Increase Of $5.00 Per Month In Your Current Plan Charge

[Baldrick]

Yesterday evening I received an email from Exetel informing me that they are going to increase my monthly fees by $5.00 per month, along with an alternative option to change my service plan. I went & had a look at the available service plans but am unable to work out what the difference is between my current plan ( TL-BA ) & the newer available plan ( TL-C1 )
Both are the same cost of $45.00 / month, both have 12GB peak download, both with No charge off peak, both @ 1500/256. The only difference I can see is my current plan is $3.00 / GB for excess peak downloads whereas this alternate plan is $0.50 / GB for excess peak downloads. Obviously this is a slightly cheaper plan to have on the surface, so other than this, what is the difference between my current of TL-BA & the newer TL-C1 plans?
I do also use voip which I think gives me 100 calls to landlines per month at no charge, so I would assume this will be dropped in a new plan & I will be charged at $0.10 per call for all calls I make to landlines.

More than anything, I am wondering what this extra $5.00 charge is all about, when I would be more than happy to stay on the plan I am currently on & drop the 100 free call thing especially seeing as I would be lucky to make 1/2 that many calls in any given month anyway.

[CoreyPlover]

The only difference I can see is my current plan is $3.00 / GB for excess peak downloads whereas this alternate plan is $0.50 / GB for excess peak downloads. I do also use voip which I think gives me 100 calls to landlines per month at no charge, so I would assume this will be dropped in a new plan & I will be charged at $0.10 per call for all calls I make to landlines.

Correct.

More than anything, I am wondering what this extra $5.00 charge is all about, when I would be more than happy to stay on the plan I am currently on & drop the 100 free call thing especially seeing as I would be lucky to make 1/2 that many calls in any given month anyway.

I'm not surprised that changing plans will save you money. Often Exetel encourage such changes because it helps them consolidate users on current plans and helps with administration and clarity. If it seem that it is in your best interest to change to the TL-C1, then you should do so. There is no "gotcha" or ulterior motive. In fact, users are continually encouraged to be on the lookup for new Exetel plans because the usage rates and quota allowances are regularly revised. So long as you stay on the same plan family (bundled, naked and BYO phone) there is no extension of contract or cost (except under exceptional circumstance)

[Baldrick]

Well, I took a good look at the available plans, had a think about my data needs, decided that seeing as I have never used more than a combined peak / off peak total of 4GB in any month, I may as well move down to a $40.00 plan @ the same speed. I also noticed that Exetel have now got DID's available for my local area, so I also did a cancel of my existing Sydney number & set myself up a new DID for my local area.
All in all a good day for me I think seeing that a notification of a $5.00 / month increase has now turned into a $5.00 / month overall decrease for me & has also included a localised telephone number for me to boot....

Edit:
Just as a little side note, Telstra called me a couple of weeks ago asking how my service was going, etc. I grumbled at them a lot about how I was very unhappy about them refusing several months ago to allow me to shift from the HomelinePlus plan back to HomeLineBasic without them disconnecting my internet. The Telstra lady then switched it over for me on the spot without any need to have Exetel apply for adsl reconnection, effectively dropping my bill by a further $10.00 / month.
I am very happy now.

[terryc]

[quote="Baldrick"]
Edit:
Just as a little side note, Telstra called me a couple of weeks ago asking how my service was going, etc. I grumbled at them a lot about how I was very unhappy about them refusing several months ago to allow me to shift from the HomelinePlus plan back to HomeLineBasic without them disconnecting my internet. The Telstra lady then switched it over for me on the spot without any need to have Exetel apply for adsl reconnection, effectively dropping my bill by a further $10.00 / month.
I am very happy now. [/quote]

Are you currently on a ADSL1 line with Exetel?
And is your nerw plan still on a ADSL1 line?

Received the same letter and when I went to check the "other plans", there were no ADSL1 plans listed, only ADSL2 .

[Baldrick]

Are you currently on a ADSL1 line with Exetel?
And is your nerw plan still on a ADSL1 line?

Yes I am on ADSL1 with Exetel.
Yes my new plan is also ADSL1
If I had my way, I would be on a naked ADSL2 plan which unfortunately I am unable to get here where I live. (If I want ADSL2, my only choice is Telstra & the costs are quite frightening with them ) The way I see it with Telstra, they dont work on supplying a service at a cost price with a reasonable profit margin for themselves rather they work on supplying a service & charging what they believe the "market will stand". So they effectively tend to rip the mum & dad customers off & make them believe they are getting good deals....

Edit: fwiw terryc, I was put off from my job about 2 weeks ago due to a lack of incoming work. I am at the moment looking at taking over a very small voip service provider which works only on a prepaid syatem. This will cost me quite a bit to get set up for myself, so just at the moment while I am in this little bit of no mans land, I am very happy with every cent I can save myself.

[Revhead]

I'm confused too.
I'm currently on TL-BA $45 a month 1500/256 ADSL1. As I recall they knocked $5 off my original plan anyway so I can't really complain (was $50 before). But I also received an email saying I'd lose my first 100 calls free on VOIP a white ago. Together those two items assume more significance.
If I change to FP-C1 it's going to cost me the same $50 a month - but will I get my VOIP calls back?
I've never run up any excess charges yet so that's not a biggie?
Cheers, Rev

[sable]

I'm confused too.
I'm currently on TL-BA $45 a month 1500/256 ADSL1. As I recall they knocked $5 off my original plan anyway so I can't really complain (was $50 before). But I also received an email saying I'd lose my first 100 calls free on VOIP a white ago. Together those two items assume more significance.
If I change to FP-C1 it's going to cost me the same $50 a month - but will I get my VOIP calls back?
I've never run up any excess charges yet so that's not a biggie?
Cheers, Rev

No there are no plans any longer with freebies.

Relaced by Value added packs see Manage Services - Add on Services in your member facility

[CoreyPlover]

If I change to FP-C1 it's going to cost me the same $50 a month - but will I get my VOIP calls back?

No

I'm currently on TL-BA $45 a month 1500/256 ADSL1

Can you confirm that you received an email stating that your plan would increase by $5 per month? I thought only the TEL plans (and not the TL plans) received it

[sable]

Can you confirm that you received an email stating that your plan would increase by $5 per month? I thought only the TEL plans (and not the TL plans) received it

Corey I believe the TL plans did receive the $5 increase email.

[Revhead]

If I change to FP-C1 it's going to cost me the same $50 a month - but will I get my VOIP calls back?

No

I'm currently on TL-BA $45 a month 1500/256 ADSL1

Can you confirm that you received an email stating that your plan would increase by $5 per month? I thought only the TEL plans (and not the TL plans) received it

Yeah, I got the $5 increase email.
Can I have a link to the value added packs please?

[sable]

Can I have a link to the value added packs please?

As per my original reply to you login in to your member facility.

Om the left hand menu you will find Manage Services - Add On Services

Click.

[Revhead]

CAll me a cynic but . . .
You have taken the 100 free 10c local calls away (value $10), jacked up the service cost $5 and then want to sell the VOIP calls back to me for another $5 . . . nett cost?
You guys have got style, I'll give you that!

[PatrickT]

Having just followed Exetel's suggestion of looking at new ADSL1 plans all I can assume is that Exetel doesn't want ADSL1 customers. There is now just one high speed ADSL1 plan: Z/8192 at $90 a month with 50gb peak/50gb off peak. This single new plan is not overly competitive when compared with other options available to Tasmanians from other non-telstra ISPs - most unlike Exetel!

Not everyone who wants high speed access is sitting at home gaming all day or downloading entire movies every night. Some of us just want a service that is fast and responsive, so why are there no 8192 plans with normal quotas?

[Klaas]

Some of us just want a service that is fast and responsive, so why are there no 8192 plans with normal quotas?

Short Answer - Telstra Wholesale

Long Answer - it's been noted in various posts that Exetel have withdrawn all but one of the 8MB plans, because Telstra Wholesale seemingly and arbitrarily limit those connections, sometimes to less than half, causing a lot of angst and issues for the users.

[PatrickT]

Long Answer - it's been noted in various posts that Exetel have withdrawn all but one of the 8MB plans, because Telstra Wholesale seemingly and arbitrarily limit those connections, sometimes to less than half, causing a lot of angst and issues for the users.

I can understand that Telstra charges too much and plays silly buggers, but this comment isn't about service supply or even why the plan costs are high, rather it's about plan choice. On another post Exetel said that the 8192 service was being offered at cost price to lease the socket and 50c per gb of data to allow a small profit on data. That being so, any number of plan scenarios are possible, but instead only a high use 50gb/50gb one is offered, meaning that a user like me is apparently paying around $30-40 a month for data I never use, just to access a service that runs at a decent speed.