$10, for what?

[karLos]

Could exetel please explain/justify why we are now charged $10 just for changing our plan?

[Klaas]

As a commercial entity, Exetel does not have to justify it's pricing and/or pricing changes.

The fact that Exetel offers a lot more transparancy to its pricing and business directions than other businesses do, doesn't alter this fact.

[karLos]

If exetel was actually offering or providing something tangible, then it would be justifiable. I don't much like paying for something when i receive nothing. To suddenly find things to charge for isn't very reasonable, is it?

Exetel has engaged in 'plan creep' for a while now, increasing the download quotas then uping the price slowly over months. Hasn't been such an issue when you can change plans to suit your usage, but to now charge for changing plans on top of this means keeping costs consistent is even more difficult.

[Disambiguate]

If exetel was actually offering or providing something tangible, then it would be justifiable. I don't much like paying for something when i receive nothing. To suddenly find things to charge for isn't very reasonable, is it?

Almost all isp's have a fee for switching between their services, and some have very high fees like iinet where they charge a $29 fee for switching to a plan of equal or lesser value.

What was your previous plan? To simply say you "receive nothing" sounds like an inaccurate statement. I switched from an older plan to a newer plan and am paying $5 per month more but get extra peak downloads (compared to my older plan) and have lower excess charges for going over peak data (down from $3 per gb to 50 cents per gb).


Flaming exetel for no reason isn't reasonable, is it?

[karLos]

Questioning a decision or disagreeing isn't flaming. The point of a web forum is to enable this communication.

I've said my peace. Exetel will do with it what they will.

[David R]

I'm not entirely sure why do (other?) ISPs charge (more?) for plan changes. But I see value in exetels structure:

Switching to a faster/slower ADSL is now "15.00 cheaper"; but my requirements seldom vary to warrant fiddling with my Quota. Considering Off Peak 90- to unlimited, small beer if 10 bucks (covers their stability)

[karLos]

I have adsl2. There is no speed changes or any non-automated intervention required to change plans. Seems a high price to pay for a few clicks of an automated process...

[jokiin]

I have adsl2. There is no speed changes or any non-automated intervention required to change plans. Seems a high price to pay for a few clicks of an automated process...

I'm not sure what the decision was that caused this charge to come into being but that very automated process you speak of didn't happen by itself, they write all the software for the back end themselves for the automation they have so there is obviously a cost incurred to get this automation in place and to maintain it

[James]

I have adsl2. There is no speed changes or any non-automated intervention required to change plans. Seems a high price to pay for a few clicks of an automated process...

Those processes are expensive to code.

[MCCMikey]

Heh - oh well to save money we should do it ourselves

INSERT INTO Plan_PlanID "TL3" where SN = ",& MySN

Call "Check_Change_Valid.mac"

I'm absolutely sure the above is invalid by the way - I'm an MS Access user so I could do it if I had the GUI

For the record, I don't like the $10 fee either... I know Exetel uses assorted fees to rate-limit change - and perhaps that's their only mechanism to do so; but it still feels a bit wrong at my end.

[Klaas]

Maybe there is a requirement to maintain the code, to allow for the users that change plans weekly?

[karLos]

I'm sure the fancy new user facilities wasn't cheap either. However I'm not expecting exetel to impose a 10c per login to that, just because they don't have to justify it.

[Gidget]

I've said my peace {sic}. Exetel will do with it what they will.

Thread closed.