Sick of Vodafone Service, thinking of changing to Spark

Forums › Spark New Zealand › Sick of Vodafone Service, thinking of changing to Spark

OnceBitten

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# 251187 12-Jun-2019 13:57

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Ok so We've been with Vodafone since the old ihug days for broadband and home phone

We currently pay $77.99 a month for unlimited fibre / home phone and free national calling, but got the bill today and it was $102.99

after phoning them I was told our contract had expired in May (was nice of them to tell us our contract was going to expire - NOT!) and they put me through to their retention team - who said I would have to pay for $102.99, but they could look at getting me the best deal going forward.... I basically told them they were a bunch of muppets and they should have informed us that our contract was expiring, instead of just sending us a bill for $25 extra. they said we should have been aware that our contract was for 12 months... but I can't remember what I had for dinner last Sunday - let alone when my fibre broadband plan expires

Before I phone spark to get a price, can someone please advise me what plan would be best? - wife sent me this (attached) from the Spark site, but it doesn't make much sense to me.

it's $90 for their Unplan Fibre Gigatown plan but what's the difference between 45gig, 60 gig and 120+ gig? I thought unlimited meant unlimited gigs?

we have fibre, use the internet every day, stream stuff on demand, look at countless youtube videos, download music....etc... and we don't want slow internet

if anyone can help that would be much appreciated

https://cdn.geekzone.co.nz/imagessubs/1dbaf45f6efc425e729baf25acb42c0e.jpg

hio77

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# 2256747 12-Jun-2019 14:04

on fibre 120GB+ is a the max plan, we dont care if you use tons here... there is no rate limit.

the conditions are really around the wireless usage (which obviously is shared bandwidth so we need to manage it alot more)

The way unplan works is, if you use less, we charge for less.

so less than 60GB, you pay the base rate. then you pay the next step for 60-120GB and 120GB+ you pay the top rate.

Does not sound like a good experience on the VF side at all!

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Linux

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# 2256750 12-Jun-2019 14:07

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I very recently signed up to 2degrees fibre and was a faultless process, When you login it actually shows you the contract expiry date! Even down to the number of days left

Please consider 2degrees before signing up to another ISP

Well done @2degreescare

Dial111

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# 2256753 12-Jun-2019 14:17

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I may be in the minority here but I wouldn’t expect any provider to monitor when my contract services are about to end. A courtesy reminder on a bill that my current services will expire in X months would be nice but ultimately that’s on me to remember these things.

What happens after the contract expires I would assume would be declared at sign up or in the T&Cs hence if one read these you’d know you were going to pay full whack at the end I’d definitely be watching for that anniversary date to roll up.

Linux

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# 2256755 12-Jun-2019 14:27

Dial111: I may be in the minority here but I wouldn’t expect any provider to monitor when my contract services are about to end. A courtesy reminder on a bill that my current services will expire in X months would be nice but ultimately that’s on me to remember these things.

What happens after the contract expires I would assume would be declared at sign up or in the T&Cs hence if one read these you’d know you were going to pay full whack at the end I’d definitely be watching for that anniversary date to roll up.

@dial111 Screen shot when I log into My 2degrees fixed line account

DjShadow

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# 2256757 12-Jun-2019 14:40

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Dial111: I may be in the minority here but I wouldn’t expect any provider to monitor when my contract services are about to end. A courtesy reminder on a bill that my current services will expire in X months would be nice but ultimately that’s on me to remember these things.

What happens after the contract expires I would assume would be declared at sign up or in the T&Cs hence if one read these you’d know you were going to pay full whack at the end I’d definitely be watching for that anniversary date to roll up.

There is still a good opportunity here for any Telco to provide extra mile service here, if they have an automated process in their billing system to pick up all customers whose contract ends in say 1 month to send them a pro-active e-mail (or snail mail) to advise their contract is ending and what their new price will be but also provide some offers if they agree to to a new 12/24 month contract. At least then they would not run into cases like this where a customer receives a sudden bill shock.

michaelmurfy

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# 2256890 12-Jun-2019 16:32

Also - 2degrees doesn't charge you $25/mo more just for being out of contract. If there is also a price drop historically all customers get it automatically.

I can't say the same about some other ISP's around here - I know of a few that "grandfather" people onto more expensive plans and kept them there until they phone up to change, or shift providers.

Spark are good but their plans really need to be clearer. Even I get confused reading the pricing. Take for example when I check my address it defaults to the lowest plan to make it "appear" to look cheaper (as they quote the lowest tier) - it could confuse some customers and mean they get billed for $20 more per month than they expected:

@hio77 - perhaps you should bring this point up or add an option to show the price based on usage on the page instead of quoting the lowest tier by default.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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hio77

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# 2256892 12-Jun-2019 16:40

michaelmurfy:

Spark are good but their plans really need to be clearer. Even I get confused reading the pricing. Take for example when I check my address it defaults to the lowest plan to make it "appear" to look cheaper (as they quote the lowest tier) - it could confuse some customers and mean they get billed for $20 more per month than they expected:

@hio77 - perhaps you should bring this point up or add an option to show the price based on usage on the page instead of quoting the lowest tier by default.

Click the I.

Further down the journey it does also show the maximum (where you actually confirm), Also under the cards it shows it.

i could spin it both ways, i've argued for both sides of the fence... so It's kinda hard to find the balance.

there are a long list of reasons it's this way though that i'm not going to go into.

I'll pass on the feedback that it confuses you though.

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snnet

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# 2257528 13-Jun-2019 17:05

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I dunno about that, to be honest if someone signs up based on an initial pricing quote on a plan that talks and talks and talks about having flexible billing thru the whole signup process because they think that the minimum is the max they will pay on a flexible billing plan that just leaves to question the person's ability to read? I didn't have any confusion, nor did my mother, nor my grandmother

OnceBitten

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# 2257732 13-Jun-2019 23:02

UPDATE - we've resigned with Vodafone

We tried spark, 2 degrees, orcon, but no-one could give us the same deal we have with Vodafone and even the Vodafone deal was more than we were paying

we've signed up 24 months $82.99 a month for phone / fibre and free national calling

We are still 'negotiating' with them to remove the $25 extra they charged us

Linuxluver

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# 2257749 13-Jun-2019 23:28

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OnceBitten:

Ok so We've been with Vodafone since the old ihug days for broadband and home phone

We currently pay $77.99 a month for unlimited fibre / home phone and free national calling, but got the bill today and it was $102.99

after phoning them I was told our contract had expired in May (was nice of them to tell us our contract was going to expire - NOT!) and they put me through to their retention team - who said I would have to pay for $102.99, but they could look at getting me the best deal going forward.... I basically told them they were a bunch of muppets and they should have informed us that our contract was expiring, instead of just sending us a bill for $25 extra. they said we should have been aware that our contract was for 12 months... but I can't remember what I had for dinner last Sunday - let alone when my fibre broadband plan expires

Before I phone spark to get a price, can someone please advise me what plan would be best? - wife sent me this (attached) from the Spark site, but it doesn't make much sense to me.

it's $90 for their Unplan Fibre Gigatown plan but what's the difference between 45gig, 60 gig and 120+ gig? I thought unlimited meant unlimited gigs?

we have fibre, use the internet every day, stream stuff on demand, look at countless youtube videos, download music....etc... and we don't want slow internet

if anyone can help that would be much appreciated

https://cdn.geekzone.co.nz/imagessubs/1dbaf45f6efc425e729baf25acb42c0e.jpg

I'm on Spark's Unlimited broadband on fibre (200Mb up / 200Mb down)....and I've done 435GB of traffic so far this month.....which is lower than usual because some people who are normally here have been away for a week or so. We get close to a terabyte some months.

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I'm on a high fibre diet.