John Linton ....too much work to be crammed in to two days.
We finished almost all of the revised residential ADSL offerings for new users yesterday with the only decision left to make being what, if anything, we do about Telstra ADSL2. My view is that we should no longer offer it because the 'promised' price reductions never eventuated and I, personally, see no advantages in offering a service we buy wholesale that is higher priced to the end customer than Telstra Retail offers the same service - a ridiculous anomaly in any sensible view of commerce. However other views are that Telstra's 24 month contracts and other requirements actually render their head line pricing a 'trap' for the unthinking and there is a market for more thoughtful buyers. We will look at those views again later today and I am pretty sure that my views will not prevail.
We will start finalising any 'special' offers for our current customers later today starting with the offer to our current 'naked' users to restore their telephone line to a working PSTN service at no charge to them if they sign up for a new 12 month contract. There has always been this stupidity in pricing of 'naked' ADSL services in that the cost of a 'naked' service is only two or three dollars less than an ADSL service with a working telephone line. I can't remember now how we were ever persuaded that providing a naked' service was ever a good idea in the first place but it is a really stupid concept that is hard to implement and even harder for an end user to change providers once the line has been 'crippled'. In offering our 'naked' customers the chance to change their 'crippled' line back to a full service line at no cost to them we think that will be a very good thing to do. It will be interesting to see whether our 'naked' customers agree.
At least one of our carrier suppliers continues to be interested in improving their offers to us but, as always, they remain firmly grounded in acquiring 'new net add customers' which make such offers almost useless in today's marketplaces. I would have thought that it must be quite obvious by now, even to the dullest minds with a zero knowledge of the markets, that once a residential market is 'saturated' the retention of current customers becomes an overwhelming issue that dwarfs the concepts of taking customers away from other suppliers....but apparently that is not the case, or if it is I can't grasp the basis of the views they hold. I can't see a way of utilising the latest new customer acquisition offers which may just mean my mind is too tired from trying to make sense of the various inputs we have been dealing with in coming up with sensible ways to approach 2011 - maybe we're just 'punch drunk' from dealing with the ever more complex events of 2010?
This article sums up the last five years of wire line/ADSL pricing issues fairly well:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/behind-the-no-to-telstras-flat-30-20101229-19a8q.html
You should be able to see why the past two years have been such a waste of time in most respects.There really is no place for a company like Exetel in residential marketplaces that have become so incredibly embroiled in political points scoring by people who haven't got the slightest interest in delivering value for money services but only in raping and looting to their own personal advantages.
Maybe I shouldn't make any decisions today as my personal mood is severely darkened by the advice from our vet at 6.30 am that our small dog who has been an integral part of our family's life for the past 15 years may well have to be 'put down' later this morning if the tumor they found last night proves to be inoperable. I have loved dogs all my life but I have never been able to sensibly deal with these inevitable moments.
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