Change ADSL2+ Plan

[austdata]

After looking at several options for a plan change, from OTA, I think OTAA and OTFree-1 look very good. So good, I'm wondering if I've missed anything.

OTAA has less off-peak period but 40GB extra peak download. On no contract it cost $20 to change.
OTFree-1 is $4 cheaper than OTA & OTAA. Has the smaller off-peak period of OTAA and 60GB less but with the 40GB extra peak download. Also needs $20 to activate the mobile but none for the ADSL2+.

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Plan   Activa ADSL2 Phone Mobile  Peak D/L   Off-peak D/L Contract
OTA	    $0  $23   $30   No Cap  10 gbytes  180 gbytes   1 Month
OTAA	  $20  $23   $30   No Cap  50 gbytes  180 gbytes   1 Month
OTFree-1  $0   $0   $30   CAP19   50 gbytes  120 gbytes  12 Months

If I've understood correctly, the OTFree-1 plan seems like a no-brainer. It's like getting a $4 discount on the OTAA and getting a free mobile account with "premium support". Is that right?

[CoreyPlover]

The OTFree plans are designed to be very attractive, made possible due to the bundling of mobile and renewing of the 12 month contract.

But, before you decide, you might want to examine the OTL-A plans on http://www.exetel.com.au/a_plan_pricing_adsl2_new.php ("with telephone" tab). They should be available to existing members soon (no ETA) and are effectively $10 cheaper than OTAA, so may cause you to rethink a little

[austdata]

the OTL-A plans on http://www.exetel.com.au/a_plan_pricing_adsl2_new.php ("with telephone" tab). They should be available to existing members soon (no ETA) and are effectively $10 cheaper than OTAA, so may cause you to rethink a little

Thanks Corey. Hmm, decisions, decisions. The OTL-B plan is worth considering too. It's $2 less than what I'm paying now but has 75GB peak - That's a hellava lot of YouTube's Community Channel.

Now I have to weigh up four plans.

PS: Those that are not subscribed to YouTube's Community Channel are missing out on SO much.

[austdata]

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Plan   Activa ADSL2 Phone Mobile  Peak D/L   Off-peak D/L Contract
OTFree-1  $0   $0   $30   CAP19   50 gbytes  120 gbytes  12 Months

Just in case anyone was hanging out for it, I went with OTFree-1.

[bodogbodog]

Just in case anyone was hanging out for it, I went with OTFree-1.

How did you make the change? through user facilities or by ringing Exetel to request the change?
The new plans dont appear in my user facilities as change options - were they in yours? If so what section?
I'm defintely moving to one of the "free ADSL2" plans - and I note that included data has now increased to 50gb instead of the 15gb that had been included - well done Exetel!

[austdata]

How did you make the change? through user facilities or by ringing Exetel to request the change?
The new plans dont appear in my user facilities as change options - were they in yours? If so what section?

No change of service form is in the service area. So I emailed residentialsales@exetel.com.au at 10:30 this morning and they phoned back before 3:00 PM today and it was all done much more quickly than I could have filled out the form, if there was one.

If I need more download I can increase it latter. I don't think it cost anything to move up or down with the Free Premium group of plans.

[u9026a]

Shouldn't these new plans (OTL-A, B, etc) now be available from within our members area? I can't see them yet.

[roby]

me either

[CoreyPlover]

Shouldn't these new plans (OTL-A, B, etc) now be available from within our members area? I can't see them yet.

Give it time. Even though they were initially intended to be available before 1/12/10, the moment they become available, you'll see them in your member facilities. Tautologically, they can not appear any sooner than that.

[roby]

fair enough

[PaulT]

I was under the impression from Exetel's December newsletter that the new ADSL2 plans would be available to current users. The user area is only offering my AAA, AAB, AAC and AAD, and not the new ABA, ABB, ABC and ABD plans. Are these going to be available through the users' area would I need to contact sales?

[JasonM]

The plans ABA, ABB, ABC and ABD are only available to new users.

[PaulT]

The plans ABA, ABB, ABC and ABD are only available to new users.

But the December Customer Newsletter said:

Changing Plan Charges

Recently Exetel has introduced a range of much lower cost plans. These plans have become available to Exetel's current customers as of December 1st 2010.

There is a $40.00 plan change charge if a current customer wishes to change from their current plan to one of the new lower monthly cost plans without entering in to a new contract.

There is a $20.00 plan change charge if a customer wishes to change to one of the lower monthly cost plans if they enter into a new 12 month contract.

Is this true or not?

[Ravenous]

Wait(TM)!

They will be made available if and when Exetel are ready to do so. The newsletter said December 1st, perhaps there is now a reason to delay. It does not matter whether it is made available on the 1st, 6th, 15th, 31st, next month, next few months for that matter. All I know is that all new plans in the recent couple of years have become available eventually. Plus they are constantly changing (almost quarterly), perhaps a better iteration of new plans will become available in the new year?

[PaulT]

Wait(TM)!

They will be made available if and when Exetel are ready to do so....

Ravenous, I suspect your post is speculation rather than based on knowledge. Jason's reply is far more likely to represent Exetel's position and it is unlikely to change. I personally suspect that the December newsletter was imprecisely worded and was intended for Optus based ADSL2 plans only and not AAPT based plans. However that is not what is says and technically they have made an offer to all ADSL2 plan holders.

I'm not going to pursue it. My point is that Exetel occasionally do this kind of thing - advertise something to all their customers that is intended only for some of their customers - or are imprecise about what they are offering which leads to easy misunderstanding. The effect on customers is that it leads to unrealistic expectations that are ultimately not fulfilled. I will take Jason at his word and once again rest in the knowledge that the hope of a better plan was illusionary.

As a side comment, I think offering discounts to "new customers" are counter productive. When matched by competitors, all it leads to is churning. Even without better plans, I could churn out and then churn back as a new customer. As they are based on savings made by having net new customers, churning erodes the original customer base on which the cheap plans are based. I think it is a silly path to go down.