You don't see many companies who get a service like this right in nearly every single aspect in one attempt. This is an e-mail I sent this morning to 2degrees:


In a word. Exceptional.

I just thought I'd take a minute to share my initial experiences with my new favorite mobile provider.

I purchased a sim card online last week. Despite New Zealand Couriers' abysmal courier performance - delivery was attempted once, I was posted a card to call dated 16-06-10, the letter reached my mailbox 19-06-10 (Sat) giving me five days from the date on the letter to pick the parcel up, the courier office was closed Sunday giving me only Monday to pick it up or have it returned to sender :(

This, of course, has nothing to do with 2degrees and luckily my days off this month are Monday and Tuesday so I managed to grab it in time. I popped the sim card into my aging Sony Ericsson K610i (soon to be replaced by an HTC Desire) and called 0800 022 022. I was greeted by a friendly sounding IVR who offered to setup my PIN and voicemail. I chose to setup my PIN but wanted to port my existing number so chose to setup my voicemail later. I was impressed by the efficiency and clarity which was programmed into the IVR. I had no doubt as to what I was doing at any time.

After hanging up, I browsed to the 2degrees website and created myself an account using the provided 022 number and an automatically generated password which was sent to me via SMS. Despite not being a fan of overly colourful and cartoon-like websites I found it a pleasure to browse. Everything I could ever want is only a click or two away and the entire site is very well planned. Big kudos to your design team.

I clicked on the 'Bring your number' link and was greeted with a simple page asking me for my current number, whether I was an on-account or prepaid customer with my last provider and my account number as I was an on-account customer. I then actually read the disclaimer conditions as they weren't 8394768576 pages long and were written in plain English which was easy for me to understand. The same goes for your privacy statement.

Three hours after clicking the submit button my number was ported. I was notified via SMS again from 2degrees and I decided to go back to the website. I had been automatically logged out and decided to try something which I didn't expect to work. I entered my new (ported) number and password. To my surprise I was logged in and everything was as I had left it.

I can assuredly say that you have an extremely loyal customer now, 2degrees. Not only am I impressed with your fair pricing but the obvious effort - possibly belied by its simplistic interface - that has gone into your website and its back end has me stunned. You have outdone the two incumbent mobile providers with a single leap and will likely remain ahead of them for a few years without updating a thing.

I have a suggestion for you though (being the perfectionist I am...)

When I specify my address details you are able to enter your street number and search for your location (making use of some address database like the one NZPost offers). I was not able to specify an apartment or unit number as part of my address and instead had to write the apartment number followed by two spaces and the street number.

I can imagine this isn't likely to cause grave problems but adding an optional unit/apartment/flat number would be an excellent improvement.

To sum up, I find your website and - as far as I have tested - performance top notch. I have called your customer care centre once (I'll likely only use it once, I'm one of those customers ;) and my experience was excellent. Thank you for an excellent service.