This annoy anyone else?

abouttobebanned

I dropped an email off to Meteor last week to convey my annoyance about a couple of things.

Last week they announced a promotion whereby if you topped up your phone with some credit you could win an i-pod. Grand, lovely jubbely. Upon topping up by 20 bucks you also can have free texts to absolutely any network. Lovely.

But what about bill payers? What do they get?

I've been paying meteor, not €20 a month for the past year but anywhere between 60 and 120, and I don't even get a thank you...

Bill payers are supposedly the gold customers, the ones the networks really want but they treat them like ****, and I told them as much. There are no meteor price plans where you can text any network for free, there are no chances to win an i-pod when you pay your bill.

I told them I was dropping down to the lowest tariff and as soon as my contract was up, I was out of there. More people should do the same.

Sam Vimes

you're right but it's the same on all the networks. pre pay just seems to be a better offer now. it used to be that one of the main benefits of bill was cheaper phones but they're all clamping down on upgrades too*






*except for 3 but i don't count them as a network

Rsaeire

Sam Vimes wrote: »

you're right but it's the same on all the networks. pre pay just seems to be a better offer now. it used to be that one of the main benefits of bill was cheaper phones but they're all clamping down on upgrades too*






*except for 3 but i don't count them as a network

Ah Vimesy, I do like your anti-3 comments.

OP, it's true. Postpaid customers don't get as much as they used to. I fear for the mobile industry in the current economic climate as, if it wasn't bad enough with miserly restrictions on upgrades, the recession will now make the networks even more frugal. That will mean higher priced postpaid tariffs, with minimal incentive for customers to remain loyal to any given network.

I for one hope and pray that networks realise customers want to stay with one network, as it means less fuss in the long term, and stop leaving customers with no option but to port back and forth between networks in an attempt to try and avail of the best tariff/promotions at that particular time.

Oafley Jones

Switched from bill-pay to prepay on meteor about 18 months ago. My monthly cost dropped from 60-80 euro to half almost immediately, and now with the free texts offer i barely use over 20 euro. Will never return to billpay.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

congo_90

I agree. They're a shower of b*stards i'm trying to get out of the contract at the moment only to switch to what really?

Rsaeire

congo_90 wrote: »

I agree. They're a shower of b*stards i'm trying to get out of the contract at the moment only to switch to what really?

That's just the thing, where is there left to go? You move from one crap experience to another crap experience, ending up disillusioned by the whole mobile industry.

abouttobebanned

They rang me, pretty much fobbed me off...told me that I was paying a lot in my bills and would i be interested in getting a pay as you go that I could use for my texts. So now they want me to have a bill and another number for texts.

Mimikyu

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Creamy Goodness

In a contract at the moment. A month into the contract o2 announced free text to any network on PAYG

I think I've one month left and I'm going back to pre-pay

drunkmonkey

I know ye all hate them with a passion but 3 are giving free texts for life to all networks on there swing both ways price plan..

100 Free flexi units
100 Free 3 to 3 calls
Free texts to all networks for life
Free Voicemail
Free Skype and MSN
Bill Pay customer support

and the bill is capped at €25pm so no nasty surprises....

I think it's a pretty good offer..

Just on the Meteor bills it's a common complaint I get from customers, looks like yere all subsiding the free talk and texts for pay as you go customers, I don't know how meteor are going to swing that around it's going to be a hard sell...

The 3 Relax plans are very good compared to the competition if your not a chronic texter, just my 2 cent....

Rsaeire

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I know ye all hate them with a passion but 3 are giving free texts for life to all networks on there swing both ways price plan..

100 Free flexi units
100 Free 3 to 3 calls
Free texts to all networks for life
Free Voicemail
Free Skype and MSN
Bill Pay customer support

and the bill is capped at €25pm so no nasty surprises....

I think it's a pretty good offer..

Just on the Meteor bills it's a common complaint I get from customers, looks like yere all subsiding the free talk and texts for pay as you go customers, I don't know how meteor are going to swing that around it's going to be a hard sell...

The 3 Relax plans are very good compared to the competition if your not a chronic texter, just my 2 cent....

To be fair, I think you've given more than your 2c's worth regarding your 3 promotions on Boards now Drunkmonkey! lol

Although on paper 3 look like one of the best to go for, as a network, and with no customer care*, I will avoid them like the plague. I won't go needlessly into the negatives of why, in my opinion, they are bad, as this has been done to death in other threads, but I will say that there are better options available than 3.

*I know 3 have a customer care team, but since they're so useless, they may as well not be there.

drunkmonkey

there not that bad sometimes, Meteor certainly have there moments as well....I could have drove my fist through the screen after the conversation I had with one of the meteor script monkeys yesterday...

If you happy to pay more for less fair play to you, wish I had that much extra cash...

Sam Vimes

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I know ye all hate them with a passion but 3 are giving free texts for life to all networks on there swing both ways price plan..

100 Free flexi units
100 Free 3 to 3 calls
Free texts to all networks for life
Free Voicemail
Free Skype and MSN

and the bill is capped at €25pm so no nasty surprises....

that's actually a decent offer but i think it's more like pre pay than bill tbh. the phones are only a bit cheaper than pre pay and it's capped. it's like pre pay but with a bill instead of credit and so it would be more valid to compare it to the pre pay offers

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Bill Pay customer support

this is not a benefit. this is a massive drawback

drunkmonkey wrote: »

The 3 Relax plans are very good compared to the competition if your not a chronic texter, just my 2 cent....

just had a look at one of them there and compared directly to meteor.

on 3, €49 would buy you 300 mins, 148 texts, and unlimited 3 calls

on meteor, €50 would buy you 300 mins, 80 texts and unlimited evening and weekend calls to any network
or
300 mins, unlimited meteor calls and unlimited meteor texts

i don't think 3 is "very good compared to the competition" by anyone's estimation tbh

Sam Vimes

drunkmonkey wrote: »

there not that bad sometimes, Meteor certainly have there moments as well....I could have drove my fist through the screen after the conversation I had with one of the meteor script monkeys yesterday...

If you happy to pay more for less fair play to you, wish I had that much extra cash...

let's not start this again dm. you acknowledge 3's customer care might as well be a recorded message saying "we can't help you" and you've had several problems with meteor cc that you and only you seem to have

what was this conversation about if you don't mind me asking?

edit:
a few weeks ago i had a problem receiving mms on meteor. i told the agent that i had entered the settings myself correctly and i had the problem in two phones so that wasn't the problem. she acknowledged this and said that she couldn't help so she would escalate the problem. the problem was solved two days later

on the other hand i had a problem with 3 that went on for 7 months. it was affecting many many people and happened when i tried my sim in 6 different phones. despite this they insisted on doing the same basic handset troubleshooting steps including resetting my phone every single time i called. i had to ask for the manager every time and at one stage threaten to make a formal complaint to get them to stop forcing me to do the same irrelevant steps for the 15th time

and that is the difference between the two operations

Rsaeire

drunkmonkey wrote: »

there not that bad sometimes, Meteor certainly have there moments as well....I could have drove my fist through the screen after the conversation I had with one of the meteor script monkeys yesterday...

If you happy to pay more for less fair play to you, wish I had that much extra cash...

All the networks' customer care teams have their moments, however, it just so happens that 3 always come to mind when I think of poor customer care. I don't really know ... maybe it's because they're crap?

drunkmonkey

who needs customer care when you've geniuses like us knocking around.:)

Sam Vimes

drunkmonkey wrote: »

who needs customer care when you've geniuses like us knocking around.:)

that is a good point. in most cases we don't and problems can be solved right here but problems at their end, of which there are many, unfortunately require someone on the phone who is authorised to think and use their own judgement and doesn't appear to be doing everything in their power not to have to escalate the problem to the people who know what they're doing