Spark. How about you fix your roaming minutes calculator??

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark. How about you fix your roaming minutes calculator??

old3eyes

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#253085 25-Jul-2019 09:43

The finance committee and I have just gotten back from Ozz and today the normal monthly phone billed arrived. I was some what surprized to see she had been charged $42 for extra calls outside her roaming package that always showed she had minutes available outgoing. I seems from what I can see in the Spark app that it can take up to 4 days for your minutes totals to update. Are you kidding me in 2019?? I was roaming on Skinny and their app showed the minute count as soon as the call finished.

You need to sort this out.

In saying all this the roaming worked 100% from the time she landed until we departed. She was roaming on Optus.

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#2283394 25-Jul-2019 12:49

This is because we need to wait for the billing files for pay monthly voice usage to come from the carrier partner to be processed. Generally speaking most are received within a couple of days. Its a pretty standard method of billing voice roaming services

The best way to avoid incurring overage charges on the packs is to enable Auto Buy roaming, this will ensure a pack is purchased as required and the risk of casual charges being incurred in a pack destination is eliminated. There's some instructions on this page https://www.spark.co.nz/roaming

andyb

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#2283395 25-Jul-2019 12:55

andyb:

Its a pretty standard method of billing voice roaming services

The best way to avoid incurring overage charges on the packs is to enable Auto Buy roaming, this will ensure a pack is purchased as required and the risk of casual charges being incurred in a pack destination is eliminated. There's some instructions on this page https://www.spark.co.nz/roaming

@andyb the TAP files should be real time these days not a few days

Look at Prepay and RTB (real time billing) Camel Roaming

old3eyes

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#2283396 25-Jul-2019 12:57

Thanx andyb. I'll remember this for next time..

Regards,

Old3eyes

johny99

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#2283641 25-Jul-2019 17:59

Did I read the above wrong, delayed on Spark but instant on Skinny????????

old3eyes

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#2283647 25-Jul-2019 18:13

johny99: Did I read the above wrong, delayed on Spark but instant on Skinny????????

Yep.

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#2283649 25-Jul-2019 18:16

Skinny is prepaid so does work differently to postpaid

chevrolux

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#2283655 25-Jul-2019 18:31

How come prepaid calls are dealt with differently?

Surely for both the data collection and call rating is done in the same way? It's just what's done with the rated call afterwards that differs with pre/post paid.

I say this only with knowledge of how our billing for SIP trunks work... and yes, I realise its significantly simpler than a mobile network with roaming involved

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Linux

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#2283658 25-Jul-2019 18:36

Prepaid is RTB aka real time billing so checks are done before call , sms data are allowed

Postpaid is after the fact but it does not need to be this way these days but all depends on how billing is setup for postpaid

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#2283659 25-Jul-2019 18:37

Google has loads of information about TAP files and Camel Roaming to explain the difference

johny99

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#2283660 25-Jul-2019 18:39

Is this not about the fact the Spark App showed that the 200 minute cap hadnot been reached?

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#2283664 25-Jul-2019 18:51

johny99: Is this not about the fact the Spark App showed that the 200 minute cap hadnot been reached?

Correct as they still bill by TAP file so it's delayed but real time very confusing

chevrolux

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#2283681 25-Jul-2019 20:00

Linux: Prepaid is RTB aka real time billing so checks are done before call , sms data are allowed

Postpaid is after the fact but it does not need to be this way these days but all depends on how billing is setup for postpaid

Of course, didn't think about the fact billing has to be checked before call progress.

johny99

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#2283812 26-Jul-2019 07:22

Still don’t get why the unused minute value wasn’t recalculated in real time, the roaming pack allows for 200 minutes to anywhere (afaik), I’m sure there are a few exceptions but would doubt the OP was calling satellite phones, regardless of cost Spark still should know exactly when the 200 mark is reached. Correct me if I am wrong (and happy to be wrong) as the App indicated that the OP had not consumed all the minutes it would come as a shock to see additional calling charges on the invoice. Having never used roaming the only other thing I could think of is calling charges on the eighth or subsequent days, but again the App should clearly identify this.

andyb

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#2283828 26-Jul-2019 08:11

Ok, some clarification.

Prepaid roaming services are all billed "real time" as they are in NZ - that's voice, text and data.

Pay Monthly roaming data and text services are billed "real time" as they are in NZ. Pay monthly roaming voice services are "warm billed", as I said, under the current billing implementation (yes, there are other methods of implementation), we need to wait for the files to be received from the carrier partner.

Given the voice billing is delayed, the usage meter for voice, and usage alerts for voice also delayed. This is covered off in a number of sections online, in the app, terms and conditions etc.

Without having the mobile number of the OP, I can't check why they have received casual charges, but it will either be because

the 200 min allocation has been exceeded within the 7 days (usage alerts are sent, albeit it delayed) and/or
calls have been made outside of the duration of the pack (expiry notification is sent (real time)).

To protect pay monthly roamers with a roaming pack from incurring casual charges in a roaming pack country we have implemented a auto buy functionality, where additional packs are automatically purchased as required - ie when an allocation is exceeded, a pack expires etc.

This provides the roamer with a safety net.

Auto Buy can be enabled in My Spark etc.

andyb

old3eyes

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#2283833 26-Jul-2019 08:28

andyb:

Ok, some clarification.

Prepaid roaming services are all billed "real time" as they are in NZ - that's voice, text and data.

Pay Monthly roaming data and text services are billed "real time" as they are in NZ. Pay monthly roaming voice services are "warm billed", as I said, under the current billing implementation (yes, there are other methods of implementation), we need to wait for the files to be received from the carrier partner.

Given the voice billing is delayed, the usage meter for voice, and usage alerts for voice also delayed. This is covered off in a number of sections online, in the app, terms and conditions etc.

Without having the mobile number of the OP, I can't check why they have received casual charges, but it will either be because

the 200 min allocation has been exceeded within the 7 days (usage alerts are sent, albeit it delayed) and/or
calls have been made outside of the duration of the pack (expiry notification is sent (real time)).

To protect pay monthly roamers with a roaming pack from incurring casual charges in a roaming pack country we have implemented a auto buy functionality, where additional packs are automatically purchased as required - ie when an allocation is exceeded, a pack expires etc.

This provides the roamer with a safety net.

Auto Buy can be enabled in My Spark etc.

I checked my wife's phone and she got a 80% alert on the 11th, 100% usage alert on the 12th but it was two days after she made the billed calls (the 10th ) were made. No point in sending an alert out two days after you run out of minutes. Also somehow she got billed 21 minutes while connected to your voicemail which normally disconnects within 60 seconds of no action..

I'll PM you her number .

Regards,

Old3eyes

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