Bonus TopUps Ending

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Bonus TopUps Ending

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

66 posts

Master Geek

#433437 31-Jan-2011 22:07

What about that free phone you got with your contract? What about the bonus credit on your bill... Its all swings and roundabouts mate.

quickymart

13956 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#433453 31-Jan-2011 22:27

Free phone? I've never had one of those. Bonus credit? Since when? Please explain.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#433585 1-Feb-2011 10:29

Kyanar: You know, the fact you prepay customers get anything free is pretty damn cool - us postpaid customers get absolutely nothing - on any network. Bonus Topups on XT - prepay only. Mystery Topup Gifts on XT - prepay only. Double Back on Vodafone - prepay only. Topup Bonuses on 2degrees - prepay only.

Quit whining - you're still getting free stuff. More than we're getting.

what about your handset subsidy, whiuch could be up to several hundred dollars depending on the plan, and voice rates around half the price as prepaid? Even with the maximum bonus topup your voice rates are still much cheaper on any postpaid plan than on prepaid.

as well as the convenience of never having to topup.

eXDee

4032 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#433668 1-Feb-2011 13:07

3 close friends have moved to 2degrees entirely as a result of this move.

Kyanar

4089 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#433683 1-Feb-2011 13:56

NonprayingMantis:
Kyanar: You know, the fact you prepay customers get anything free is pretty damn cool - us postpaid customers get absolutely nothing - on any network. Bonus Topups on XT - prepay only. Mystery Topup Gifts on XT - prepay only. Double Back on Vodafone - prepay only. Topup Bonuses on 2degrees - prepay only.

Quit whining - you're still getting free stuff. More than we're getting.

what about your handset subsidy, whiuch could be up to several hundred dollars depending on the plan, and voice rates around half the price as prepaid? Even with the maximum bonus topup your voice rates are still much cheaper on any postpaid plan than on prepaid.

as well as the convenience of never having to topup.

Handset subsidy? Don't have one of those - considering I'd get a measly $100 off buying a new phone, and my current device was full retail ($1200 worth! And only new customers get that $600 credit, so shafted again!) In fact, you'd have to spend $80 a month in order to get a "several hundred dollar" (by which I mean 200 dollar) subsidy. Half price voice rates? Actually, no - I'm only about 20c less than prepaid pricing on fifty-something cents a minute. "Convenience of never having to top up"? What the hell? How about "inconvenience of not being able to cancel"? You're grasping at straws...

joff_nz

446 posts

Ultimate Geek

#433686 1-Feb-2011 14:02

Kyanar, are you with Telecom or Voda? If you are with telecom then your maths is all over the place

friedCrumpet

271 posts

Ultimate Geek

#433696 1-Feb-2011 14:34

If postpaid is so horrible, why on earth did you sign up for it?

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#433705 1-Feb-2011 14:50

Kyanar:
NonprayingMantis:
Kyanar: You know, the fact you prepay customers get anything free is pretty damn cool - us postpaid customers get absolutely nothing - on any network. Bonus Topups on XT - prepay only. Mystery Topup Gifts on XT - prepay only. Double Back on Vodafone - prepay only. Topup Bonuses on 2degrees - prepay only.

Quit whining - you're still getting free stuff. More than we're getting.

what about your handset subsidy, whiuch could be up to several hundred dollars depending on the plan, and voice rates around half the price as prepaid? Even with the maximum bonus topup your voice rates are still much cheaper on any postpaid plan than on prepaid.

as well as the convenience of never having to topup.

Handset subsidy? Don't have one of those - considering I'd get a measly $100 off buying a new phone, and my current device was full retail ($1200 worth! And only new customers get that $600 credit, so shafted again!) In fact, you'd have to spend $80 a month in order to get a "several hundred dollar" (by which I mean 200 dollar) subsidy. Half price voice rates? Actually, no - I'm only about 20c less than prepaid pricing on fifty-something cents a minute. "Convenience of never having to top up"? What the hell? How about "inconvenience of not being able to cancel"? You're grasping at straws...

Like I said, *UP TO* several hundred dollars *depending on plan*.

And, even the worst postpaid plan gives you 59c/min rates, which is 66% of the standard prepaid rate (89c). Other plans have much lower rates which can be as low (or lower for the really high plans) as 45cpm – *almost exactly half the prepaid 89c rate* – just like I said.

And then, just like I said, even when you take the max bonus topups into account that gives prepaid an effective rate of 67cpm, this is *still* higher than the worst postpaid plan (59cpm).

Convenience of not having to topup might not matter to you, but it does to a lot of people. When I was on prepaid I used to hate running out of credit. Major pain in the butt.

Basically you claim that prepaid is being given all these benefits, but if you fail to take up any of the benefits that postpaid offer then you don't really have a leg to stand on. If you think prepaid is so much better why are you even on postpaid in the first place? Bonus topups have been around since Xt launched.

ahmad

1937 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#433864 1-Feb-2011 19:19

Telecom this is sh!t move.

To all those saying that the topup bonus thing was a promotion - really? I must have been duped by all their fancy marketing because I never ever recall it being a limited time promotion. I know that Non-stop TXT and TXT 2500 were promos but topup bonus seemed to be sold as a permanent feature of XT prepaid??

NealR

426 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#433872 1-Feb-2011 19:31

@Ahmad I'll make sure your comments reach the right people.

The comments I write on this forum do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer and as such cannot be taken as official statements of my employer.

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#433882 1-Feb-2011 19:48

NealR: @Ahmad I'll make sure your comments reach the right people.

You want to see the picture that just put in my head

NealR going to the marketing team saying Ahmad on Geekzone thinks your promo is sh1t

ahmad

1937 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#433883 1-Feb-2011 19:49

NealR: @Ahmad I'll make sure your comments reach the right people.

Thanks Neal. I am a huge fan of the XT network and have gone out of my way to defend it, as well as document objectively - iPhone 4 XT vs. Vodafone speed test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3agZXr0faYU

But honestly this topup bonus change is horrendous and makes XT pricing extremely uncompetitive.

Do away with topup bonuses if you wish (and as you've done) but stop the criminal 89c/min casual call charge.

If I'm brutally honest, regarding XT prepaid pricing:

- Data pricing is "ok"
- TXT package range and pricing is "excellent"
- Voice pricing is "exhorbitant"

What the topup bonus was good for was to make you feel less sick when you had make a phone call.

Cheers Neal.

snnet

1410 posts

Uber Geek

#433892 1-Feb-2011 20:04

I think that the fact that the term "bonus" is given all over here that it was always a promotion and could end at any time. Bonus means more than what you are paying for, and they've put it quite literal with terms such as "20+5" "you pay 20 and we'll give you 25"- I never expected it to last forever, I assumed it was a launch promotion and I am surprised it went as long as it did. They did the right thing letting people know it was ending etc so while it may be a little disappointing because people have adapted to this bonus situation when topping up to cover their prepay "plan features" like mobile data and texting, the way it has been worded throughout has been that of a promotion that could be terminated in time- at least thats how I look at it.

arnies

525 posts

Ultimate Geek

#433893 1-Feb-2011 20:05

The topup bonus was always a promotion. I read the fine print when it first launched. Of course, Telecom didn't go out of its way to advertise the fact it was ending, or was a limited time offer (they are a business of course).

But they did sent a text message to everyone. So good on them for doing that at least.

ahmad

1937 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#433895 1-Feb-2011 20:11

I never took the "bonus" nature of the bonus topup to mean a limited offer. In fact all marketing I saw failed to disclose this satisfactorily.

I took the "bonus" to mean an incentive to top up more than $10 at a time - the "bonus" was a little extra to encourage greater topup values.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10