Vaya "rewards" and SHAFTS long term customers by almost doubling monthly mobile charges -advice welcome

hello007 on 11/09/2014 - 15:52

Hi All,

24 months ago I signed up to Vaya mobile's then excellent $11 a month plan which included $650 of calls and 1.5gb of data each month.

Today received an email from them saying that from next month they will ADD an additional $9.90 Per Month fee on top of my $11 a month bill.

So now I will pay $20.90 per month as a reward for being a long term customer!

Meanwhile on their website new customers are being offered the SAME PLAN for $18 a month - almost $3 a month less than what they now want to charge me!

So Vaya shafts long term loyal customers and only rewards new customers.

I once held them in high regard.

But this garbage of rewarding long term customers with HIGHER CHARGES than newbies -and having the GALL to call it GOOD NEWS!!!! Is UNETHICAL IN THE EXTREME.

Questions:

  1. Has anyone else suffered the same email from Vaya AND FELT TOTALLY SHAFTED?

  2. What was your solution?

  3. Are their better deals out there that we can encourage ozbargainers to move to?

HERE IS THE VAYA SPIN CITY EMAIL TELLING THIS "WONDERFUL" (puke!!!$&)(:@;$!!!) news!

(Identity details removed)

Thanks

CUSTOMER NAME has it been that long already?!

You have a Vaya mobile service which has now been connected to us for almost 2 years! I know, time flies! We've got some good news for you if you love your current plan.

We've loved having you on board and hope we've really saved you on your mobile bills each month since being with us. In line with our stated goals, after remaining the same for your initial 24 month period with us, we now need to alter the pricing on your service. Previously, we've had to ask customers to select from our current range of pricing but we've made a very significant change to this.

The good news is that now you can now KEEP your current plan, however it will be subject to a $9.90 Plan Freeze Fee per service per month. The Plan Freeze Fee is simply a charge that we will bill you per service in order to be able to keep your plan intact as our network access costs have increased since we offered your current plan. All of your current benefits and inclusions (Voice, SMS and Data allowances) will remain exactly the same as you've got now. Comparing some of our older plans with what's available today, it would certainly be fantastic value even when you include the $9.90 Plan Freeze Fee.

The Plan Freeze Fee/s will be automatically be added onto your invoice issued on the DATE MONTH YEAR
We are providing 21 days notice as per our Standard Form of Agreement

These changes and Plan Freeze fee will apply in MONTH to the following mobile service/s: xxxxxxxx

And of course, you have options. If you'd like to move to one of our current retail offerings, you're free to do this any time without charge, any plan you like simply by emailing us.

If you've got any questions about the change, or anything else for that matter, please email us at [email protected]

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Comments

  • frysie on 11/09/2014 - 15:53
    -1

    data costs are on the rise thanks to 4g machines like iphone…not surprised

  • MadMaxBargainRoad on 11/09/2014 - 16:09
    +1

    Just received one from liveconnected as well and that's for my Mum's service. Expecting one for my wife's Vaya soon. Time to join the Telechoice bandwagon.

    • DeWalt on 17/09/2014 - 10:55

      I have been seriously thinking about Telechoice. Their data rates aren't quite as generous, but the Telstra coverage would be better than Optus (unless its crippled in some way). If you ever go to the outer suburbs or Satellite Cities (eg. Wollongong), you get terrible reception with Optus.

      • DeWalt on 17/09/2014 - 12:11
        +1

        Just had a good chat with Telechoice. I'm looking at the $20/month deal on the 2 year contract.
        Differences are :-

        • Telstra (vs Vaya's Optus - which has much better coverage. Note: same as regular Telstra, except it excludes mining sites)
        • 3g (vs Vaya's faster 4g. This doesn't mean much to me, I don't tether often, and I rarely stream data)
        • $500 calls (ie. ~213 calls per month @2 mins each)
        • unlimited sms (vs Vaya's no free sms - on my current plan, If I recall correctly)
        • 1gb data (vs Vaya's 1.5gb. note: when measured by kb instead of mb, i'll be better off with Telechoice than with Vaya)
        • 2 year contract (vs Vaya month by month)
        • Can upgrade/downgrade plan after 6 months for free (vs Vaya lock in).

        I think it's time for me to say goodbye to Vaya. Their $11 deals were great while they lasted.
        I looked at Whistleout for comparisons, looked at Kiss, Boost, Telechoice, Spintel, iinet, adam, TPG and about 5 others… for my sweet spot ($500/1gb measured in kb), Telechoice was the best.

        Good luck with your hunting. Hope this information helps

  • spockter on 11/09/2014 - 16:18
    +9

    It is not the same plan. Your existing plan has KB data billing whereas a new plan will have MB billing. That can make a big difference to the data billing, depending on your usage and phone session handling.

    • StewBalls on 11/09/2014 - 17:16

      The good news is that now you can now KEEP your current plan, however it will be subject to a $9.90 Plan Freeze Fee per service per month…All of your current benefits and inclusions (Voice, SMS and Data allowances) will remain exactly the same as you've got now.

      It's pretty clear language. Like any reasonable person, I took this to mean exactly the same plan, & that all of the T&Cs (including billing increments) were to remain the same…I'll be looking into this, there'll be hell to pay if they've blatantly lied to us & surreptitiously implemented per MB billing.

      • spockter on 11/09/2014 - 18:34
        +1

        I was referring to the OP's comment

        Meanwhile on their website new customers are being offered the SAME PLAN for $18 a month - almost $3 a month less than what they now want to charge me!

        The $18 Powerplan is not the same as his existing $11 plan, main difference being the MB billing.

        You would continue to have KB billing on your existing plan if you keep it by paying the monthly fee. You should also continue to have free social network data if that was included on your old plan.

    • ozhunter on 11/09/2014 - 19:41

      Your existing plan has KB data billing whereas a new plan will have MB billing

      That's what I understood from the email I received and why I'm still with Liveconnected, even with the $10/m increase. I haven't actually checked if it is per KB billing.

  • Eivad on 11/09/2014 - 16:45
    +1

    I love how they frame this as 'good news' - the fact that you can keep your plan. If it was actually good news (and the customer is not disadvantaged), they wouldn't be required to provide 21 days' notice under the SFOA.

  • ozy on 11/09/2014 - 19:16

    Any idea what rates per min mobile national calls are charged at?

  • nobby on 11/09/2014 - 19:33

    I got the same email as well today. Really disappointing, as I have 4 of the legacy plans for the family. I used whistleout to compare plans and looks like the $18 Vaya plan is the best one currently available.

  • Gravy on 11/09/2014 - 20:02
    +1

    Also got the same email today but already knew they would likely increase the fees once my 2 years was up so not a huge shock. Its a bummer but to be expected as I always figured it was a bit of a loss leader for them when I signed up (or very low profit).

    Was a bit odd that the email was worded like we were getting something good whilst actually getting shafted, but perhaps the per kb billing thing is worth keeping for some people, and maybe there were some people who actually got a lot more data/time than us but they just sent out a generic email to everyone whose 2 years was up.

    Will be looking around, could do with an upgrade to my iPhone 4, but cant really warrant the extra monthly fees.

    Edit: The odd thing is, my 2 years isnt quite up yet as I seem to have joined up late December 2012 so will be taking that up with Vaya to see what the story is.

  • Charlotta on 11/09/2014 - 22:41
    +1

    I'm also with Vaya's on the $11 plan. Or perhaps that will become 'was with Vaya'.

    I signed up to Vaya first one year and 8 months ago in January 2013 and yet they state "almost 2 years"

    You have a Vaya mobile service which has now been connected to us for almost 2 years! I know, time flies! We've got some good news for you if you love your current plan.

    Received same email today at 2:55pm… So I join the crowd of "where to from here". I don't suppose there is any way to aggregate… like negotiating a group rate - something simliar to MyNetFone's whirlpool rate/plan/offer??

    I'm presuming they'll be reading here and Whirlpool nervously to gage how pissed off we are - and perhaps wind it back if enough of us are expressing intention to leave them. Just noticed that the Vaya rep on Whirlpool announced his reappearance on the thread at 2:56pm. Also fwiw this marks the point when discussion began on the "plan freeze fee"
    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2262441&p…

  • jennkei on 12/09/2014 - 00:45

    Got the same email. Sigh.

    Probably downgrading and going for Virgin $19 (127 minutes/messages), 100MB data, free v-to-v for three months prepaid, lol.

    But Telechoice looks good if you use your phone more.

    • spockter on 12/09/2014 - 01:13

      TransACT plans also worth a look - assuming the Vodafone network is OK.

      http://www.transact.com.au/en-ACT/mobile

      Maybe the $10 plan would work for you.

      • jennkei on 12/09/2014 - 01:31

        I noticed that from somewhere (possibly Whirlpool), thanks for the rec too. :) Will see how it goes, go with cheapest option first and upgrade based on usage.

      • enforcer on 12/09/2014 - 13:12

        except the Vodafone network is far from OK

  • porkandbeans on 12/09/2014 - 14:41
    +1

    Vaya. The hint's in the name. Go.

  • Holysmoke on 25/10/2014 - 20:37

    SO it seems there is consensus to port out after this rate freeze fiasco, but where to? And anything better than the $20 ($11+$9) charge.

  • nobby on 18/01/2015 - 13:26

    Hi,

    Just wanted to point out a billing error that Vaya have made the last few months on my account in case its happening to others who may not have noticed. I had 3 plans under the old $11 plan which are now attracting the $9.90 plan freeze fee. I ported one of my numbers off to a new telco in October, however Vaya continued to charge me for 3 plan freeze fees. I've had to ring them up each month and request a credit. This is quite annoying considering the hold time to get through to the call centre. I've also asked them to fix the charging each time but no luck.

    Will now port out my last 2 numbers as I'm sick of dealing with them.

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