Vodafone Upgrade Deals

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sleemanj

1490 posts

Uber Geek

#12397 15-Mar-2007 16:06

Well, it's the end of the financial year, time to do the old might-as-well-upgrade-stuff-now-to-decrease-tax thing.

So I figure my 5 year old mobile could probably do with replacing, it's battery drains quicker, it's a bit scuffed here and there, and it doesn't have the whizz-bang features of new phones that I wouldn't mind playing with.

Off I head to vodafone.co.nz to have a look at what amazing upgrade deals they might offer me, a valued customer, to keep me with Vodafone.

But I came away empty handed, why, because I'm a valued customer, a valued on-account customer, and valued on-account customers get precisely jack.

I generally find Vodafone provide fine service, but thier total disregard for on-account customers, the ones who provide them with thier assured recurring fees each and every month, the ones who have placed thier trust and business with Vodafone for the long-haul. Do we get any note of thanks, not a bit.

I have an account, I have an 0800 number on the account (so they get my money both making and receieve calls), I send and receieve texts all the time, I seldom use all the minutes available in my account plans (so Voda is literally getting money for noithing from me), they have taken thousands of dollars from me over the years, but can't give me so much as a dollar discount off a phone as a "thank you for your business".

/Rant Over

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James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

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970 posts

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#63829 15-Mar-2007 16:28

Try www.vstoreupgrades.co.nz to see if you're eligbile for anything.

Cheers,

Paul

Paul Brislen
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Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

BigFella

105 posts

Master Geek

#63830 15-Mar-2007 16:32

Have you had a look at http://www.hotupgrades.co.nz/?

jesseycy

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#63832 15-Mar-2007 16:37

I don't get what you really mean by "upgrade deals"... I guess you're looking for a new mobile subsidy, right?

Cause if so, Vodafone does offer those "sign on to a contract" and we'll give you a free mobile / $$$ off a new one... I won't comment on the merits of it, but still, it does have those offers!

On the other hand, if you are hoping that they would just give you a handset subsidy just because you have been a long customer, but not having to sign on to any new contract (no term)... Then, it's really unlikely that they will give you any offer! What's stopping you from getting a brand new phone, then just terminating the next month, right???

sleemanj

1490 posts

Uber Geek

#63835 15-Mar-2007 17:15

PaulBrislen: Try vstoreupgrades.co.nz to see if you're eligbile for anything

Was the first thing I did, and I'm not. Despite being a good customer of Vodafone for years. Just what do you have to do to be eligible I wonder.

BigFella: Have you had a look at http://www.hotupgrades.co.nz/?

As above.

jesseycy: Cause if so, Vodafone does offer those "sign on to a contract" and we'll give you a free mobile / $$$ off a new one... I won't comment on the merits of it, but still, it does have those offers!

That may be true, I could go change my on account plan and maybe get some phone included with it or something. I don't mind signing some term contract or whatever, but Vodafone has never offered me this, and I have no desire to spend a few hours futzing about going to a store, deciding what plan is best, getting everything changed over, probably having them screw something up (it took a week for the store to get my original stuff sorted out however many years ago).

If I was going to go to all that trouble it would be just as easy to go to a Telecom store and see what they would offer.

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James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

cranz

675 posts

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#63844 15-Mar-2007 19:17

Sounds like you are on the wrong pricing plan then if you never hit your allocated minutes, you could look at reviewing your pricing plan to save some money.. and check out any re-sign deals that you might be eligible for. All term contracts come with an incentive such as extra bundle minutes or phone discounts, or even at the moment a free phone.

sleemanj

1490 posts

Uber Geek

#63853 15-Mar-2007 21:19

cranz: Sounds like you are on the wrong pricing plan then if you never hit your allocated minutes

As I recall I'm on the plan I'm on because I needed Free2Call and Voda restricted that to certain plans. That may not be the case any more though.

I guess I'll have to make a trip to a voda store and see if they can switch me to a YouChoose, keep the Free2Call and maybe I can finagle a new phone out of them.

That won't cost me anything though, so probably better to wait until after number portability comes into play, one would expect Voda and Telecom might be more interested in ways of keeping thier customers when that happens.

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James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

coffeebaron

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#63870 15-Mar-2007 23:16

sleemanj:

As I recall I'm on the plan I'm on because I needed Free2Call and Voda restricted that to certain plans. That may not be the case any more though.

.

I have free2call, and I'm on a you choose plan so that should be no problem

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weatherman

99 posts

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#63897 16-Mar-2007 08:51

Loyalty....hmmm....! I "defected" from the Evil Empire to Ihug late last year, and have patiently ridden the storms of hacking, email server migration, spam-avalanches and so on, and its paid off! Yesterday I received a really nice letter from them, including a month's free movies from MovieShack and some Jaffas to munch while I watch. This was completely unexpected, and thus a welcome surprise. So I agree with the above posters - Vodafone needs to encourage us On Account clients to stay with them - if we continue to see all the "sweeteners" go to PrePay, we'll either be migrating to that scheme, or (worse still) going over to the Dark Side when number portability unrolls!

sbiddle

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#63901 16-Mar-2007 09:23

I heard yesterday a few details of of deals launching on the 1st April to convince on account customers to stay including some plan changes. It's just a shame it takes competition (in the form of portability) for these to happen..:-(

Nightwyrm

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#64701 22-Mar-2007 15:43

My wife got sent on an unsolicited offer for an upgrade to a Nokia 6234 for $100. She went in to redeem the offer only to be told by the shop guy that VF had sold out (Side grumble: He then went on to pretty much ignore her and do paperwork - that's a commendation to Jville VF for outstanding customer service!). At no point in the text that she received say anything about "while stocks last", only that she had to be in by the end of the month. I have since found that clause tucked away on the T&C part of the VF upgrade website - right where my non-geek wife wouldn't think to look.

Surely, if the shops and VF website are still advertising that phone model, then they haven't "sold out" and can provide the upgrade. Alternatively, where's the offer of an alternative model?

You'd think VF learnt after the BestMate offer that they need to declare any restrictions early in the piece. E.g. here's the only warning on the upgrade offer page... "This discount offer expires on 31/03/2007, so if you can’t decide right now, make sure you return before then."

(Second side grumble : And where's my offer to join v.box after my many years of loyal customership)

Post-geek, opinionated mediaphile, and natural born cynic. Jack of all genres, master of none.

freitasm

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#64707 22-Mar-2007 16:33

lugh: the shop guy [that VF had sold out] (Side grumble: He then went on to pretty much ignore her and do paperwork - that's a commendation to Jville VF for outstanding customer service!). At no point in the text that she received say anything about "while stocks last", only that she had to be in by the end of the month. I have since found that clause tucked away on the T&C part of the VF upgrade website - right where my non-geek wife wouldn't think to look.

I know what you mean. I posted about the Vodafone Johnsonville store before... I went there to purchase three Bluetooth headsets, wasn't looked after even after making eye contact, so I walked across to the Telecom store and they were happy to make the money on the sale.

Now I risk my daily walk to the mall with my baby...

Gigs

95 posts

Master Geek

#64725 22-Mar-2007 18:06

sleemanj: Well, it's the end of the financial year, time to do the old might-as-well-upgrade-stuff-now-to-decrease-tax thing.
(...snip...)
/Rant Over

So i'm presuming you called them to see if they could do anything over the phone as opposed to just looking at some links and thinking "i'm getting nothing" ?

The funny thing is, while the links may not be encouraging, all it takes is someone to look over the situation to see if they can swing something for you. A mate of mine on contract had been with them for sometime and called them to see what he could do, ended up replacing an aging 3310 with a Sony Ericsson K750i.

If it comes down to it, and you're looking at purchasing a handset, ask them for one of their 25% off vouchers. :)

Nightwyrm

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#65060 26-Mar-2007 18:20

lugh: My wife got sent on an unsolicited offer for an upgrade to a Nokia 6234 for $100. She went in to redeem the offer only to be told by the shop guy that VF had sold out (Side grumble: He then went on to pretty much ignore her and do paperwork - that's a commendation to Jville VF for outstanding customer service!). At no point in the text that she received say anything about "while stocks last", only that she had to be in by the end of the month. I have since found that clause tucked away on the T&C part of the VF upgrade website - right where my non-geek wife wouldn't think to look.

Surely, if the shops and VF website are still advertising that phone model, then they haven't "sold out" and can provide the upgrade. Alternatively, where's the offer of an alternative model?

You'd think VF learnt after the BestMate offer that they need to declare any restrictions early in the piece. E.g. here's the only warning on the upgrade offer page... "This discount offer expires on 31/03/2007, so if you can’t decide right now, make sure you return before then."

Her Indoors ended up ringing VFNZ as she can't see why she's missed out when VFNZ didn't state they had a limitation of a set number of phones on offer. Paraphrased conversation follows:

HI - Relates story as above, reinforcing that the "while stocks last" clause is mentioned only once on entire VFNZ site.

VFNZ - "I'm sorry, stocks were limited on that phone."

HI - "Your offer is misleading as is the accompanying website - I'm not impressed. Is there an alternative you can offer me?"

VFNZ - Goes and checks with other staff... "I'm sorry, we aren't offering an alternative phone to that deal."

HI - "I think that's false advertising. I'm seriously going to reconsider my options going forward."

BestMate anyone? I wonder when Telecom eventually go to GSM/UMTS, if they'll provide a better service than VFNZ. Or, will VFNZ pick up their game with the competitor offering similar technology?

I know that if Telecom can offer similar or better phones than VFNZ, I'd seriously consider switching (there goes another piece of my soul

Post-geek, opinionated mediaphile, and natural born cynic. Jack of all genres, master of none.

cranz

675 posts

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#65064 26-Mar-2007 18:48

Isn't this when rainchecks come in handy? If a promotion does not specify that there is limited stock, and a company does not meet the demand for the promotion they must offer rainchecks. I remember something from my legal days of companies having to have ample supply of a product thats being offered on 'sale' or 'special price' if they don't specify that there is limited stock

Nightwyrm

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#65065 26-Mar-2007 18:53

Isn't this when rainchecks come in handy? If a promotion does not specify that there is limited stock, and a company does not meet the demand for the promotion they must offer rainchecks. I remember something from my legal days of companies having to have ample supply of a product thats being offered on 'sale' or 'special price' if they don't specify that there is limited stock

I dare say that VFNZ would claim that they have specified the limited stock - it's just not anywhere immediately obvious, which is exactly where the consumer would prefer it be stated.

Post-geek, opinionated mediaphile, and natural born cynic. Jack of all genres, master of none.

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