 1980's with providing landlines that noone wants.

some people want a landline. Like me.

PhoenixNZ

52 posts

Master Geek

#301243 22-Feb-2010 21:47

There should be a little clarity on this one.

Regardless of whether you are connecting an existing line or simply moving your services back to Telecom, there is a connection fee. This is required of Telecom as if they started treating new line connections and winbacks seperately then they would be in trouble with the Comm Comm as it would be considered anti-competitive.

There is no fee at the moment for connection of broadband with Telecom as its covered under their free connection free modem deal.

robbyp

1199 posts

Uber Geek

#301245 22-Feb-2010 21:55

CYaBro: All I can say is be thankful you don't live in a "rural" area.
When we built our house a few years ago, we got a phone line put in and I wired up the inside of the house, but we didn't actually get a phone connected at the time.
About 8-12 months later we deciced to get the phone connected and it cost us $500!!
$500 to do the same thing that you had to pay apprx $50 for??? I realise that it was probably a bit different in my case as it was a new connection and a tech did have to come out and connect the house to the street.
Made me laugh though as the tech couldn't even do that, my wife had to help him (I wasn't home at the time), as we had run Cat5 cable to the ETP and he had never seen this before. Then my wife showed him the patch panel in the garage so he could test the line, and he wouldn't touch that either.
So we paid $500 for something we could have pretty much done ourselves.

Another thing that made me laugh was after the phone was connected there were major problems with the line on the road side and they had to dig it up to find the problem and fix it.
That would have cost them more than $500 :D

I have a holiday home in a rural area, although it is only a few km from a town, and is on the SH. Never connected it to telecom. I have a phone line coming in, but not going to pay the $500 to get it connected, just use the cell phone instead. $500 is a rort, and price gouging, as there is no way that it would actually cost them $500 to do a simple connection. If you are in a really remote area, I believe it costs over a thousand to get it connected.

1 | 2 | 3