"This is a bit of a rant from my point of view. My first simcard phone was for Vodafone, when I lost that I bought a new phone which came with a 2Degrees sim card ($5 at the time). They were this new company withy big promises, cheap, good service, and everything else. I thought how bad could they be?

I was horribly wrong. 2Degrees needs to really step up their game.

-The minimum amount you may topup is $20. At the time Vodafone had the same minimum but it gave you some assurance that you wouldn't be overcharged from things like hanging up a call in a reasonable time. I've wasted hundreds of dollars on accidental calls, phone having net enabled after firmware update, charged for services they do not advertise will cost.

-Recently I wanted to check my voicemail by landline, but it said I needed to setup my voicemail first, so I called using my cell phone. After doing so, I checked my balance and I got charged. Now like every other month I've topped up I am just under the balance necessary to re-topup.

-Pricing is horrendous, they made out they were cheap. The simcards are now $20 (no additional credit), texting is $10 whereas Vodafone used to have it for $6 and unlimited calling/texting/3g video for $6 for a single contact, calling is extremely expensive, it seems to cost about the same as the competition.

-The "customer care" centre isn't well layed out, it can take quite some time to get where you need to go and find out the sort of information you need. Information on plans and the plan names/information is not available, the internet is required.

-I just rang 2Degrees and waited half an hour for a real person, it was silent most of the time, I think their system failed so I hung up. Then I called Skinny, within 10 seconds of waiting I got to talk to a person and they sorted me in about another 10 seconds.

-They have no prepay freezing of funds available, when I put $20 on, I want to make sure absolutely NOTHING will deprive my funds for the next occurance. This would help a lot.

-Having a plan auto repurchase the previous, so every time you initially select a plan, it does this without giving you an option. Having to text some random number with statements which are only available online makes you feel a bit trapped. Having to cancel a plan as soon as you select one is just silly.

-Phone month ends but it doesn't tell you, so the credit on your phone gets spent.

-They don't provide much in the way of 2G services. So if 2G is off, you cannot receive or make calls.

After the first month of having 2Degrees I really thought the service was far worse than Vodafone's. 3-4 Years on, and nearly a thousand dollars wasted later I've just had enough. I think Skinny, Vodafone and I hate to say it.. Telecom are far better alternatives.

Ranting may be frowned upon, but I just want people thinking of using 2Degrees to reconsider with me experience dealing with this company as my provider for the past few years.





[Moderator note (MF): user banned for activity in previous account. This post is not relevant]