Telecom Overcharging ADSL by $400 a month!

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom Overcharging ADSL by $400 a month!

Sack

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#8165 8-Jun-2006 14:57

Just found out today the business where I work (in Wellington) was being charged about $485 a month for ADSL connection (5GB limit with $0.02 per MB excess charge). We've been on this plan since 2002.

When we looked at the current deals, albiet new plans, we could get a 10GB, 3.5Mbit plan for $71. Our boss contacted Telecom and asked what's the story, as whenever plans change or deals come out, usually people are either informed or automatically switched to a comparable plan. The guy said that we were on a 'fast' plan that is no longer offered and obviously didn't contact us to change. Is upstream 608, downstream 4288 kbit/s fast ??!! WTF! Maybe the upload is a little on the fast side but not $400+ faster.... download isn't that great :P

We're changing over to the $71 plan in a 'couple of days' the email said. Check your plans, or get those in your company to check.... be interesting to see how 'isolated' this is >:(

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#37972 8-Jun-2006 14:59

The company is the bill payer maybe they should have been checking the invoice

Sack

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#37973 8-Jun-2006 15:03

Problem is, as in a lot of businesses, the person doing accounts often isn't aware of rate's and changes in plans... i.e. the bill comes in, it was the same as last month, nothing out of the ordinary.. pay it :P

I know Telecom is a big company and I guess from my nievity, a shred of integrity would've been good. but I've had clients on maintenance contracts but as market prices fall significantly, I would advise and drop thier fees accordingly... certainly keeps the customer happy and less likely to jump ship.... we're not talking about charging 20% here... but +650% .... it's obviously in Telecoms interest not to say 'oh, we seem to be overcharging you, you know there is a cheaper option but I guess you should have queried your bill' :P

On my Home Business ADSL plan, whenever Telecom has changed their plans, I was always at least notified by email and they would usually automatically change my plan to the closest equivalent..... which was a bumber this time round cause all the ISP's changed thier upload speed from 256kb to 128kb :P

r0bbie

244 posts

Master Geek

#38005 8-Jun-2006 22:10

Hey Sack - wow your work and my work have the same problem, but we were really getting ripped!!!

We were on full speed 10000 from Xtra (full speed is up to 8Mbps depending on distance from exchange and the plan is $900 a month since 2002), and we were only getting 1.4Mbps down and 600kbps up!!! After we got in a telecom technician he managed to get it up a bit more to 2.5Mbps down, so we changed as soon as we found out and are now on the Xtra business pro plan for only $70 (but still missing out of that other 1Mbps down because 2.5 is the maximum we can get)

It pays to check those router speeds and not just let Telecom tell you, "your on a super fast plan".

But the thing is Telecom can check these speeds any time they like from their end, why aren't they checking these companies like Sacks and mine and getting us off these plans, if they can see we are getting ripped off!!! (Of course the extra money we create them for not checking ourselves) They are letting us go onto a substandard service with out saying anything!

Sack let me know if you manage to get a credit of any sort out of your account manager!!

nzbnw

2374 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark NZ

#38011 8-Jun-2006 22:45

*Sack*

as far as I can understand you are on an older Jet Stream plan that does not have a speed cap. We have The Jet Stream 1200 Uncapped Speed plan at work, and it does make a difference compared to the capped plans IMHO.

Not saying one of the new plans isn’t for your business, but remember you can’t go back

and finally FYI, alot of "Geeks" on this site would 'kill' to have a Jetstream plan like that (just for the speed that is)

Cheers

Sack

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#38021 9-Jun-2006 06:56

Hey thats a bummer Robbie.... I've got a connection like that at home... only get 1700kbit download at best and I'm on the 3.5Mbit 10GB a month plan :P ... man, if only Telstra had a cable up my way I'd be on it so fast ;) I can't go to a slower cheaper plan 'cause they have lower MB allowance :(

I wouldn't imagine we were far from an exchange being down-town Wellington. The best I've seen the Routers download speed is around 7000Kbit, I had that at home when I was in Hamitlon... I doubt that's a unlimited speed cap plan. Most of us with ADSL at home can either download as fast, and somethimes faster, than at work. I know it's often dependant on spped at the 'other end' but I'm talking on average.

I doubt there any chance of a credit from Telecom. Technically it was a 'contract' and the ownus is on us at the end of the day to choose what plan we're using, just sucks that Telecom would keep hush while talking people for a ride. I can imagine those people that don't have a clue about technical stuff would be getting screwed bigtime.

Bung

6477 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#38027 9-Jun-2006 08:21

Telecom's publicity and their website did say that they would be contacting everyone and migrating them to the new plans although when I rang that seemed to have changed to "you can keep the Full Speed plan if you want".

Work situations can be hard to judge download speeds in. The killer may be the number of people listening to web radio or the speed of the server's firewalling and proxying.

tonyhughes

Hawkes Bay
8476 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#38040 9-Jun-2006 09:30

All of Telecoms new plans have been VERY well publiscised, and im sure all businesses were contacted via mail to explain the 'venture' plans when they first launched. They cant just switch people over automatically - if you required the higher speeds you were getting, then for a few days users complained of slow speeds, and you found out Telecom changed you on to a slower but cheaper plan, you would be very unhappy. In fact I had a number of business customers who were worried they wouldnt be able to keep their full-rate plans, cost be dammed.

There has to be some responsibility on consumers and businesses to be vigilant, take an interest in the things that affect their business, and do something about it. If we all laid back in wait for every company we deal with to just randomly change our services and prices in the hope that the outcome will be favourable, then the country would be in serious trouble.

Read your bills now and again, as well as any marketing information that arrives from Telecom - otherwise you get into the sort of situation people are in now. Compare them to companys web sites and advertising, and call your account reps or a CSR and ask to discuss your bill.

When I was looking after Telecom customers, we would only arrange credits of 3 months - 1 month for the service being unsuitable, another month to allow for the customer noticing it and checking their bill, and another month to act as a buffer against billing date crossovers vs the complaint etc.

Customers who come and say, hey look I have decided that I wanted a different plan since twelve months ago, but I am only telling you today, I want a $14,897.54c credit would be stiff out of luck (unless they were actually mislead, or denied something they were entitled to.

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Sack

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#38043 9-Jun-2006 10:32

I Hear what you're saying and I don't necessarily disagree. However, we weren't contated about the plans.. they're well advertised on their website. Funnily enough, we're on the new plan now and our router connection shows (upstream 608, downstream 4288 kbit/s) which is the same as before... yes, full reboot of the router. So I don't know what 'Fast' plan we were on :P And I've also had my plan changed automatically on several occasions... usually get an email saying my 'plans being changed, contact us if you want to change to a diferent plan than the one you're being changed to'.

I never expect a credit from Telecom or Xtra for that matter... I've only ever achived that once due to a domain problem... ever tried to move a domain from Xtra Host? Now that's a pain... every single time I move a domain from Xtra for a client I get the run around and what should take 48 hours max, in one case it took 3 months as guys in Xtra just wouldn't get the info to thier DNS techo's to update the nameservers... but that's Xtra :P

Anyhoo, the main point of this thread was to warn people that havn't checked thier plan lately to check what they're paying so they don't get ripped off any further.

bradstewart

4335 posts

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Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#38045 9-Jun-2006 10:47

Sack:our router connection shows (upstream 608, downstream 4288 kbit/s) which is the same as before... yes, full reboot of the router.

Router speed doesnt nessecarily match the speed you are actually getting. Go to http://www.nzdsl.co.nz and click on speedtest for an accurate connection test,

Bung

6477 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#38048 9-Jun-2006 11:02

Those line rates seem right for a 3.5M/512K plan. If you are in the Wgtn CBD the line rate should have been higher on Full Rate unless somehow you managed to get about 4km of cable in the mix. Your day to day achievable speeds will vary so the connection test should be repeated to get the full picture.

If you check the bill look for other things I've seen like calls to voicemail on cell phones at 40c, was it ever that price?

Sack

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#38049 9-Jun-2006 11:14

Last Result:
Download Speed: 2998 kbps (374.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 490 kbps (61.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Don't know what it was beofre we got on the new plan though :P

I realise the conenction stat doesn't show actual spped but I figured it would show a better connection as I was more used to seeing in the range of 6000-7000kbit connections. At home I can only get at best 1700kbit downstream, sometimes as low as 180kbit and have to reboot router a few times and I have used a speedtest and only gets 1 - 1.2MBit :( I now it's not a router or cable problem, I'm just too far from the exchange :(

JonC

425 posts

Ultimate Geek

#38066 9-Jun-2006 13:46

If you're in Wellington and annoyed with Telecom, maybe you should consider TelstraClear - through Clear, you can get a 5Mbps/512kbps 10GB plan for the same $71 or a 3.5Mbps/2Mbps 10GB plan for $71 via cable:

Clear Business

Clear Business Cable

Big downside is you have to change over to TCL for your phone lines as well. I presume this will mean a change in phone number, which is a huge move for a business. But presumably with number portability in the pipeline, soon maybe you won't have to.

Sack

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#38068 9-Jun-2006 14:04

Well.. All I know is our ADSL is definately faster now... been downloading quite a bit from various sources and noticably faster. We only have about 10 staff, not a large business so I can easily see there's not a lot of traffic on our network..... Glad we scrapped the old $485 "FAST" plan for the new $71 'Slower' plan :p