Consumer NZ launches Telecommunications Comparison Website Today

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

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3892 posts

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#512583 26-Aug-2011 16:18

HadynGreen:
That could be an option as monitored alarms can't work with quite a few plans.

I think the site needs to provide a link to information about this problem and not say you can't use the products, because that's not true.

I have a monitored alarm.

I moved to VoIP and just had to make some changes to my alarm system and the monitoring.

I got better service in the end and pay less for it.

Yes - this simply won't be possible with some systems and some companies, but that should not exclude the retail offering of that ISP. It just means we need to provide a bit more education to the user.

D

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vexxxboy

4089 posts

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#512588 26-Aug-2011 16:24

NonprayingMantis:
vexxxboy:
HadynGreen:
vexxxboy: i have tried it and entered every detail that i currently get from Snap, yet the only company i get recommended is Compass. what am i doing wrong?

Can you give me some more information about what options you've selected?

i have a bundled plan with Snap so i chose landline and internet then where i live.

i ticked yes for national calls 3-4 month at 4-7 minutes each , don't know to neighbouring area. International calls 2-3 a month to usa 30 min +, no mobile calls no more than $ 60 a month
internet broadband very fast, fast uploads, over 50 G a month, slow down if over, and dont know for how much it seems i get every Compass deal and the cheapest option is Vodafone at $148 , which is $143 more than i pay with Snap

you pay $5 for landline and broadband??

i Wish, big fingers small Keyboard

maybe $14 sounds better

Common sense is not as common as you think.

jonb

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#512603 26-Aug-2011 17:00

It seems to exclude the Telecom Total Home plans (current plan), and the Vodafone Ideal/Ultimate plans when I selected both landline and internet tick boxes, and doing national calling and up to 20GB a month.

The only telecom plans were 'Homeline' with add-ons, and the only vodafone plans were for home phone wireless.

It's confusing that you pick a max value for both the phone and for broadband. I put $90 in both as that is what I currently pay for a bundled package, but should I have put in $50 and $50 in each? The providers bundled packages don't tend to split out these costs anymore.

Also we currently only dial a single national number, but ring that one number lots of times a month. Total Home Lite is ideal for this, but there is no way to specify that in the options.

Does it matter, cost-wise, what time an international call is made? Seems to be no reason to have that last option for international calling. The 'over 30 minutes' max length option might trip people up (like me) who take advantage of the $5 for 2 hours offer from telecom and vodafone fixed line.

Overall, apart from slingshot, it doesn't seem to handle bundled packages very well.

mattwnz

19389 posts

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#512671 26-Aug-2011 19:43

Perhaps it should also give a ranking on how good the customer support is and it's reliability, as there is far more to choosing an ISP than just cost. I am with a more expensive ISP because their support and reliability is a lot better than my previous one, but it costs more. I can see how they can do this sort of thing for electricity as all electricity is the same and you generally need little support for it, but comparing ISPs this way is not as clearcut.

DonGould

3892 posts

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#512852 27-Aug-2011 12:24

mattwnz: Perhaps it should also give a ranking on how good the customer support is and it's reliability, as there is far more to choosing an ISP than just cost. I am with a more expensive ISP because their support and reliability is a lot better than my previous one, but it costs more. I can see how they can do this sort of thing for electricity as all electricity is the same and you generally need little support for it, but comparing ISPs this way is not as clearcut.

Don't know how you would rate service levels.

However it should have an area for key points of difference and also ownership and local helpdesk should be filter options.

I'm currently looking for a new ISP because I want to have local support and I'm willing to pay for it.

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Lurch

1054 posts

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#512934 27-Aug-2011 18:54

Well, no results for me when I use their wizard :-)

Ahwell will stick wtih my VOIP line and naked DSL $66.50 a month for 45GB and 500 minutes anywhere can't complain :-)

sbiddle

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#512948 27-Aug-2011 20:05

I had a discussion with one of the people behind this site well over a year ago when it was in the concept stage. My feeling at the time was that this was going to be a project that was (nearly) impossible to pull off succesfully, in part due to the vast numbers of plans, and the analysis required to accurately compare plans. I've been following the project over the last year and was quite excited to see it finally go live. Having spent some time looking at this today however, it's clear there are some serious challenges that need to be overcome.

Lets look for a plan in Wellington with a maximum of 40GB. Fancy TelstraClear Lightspeed 40G?

There are multiple errors in the data for this plan - firstly I selected plans offering up to 40GB but the $78.80 price listed at the top adds on 3GB at $2.95 per GB for overcharge vs the $69.95 monthy charge (the actual cost for the service is $69.95 for 40GB), secondly this product doesn't require a phoneline, and last but not least this plan offers 15Mbps down and 2Mbps up.

If such basics are wrong I'm not surprised others are encountering issues with the data they're seeing.

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek

#512962 27-Aug-2011 21:22

sbiddle:
There are multiple errors in the data for this plan - firstly I selected plans offering up to 40GB but the $78.80 price listed at the top adds on 3GB at $2.95 per GB for overcharge vs the $69.95 monthy charge (the actual cost for the service is $69.95 for 40GB), secondly this product doesn't require a phoneline, and last but not least this plan offers 15Mbps down and 2Mbps up.

Ya, I posted basically the same issue and they said they were going to look at it.

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Talkiet

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#512965 27-Aug-2011 21:28

Who's going to wear the responsibility if someone switches based on wrong info? Are Consumer NZ going to pay any early termination fees and manage getting services back to where they should be?

Is this a best efforts service with absolutely no guarantee of the accuracy of the data and it's up to you as an individual to doublecheck EVERY SINGLE FIGURE in all the comparisons against the ISP websites?

I was trying not to pass judgement on this too early but I can't see this working... Power is easy, there are a limited number of variables and the product is the same regardless of who bills for it.

Internet / Cellphone / Phone plans? Well... Any comparison will be out of date by the time you complete it.

Mr Consumer NZ - Care to comment on the ongoing commitment around having this continually up to date and accurate?

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek

#512975 27-Aug-2011 22:12

Talkiet:
Mr Consumer NZ - Care to comment on the ongoing commitment around having this continually up to date and accurate?

I think it should be up to providers.

But I also think that the information should be dated with a verification system.

- "This plan was last verified by Telecom 44/55/2079 and is current until 12/12/2012"

http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/ is a fairly amazing system. All the data is maintained by the providers and it does side by side comparisons between plans. You can even add plans to your list to compare them against each other.

As for checking the data, I agree with Talkiet that customers should double check the pricing with the provider when they sign up.

Com's is more complex than power and I agree that the consumer simply has to put some effort in to get it right.

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jonherries

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#513089 28-Aug-2011 15:30

I thought it might be worth adding my comments as well in the interest of trying to help, as this seems to be a pretty serious endeavour.

I had a look at the mobile plans and got presented with a large table of results, including massive columns to tell me the name of the plan, how much it costs, and that there were special conditions.

The first thing people want to know is what they are getting along with the price, not the plan name or the special conditions ( every option has special conditions). The only way to find out how much mobile calling/txting/data there was is going into the actual listing, which most people aren't going to do (a UX person will tell you this).

Therefore having a list with price and no idea what I am actually comparing doesn't add value.

I would suggest reformatting the table to include relevant info in graph form for calls/txts/data, and have a separated colour in each bar for same network vs other network.

Hope this helps.

Jon

michaelmurfy

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#513121 28-Aug-2011 17:45

I am with Telecom for everything - and do heaps of mobile calling (approx 650mins per month) - it recommended me the 2* $29 Monthly Plan with 100mb of Mobile Broadband (I use about 1.2gb per month) ugh.

Total fail.

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mattwnz

19389 posts

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#513137 28-Aug-2011 18:17

DonGould:
mattwnz: Perhaps it should also give a ranking on how good the customer support is and it's reliability, as there is far more to choosing an ISP than just cost. I am with a more expensive ISP because their support and reliability is a lot better than my previous one, but it costs more. I can see how they can do this sort of thing for electricity as all electricity is the same and you generally need little support for it, but comparing ISPs this way is not as clearcut.

Don't know how you would rate service levels.

However it should have an area for key points of difference and also ownership and local helpdesk should be filter options.?

I'm currently looking for a new ISP because I want to have local support and I'm willing to pay for it.

Yes ownership would be a good one, although sometimes difficult to ascertain. eg. Orcon is Government owned, so we all own it in NZ, but telecom is a NZ listed company which is largly NZ owned by mum and dad investors, but also owned by overseas investors. There are other companies who are largely overseas owned. ISP using a local helpdesk could also be a good thing to list, as many people like dealing directly with NZers , as communciating over VOIP over to some foreign helpdesk can be difficult, especially for the elderly and those hard at hearing.

TheUngeek

924 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#513286 29-Aug-2011 08:31

Actually worked for me.
I'm on a Vodafone smart 2 plan and it came up with a 2 degrees one thats a better deal, more minutes plus carries over minutes.
Although it was half way down the page and after a whole heap that didn't match what I entered.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#513289 29-Aug-2011 08:47

TheUngeek: Actually worked for me.
I'm on a Vodafone smart 2 plan and it came up with a 2 degrees one thats a better deal, more minutes plus carries over minutes.
Although it was half way down the page and after a whole heap that didn't match what I entered.

...then it didn't really work.

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