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ArcticSilver

729 posts

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#136187 18-Nov-2013 11:55
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Does Telecom have any plans to introduce spending limits on pay monthly for mobile calling?

I am currently about to leave Telecom for this feature. I feel it is essential.

As I use my cell phone for my business, which has a large variation of busy and quiet period's I have found a need a some sort of limiter, or at least a notification that I am getting near my plan's limit.



Prime example:

Last month I was charged $344.77 for my cell phone bill. Because I received no notification I was completely unaware until the end of the month that I had gone over my cap. I added around $285 to my bill within the last 3 days. I'm not blaming Telecom for this, it was my fault, I was extremely busy.

But here lies the problem, when I get busy I do not want to be constantly logging into "MyTelecom" or calling up Telecom to check my usage. I just don't. Unless I am mistaken, there is no way to be warned that I am nearing my plan limit of minutes.

A simple notification would of avoided this bill for me.


I am on a very high plan for my usage, because of the one or two times per year I have a busy month. Without being on this higher plan I would be paying through the earth. I have never exceeded my minutes before this case, in fact, I don't usually get close.



In order to mitigate this issue, my only option is to move away from Telecom, because over the course of a year I could easily add 100% to my bill.

In my situation this makes Telecom 100% more expensive than everyone else.


Providing warning's is ESSENTIAL and should be the normal in this day and age.

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Yyrael
222 posts

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  #936540 18-Nov-2013 12:03
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Hi there,

This has been an issue for a while and I certainly feel your pain here. Luckily we have now launched Smart Capping for Data usage allowing you to control how much data overage you would like to pay (if any).

Check it out here



Inphinity
2780 posts

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  #936544 18-Nov-2013 12:05
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Yyrael: Hi there,

This has been an issue for a while and I certainly feel your pain here. Luckily we have now launched Smart Capping for Data usage allowing you to control how much data overage you would like to pay (if any).

Check it out here


Unfortunately, though, it seems the OPs issue is with minutes, not data

Unless I am mistaken, there is no way to be warned that I am nearing my plan limit of minutes.


I'm surprised there's no "You've used 80% of your minutes!" type txt message option. 

ArcticSilver

729 posts

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  #936547 18-Nov-2013 12:09
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Inphinity:
Yyrael: Hi there,

This has been an issue for a while and I certainly feel your pain here. Luckily we have now launched Smart Capping for Data usage allowing you to control how much data overage you would like to pay (if any).

Check it out here


Unfortunately, though, it seems the OPs issue is with minutes, not data

Unless I am mistaken, there is no way to be warned that I am nearing my plan limit of minutes.


I'm surprised there's no "You've used 80% of your minutes!" type txt message option. 


Yes this is exactly the issue.

It worked for my data, I use that one a lot.

Unfortunately its the minutes that really hit me hard.



Paulthagerous
698 posts

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  #936556 18-Nov-2013 12:12
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Based on the figures quoted you appear to be on a $59 plan. Maybe look at a slightly higher plan with more minutes included?

old3eyes
9120 posts

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  #936563 18-Nov-2013 12:23
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Over the past week I have wondered what the OP brings up. My wife has gone over her minutes this month. No alert that she had but as I monitored her usage I was able to tell her and gave her a spare fone with a Skinny SIM in it and 60 minutes of talk time until her month rolls over again on the 23rd. What I would like to see is an alert like you get with data usage and the ability to buy more minutes on post pay like you can for data..




Regards,

Old3eyes


wongtop
565 posts

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  #936564 18-Nov-2013 12:24
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If you've got lots of ups and downs over the year, you could look at some of 2degrees plans which would allow you to carryover minutes when you don't use them.

Yyrael
222 posts

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  #936616 18-Nov-2013 13:31
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Inphinity:
Yyrael: Hi there,

This has been an issue for a while and I certainly feel your pain here. Luckily we have now launched Smart Capping for Data usage allowing you to control how much data overage you would like to pay (if any).

Check it out here


Unfortunately, though, it seems the OPs issue is with minutes, not data

Unless I am mistaken, there is no way to be warned that I am nearing my plan limit of minutes.


I'm surprised there's no "You've used 80% of your minutes!" type txt message option. 


Whoops, must have missed that. Don't often see people going over minutes anymore... Looking into it

 
 
 

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).
NonprayingMantis
6434 posts

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  #936618 18-Nov-2013 13:35
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I don't think there is any warning system for minutes, but you can definitely check your minutes using the app - takes just a few seconds, and buy extras that give you additional minutes much cheaper than overage.

Yyrael
222 posts

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  #936621 18-Nov-2013 13:39
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NonprayingMantis: I don't think there is any warning system for minutes, but you can definitely check your minutes using the app - takes just a few seconds, and buy extras that give you additional minutes much cheaper than overage.


Yup, after looking into it this is it. We don't have any warning system for minutes. Only data :( but the app is pretty quick to check. If you have specific times of year when you're going to be using much more minutes and you are not in contract keep in mind you can change your plan up to once per month (if extras wont cut it).

old3eyes
9120 posts

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  #936851 18-Nov-2013 18:57
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NonprayingMantis: I don't think there is any warning system for minutes, but you can definitely check your minutes using the app - takes just a few seconds, and buy extras that give you additional minutes much cheaper than overage.


You can't buy minutes on Telecom post pay..




Regards,

Old3eyes


Kyanar
4089 posts

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  #937978 20-Nov-2013 15:58
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old3eyes:
NonprayingMantis: I don't think there is any warning system for minutes, but you can definitely check your minutes using the app - takes just a few seconds, and buy extras that give you additional minutes much cheaper than overage.


You can't buy minutes on Telecom post pay..


A $9 international talk & text gets you an extra 90 minutes that can be used to call within NZ?

Paulthagerous
698 posts

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  #937979 20-Nov-2013 16:01
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Kyanar:
old3eyes:
NonprayingMantis: I don't think there is any warning system for minutes, but you can definitely check your minutes using the app - takes just a few seconds, and buy extras that give you additional minutes much cheaper than overage.


You can't buy minutes on Telecom post pay..


A $9 international talk & text gets you an extra 90 minutes that can be used to call within NZ?


Those minutes cannot be used to call NZ phones.

Behodar
10508 posts

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  #937990 20-Nov-2013 16:29
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Yyrael: If you have specific times of year when you're going to be using much more minutes and you are not in contract keep in mind you can change your plan up to once per month (if extras wont cut it).

If nothing's changed in the past year or so then you can also change plans while in contract, so long as you don't drop below the one that you started with. For the past two Christmas breaks I pushed my plan up a notch to get more data and didn't have any extra fees or anything.

stevenz
2802 posts

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  #938027 20-Nov-2013 16:50
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If you've got an Android device then there are several apps that'll monitor your call usage for you.




andyb
236 posts

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  #938064 20-Nov-2013 18:09
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There's one for ios called CallMonitor as well, you need to make calls from within the app, but it loads your phone address book so it's no different from using the stock address book. Just as easy to check call usage via the Telecom App though.




andyb

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