Vodafone u-turn: paper bill lives on, free again

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Vodafone u-turn: paper bill lives on, free again

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eXDee

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#193730 3-Feb-2009 16:30

Interesting they decide to listen to customers on something like this, and still refuse to offer something as basic as interleaving off. (oh and yes i've read the discussion threads and reasoning on the vodafone forums, but im pretty sure that every other ISP isnt having major issues with it otherwise they wouldn't offer it themselves.

Tizza5

51 posts

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#193748 3-Feb-2009 17:54

Perhaps it also has to do with legally having to provide a GST Invoice when requested.

Like the concept, very poor execution. Why can't they get the website to work??? I always get time outs.

RedJungle

Phil Gale
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#193810 3-Feb-2009 21:14

Tizza5:
Like the concept, very poor execution. Why can't they get the website to work??? I always get time outs.

This to me seems likely to have been a huge contributing factor in the apparent distaste for electronic billing coming from customers. The support infrustructure simply isn't up to scratch enough for people to be able to reliably get their invoices, on time, every month or even check their current balances.

Trying to push self-service options and electronic billing onto such a large customer base is destined to fail if those options are not 110% reliable.

I really hope Vodafone does something drastic about their back end systems soon. It really is shockingly bad. I was never even able to set up electronic billing (and I actually wanted it!) as every time I tried I was told I wasn't the account holder (despite being a company director, and having logged in just fine).

It saddens me, as I really used to like being a Vodafone customer.

NadNailer

9 posts

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#194023 4-Feb-2009 15:26

Personally I think you're all being too easy on Vodafone. Suggesting that we should have to PAY to have our bill sent to us via mail is one of the most insulting gestures as a customer that I've been slapped in the face with in recent times!

What kind of scumbag company *charges* customers to receive their bill? What kind of scumbag company *charges* customers to actually talk to them about problems they might be having? That's like going to a restaraunt and asking for the bill only to have another $1 added to it for the privledge. "Excuse me - my steak is undercooked" "That will be another $1 please".

I have absolutely no problem with companies doing everything they can to become more efficient and productive. If they can save themselves $1.50 by convincing me to have my bill delivered electronically, then I have no problem - heck good on them for being intelligent. But when they turn it around to not only SAVE themselves $1.50, but then reverse the charge back on to us then I take great exception.

The cheek of it all. Oh and what I find absolutely priceless is when Paul B from Vodafone pops up and tells us how *delighted* he is that Vodafone is going to listen to us. Lucky us eh! Sure would be nice if they were always listening to their customers rather then constantly nickle and diming us every chance they get.

It smacks of a company that's more interested in looking after its shareholders rather than its customers. Here's a hint for you Vodafone. Your customers pay your bills, not your shareholders. This is the behaviour of a consumer monopolist leveraging their position. When decent competition finally emerges in the NZ marketplace, all those customers that Vodafone pissed off will hopefully let their feet do the talking. I know mine will.

And yes, I have my bill delivered electronically. I signed up for it a while ago thinking I was doing the world some good. Heck, I might cancel that and get Vodafone to post it to me again at their cost, just to spite them!

zombiewan

44 posts

Geek

#195106 10-Feb-2009 13:47

Tizza5:
Perhaps it also has to do with legally having to provide a GST Invoice when requested.

Like the concept, very poor execution. Why can't they get the website to work??? I always get time outs.

I think you'll find that an electronic bill is a perfectly acceptable form of GST invoice.

Also in response to Nad Nailer's comment

What kind of scumbag company *charges* customers to receive their bill? What kind of scumbag company *charges* customers to actually talk to them about problems they might be having? That's like going to a restaraunt and asking for the bill only to have another $1 added to it for the privledge. "Excuse me - my steak is undercooked" "That will be another $1 please".

Check out Brother for a laugh. $1.99 a minute!

p1noy

16 posts

Geek

#197068 20-Feb-2009 23:23

I thought Vodafone had backtracked on the $1.50 charge
on printed bill ? Why is it still an option on how to receive
my bill ?

bill

manhinli

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#197098 21-Feb-2009 13:08

Fixed line customers aren't getting the free bills. This only applies to On Account mobile customers.

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cranz

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#197236 22-Feb-2009 11:22

On a side note, I received my mobile bill this month as a pdf attachment via email.. first time it's happened and I hadn't changed any notification setting

Hi there,

Thanks for opting in to receive your monthly Vodafone bill in a PDF format; which will be emailed out to you. To kick this off you'll find a copy of your last bill attached. This is for your convenience only; if you've paid your bill no action is required.

You'll continue to receive your bill via email from now on although it may look a bit different from this email.

If you need any help with understanding your bill, please visit vodafone.co.nz/plans/paying-your-bill

Need more help?
Don't forget if you need help or information, simply visit vodafone.co.nz and enter your question or keywords into the Help & Support box and you'll be directed to the right place.
Thanks,

Another sign of good things to come!

davidcole

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#197241 22-Feb-2009 11:30

cranz: On a side note, I received my mobile bill this month as a pdf attachment via email.. first time it's happened and I hadn't changed any notification setting

Hi there,

Thanks for opting in to receive your monthly Vodafone bill in a PDF format; which will be emailed out to you. To kick this off you'll find a copy of your last bill attached. This is for your convenience only; if you've paid your bill no action is required.

You'll continue to receive your bill via email from now on although it may look a bit different from this email.

If you need any help with understanding your bill, please visit vodafone.co.nz/plans/paying-your-bill

Need more help?

Don't forget if you need help or information, simply visit vodafone.co.nz and enter your question or keywords into the Help & Support box and you'll be directed to the right place.

Thanks,

Another sign of good things to come!

Kind of going OT a bit....

But it will be interesting to see if they continue with this.

I work in a services company that does print and mailing, including electronic storage and distributng of statements and the like. Now maybe it's because I'm in a service company that generates content for other companies, and not the content generator (like Vodafone is), but the thought of emailing out bills/financial records scares me. Bounced emails, gone no address bills for example.

I always thought it was preferable and safer to send out a link to where the content could be picked up, instead of sending out the actual content.

Now I know that does add a little overhead for the user, log in, download etc...but to me that is the safer way of doing it. So as i said, will be interesting to see if they continue to email out the attachment.

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ZollyMonsta

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#197244 22-Feb-2009 11:41

looks like its still going on.. just recieved a txt this morning about a new bill being ready for payment.

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richms

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#197321 22-Feb-2009 17:26

davidcole:

I always thought it was preferable and safer to send out a link to where the content could be picked up, instead of sending out the actual content.

Now I know that does add a little overhead for the user, log in, download etc...but to me that is the safer way of doing it. So as i said, will be interesting to see if they continue to email out the attachment.

I hate having a link to something sent to me. Genesis energy did this to me so now I get a link, have to then log into their website with a username that has to be longer then 6 characters (WTF? makes no sense) and a password, then I get a link to view it, so I have to right click and download to save it.

Whereas emailed bills are in my outlook on all computers straight away, no action on my part. While it might be nice for them to see that I have logged in to get the bill, there is no real need for that since they have a record on their mail server of the bill being delivered to my nominated mail servers proving delivery of it.

Richard rich.ms

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