Neighbour wasn't aware of consequences of moving off grandfathered plan with Spark

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Neighbour wasn't aware of consequences of moving off grandfathered plan with Spark

rhy7s

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#290073 19-Oct-2021 16:22

A neighbour of mine moved to a new Spark ADSL with POTS plan when her grandson was staying to get more data. He has now left but she has an approximately $110 monthly bill vs her old plan's approx. $60. Spark say there is no option to downgrade again. It seems a bit unfair, elderly with an xtra.co.nz address in a rural Northland valley getting stung. Do you know of anyone who has been able to revert to a limited data plan with Spark? If not, suggestions for a provider who does with a human help desk?

sbiddle

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#2797737 19-Oct-2021 16:29

I don't think you'll find any other RSP out there offering copper POTS now.

Can she not move to Spark fixed wireless?

RunningMan

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#2797803 19-Oct-2021 19:50

There's a new Spark fixed wireless plan - $45/month 40GB & landline. Would that suit?

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=39&topicid=289942

rhy7s

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#2797842 19-Oct-2021 20:26

It doesn't show as available in our area, is there a way to check what towers the service should be available from? They have very marginal signal from Vodafone and Spark towers (only in one room in the house, if you hold the phone just right.

RunningMan

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#2797844 19-Oct-2021 20:35

https://www.spark.co.nz/shop/mobile/network/ for cell network coverage, however they will limit the number of connections in some geographical areas to prevent overloading particular sites and impacting performance. No harm in calling to double check an address through.

Linux

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#2797846 19-Oct-2021 20:49

First thing get them away from that xtra email address

rhy7s

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#2797858 19-Oct-2021 21:13

Yeah, that's been happening but old habits die hard and there's a lot of history with that address but they don't keep much in the way of emails, so it's hard to be sure of all the services and organisations that have that address as their contact.

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Delphinus

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#2797927 19-Oct-2021 23:14

Set up a gmail account and get it to download messages from the xtra address. Then sent email will come from the gmail and you can start phasing it out, while still receiving them all.

afe66

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#2798084 20-Oct-2021 11:06

Sorry but buyer beware for me.

I would expect my son to cover the cost difference because the change was for his benefit presumably..

Bit liken if he had got grandma to subscribe to sky TV deal then left.

nztim

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#2798089 20-Oct-2021 11:11

Those old plans for $60 per month were costing spark money, when you add up the Chorus input costs for the xDSL plus providing bandwidth and circa $20 for PSTN services its more than $60

That is why they wont let her move back down, she would have had that connection in the days of "OLD Telecom" before "Paying Chorus" was a thing

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

nztim

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#2798093 20-Oct-2021 11:17

I know some people here don't like NOWNZ but they are fantastic for elderly people, ADSL+Voice over ISAM-V with 125GB data is $80 per month ad $5 for 2 hour nation wide calling or $10 for 100 minutes of mobile calling

Still not the $60 she was paying but better than $110

Problem is still the xtra.co.nz email address, what a cluster

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

1101

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#2799300 22-Oct-2021 11:13

nztim:

Problem is still the xtra.co.nz email address, what a cluster

can keep just the email a/c , for a small charge
Will need to organize this in advance though

https://www.spark.co.nz/myspark/myinternet/email

What happens to my Xtra Mail account if I cancel my Spark broadband?
If you're not a Spark broadband customer but you have an Xtra Mail address that you'd like to keep or reactivate, you can get Xtra Mail for $5.95 per month.

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nztim

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#2799314 22-Oct-2021 11:27

1101:

nztim:

Problem is still the xtra.co.nz email address, what a cluster

can keep just the email a/c , for a small charge
Will need to organize this in advance though

https://www.spark.co.nz/myspark/myinternet/email

What happens to my Xtra Mail account if I cancel my Spark broadband?
If you're not a Spark broadband customer but you have an Xtra Mail address that you'd like to keep or reactivate, you can get Xtra Mail for $5.95 per month.

Yeah so itching back to the $110 she's paying now

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.