[TelstraClear] Strange TCL broadband plans - ad hoc data about the same price as prepay

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › [TelstraClear] Strange TCL broadband plans - ad hoc data about the same price as prepay

lchiu7

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#89378 1-Sep-2011 10:00

I am currently on Lightspeed 60GB but was finding with youtube, TV On Demand, Netflix (!) etc. I was regularly going over by about 20G at $2.95/2GB.

So it made sense I thought to move to the 90GB plan (rather than the more pragmatic option of scaling back on family Internet usage and putting in an IP blocker!). But it turns out not to be the case.

60GB is $95.95 and 90GN is $139.95, a $44 extra. But 30GB of ad hoc data is 15x$2.95 or $44.25 so you save the princely sum of 25c if you prepay. And while I haven't reached 90GB in a month yet, if you don't then you lose out more.

TCL needs to really rethink their plan pricings.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Screeb

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#514957 1-Sep-2011 11:26

Yes, I noted this fact when the plans were last updated. It's stupid.

lchiu7

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#514963 1-Sep-2011 11:30

I hadn't noticed this when I changed plans until the TCL rep called me back. I was about to cancel when she put me onto customer retention. Well seeing I was a long time TCL subscriber (over 7 years) and average > $200/month in total usage, while he had no way of altering the plans, he did give me a month's credit on my bill. I guess that's pretty good since it's about 5 months of extra 30G/month for free.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

jpollock

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#515249 1-Sep-2011 18:34

I consider it a test to see if you're paying attention or not.

When the new plans came out, I instantly dropped to the 60G plan and pay overages every month.

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lchiu7

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#515274 1-Sep-2011 19:12

I wonder who is in their marketing department? They should be let go!

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

jpollock

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#515289 1-Sep-2011 19:38

lchiu7: I wonder who is in their marketing department? They should be let go!

Why? Breakage is a common thing in telephony, or have you never had a mobile plan? How about a voice plan where your minutes or SMS's expired at the end of the month? Balance expires after a year?

This is a defined cost plan, for people who like to know how much they are going to spend every month, complete with warnings when they are getting close to going over.

Personally, I'm comfortable paying random amounts every month, and hate breakage. So, I size my plan accordingly.

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lchiu7

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#515298 1-Sep-2011 19:55

jpollock:
lchiu7: I wonder who is in their marketing department? They should be let go!

Why? Breakage is a common thing in telephony, or have you never had a mobile plan? How about a voice plan where your minutes or SMS's expired at the end of the month? Balance expires after a year?

This is a defined cost plan, for people who like to know how much they are going to spend every month, complete with warnings when they are getting close to going over.

Personally, I'm comfortable paying random amounts every month, and hate breakage. So, I size my plan accordingly.

The issue is not breakage but that the breakage rates are almost identical to prepaid.

Contrast that with broadband mobile plans - prepaid is always better than casual (breakage).

That's my issue. It should be cheaper to prepay 90GB than to pay for 60GB and go over by 30GB

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

New World

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).

NonprayingMantis

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#515309 1-Sep-2011 20:06

it's a fairly clever marketing 'trick'. makes you feel like you are getting one over on the company and getting a better deal than you actually are.

The 90GB acts as an anchor for value, and because the 60GB plan is obviously better it makes you feel that you are getting a better deal when you take the 60GB than if the 90GB did not exist at all. Because you think you are getting a great deal you are much less likely to shop around to other ISPs.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_05/b4165077443953.htm

"People's cluelessness about what goods are worth to them makes them vulnerable to what behavioral economists call "anchoring." As every luxury retailer knows, an anchor is a high-priced product that may never sell but "makes everything else look affordable by comparison." Poundstone observes that in the midst of the recession, Ralph Lauren (RL) was selling a "Ricky" alligator bag for $14,000. (Update: It's now $16,995, making Lauren's Tiffin Bag a steal at just $2,595.) And anchoring works: Williams-Sonoma (WSM) once offered a fancy breadmaker for $279. Then it added a $429 model. The costly model flopped, but sales of the cheaper one doubled. "

so far from being marketing dunces I think the guys at TCL are probably geniuses.

jpollock

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#515317 1-Sep-2011 20:17

lchiu7:
The issue is not breakage but that the breakage rates are almost identical to prepaid.

Contrast that with broadband mobile plans - prepaid is always better than casual (breakage).

That's my issue. It should be cheaper to prepay 90GB than to pay for 60GB and go over by 30GB

I think you're getting breakage confused with overage, they are different things. Breakage is when you don't use your prepaid amount, overage is when you use more than your prepaid amount.

As for it being cheaper? That's not necessarily true. For example, I remember checking the pricing per ml on mustard (yes, I'm that sad). There were three jars, and the medium jar had the highest price per ml, then the large finally the small. It was a bit of a surprise to me too.

Pay attention to what you're paying, it's the same as the "what's my number" thing and powerswitch.

Jason

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lchiu7

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#515397 1-Sep-2011 22:15

jpollock:
The issue is not breakage but that the breakage rates are almost identical to prepaid.

Pay attention to what you're paying, it's the same as the "what's my number" thing and powerswitch.

Jason

Maybe so, but I got a month's credit so I am happy for the moment. That's over $220 worth of credit for me

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

mattbush

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#515625 2-Sep-2011 11:59

I believe we are under a "watch this space" from a TCL rep on these forums regarding plans. It is getting a bit old by now as usual....but I assume that changes are in the wind....

Not holding my breath tho...

We will also see things happen to plans as the Govts rollout begins to get traction.

RmACK

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#515687 2-Sep-2011 13:43

We started on this plan ages ago when it was 40GB and excess charges made the plan above a good deal if you used that much. It then randomly got bumped to 50GB at no extra charge while all other plans stayed the same, much to our delight as we were using about 50GB. This was about 2 years ago and is what really kicked it "out of whack" with the other plans, mainly as it was the smallest plan with 2GB/$2.95 instead of 1GB/$2.95.

TCL actually called us to ask if we wanted to go up to the 80GB plan as we were consistently exceeding our 50GB cabby a few blocks (but like now with 60/90 plans there was only a tiny saving and then only *IF* you were within 2GB of the plan above which we never were).

We were very pleasantly surprised when instead of "realign" the plans last October & slap on more GST, they actually dropped our fee $10, bumped 50GB to 60GB and 10mbit to 15, making the "advantage" of our plan even better . :D

As NonprayingMantis points out, this was probably all a very successful marketing ploy on their part to keep us such happy customers.