$59 rollover plan no more - 1.2Mbps experiences?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › $59 rollover plan no more - 1.2Mbps experiences?

DarrenJ

122 posts

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#293488 25-Jan-2022 18:37

Got an email saying my $59 rollover plan is no more, and I'm being moved to the $59 endless plan. :(

Effectively it'll cost me around $78 for the same functionality I have now (spotify, hotspot), which is a significant jump. I use around 3Gb-4Gb month and have rollover for those occasional spikes, and I hotspot very occasionally (when I need to, I need to straight away).

They said there is a $39 endless plan with 3Gb., I'm wondering was is 1.2Mbps speed like if I go over? Is is a show stopper for youtube, netflix, facebook etc? I still have to pay extra for spotify and hotspot, so it'll be a total of $65-ish.

Spark won't offer me a better deal for long time customer <insert the bad experience with chat>. If I switch to VF which appear cheaper as they include 12Gb endless, hotspot and they will give me a signup discount, so even at full price spotify works out a better deal (around $65ish it'll cost me)

Knowing the 1.2Mbps experience would probably help me select the best plan, with any provider. Any advice appreciated. :)

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#2856291 25-Jan-2022 19:13

Try talk to their retention team I am on VF and my work phone is on Spark and have to say Sparks coverage is superior

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nztim

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#2856292 25-Jan-2022 19:14

1.2 mbps will buffer on streaming video, streaming audio is fine

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DarrenJ

122 posts

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#2856293 25-Jan-2022 19:22

nztim: 1.2 mbps will buffer on streaming video, streaming audio is fine

Oh that's really good to know. I was wondering.

DarrenJ

122 posts

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#2856297 25-Jan-2022 19:27

nztim: Try talk to their retention team I am on VF and my work phone is on Spark and have to say Sparks coverage is superior

That's good to know with coverage. I've thought the same, but dunno if that was my old school thinking or not.

Retention team - One I managed to get someone online it was literally copy/pasting current deals and standard 'other than this, we'll be sad to see you leave' and 'we don't match other providers'. On phone, no progress with a human robot trying to retain me. Apparently an agent will call be back tomorrow sometime, so I think it was her knockoff time haha. Spent probably good 1hr + trying to get an answer with the delayed replies and callback. VF - Online 8 mins from beating the bot, talking to human, getting a deal. That was pretty impressive.

nztim

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#2856299 25-Jan-2022 19:37

What about Skinny? same spark network

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DjShadow

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#2856302 25-Jan-2022 19:41

Are any of the plans on Skinny of benefit? (apart from it being prepay and a 28 day billing cycle)

DarrenJ

122 posts

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#2856303 25-Jan-2022 19:44

DjShadow:

Are any of the plans on Skinny of benefit? (apart from it being prepay and a 28 day billing cycle)

Never thought about Skinny before. I usually prefer pay monthly plans. I wonder if Skinny runs on Spark network, if it's throttled in someway in favour of Spark traffic?

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nztim

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#2856304 25-Jan-2022 19:50

DarrenJ:
DjShadow:

Are any of the plans on Skinny of benefit? (apart from it being prepay and a 28 day billing cycle)

Never thought about Skinny before. I usually prefer pay monthly plans. I wonder if Skinny runs on Spark network, if it's throttled in someway in favour of Spark traffic?

Exactly the same network

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rugrat

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#2856306 25-Jan-2022 19:58

Skinny $36 (28 days) for 4.5 GB at full speed. Unlimited texts calls NZ and AU.
Also get 5G data, and no charge for hot spotting.

Also if need full speed data when it’s run out, can data binge, $1 buys an hour

$46 get you 12 GB data full speed.

cokemaster

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#2856308 25-Jan-2022 20:09

I've been on Spark/2D's/Vodas throttled system... they all pretty much work the same.
Web pages sometimes feel a little less snappy, but still load. Videos still stream but may max out on SD rather than the 1080p+. Audio streaming and pod casts work fine (although some podcasts will take longer to initially load as some apps download the entire file first).

The others are right, Skinny is on the same network and you should experience the exact same performance as you would on Spark. Why does Skinny completely gut Spark in terms of value for money, particularly given that Spark offers postpaid billing... its one of lifes many riddles.

Given how you've been treated, I would be more inclined to take my money elsewhere. I've been with 2D and Voda and whilst they've got their warts, I've enjoyed my stay with both of them. I've been very impressed with Vodas ability to offer sharp pricing and as a result have brought a few friends and family connections across. The fact that Spark has the balls to still charge $10 a month for tethering is obscene.

Personally I would not consider Spark for services until A. they become more competitive and reward customers for being postpaid, and B. when they start treating their staff a bit better.

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allan

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#2856312 25-Jan-2022 20:34

I jumped ship, plus SWMBO, from Spark pay-monthly to Skinny about 8 months ago simply because it was a much better deal and I couldn't get Spark to come up with an equivalent. I don't know why Spark have so little regard for their pay monthly customers. You would think, given the pretty much guaranteed monthly revenue, that they would be falling over themselves to retain you - but apparently not.

DarrenJ

122 posts

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#2856313 25-Jan-2022 20:35

cokemaster:

I've been on Spark/2D's/Vodas throttled system... they all pretty much work the same.
Web pages sometimes feel a little less snappy, but still load. Videos still stream but may max out on SD rather than the 1080p+. Audio streaming and pod casts work fine (although some podcasts will take longer to initially load as some apps download the entire file first).

The others are right, Skinny is on the same network and you should experience the exact same performance as you would on Spark. Why does Skinny completely gut Spark in terms of value for money, particularly given that Spark offers postpaid billing... its one of lifes many riddles.

Given how you've been treated, I would be more inclined to take my money elsewhere. I've been with 2D and Voda and whilst they've got their warts, I've enjoyed my stay with both of them. I've been very impressed with Vodas ability to offer sharp pricing and as a result have brought a few friends and family connections across. The fact that Spark has the balls to still charge $10 a month for tethering is obscene.

Personally I would not consider Spark for services until A. they become more competitive and reward customers for being postpaid, and B. when they start treating their staff a bit better.

Thanks. That's really useful info :)

The kicker is that if Spark said to me online that it's the best offer and treated me like a valued customer, and not the stock party lines, even a small account credit, I probably would have sucked it up and just changed plans. It's the poor service that made me start looking elsewhere, not so much the money.

A bit of research ahead of me now :)

Linux

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#2856314 25-Jan-2022 20:47

2degrees do a $40 4GB Rollover plan and I am sure if you ask the right person $30 per month at the moment

It is true 12 month carryover and data sharing with other 2degrees mobile numbers including Prepaid

unowho08

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#2856318 25-Jan-2022 21:09

Or you could try Kogan Mobile which uses Vodafone, including their 5G network and hotspot capability (there are several detailed threads here if you search). $5 for the first 30 days (unlimited calls & texts to NZ/AU, 15GB data). If you like it, it's $35 per 30 days when you pay one month prepaid at a time. This drops to the equivalent of $27.50 per month if prepaid for a year. Seems like this amount of data should have you covered for any unexpected usage.

There are half price deals that come along from time to time so you may want to prepay month-to-month until you can jump on one of the half price deals (assuming everything works out for you).

Only you will know if Vodafone coverage is good in the places you go, but the price of admission is low to at least try it out for 30 days and you can easily port your number in/out.

Dulouz

883 posts

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#2856446 26-Jan-2022 09:01

I'm on an old 3GB unlimited plan. The 1.2 mbps dropdown is very noticeable but still usable.

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