2D billing my wife for free minutes - no help from the Call Centre

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › 2D billing my wife for free minutes - no help from the Call Centre

lchiu7

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#81128 8-Apr-2011 11:58

Just looked at my wife's latest bill and it showed she had been billed for 90 minutes of calls (local and NZ cellphone) even though she has a plan with 60 included minutes and 100 bonus.

This didn't seem right since the previous month the bill showed a bunch of calls but with zero costs. This month many of the calls during the month were zero cost until the last week when each call was billed.

I spent a while with the call centre on this problem who were not able to resolve it and said they would refer it to the technical team. They were supposed to call me back but two days later I have heard nothing.

I wouldn't normally post issues like that here but it seems I am not getting resolution from the proper channels. Either something is wrong with their billing system or I am not understanding how my wife's plan works. Certainly even towards the end of the month she would enter the USSD code for balances and it should ample free minutes left which would make her feel comfortable with continuing to call. I guess not!

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

2degreesCare

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#456715 8-Apr-2011 12:29

When the inclusive and bonus mins have run out you will be charged normal rates.

*100*4*1# will show you your plans minutes.
*100*4*2# - texts balance
*100*4*3# - data
*100*4*4# all other balances

Our SLA to resolve billing issues is 4 working days. Whenever possible, and on most occasions, they're resolved within this timeframe.

Can you DM me your wife's number along with the reference number the Care team may have given you.

Cheers
^POB

freitasm

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#456720 8-Apr-2011 12:39

lchiu7: Just looked at my wife's latest bill and it showed she had been billed for 90 minutes of calls (local and NZ cellphone) even though she has a plan with 60 included minutes and 100 bonus.

As explained... Are you sure your wife's total usage wasn't 250 minutes during the month (60 included + 100 bonus + 90 over cap and charged)?

joeksemail

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#456726 8-Apr-2011 12:55

lchiu7: Just looked at my wife's latest bill and it showed she had been billed for 90 minutes of calls (local and NZ cellphone) even though she has a plan with 60 included minutes and 100 bonus.

This didn't seem right since the previous month the bill showed a bunch of calls but with zero costs. This month many of the calls during the month were zero cost until the last week when each call was billed.

I spent a while with the call centre on this problem who were not able to resolve it and said they would refer it to the technical team. They were supposed to call me back but two days later I have heard nothing.

I wouldn't normally post issues like that here but it seems I am not getting resolution from the proper channels. Either something is wrong with their billing system or I am not understanding how my wife's plan works. Certainly even towards the end of the month she would enter the USSD code for balances and it should ample free minutes left which would make her feel comfortable with continuing to call. I guess not!

I think what you will find is that on your bill they only show the ammount of minutes actually used. 2Degrees do not show the actual rounded up "billed" minutes.

I.E:
Your wife calls you for 1 minute and 3 seconds - This is rounded up to 2 minutes
She then calls her boss for 2 minutes and 5 seconds - This is rounded up to 3 minutes

On her bill it would say 3 minutes and 8 seconds but she has actually been charged 5 minutes.

Alot of confusion quite often comes for the 2Degrees bill not showing this method of billing

NonprayingMantis

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#456734 8-Apr-2011 13:23

joeksemail: I think what you will find is that on your bill they only show the ammount of minutes actually used. 2Degrees do not show the actual rounded up "billed" minutes.

I.E:
Your wife calls you for 1 minute and 3 seconds - This is rounded up to 2 minutes
She then calls her boss for 2 minutes and 5 seconds - This is rounded up to 3 minutes

On her bill it would say 3 minutes and 8 seconds but she has actually been charged 5 minutes.

Alot of confusion quite often comes for the 2Degrees bill not showing this method of billing

Is that the same as XT and vodafone?

If not, it would make the value of included minutes very different between 2D and the others even when the 'amount' given is the same.

freitasm

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#456735 8-Apr-2011 13:29

It has been like this (minute plus minute) since the company launched. You sure knew this?

joeksemail

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#456736 8-Apr-2011 13:29

NonprayingMantis:
joeksemail: I think what you will find is that on your bill they only show the ammount of minutes actually used. 2Degrees do not show the actual rounded up "billed" minutes.

I.E:
Your wife calls you for 1 minute and 3 seconds - This is rounded up to 2 minutes
She then calls her boss for 2 minutes and 5 seconds - This is rounded up to 3 minutes

On her bill it would say 3 minutes and 8 seconds but she has actually been charged 5 minutes.

Alot of confusion quite often comes for the 2Degrees bill not showing this method of billing

Is that the same as XT and vodafone?

If not, it would make the value of included minutes very different between 2D and the others even when the 'amount' given is the same.

Vodafone and Telecom use the per second billing system.

freitasm

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#456740 8-Apr-2011 13:41

It depends. New Telecom plans are now coming out as minute plus minute, like 2degrees. But this is off topic and I hope Nonprayingmantis stop butting in every non-Telecom topic raising questions regarding the telcos' "features".

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lchiu7

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#456748 8-Apr-2011 13:53

Thanks to all and after further investigation, mea culpa :-(

I went to her 2Degrees and downloaded all the month's calls so I could analyse them. As Mauricio noted, she had gone over 160 minutes near the end of the month (I totalled up in Excel) and then the charging kicked in and it appears to be right.

I was confused by two things

1. Everytime she asked me if she had enough credit I would run the USSD code and it would show minutes available. So I don't know how she got into a negative situation

2. A text from 2D saying her plan minutes were low (10 minutes left) which I (incorrectly) assumed that she still had minutes left (bonus ones). Turns out that text was for the current month! She had managed to burn up 50 minutes on the two days of the new billing cycle (hence the 10 minutes left message).

I think I need to move her to the next plan $39.95 and/or tell to stop calling so much :-) 120 minutes + 100 bonus should do the trick, especially when she went over her plan allowance by $26!

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

freitasm

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#456754 8-Apr-2011 14:00

Thanks for the update!