Consumer NZ launches Telecommunications Comparison Website Today

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Consumer NZ launches Telecommunications Comparison Website Today

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750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#511926 25-Aug-2011 16:05

Oh well. Put my useage in and got 13 pages of options. 13 pages!!. I can't be bothered going through them all to try to make a comparison

HadynGreen

30 posts

Geek

Trusted

#511928 25-Aug-2011 16:08

Hi all,

I am the tech writer for Consumer and content manager for TelMe. Seems so far none of you have had a good time with our site, so I thought I'd see if I could help at all.

Of course I can't answer questions that consist simply of "Fail" or "It's broken", but I might be able to offer explanations that go further than the quick answers in the TelMe site Help section.

For example:

tonyhughes: Wow, awful site. I was confused by some terminology they were attempting to use, and why is one of the first questions asking me how many dialup hours a day I need (with no option to say 'none').

Most likely you selected "Broadband and Dial-up" rather than just "Broadband". If not then we will log it as a major flaw.

farcus: put in all me details - location - internet calling patterns etc. Recommended Orcon Genius.
Contact Orcon - I'm sorry - Genius is not available in your area.

What's the point of entering your location if it recommends plans that are not available at your location?

It may be that Genius is available in your wider area but not to your property (in much the same way my house in Wellington would be offered Telstra cable, though I can't get it without major earthworks). We would have loved to offer info at an address level, but doing so was more costly than developing the site itself (and apparently we would've had to register as a telco.

I can't find my plan

Ok no one actually said that in as many words, but can you check that those plans are still available to new customers? Because we haven't grandfathered in any old plans, as this is for people looking to change. If your current plan is cheaper, well done, stick with it.

Cheers
Hadyn Green

Technology Writer
Consumer NZ

@hadyngreen - twitter

nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek

#511929 25-Aug-2011 16:08

I had a closer look at the results, and there are some really telling errors for instance:

The 'cheapest' result, which was for Vodafone everything:

Mobile Plan: Vodafone Easy 20 which according to http://www.vodafone.co.nz/support/mobile-plans/retired-plans/?q=oldplans was retired and cannot be signed up for any more. But, it's an On-Account plan, which comes to the Broadband component...

Broadband: Vodafone Ultimate Naked - $95 - As it suggested an On Account mobile plan, it should have only said that the Broadband is $65.

That said, Vodafone naked broadband isn't available off my local exchange but Consumer didn't bother to consider that did they?

The Slingshot + 2degrees package that it game up with says the Elite broadband product is $105/mo, yet the Slingshot site gives the 'normal' price at $55/mo.

And the Vodafone + Compass plan they came up with seems a bit wrong too.

nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek

#511934 25-Aug-2011 16:17

HadynGreen: Hi all,

I am the tech writer for Consumer and content manager for TelMe. Seems so far none of you have had a good time with our site, so I thought I'd see if I could help at all.

Welcome!

farcus: put in all me details - location - internet calling patterns etc. Recommended Orcon Genius.
Contact Orcon - I'm sorry - Genius is not available in your area.

What's the point of entering your location if it recommends plans that are not available at your location?
It may be that Genius is available in your wider area but not to your property (in much the same way my house in Wellington would be offered Telstra cable, though I can't get it without major earthworks). We would have loved to offer info at an address level, but doing so was more costly than developing the site itself (and apparently we would've had to register as a telco.

Fair enough, but... perhaps include a question to a) see if a rural tariff may be applied for Naked Broadband (to then either take that into account, or apply footnotes/further filtering in the results) b) exclude Naked Broadband results all together if the user knows they can't get it.

I can't find my plan

Ok no one actually said that in as many words, but can you check that those plans are still available to new customers? Because we haven't grandfathered in any old plans, as this is for people looking to change. If your current plan is cheaper, well done, stick with it.

The Telecom Total Home packages are definitely still for sale but didn't show up in the results, but as noted in my other reply there are some grandfathered Vodafone mobile plans.

HadynGreen

30 posts

Geek

Trusted

#511935 25-Aug-2011 16:19

nigelj: I had a closer look at the results, and there are some really telling errors for instance:

The 'cheapest' result, which was for Vodafone everything:

Mobile Plan: Vodafone Easy 20 which according to...was retired and cannot be signed up for any more. But, it's an On-Account plan, which comes to the Broadband component...

Broadband: Vodafone Ultimate Naked - $95 - As it suggested an On Account mobile plan, it should have only said that the Broadband is $65.

That's quite odd as Vodafone have had access to check our database for a very long time, I will flag it as something to look at. Having said that they did just change their plans yesterday.

That said, Vodafone naked broadband isn't available off my local exchange but Consumer didn't bother to consider that did they?

See my reply earlier as to why we couldn't offer address-based availability.

Hadyn

Technology Writer
Consumer NZ

@hadyngreen - twitter

hellonearthisman

1819 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#511938 25-Aug-2011 16:22

It must still be in alpha stage. My town was not even on the map. (Feilding, with a Slingshot unbundeled exchange so the home list is $40 which is cheaper than any other provider here)

It would be a difficult service to provide as there is so much veneration and not all ISP have the data easily accessible (slingshot)

Any chance of open sourcing the project? This would mean users could submit updated the information about the plans they are on or even get the ISP's to provide you with the information as it's a free marketing tool for them.

farcus

1554 posts

Uber Geek

#511945 25-Aug-2011 16:34

HadynGreen:
farcus: put in all me details - location - internet calling patterns etc. Recommended Orcon Genius.
Contact Orcon - I'm sorry - Genius is not available in your area.

What's the point of entering your location if it recommends plans that are not available at your location?

It may be that Genius is available in your wider area but not to your property (in much the same way my house in Wellington would be offered Telstra cable, though I can't get it without major earthworks). We would have loved to offer info at an address level, but doing so was more costly than developing the site itself (and apparently we would've had to register as a telco.

My location is Timaru.
The only locations in the South Island where Genius is available is CHCH & Dunedin.
Are you suggesting my wider area is CHCH?

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SaltyNZ

8218 posts

Uber Geek

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2degrees

Lifetime subscriber

#512005 25-Aug-2011 18:25

xpd: Sorry, we dont have a "its broken" section.

WIN :)

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

Behodar

10501 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#512010 25-Aug-2011 18:33

farcus: put in all me details - location - internet calling patterns etc.Recommended Orcon Genius.
Contact Orcon - I'm sorry - Genius is not available in your area.
WTF!
What's the point of entering your location if it recommends plans that are not available at your location?

Same sort of problem here. I selected Whakatane and it recommended TrustPower Kinect, which according to TrustPower's site is not available here.

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek

#512016 25-Aug-2011 18:40

Put my details in for internet, it found the plan I'm on, but the price was out by 20% and the conditions on the site were different from what the providers charges me currently and the figures on the TelMe site didn't add up correctly. The technical speeds specs were also wrong/different from what the provider says they are.

Are providers able to update their own details?

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

gzt

17104 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#512089 25-Aug-2011 20:41

I just looked at mobile data plans so my comment is restricted to that. It is actually very difficult to 'compare' plans using the output, because the output does not contain the information needed to compare. Minimum, I would expect to see the amount of included data and the additional data cost. In this case it is actually easier for me to look at the original sites.

nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek

#512094 25-Aug-2011 20:46

gzt: I just looked at mobile data plans so my comment is restricted to that. It is actually very difficult to 'compare' plans using the output, because the output does not contain the information needed to compare. Minimum, I would expect to see the amount of included data and the additional data cost. In this case it is actually easier for me to look at the original sites.

You can check the boxes next to the plans, and click on compare at the top that provides more information.

gzt

17104 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#512097 25-Aug-2011 20:51

nigelj:
gzt: I just looked at mobile data plans so my comment is restricted to that. It is actually very difficult to 'compare' plans using the output, because the output does not contain the information needed to compare. Minimum, I would expect to see the amount of included data and the additional data cost. In this case it is actually easier for me to look at the original sites.

You can check the boxes next to the plans, and click on compare at the top that provides more information.

Ok, it totally was not clear to me that was a button. I interpreted it as a column header. Am I the only one? : )

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#512185 26-Aug-2011 05:49

Put in my current details and got no plans found, i suspect this is because the price points i selected, for example i spend $115 on Total home broadband 60GB and selected $60 for landline and $60 for broadband as this is the average price, so being prepared to spend $120 on those it still doesn't find the plan i am on.

Not sure why they have price point selecters?

People are looking for the cheapest plan for their needs so why not show all plans in low-high order.

By asking people to select a price you are excluding resluts which may be relavent to them.

Geese

1028 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#512194 26-Aug-2011 07:46

I just had a go putting in my current requirements, the cheapest option at the top of the list correctly chose the home phone plan I am on, correctly chose the mobile plan I am on, however the mobile broadband was way out.

The option I selected was up to 4GB (I use between 3 to 3.8GB per month), it chose Vodafone Alpha 512MB. It should have asked minimums required.

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