Off Peak Period Change

[robin]

Very, very, disappoint about exetel. Actually, I just signed a ADSL1 contract the day before yesterday, and my service was actived today morning. Then, 30 mins later, I received such a mail from exetel. I am very unhappen with that. I feel that I was cheated by exetel to sign a six month contract, and then they change the contract. I can do nothing now, I cannot leave because a fine will be applied. I will tell this story to all my friends from overseas, and definitely leave exetel after six month.

[Villan]

I understand the reasoning....Exetel need to make their more expensive plans look a bit more attractive again.

I'm on the Z23/INCTEL plan and I found myself increasingly asking "Why?". All I have to do is schedule some DLs and the Z20 plan is just as good at a significantly less price. I've always thought they gave WAY too much off peak quota to their cheaper plans. But now that peak is 18hrs and off peak is just 6, it becomes important again.

I still think it's ridiculous that cheap plans get Unlimited quota though. Plan quotas should be something along the lines of 10/20, 30/60, 60/120, 90/Unlimited and Unlimited/Unlimited. If people want to DL heavy, make them pay for it. I'd much rather see that + a 12hr offpeak window than the current solution.

[ammartq]

Plan quotas should be something along the lines of 10/20, 30/60, 60/120, 90/Unlimited and Unlimited/Unlimited. If people want to DL heavy, make them pay for it. I'd much rather see that + a 12hr offpeak window than the current solution.

I agree. Heavy downloaders should be asked to pay for the service being provided. Why others have to sacrifice?

[layanto]

By reducing the offpeak period from 12hr to 6hr, exetel has increased the peak period from 12hr to 18hr (or 50% increase). To be fair to users, exetel should increase the peak quota by 50% as well.

[ajarm1]

I still think it's ridiculous that cheap plans get Unlimited quota though. Plan quotas should be something along the lines of 10/20, 30/60, 60/120, 90/Unlimited and Unlimited/Unlimited. If people want to DL heavy, make them pay for it. I'd much rather see that + a 12hr offpeak window than the current solution.

This sounds like a much better idea to me to tackle the issue of off-peak downloads. It seems to me though that the time of what's off-peak for them would be decided by Exetel's providers, not Exetel themselves. Still, can't help but feel Exetel is losing their competitiveness with such a restricted off-peak download period.

[greesha]

Can I cancel my contract within the first week after sign without any fine. My understanding is that the first is the cooling period.

A forum admin will answer your question shortly I imagine. I have been with them 4 months and this hurts can't imagine first week getting this what I would of thought.

[greesha]

I still think it's ridiculous that cheap plans get Unlimited quota though. Plan quotas should be something along the lines of 10/20, 30/60, 60/120, 90/Unlimited and Unlimited/Unlimited. If people want to DL heavy, make them pay for it. I'd much rather see that + a 12hr offpeak window than the current solution.

This sounds like a much better idea to me to tackle the issue of off-peak downloads. It seems to me though that the time of what's off-peak for them would be decided by Exetel's providers, not Exetel themselves. Still, can't help but feel Exetel is losing their competitiveness with such a restricted off-peak download period.

30/60GB (512k shaping) at $65 including rental would be awesome

[robin]

Can I cancel my contract within the first week after sign without any fine. My understanding is that the first is the cooling period.

Just let you guys know that, Exetel DOES NOT HAVE A COOLING-OFF PERIOD. I just called their sale sevice, and an operator tell me that exetel does not offer a cooling-off option. However, this is what I saw in their term and condition,

"12.2 If a Consumer Customer acquires the Service from Exetel through a sales method regulated by door-to-door sales legislation in the Customer's state or territory, the Consumer Customer may cancel the Service before the end of the cooling-off period set out in the relevant legislation."

So, I mentioned this term to the operator, and she repeated that "we do not have a cooling-off option". I said:" ok, fair enough", and off the line.

[datax1969]

I can only echo the frustration of others. I've changed plans twice in two months, the first time it was a $5 more expensive plan which became obsolete the very day I switched, the second time (this month) a $5 less expensive plan and a cost of $10. This time my plan switch took 5 days to become effectively obsolete - I guess that's an improvement?

This is not even mentioning all the other side issues, I've lost my 100 free calls and SMS, sort of got them back with the add-on packs, and I have the option of throttling or not throttling or blah-de-blah-dlah....it just feels like I'm being spun in circles while playing "Pin the Tail on the Donkey".

Others have already said it - I'll say it again: its not the reduction in off-peak hours that bothers me, its the increase in peak hours.

I'm not a very big off-peak user in the sense of P2P downloads, 10Gb would be my average, probably not even that. However, the reason I chose the plan I just switched to (30/Unlimited) is that 30Gb peak is just the right amount for my normal non-P2P usage patterns. Now I will have to count normal (non P2P) usage in the morning before 12pm as peak which could very well throw me over the limit.

Forget the wireless, does me no good at all. How about giving all the plans as little as an extra 5Gb peak to make up for the extra peak time hours?

[Ravenous]

"12.2 If a Consumer Customer acquires the Service from Exetel through a sales method regulated by door-to-door sales legislation in the Customer's state or territory, the Consumer Customer may cancel the Service before the end of the cooling-off period set out in the relevant legislation."

This clause applies if you were sold the Exetel service by a door-to-door salesperson.

[robin]

"12.2 If a Consumer Customer acquires the Service from Exetel through a sales method regulated by door-to-door sales legislation in the Customer's state or territory, the Consumer Customer may cancel the Service before the end of the cooling-off period set out in the relevant legislation."

This clause applies if you were sold the Exetel service by a door-to-door salesperson.

yes, you are right.

[Mort]

That smaller window is going to be a pain, regardless of the use of download managers. Some of the ISO files etc I need to download from Microsoft now take longer than that, and often if I try to pause a download it won't resume without corruption. That means I will find myself rolling into the peak periods anyway. I can understand the reason for these changes, but why not make changes that apply to *new* users rather than retro on all current users. I've lost track of how many "tunings" my service has had in the last year and it's getting really hard to remember just what it is I'm actually getting now! I used to almost be a fanboi of Exetel when people asked me about my service... that hasn't been the case for a while now

Another thought. Is it possible to at least offer a choice of unlimited windows? I don't download that much, but if 6 hours is the new unmetered window then how about choices like
1. 12-6
2. 2-8
3. 4-10

I would prefer 12-6 myself, and by giving a choice you might be able to stagger the high downloaders over different time windows if that is an issue.

It's going to be really hard to see how much this change will affect me as I don't know how much traffic my game servers are generating between the 12-2 time period. I can't control who and when people connect to me, but while the traffic I receive isn't metered, the return traffic is and 10pm-2am is probably the busiest period.

[maestro]

There is no change of value - unless you download an amount that cannot be accommodated in 180 hours a month.....very hard to actually do that.

That is not true, unless the peak download quotas are increased by 50% to reflect the increased percentage of the day that is covered.

I currently sit comfortably within my monthly quota, but would start to exceed it if an additional 6 hours were counted as peak each day. This would result in additional download charges (at 50c/Mb) and is certainly a change of value.


Unless you are planning on increasing this. Exetel has a bit of a habit of being very poor in their communications and causing everyone to get upset about things when they announce plan reductions when a plan increase is just around the corner.

[greesha]

Another thought. Is it possible to at least offer a choice of unlimited windows? I don't download that much, but if 6 hours is the new unmetered window then how about choices like
1. 12-6
2. 2-8
3. 4-10
.

That is a great idea I would take the 4am to 10am in a heart beat

[rseydler]

JL,

Do you need to re-read your blog on April 29 titled - Customer Retention Is Becoming Ever More Important.......?

Looks like the roller coaster of plan changes has begun again. FA giveth and FA taketh away.

Ron