Telecom Prepay value pack ripoff

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom Prepay value pack ripoff

penfald

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#150290 17-Jul-2014 14:27

I like to use pre-pay with Telecom as I don't have the risk of an enormous bill if my phone gets hacked. I like the $19 a month prepay package.

My prepay was due to expire on the 13th of this month and I did not add any money so my $19 package stopped. I spent some money on data and texting on the 14th and 15th. This reduced my balance from $1.90 to 30cents.

On the 17th (today) I put $20 on my phone and my package renewed. I looked at the renewal date and it said it was the 13th of next month. As it had been backdated I expected to have the $1.60 refunded to my balance. I would have also accepted if my renewal data was the $17th of next month.

I phoned up Telecom and apparently that is how it is supposed to work.

It seems a bit of a ripoff that I have 4 days less before I have to renew and got nothing for it. The Telecom person admitted that if I had cancelled the $19 pack, put the money on, and then selected it again I would have got the full month worth.

This has happened to me on previous months, I just had not been absolutely positive about it. The Telecom person basically said it was my fault for not renewing in time

What do you guys think about this, I am happy to be told to suck it up if that's what the consensus is, but I know there must be many many people who are in the same situation as me.

Penfald

l43a2

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#1090761 17-Jul-2014 14:38

do you still have 90 minutes to use? do you still have 500meg of data ? do you still have unlimited texts........

nigelj

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#1090767 17-Jul-2014 14:49

The Telecom person basically said it was my fault for not renewing in time

While I guess technically true, the renewal didn't happen and wasn't actioned until the prepaid credit was applied by you.

Telecom were not offering you a line of credit on the $19 pack, and charged you full price for services rendered in the mean-time (so unlike the person in the $1 2D's thread a month a so back... you actually do have a point). I wouldn't say 'rip-off' outright, but I would certainly say 'unfair', and potentially a form of double-dipping (although they aren't adjusting the minutes used etc down so... 1 1/2 dipping).

Unfortunately prepaid users seem to get the rotten end of usage stats etc to correlate billing data etc to confirm that charges are correct, this certainly does seem to be a cause to push for though, it screams 'unfair'.

pinkydot

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#1090773 17-Jul-2014 14:58

I always cancel the auto renewel once I get the $19 a month Prepay package. Just in case by the end of the month I don't use my phone much, would save me those few extra days before I top up again.

graemeh

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#1090774 17-Jul-2014 14:58

l43a2: do you still have 90 minutes to use? do you still have 500meg of data ? do you still have unlimited texts........

Do you still have one month to use it?

penfald

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#1090778 17-Jul-2014 15:01

yes, yes, yes. I never use them all in a month

penfald

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#1090780 17-Jul-2014 15:03

One month from the 13th, not from when I renewed

So no, I don't get a month only 27 days as I got nothing for the 3 days I had not paid

Penfald

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Bung

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#1090787 17-Jul-2014 15:12

pinkydot: I always cancel the auto renewel once I get the $19 a month Prepay package. Just in case by the end of the month I don't use my phone much, would save me those few extra days before I top up again.

The Terms and Conditions mention many times that the renewal date is on the same day each month but also say

"If you have chosen to renew your TALK Extra every 30 days, you must ensure that you have sufficient balance available in your Prepaid account on the last day of your subscription period, otherwise your subscription will lapse and you will de defaulted to the casual rates above."

That would seem to indicate that you'd need to start again. Maybe that would be a disadvantage if the eligibility or terms for new entrants changed.

PhantomNVD

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#1090825 17-Jul-2014 15:32

Yup, I'd say the TOCs are clear and you have to suck it up or move on...

Prepay customers (like me on 2degrees) are the lowest margin/highest maintenance of the customer pool, so for your (and my) measly $19 would they really care if you walked anyway?

I like 2D just BECAUSE the minutes and data staymine wether used or not, and go hard on my holidays away using my 'old' data/minutes and caring not about overages - like now :)

My $19 gets 90m/500mb and I started my holidays with 680oddmins and 1Gb data... Sweat as :D

coffeebaron

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#1090847 17-Jul-2014 15:48

If you were on account and you don't pay your bill, then your account may get suspended and you may not be able to use it at all. You'd then still have to pay your full month, including time you could not use your phone, once you got your bill paid. In your case, you were lucky that you could pay at casual rates and still use your phone.

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graemeh

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#1090876 17-Jul-2014 16:31

penfald: One month from the 13th, not from when I renewed

So no, I don't get a month only 27 days as I got nothing for the 3 days I had not paid

Penfald

So yes, it is a bit of a ripoff. If you can find another provider that doesn't work this way then you may wish to move to them.

dacraka

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#1090907 17-Jul-2014 17:16

Yea it does the same thing with 2degrees which isn't fair as well.

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Yabanize

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#1090912 17-Jul-2014 17:36

When a Skinny combo renews or is brought, it lasts 30 days from the time you activate it

rugrat

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#1091140 18-Jul-2014 02:33

Don't think it's right, but nothing you can do about it, that's the terms and conditions.

I'd just play their game, and when buy next pack cancel the auto renew, then when it runs out your next month only starts when put it back on again, not back dated.

Bung

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#1091143 18-Jul-2014 06:36

The terms and conditions say that an extra subscription lapses if there isn't enough credit to renew it. Is a value pack treated differently from other extras? What would happen if the OP had left the account with some credit but left it a couple of weeks before topping up? This isn't like the continuous licensing issue that you have with a car.