Thursday, October 8. 2009I Remain Unable To Comprehend Mobile Pricing In AustraliaJohn Linton Exetel has been offering mobile telephone services for over five years now. It has never been a major, or even very large, part of our overall business but we have always seen it as 'strategic' and for those Exetel users that have one or more mobile services with us it seems our very different approach to pricing suits them better than the plethora of mobile offers on the market as they seem to stay with us once they start using the service. Our pricing is very different as it is overwhelmingly based on an easy to understand, and very low, set of per minute rates (charged per second) and reflects my personal distaste for the obvious dishonesty of 'capped plans' and the assumption of buyer stupidity on which such plans are based - although I have given in to the 'pleas' of the person responsible for managing the mobile and other telephone services over the past 12 months or so in allowing the offer of mobile services not based on simple to understand low cost rates to 'creep in' to the Exetel offerings. Our mobile business is small, and compared to our other supplier purchases largely irrelevant I would have thought, but it hasn't stopped two other mobile carriers from persistently trying to obtain that business that has been with the same Vodafone reseller since the beginning. Without buying in to the 'coverage is inadequate in my location' issues (which I can never duplicate on the few occasions I have tried) there is a persistent perception that Optus has a better coverage, particularly in 'country' areas than Vodafone and as we make continuing efforts to build our 'country' agent network that is getting more 'listening time'. We received the 'latest' alternative proposal while I was in the UK and having read it I dismissed it as, yet again, following the mobile carrier model of smoke and mirrors deception and bordering on dishonesty which I so abhor about all of the mobile marketing I have ever been exposed to. What is wrong with these people that they find it impossible to set rates that are simple, make money for the carrier themselves on a minute used/minute paid for basis and don't need to be tied to minimum spends and convoluted 'packaging'? Why do they have to be so complicated that it is impossible to actually work out what you actually have to pay for your planned mobile usage? Are the people that set these plans so personally dishonest that the concept of prices per minute simply don't exist in the larcenous world they have built in terms of pricing a mobile telephone minute of use? Now, I absolutely fully understand that our mobile minutes per month are insignificantly small and that no self respecting mobile service marketer has the slightest interest in what we do - I never asked them to be interested or bother themselves with providing us with a quote to do business with them. They, or presumably their sales people, insisted that they bid for our insignificantly small business so we insisted on getting their bid in terms of prices per minute billed per second - which is what we have received since we first offered a mobile service and what we are quite happy to stay with - because it suits Exetel's way of doing business - simple and low cost with no smoke and mirrors and we understand that is not going to produce any sort of 'volume' that would interest a mobile carrier. I listened, again, to the person responsible for the mobile services yesterday trying to convince me that I should change the decision not to accept the new 'offer' but I simply cannot see how becoming as 'crooked' as every other supplier of mobile telephone services does Exetel or its customers any good or what one more tiny mobile telephone service reseller adds to the Australian marketplace except one more set of deceptive product presentations. I don't believe in "free" hand sets, 1 million minutes for $A49.95, or "data included" mobile offerings any more than I believe in the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny and I have enough vestigial respect for the intellectual abilities of my 'fellow man' to assume they aren't all totally moronic - but apparently I am the one who is wrong and the overwhelming majority of buyers of mobile telephone services really are that stupid and the few that aren't have been made to look that way by two decades of dishonest mobile telephone advertising. So, totally against my long held personal beliefs, we will again consider the merits of using a better perceived mobile network to provide mobile services and see how possible it is to not deceive or misrepresent the actuality of the offering(s).....and there I was thinking we had enough problems to deal with at the moment...... ...........where did I leave that brochure from the Sunnybrook retirement home for the mentally challenged? Trackbacks
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Thank you.
Like you, I hate mobile phone caps and everything that they stand for like deception. Unfortunately, many people seem to believe that they are getting $900 dollars worth of value by only spending $50. However, when I've asked people how this might work, I cannot get a cogent answer from them. The mobile market needs a kick up the backside for dishonest business practice and artificially inflating the value of the dollar in their plans (this happens when you offer $900 for $50). This should be illegal. I'm on one of your HSPA mobile plans and love it. I now know what I am paying and how much it is going to cost without having to think twice about cap inclusions, etc, etc, etc. Comment (1)
I am only a "small" mobile phone user.
Most months I am lucky to rack up more than my monthly $5 minimum. But I receive a reasonable number of calls (relatively to making them). Most of my family and friends are the same. (Taking my advice), my sister and one of my daughters recently became Exetel mobile phone users. They also had small mobile phone usage - around $10 per month - using Exetel's per minute rates... and both were on "capped" plans before they moved to Exetel...... ... they both tell me they are very happy with their Exetel mobile plans and they can now "see" the savings in monthly charges that came from their move to Exetel. It was hard to convince them to move from their old plans - and I suspect they finally did so .. only because "big brother" or "dad" advised it. ... but it was *$%! hard for them to change their mindset... Harry. Comment (1)
Harry,
I share your views on both how hard it is to convince people that 'capped' plans are a rip off and that no 'low usage' mobile customer should ever buy them. Comments (3)
I have been agonising over moving my business' mobile account to Exetel's corporate "per minute" plan which, after continuously monitoring mobile plan availability for years, seems the perfect honest straightforward plan.
It would be a no-brainer but for one thing: Vodafone's being the carrier, and the associated very real poor coverage. This is not just a "perceived" problem; we have sought and collected our own objective test data using Vodafone and Optus handsets side-by-side in locations which matter to us. There are so many locations, not too far outside Sydney, where there is Optus coverage and no Vodafone signal, and few where there is Vodafone signal and no Optus signal. Our checks of the radio licensing locations on the ACMA web site confirms this. You only have to check Woollongong on the ACMA web site; Vodafone have one base station on Woollongong hospital for the whole area, a long coastal strip, whereas Optus have several. North and south of Woollongong on the coast, Vodafone fades to nothing and Optus still has (not brilliant but useable) service. If we had some indication that Vodafone were going to improve their simple 2G voice coverage we'd move to Exetel's per minite plan; we have sought this but it is not forthcoming. Alternatively, if Exetel could provide the same plan with Optus as carrier, that would become a no-brainer. Comment (1)
Brad,
If we could ever get Optus to understand that our real need is for a no minimum/plain rates per minute plan we would do that. Maybe it will prove possible - it hasn't so far. Comments (3)
Brad,
I've been using http://uglybill.com/ for over 18 months now and its great. The main selling points for me was that they are reselling Telstra's network (2G, /not/ 3G), have pretty reasonable pricing comparable to Exetel, and much cheaper than any other Telstra provider. Comment (1)
In my experience I would also say (in tassie) that Optus has superior coverage to vodafone - and of course Telstra tops them both.
My experience is though that Optus has more interruptions (drop outs, failed connections etc) then when I was with vodafone. This google maps mashup is a simple overview of where vodafone vs optus put their towers outside of CBD areas: http://cellsite.nudge.id.au/ Assuming the stats are correct, even basic numbers shows that optus trumps voda on stats alone: Telstra (2G/NextG): 7675 towers. Optus (2G/3G) : 6393 towers. Vodafone (2G/3G) : 4951 towers. Three (3G) : 281 towers. Telstra (3G) : 2692 towers. Comment (1)
I just want to add my me too, to this, I will be changing to Exetel as soon as I'm out of our "current best deal", I like the KISS concept, please don't take it away.
Comment (1)
Per minute is the best option, but if you're forced to sell "capped" plans having the following 2 features would make them more honest.
- Low (say $5 or $10 a month) starter plan. - Auto move up a "cap" level when you use up your credit on you current "cap". Then return to your chosen "cap" at the start of the next billing cycle. This way you're not forcing your customers to commit to a higher plan than they need. Also there wont be the nasty bill shock associated with going over your "cap". Comment (1)
noooo. I love the per minute plan
I have 6 numbers waiting to switch over to exetel. but some are stuck with optus until June. Comments (2)
Another marketing apple you guys can dangle is "Zero Monthly Minimum"
Should go well in GFC times. Comments (2)
John,
Whilst I'm a fan of straight forward pricing of the Per Minute plans it's hard to deny the real cost savings Cap plans offer if you take the time to understand whats included/exluded (which is at least is clearly explained for the Exetel cap plans) and use them wisely. I would consider myself to be a light to moderate user who tends to receive 3-4 times as many calls as I make, although when I do make a call the duration is usually more than 3 minutes. Prior to switching my Mobile services to Exetel I was with another carrier on a plan that was almost identical in pricing to Exetel's Mobile X plan. I intended to move to Exetel's Mobile X plan so that I could consolidate my Mobile Phone bill into my Exetel bill for ADSL and VOIP. Prior to changing I cut and pasted the call details records for the past 9 months of billing from my previous carrier into Excel and then performed a detailed analysis of each of Exetel's plans based on the call records and was surprised to find that for my usage over the past 9 months the Cap Plan 10 worked out the cheapest plan, followed by the Cap Plan 20 then Mobile X so I decided to go with the Cap Plan 10 as my analysis showed only one moth in the past 9 where I would have exceeded the included usage and even with the excess fees for that one month the Cap Plan 10 was still considerably cheaper over the 9 month period then next closest plan. It's now six months since I brought my mobiles to Exetel, and I've continued to cut and paste the call detail records into Excel to perform detailed analysis and can state that over the past 6 months that my usage on the Cap Plan 10 has came to $65.52 which compares favourably with the estimated charges of $111.21 for Mobile 1, $106.97 for Mobile 2, $103.63 for Mobile 3, $100.77 for Mobile 4 and $90 for Mobile X. For my sons mobile which has been on a combination of Cap 10 and Cap 20 plans over that period the cost difference is even more pronounced due his generations preference for texting, as opposed to our generations preference for talking. Over the same 6 months his Cap Plans came to $144.96 whereas the estimated charges would have been $466.34 for Mobile 1, $336.73 for Mobile 2, $335.21 for Mobile 3, $330.75 for Mobile 4 and $327.77 for Mobile X. Les Comments (2)
Les,
Thank you for taking the time to make that case. Personally, though I hat them, the Exetel capped plans are 'honestly' described and, together with the per minute plans, make it relatively easy for a possible customer to make a really informed decision. However that, in my opinion, is not the general way 'capped' plans are advertised. Comments (3)
John,
Whilst I personally would love to see you offer the Mobile X with a $5 minimum spend as that would be the perfect mobile plan people myself, Cap Plans will continue to offer the best value for the yonger generations who heavily use texting as they allow them to send an SMS for as little as 2c per message. Les Comments (2)
I'd just like to say what a relief it is to move to pricing that i can understand from my former Optus plan.
I bundled a small packet data plan with my voice plan which was advertised at $10 for 5Mb; instead of charging $10 per month for this Optus charges the default rate for packet data and then gives a discount. None of the people I talked to on their help line could explain to me how the total amount on my bill was arrived at. Moving from Optus Cable to Exetel ADSL is next, as soon as Telstra gets around to giving me a phone line. Steve Comment (1)
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