Urgent Changes needed - disconnecting HSPA for "excess fees"
Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 11:14 am
Exetel – you URGENTLY need to change the way your stupid, inflexible and crazy excess usage fees notification works for mobile internet.
I was paying $70 a month for home phone and ADSL2+ before I moved in Christmas – plus excess of $3/GB.
I moved out at Christmas & went overseas for a month – so I got Exetel’s HSPA - $5 a month no included data plan (to save some money before I came back & had to deal with Telstra to get a new phoneline etc etc).
As far as I am concerned a plan that includes ZERO data and just charges a monthly access fee has NO EXCESS charges – because every bit of data from the start is a usage. The costs my account accrues with usage is just that – usage fees and are not in excess of any included data.
It is ludicrous for Exetel to a) cut off access to my mobile internet after such a small amount of $25 when I have signed up on a plan where I knowingly will be paying for every bit of data that I download from the start of the month.
Its exactly the same situation as Telstra providing me a home phone for a monthly access fee and then every phonecall I make I pay for. Only Telstra doesn’t cut off your phone every time your monthly phonebill reaches $25.
I had my access cut off on Monday 17th May – and despite previous times this had happened I could still access the Exetel member page to make the payment, this time I couldn’t access any website – even Exetel.
So I had to ring my brother (who incidentally left Exetel in December) for him to log into my member page and make the payment for me.
So he made this payment of $25 and instantly my internet is working again. Then this morning (only four days later) at 7am I am awoken by an sms from Exetel saying that I needed to make another $25 payment and that I was cut off again. I tried logging in but again couldn’t access the Exetel site.
Now at work I see that since I made the interim payment on Monday 17th May I have used more data of 235.87 MB = which is an additional $3.53 of usage charges!!!!!!
WHAT IS GOING ON?????? I make an interim payment of $25 on Monday, use an additional $3.53 worth of data and my internet gets cut off again for the second time in a week.
These disconnections of my internet has cost me literally hundreds of dollars as I have foreign exchange & equity security positions open in the stock market – at a time when markets are falling and I need to have constant access to the internet. If Exetel can’t let me access the net when I want to then I will have to go to another provider.
Why does a company drop the ball on customer service as it grows? I have been a customer of Exetel since 2004 and when it first started it was a delight to use – and customer service was great. I was always advising people at work & my friends to sign up to Exetel – and each time they had never heard of the company – so my word of mouth recommendation was gaining customers for Exetel for no advertising cost.
But like so many other companies – as it grows it increasingly obviously focuses on growth or revenue and thumb’s its nose up at customers and tells them, in effect, to go elsewhere.
Your messages say that you are complying with the federal Telecommunications Act – but I can’t find any mention of this in the act (I looked this morning) and I am sure it would just require in broad terms for the service provider to notify the customer of the excess charges – not arbitrarily disconnect the service.
Last year I was paying $70 a month to Exetel for the internet – now to get to that level of costs I need to be inconvienicend & disconnected TWICE when I reach $25 and $50 (in theory – and $25 and $28.53 in practice this week).
So Exetel – you need to urgently change the way you operate this stupid and badly thought out process.
Either:
1. Give people the option to set the threshold that they wish to be informed & have their access cut off – for instance after $100 or $200 or
2. Automatically deduct the $25 fee from a credit card so the customer doesn’t keep getting disconnected or
3. Change the process so you only send an sms notification and don’t automatically cut off access.
I am very angry that I am being treated like this.
I want someone from Exetel to investigate and contact me ASAP.
I will be visiting the TIO as my next course of action.
I was paying $70 a month for home phone and ADSL2+ before I moved in Christmas – plus excess of $3/GB.
I moved out at Christmas & went overseas for a month – so I got Exetel’s HSPA - $5 a month no included data plan (to save some money before I came back & had to deal with Telstra to get a new phoneline etc etc).
As far as I am concerned a plan that includes ZERO data and just charges a monthly access fee has NO EXCESS charges – because every bit of data from the start is a usage. The costs my account accrues with usage is just that – usage fees and are not in excess of any included data.
It is ludicrous for Exetel to a) cut off access to my mobile internet after such a small amount of $25 when I have signed up on a plan where I knowingly will be paying for every bit of data that I download from the start of the month.
Its exactly the same situation as Telstra providing me a home phone for a monthly access fee and then every phonecall I make I pay for. Only Telstra doesn’t cut off your phone every time your monthly phonebill reaches $25.
I had my access cut off on Monday 17th May – and despite previous times this had happened I could still access the Exetel member page to make the payment, this time I couldn’t access any website – even Exetel.
So I had to ring my brother (who incidentally left Exetel in December) for him to log into my member page and make the payment for me.
So he made this payment of $25 and instantly my internet is working again. Then this morning (only four days later) at 7am I am awoken by an sms from Exetel saying that I needed to make another $25 payment and that I was cut off again. I tried logging in but again couldn’t access the Exetel site.
Now at work I see that since I made the interim payment on Monday 17th May I have used more data of 235.87 MB = which is an additional $3.53 of usage charges!!!!!!
WHAT IS GOING ON?????? I make an interim payment of $25 on Monday, use an additional $3.53 worth of data and my internet gets cut off again for the second time in a week.
These disconnections of my internet has cost me literally hundreds of dollars as I have foreign exchange & equity security positions open in the stock market – at a time when markets are falling and I need to have constant access to the internet. If Exetel can’t let me access the net when I want to then I will have to go to another provider.
Why does a company drop the ball on customer service as it grows? I have been a customer of Exetel since 2004 and when it first started it was a delight to use – and customer service was great. I was always advising people at work & my friends to sign up to Exetel – and each time they had never heard of the company – so my word of mouth recommendation was gaining customers for Exetel for no advertising cost.
But like so many other companies – as it grows it increasingly obviously focuses on growth or revenue and thumb’s its nose up at customers and tells them, in effect, to go elsewhere.
Your messages say that you are complying with the federal Telecommunications Act – but I can’t find any mention of this in the act (I looked this morning) and I am sure it would just require in broad terms for the service provider to notify the customer of the excess charges – not arbitrarily disconnect the service.
Last year I was paying $70 a month to Exetel for the internet – now to get to that level of costs I need to be inconvienicend & disconnected TWICE when I reach $25 and $50 (in theory – and $25 and $28.53 in practice this week).
So Exetel – you need to urgently change the way you operate this stupid and badly thought out process.
Either:
1. Give people the option to set the threshold that they wish to be informed & have their access cut off – for instance after $100 or $200 or
2. Automatically deduct the $25 fee from a credit card so the customer doesn’t keep getting disconnected or
3. Change the process so you only send an sms notification and don’t automatically cut off access.
I am very angry that I am being treated like this.
I want someone from Exetel to investigate and contact me ASAP.
I will be visiting the TIO as my next course of action.