Hi All

This is my first attempt at a topic on Geekzone - please forgive me if I've made any mistakes.

I was looking at my Spark bill that arrived yesterday and it showed the following charges
Ultra VDSL $9.99
Home Broadband Unlimited Data Plan $104.98
Note that we have unlimited VDSL with Landline (no special calling).

I am aware that we received a letter from Spark in January raising the price to $114.99.

We’ve had a lot of spam in the snail mail lately offering broadband at lower prices so I thought I’d check the spark site to make sure I was on the right plan and noticed that the unlimited VDSL with Landline was $104.99. 

I kicked off a chat session with a Spark agent who firstly told me that the $9.99 charge had been added back in August but he would remove it and credit me the last 3 months – I asked why it was added but he couldn’t tell me.  Anyway, I know it’s been there for a lot longer than the last 3 months and mentioned that to him which seemed like news to him.

I pushed him a little further as to why I was paying the $9.99 charge (and essentially why I was paying $9.99 more than the current price on the Spark page).

The Spark agent advised that it was because when I had VDSL installed I have one of the following and had to have a splitter installed…

• A monitored / medical alarm system
• A similar device that is hard wired into your phone line
• 5 or more jackpoints in use

and that Splitters filter the ADSL or VDSL signal at the point where the phone line enters the premises and sends it to a single phone jackpoint, meaning the modem will only work in that jackpoint. 

I advised that I didn’t have any of those (we have 3 phone jacks and use 2 of them).  I told him that I paid a $99 installation fee at the time and I understood that it included the cost of the Master filter and the VDSL jack they added to the wall outlet by the modem.

He then proceeded to tell me that the monthly $9.99 charge was what Chorus charge Spark for the installation which they recoup from the customer – I pointed out that I paid $99 for installation (got it before it was a free install).  

He then told me that the $9.99 cost was (his words) “for a Chorus technician to install a splitter on the line in your house to accelerate the speed of your broadband. The additional cost was built into the cost of the VDSL plan, which was $10 a month more than an ADSL plan.”

So I explained to him that it sounds like I am paying for a Master filter that costs circa $20 at a cost of $9.99 a month (since approx. Dec 2013) and that seemed extreme.  His response was “The charge is to do with what Chorus charges us for that VDSL splitter install. Chorus charge us a lump sum fee. We make it back by spreading the payments out over the months of your plan. You are not only paying for the part. You are also paying for the rental of it that chorus also charge us.” 

So now he’s saying that the $9.99 covers the parts (which I thought were covered in the $99 installation cost) and Chorus are charging Spark rental of that part which is also covered by that $9.99.

He then tells me that he now can’t credit me back the last three months as there were changes on 7 November 2016 where a splitter (at this point I don’t know if a splitter and master filter are the same thing) is no longer required for VDSL installs so the $9.99 fee has been removed. 

Anyway – by this stage I was totally confused as to what the $9.99 was really for and why I was paying $9.99 more that the Spark site is advertising for the same plan – however the Spark agent has agreed to remove the $9.99 charge from my account which was great.  

I was wondering if anyone else has queried this with Spark or even noticed that they are paying more that the current Spark prices.  Afterwards I looked at some cached Spark pages and it does look like there has been a change to the pricing for my plan in the last week or so.  Was Spark going to offer to reduce the monthly cost or did I need to apply to change my plan (to the same plan at lower cost) to get the cheaper pricing?

Apologies for the long diatribe but I thought someone might find it interesting as to the explanation(s) I received.