Switching from postpaid to prepaid

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Switching from postpaid to prepaid

KiwiSurfer

1449 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#183889 2-Nov-2015 17:38

I am going to be a poor student next year (after several years in the workforce) so to save money I decided to trade in my postpaid Red $129 plan (which had just passed the two year mark so I am not locked in anymore) in for a prepaid $19 plan. Popped into the Vodafone Queen Street (Auckland) store and asked to switch my postpaid account to prepay, thinking it wouldn't be a difficult request.

I was surprised to be told that it can't be done in store. The guy I spoke with told me that I have to call 777 to request this. While I don't mind calling in principle, I had already made the trip in to make a request I thought (reasonably I hope) could be handled in store. I asked why it couldn't be done and I was told that it was a requirement from higher up that switching from postpaid to prepaid can only be done via 777.

Well the end result was that I figured it was easier to just cross the road to Spark and port my number over. The friendly guy I spoke to at Spark was only too happy to sell me a SIM card and submit my port request. Quite a stark contrast to the Vodafone employee, in a Vodafone store, dealing with a Vodafone customer in regards to his Vodafone account, who (shrugging his shoulders) advised me he was not allowed to process a switch from postpaid to prepaid. Bizarre to say the least.

I am interested to clarify whether this policy actually exists (though I doubt the employee has just made it up as he seemed genuinely disappointed that he couldn't deal with it for me). And if it does, then I am interested to know whether Vodafone thinks it's a good idea to forbid their own staff from processing what seems like a fairly straightforward request. If it is a difficult process to do, then surely there should be some way for retail staff to submit a some kind of request to switch an account from postpaid to prepaid on the customer's behalf.

- James

1 | 2

10502 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1419044 2-Nov-2015 17:46

I wonder whether they'd have done it in the other direction without any problems.

Wanting to pay more money? Go ahead!
Wanting to pay less money? Make it as difficult as possible.

I have no idea whether or not that's true, but it wouldn't surprise me...

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1419054 2-Nov-2015 18:04

It's done by 777 cause of the type of order it is and it takes a few minutes to create the average hold time now for 777 and and a call to be answered is round about 43 seconds as I understand

John

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1419056 2-Nov-2015 18:06

Behodar: I wonder whether they'd have done it in the other direction without any problems.

Wanting to pay more money? Go ahead!
Wanting to pay less money? Make it as difficult as possible.

I have no idea whether or not that's true, but it wouldn't surprise me...

Going in the other direction requires paper worked to be signed / ID provided so it's not the same thing

Moving from postpay to prepay is just an ID check against the mobile account and order created which can be done by 777

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1419059 2-Nov-2015 18:12

FYI Vodafone ' Prepay ' 19 and 29 have 12 months Carryover of un-used minutes and data which you might not get on the other provider

National HD Voice network, 4G roaming and the list goes on.....

firefuze

510 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1419066 2-Nov-2015 18:26

Make sure you sign up for Spark's Student deal!

quickymart

13926 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1419067 2-Nov-2015 18:26

johnr: It's done by 777 cause of the type of order it is and it takes a few minutes to create the average hold time now for 777 and and a call to be answered is round about 43 seconds as I understand

John

Could the guy in the shop not have gone the extra mile and called on the customer's behalf?

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1419073 2-Nov-2015 18:33

quickymart:
johnr: It's done by 777 cause of the type of order it is and it takes a few minutes to create the average hold time now for 777 and and a call to be answered is round about 43 seconds as I understand

John

Could the guy in the shop not have gone the extra mile and called on the customer's behalf?

I am not sure of the official process is for front line staff (shop) I will check tomorrow and if the OP could DM the store then if need be follow-up with them

John

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

KiwiSurfer

1449 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1419126 2-Nov-2015 19:13

firefuze: Make sure you sign up for Spark's Student deal!

Thanks for the tip! Will definitely look into it once I get my Student ID. :)

- James

KiwiSurfer

1449 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1419127 2-Nov-2015 19:14

johnr: I am not sure of the official process is for front line staff (shop) I will check tomorrow and if the OP could DM the store then if need be follow-up with them

It was the Queen Street (Auckland) store.

- James

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1419128 2-Nov-2015 19:17

KiwiSurfer:
johnr: I am not sure of the official process is for front line staff (shop) I will check tomorrow and if the OP could DM the store then if need be follow-up with them

It was the Queen Street (Auckland) store.

- James

Do you have a nice or any other INFO and round about what time did you visit the store?

KiwiSurfer

1449 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1419159 2-Nov-2015 19:24

johnr: FYI Vodafone ' Prepay ' 19 and 29 have 12 months Carryover of un-used minutes and data which you might not get on the other provider

National HD Voice network, 4G roaming and the list goes on.....

Spark has 1GB daily wifi. I was considering moving over to Spark just for the free WiFi but since I've been with Vodafone for years I wanted to give Vodafone first opportunity and would have happily stayed if I knew that calling 777 wouldn't put me in a hour-long queue. Too late now as the port has completed as of approx 6:30pm tonight. :( Will be interesting to see what it's like on the other side of the fence though!

I'm Deaf so HD voice doesn't make a difference for me. Is it really a drawcard for those who can hear?

Roaming I'm not worried about cos I'm not planning any overseas travels in the next 12-18 months (poor student, remember). To be fair I was pretty impressed when I travelled across Europe earlier this year with my VFNZ SIM, I had 4G almost everywhere, even in the most isolated places, in Europe (with the exception of the UK which had pretty poor coverage and what coverage existed was an interesting mixture of 2G/3G/4G). I worked out later it was cheaper using VFNZ roaming than it was using the roaming products offered by the UK operators which I think is a credit to VFNZ. Should I go to a destination that Vodafone has better roaming agreements in I can always port back just for that.

- James

KiwiSurfer

1449 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1419160 2-Nov-2015 19:24

johns: Do you have a nice or any other INFO and round about what time did you visit the store?

Sorry, don't recall the name of the person I spoke with. It would have been around 1130-1200 or so.

- James

1eStar

1604 posts

Uber Geek

#1420269 3-Nov-2015 22:36

We had a similar problem while wanting to move to prepaid on Vodafone. We rung 777 but the CSR insisted that the retentions team must call us. Who never did. So it proved simpler to port to Skinny. Goodbye customer of 15 years or so. This was earlier in the year.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1420286 3-Nov-2015 22:57

I remember when they wouldnt let you move to prepay and keep the same number so I was basically forced to port away. That was when back when porting was a new thing. Prepay on vodafone does that the friday deals which usually at least once a month will give me a decent amount of data for a good price. only lasts a week but keeps the included gig for the other weeks, and I can stream spotify all week and not hit the 3 gigs that seems to be the most common offer.

Richard rich.ms

KiwiSurfer

1449 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1442105 7-Dec-2015 15:33

Just some info for people reading this: Vodafone issued an invoice for one month service's a few days after I ported. I ported the day after my two year contract ended. For some reason their system doesn't take into account the port if it happens a few days after the end of your monthly cycle. And on top of that I had stupidly left my credit card direct debit activated so they debited my card for the month's service I never had.

I decided to wait and see what happened and sure enough the following month, their system reversed the entire previous month leaving the account in credit. However the refund isn't automatic (from what I have read elsewhere in this forum) so I phoned and requested a refund. First call went to a silent line. Second call was answered pretty quickly though so happy with that at least.

Moral of the story: when you port your on account number, cancel any direct debits so you can check the final invoice and only pay what you owe (or not pay it at all if it'll be reversed anyway). Had I done that I would just had not paid the the bill since the following bill would cancel it out anyway.

- James

1 | 2