why do 2degrees charge for voicemail calls?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › why do 2degrees charge for voicemail calls?

reven

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#144269 13-May-2014 10:40

i just switched from vodafone to 2degrees, vodafone didnt charge me voicemail calls (well im pretty sure they didnt), I was on a monthly plan ($30 a month one). switched to $39 2d plan, find it very odd 2degrees charge for voicemail calls.

sure its not a hell of a lot, but still, why? seems cheeky to me, considering all the free minutes you get with your plan.

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Biddle Corp

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#1042861 13-May-2014 10:46

Some newer VF plans include free voicemail.

My understanding is every Telecom plan (apart from some corporate plans) and all 2d plans charge for it.

Why? Because they can...

reven

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#1042863 13-May-2014 10:47

maybe vodafone should start including "Free voicemail" in their ads, then perhaps telecom/2d will do the same :)

reven

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#1042865 13-May-2014 10:50

for business users this must add up to be quite a bit... should be a factor when deciding what company to go with...

every new customer gets charged 20cents the first time they setup their voicemail.

so silly.

Inphinity

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#1042894 13-May-2014 11:10

Were you on a business plan with VF? As far as I know many of their personal plans still charge 20c for VM access, but most of the business plans include it. Same for Telecom.

sbiddle

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#1042896 13-May-2014 11:11

The VF site clearly lists those which are free under the plan details.

Maybe their surveys don't indicate it as something people care about, hence the reason they don't promote it? I guess when people don't care things change - nobody obviously cared about min+sec billing (which was the norm on all VF plans) so they've moved to min+min now on most plans now to match what 2d have been doing since they launched. I've yet to even see anybody on here even comment on that..

reven

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#1042897 13-May-2014 11:12

Inphinity: Were you on a business plan with VF? As far as I know many of their personal plans still charge 20c for VM access, but most of the business plans include it. Same for Telecom.

nah i was just on a standard $30 month plan.

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2degreesCare

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#1042916 13-May-2014 11:54

We now have free voicemail on all our Share Everything plans

Cheers
^POB

reven

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#1042919 13-May-2014 11:59

im on the $39 carryover plan any reason you havent done the same with the carryover plans?

jonathan18

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#1042941 13-May-2014 12:13

2DegreesCare: We now have free voicemail on all our Share Everything plans

Cheers
^POB

Seriously? I thought I'd read that all 2 Degrees voicemail is covered by the minutes included in one's plan, so there'd be no cost unless you had no minutes remaining.

2 Degrees reps - can you confirm that we (ie, those not on the plans you mentioned above) do indeed get charged 20c each time we check our voicemail, even if we're on a different plan and have minutes remaining?

If so, I'm keen on turning voice mail off - can that easily be done?

BTR

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#1043038 13-May-2014 14:18

Voicemail is a service, if you don't use it you don't pay for it and if you use it you pay. It costs carriers to have a voicemail system AND to connect your call to that system.

If someone calls you and leaves a 10 minute message you are using 10 minutes worth of call time which costs the carrier at a per min rate.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter if they charge a flat rate or if they charged per min people wouldn't be happy. Telcos have to make money as well.

If you are not happy paying 20c turn off your voicemail service, change plans or switch Telcos.

loganjames

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#1043049 13-May-2014 14:29

At $39 both 2D and VDF both charge for voicemail. Just 2D gives you an extra 500MB and Australian minutes. Vodafone gives you 4G.

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macuser

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#1043072 13-May-2014 14:47

Although this isn't answering your question, I've found a voicemail saying 'Hi, you've reached XYZ, please send me a text message or an email at email@XYZ.com. Thanks.' works pretty well in avoiding annoying voicemails

2degreesCare

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#1043090 13-May-2014 15:27

jonathan18:
2DegreesCare: We now have free voicemail on all our Share Everything plans

Cheers
^POB

Seriously? I thought I'd read that all 2 Degrees voicemail is covered by the minutes included in one's plan, so there'd be no cost unless you had no minutes remaining.

2 Degrees reps - can you confirm that we (ie, those not on the plans you mentioned above) do indeed get charged 20c each time we check our voicemail, even if we're on a different plan and have minutes remaining?

If so, I'm keen on turning voice mail off - can that easily be done?

Hi, if you have a Carryover Combo - http://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/prepay/pricing/plus/value-packs/carryover-combo or Carryover Chat Pack http://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/prepay/pricing/plus/value-packs/carryover-chat (now with 250 texts to NZ & Aussie mobiles included on the $8 Chat Pack) well take 1 minute from your allocation each time you call Voicemail. If you don't have one of these then you will be charges 20c per call to voicemail.

Customers can deactivate voicemail themselves by calling 202 and selecting option 3, then option 8. The caller will then hear you have deactivated voicemail.
Alternatively we can remove the service totally so unanswered calls will just ring and ring. To arrange this please call Care on 200 or PM me your number, 4 digit security PIN or DOB and address that's logged in Your 2degrees - https://secure.2degreesmobile.co.nz/web/ip/login.

Cheers
^POB

PhantomNVD

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#1043333 13-May-2014 23:35

Or just ring your own number directly, hit * and input your pin?

reven

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#1043371 14-May-2014 07:38

PhantomNVD: Or just ring your own number directly, hit * and input your pin?

would that work?

I really

BTR: Voicemail is a service, if you don't use it you don't pay for it and if you use it you pay. It costs carriers to have a voicemail system AND to connect your call to that system.

If someone calls you and leaves a 10 minute message you are using 10 minutes worth of call time which costs the carrier at a per min rate.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter if they charge a flat rate or if they charged per min people wouldn't be happy. Telcos have to make money as well.

If you are not happy paying 20c turn off your voicemail service, change plans or switch Telcos.

I knew someone would make this argument. Sure its a service, but it shouldnt be charged on top of your minutes. It should just take time from the minutes you have. Its a basic service all mobile operators provide. I have absolutely no problem with them charging me via the minutes I have, or if I have none left, charging me for that time. But charging you separately when you have 100s of minutes (that lets face it, most people will never use that amount, so they're making money by selling stuff you never actually use).

The fact I have 300 carryover minutes, unlimited texts, 1GB of data a month, just take it out of that.

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