Business or personal plan?

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Geektastic

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#249345 7-May-2019 07:46

Hitherto, I have had my VF mobile on personal plans.

When I got my S10+, I switched to a monthly term Red Business contract. On the face of it, it seemed better - especially because I got NZ based support which is IME more efficient when things go wrong.

However, in the 3 months or so since, I have discovered a couple of things that were not made clear when I switched (the result of a very long conversation with a lady at VF not just my whim).

My 4G tablet had a data share SIM. That no longer works because you cannot do it with a Business Plan
I used to have a cap on international calls up to 1 hour - now no cap, just per minute billing, so call costs to clients in the USA and family around the world have gone up a fair bit

I am left wondering what the benefit of remaining on a Business plan actually is, other than the support aspect. Can anyone suggest anything that has not occurred to me?

The phone is my only phone (no landline) and is used for both personal and business comms.

networkn

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#2232138 7-May-2019 09:14

I've always had business plans, but recently VF were only prepared to offer us decent rebates and data allowances under their personal plans, so we reluctantly switched. The difference in offerings was significant esp in data caps. We were sharing 10GB between 5 and now we are sharing 30GB.

Doesn't seem any appreciable difference otherwise. I haven't had any difference in the support, and to be fair it wasn't that great most of the time anyway with the business team thanks to Vodafones insistence of using the usually incompetent digital mobile.

Kiwifruta

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#2232338 7-May-2019 16:43

Regarding international calls, have you considered using WhatsApp or equivalent?

My wife calls her family in Europe and South America all the time including video calls, all for no charge, just internet data, which she does on our home internet connection via WiFi.

Geektastic

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#2232437 7-May-2019 20:02

Kiwifruta: Regarding international calls, have you considered using WhatsApp or equivalent?

My wife calls her family in Europe and South America all the time including video calls, all for no charge, just internet data, which she does on our home internet connection via WiFi.

Yes but we aren't really a video call family. Everyone does it using voice calls, often when driving etc.

Also my mother wouldn't even know what What's App actually was....

Kiwifruta

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#2233006 8-May-2019 14:11

Geektastic:
Kiwifruta: Regarding international calls, have you considered using WhatsApp or equivalent?

My wife calls her family in Europe and South America all the time including video calls, all for no charge, just internet data, which she does on our home internet connection via WiFi.

Yes but we aren't really a video call family. Everyone does it using voice calls, often when driving etc.

Also my mother wouldn't even know what What's App actually was....

WhatsApp does voice calls too.

Geektastic

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#2233135 8-May-2019 16:34

Kiwifruta:
Geektastic:
Kiwifruta: Regarding international calls, have you considered using WhatsApp or equivalent?

My wife calls her family in Europe and South America all the time including video calls, all for no charge, just internet data, which she does on our home internet connection via WiFi.

Yes but we aren't really a video call family. Everyone does it using voice calls, often when driving etc.

Also my mother wouldn't even know what What's App actually was....

WhatsApp does voice calls too.

To standard overseas landlines?

Kiwifruta

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#2233143 8-May-2019 17:00

Geektastic:
Kiwifruta:

Geektastic:
Kiwifruta: Regarding international calls, have you considered using WhatsApp or equivalent?

My wife calls her family in Europe and South America all the time including video calls, all for no charge, just internet data, which she does on our home internet connection via WiFi.

Yes but we aren't really a video call family. Everyone does it using voice calls, often when driving etc.

Also my mother wouldn't even know what What's App actually was....

WhatsApp does voice calls too.

To standard overseas landlines?

No, but it will call a smart phone, provided they have the app.

It reads the contacts in your phone, so things are quite seemless.

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shk292

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#2233144 8-May-2019 17:09

Skype allows you to call overseas numbers, for about 4c per minute to most countries. You can set it up to be the default calling app on your phone

antoniosk

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#2233202 8-May-2019 18:01

Geektastic:
Hitherto, I have had my VF mobile on personal plans.

When I got my S10+, I switched to a monthly term Red Business contract. On the face of it, it seemed better - especially because I got NZ based support which is IME more efficient when things go wrong.

However, in the 3 months or so since, I have discovered a couple of things that were not made clear when I switched (the result of a very long conversation with a lady at VF not just my whim).

My 4G tablet had a data share SIM. That no longer works because you cannot do it with a Business Plan

I used to have a cap on international calls up to 1 hour - now no cap, just per minute billing, so call costs to clients in the USA and family around the world have gone up a fair bit

I am left wondering what the benefit of remaining on a Business plan actually is, other than the support aspect. Can anyone suggest anything that has not occurred to me?

The phone is my only phone (no landline) and is used for both personal and business comms.

1. You get an account manager, supposedly
2. Business support desk, assuming it still exists
3. Humans are willing to do deals and have flexibility. A computer most easily says no. A contact centre is often constrained and is only allowed to say no

________

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Geektastic

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#2233234 8-May-2019 20:04

Kiwifruta:
Geektastic:
Kiwifruta:

Geektastic:
Kiwifruta: Regarding international calls, have you considered using WhatsApp or equivalent?

My wife calls her family in Europe and South America all the time including video calls, all for no charge, just internet data, which she does on our home internet connection via WiFi.

Yes but we aren't really a video call family. Everyone does it using voice calls, often when driving etc.

Also my mother wouldn't even know what What's App actually was....

WhatsApp does voice calls too.

To standard overseas landlines?

No, but it will call a smart phone, provided they have the app.

It reads the contacts in your phone, so things are quite seemless.

Ah. Therein lies the problem. My mother has no mobile, smart or otherwise, and doesn't want one.

Kiwifruta

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#2233235 8-May-2019 20:06

Geektastic:
Kiwifruta:

Geektastic:
Kiwifruta:

Geektastic:
Kiwifruta: Regarding international calls, have you considered using WhatsApp or equivalent?

My wife calls her family in Europe and South America all the time including video calls, all for no charge, just internet data, which she does on our home internet connection via WiFi.

Yes but we aren't really a video call family. Everyone does it using voice calls, often when driving etc.

Also my mother wouldn't even know what What's App actually was....

WhatsApp does voice calls too.

To standard overseas landlines?

No, but it will call a smart phone, provided they have the app.

It reads the contacts in your phone, so things are quite seemless.

Ah. Therein lies the problem. My mother has no mobile, smart or otherwise, and doesn't want one.

Maybe buy her one and tell her how much money it will save you, perhaps that'll convince her to use one.

coffeebaron

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#2233236 8-May-2019 20:07

Local number on mobile is usually included on business plans.

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Geektastic

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#2234447 10-May-2019 12:54

Kiwifruta:
Geektastic:
Kiwifruta:

Geektastic:
Kiwifruta:

Geektastic:
Kiwifruta: Regarding international calls, have you considered using WhatsApp or equivalent?

My wife calls her family in Europe and South America all the time including video calls, all for no charge, just internet data, which she does on our home internet connection via WiFi.

Yes but we aren't really a video call family. Everyone does it using voice calls, often when driving etc.

Also my mother wouldn't even know what What's App actually was....

WhatsApp does voice calls too.

To standard overseas landlines?

No, but it will call a smart phone, provided they have the app.

It reads the contacts in your phone, so things are quite seemless.

Ah. Therein lies the problem. My mother has no mobile, smart or otherwise, and doesn't want one.

Maybe buy her one and tell her how much money it will save you, perhaps that'll convince her to use one.

If it would save her money, that might work. She hasn't ring me in at least 5 years.

Geektastic

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#2247380 28-May-2019 21:20

So I rang VF today and asked the lady at the Business CS why the business plans were so much worse.

She had no idea and told me that even the New Zealand based CS ends in October and is being outsourced to India!

Switched back to a personal plan. Got more data, capped international calls and my tablet is back up.