Telstra Kills Postpaid - Moves Everyone into Direct Debit to Give "Customers More Choice, Flexibility, and Control"

burningrage on 10/02/2021 - 12:28

This is almost rhymes as the song "Video Kills the Radio Star" but apparently Telstra will move all postpaid mobile plans to Upfront Mobile Plan (whateva that means).

They say this is to give "customers more choice, flexibility, and control". Not sure what's the logic…

Anyway with the new deal:

  1. Direct Debit enforced so no option to receive bill and manually pay it later
  2. Included 30 minutes of international calls plus unlimited SMS to international numbers.
  3. No lock in contract
  4. Lose Telstra Air and international roaming (temporarily)
  5. Can share data between up to 10 plans.

Availability starts 16 February.

https://www.channelnews.com.au/telstra-junks-postpaid-mobile…

Please discuss.

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Comments

  • stephendt on 10/02/2021 - 12:44
    +10

    I'm sure this transition will go smoothly…

  • burningrage on 10/02/2021 - 12:51
    +2

    Question number 1 is whether Ozb most loved JB Hifi plan will be moved into this? Because if it does, quickly get a new service, grab the giftcard and when this happens, cancel with no fee (as stipulated under FAQ)

  • jimbobaus on 10/02/2021 - 12:59
    +1

    Why would you use Channel News as a source?
    Plenty of other sources without giving CN traffic or clicks

  • SF3 on 10/02/2021 - 13:07

    username checks out.

  • Associatedhmac @ Telstra on 10/02/2021 - 13:16

    Really wondered how this is postpaid considering how it works. But hey, it removes pro rata which no customer ever understood.

    Was announced a month or two ago, rolling out as we speak

    • dasher86 on 10/02/2021 - 15:04
      +1

      Doesn't remove pro-rata as such unless you can't terminate mid period and request a refund.

      • Associatedhmac @ Telstra on 10/02/2021 - 16:57

        Um yes it does? You do not pay pro rata anymore. Your billing cycle now always starts from the date you sign up, rather than a day less than a month away

        • dasher86 on 10/02/2021 - 17:47

          so what happens if i want to cancel mid way through my billing cycle?
          oh hang on you need to pro rata my refund.

          • Associatedhmac @ Telstra on 10/02/2021 - 18:25

            @dasher86: I am not talking about pro rata refunds buddy. I am talking about the pro rata you pay when you sign up for a postpaid plan. Dw about it. Won't apply to you

            • terrys on 11/02/2021 - 09:38

              @hmac: A comeback looks pretty stupid when it's the first time you mention a neccessary qualification needed to avoid an interpretation you
              didn't intend "friend".

          • b3au on 11/02/2021 - 14:19

            @dasher86: No more pro rata refunds, even if you cancel 3 days into your new month.

  • jimbobaus on 10/02/2021 - 13:25

    Should also note

    No Smartwatch support
    No International roaming inclusions
    cannot be purchased as an eSim

    At the present time the new upfront plans won’t have smartwatch support or international roaming inclusions. While the latter is largely superfluous for most customers right now, some may miss the smartwatch inclusions

    The new plans also won’t be able to be purchased as an eSIM at the present time

  • ShortyX on 10/02/2021 - 13:56

    Not sure what's the logic…

    Perhaps part of Telstra's revenue protection strategy and potentially simplified billing processes.

    • burningrage on 10/02/2021 - 18:12
      +1

      Most likely.

      There will be no bill.

      And as with bills, normally you have 2 weeks to pay, that's also gone.

      It is also interesting for those people who live paycheques by paycheques that means there is no opportunity to prioritize as the direct debit will kick in regardless you have funds or not (lighter impact on those on credit cards)

      So yes, don't like it.

  • c64 on 10/02/2021 - 14:18
    +7

    They say this is to give "customers more choice, flexibility, and control".

    i doubt it has much to do with customer benefit

  • bdl on 10/02/2021 - 14:40

    Telstra: Cough up $ or shut up :)

  • mafroew on 10/02/2021 - 15:29
    +2

    Isn't this just prepaid but with a different name and forced direct debit? Only benefit is the data sharing

    • burningrage on 10/02/2021 - 18:13

      and 30 minutes international call. I suppose.

      Data Sharing is much lesser of an issue in an era of 60gb per month stuff.

      • hutchjnr on 11/02/2021 - 09:52
        +1

        International calls! Who actually uses that? With so many free options available to call overseas it has to rank right up there as most useless "add on" so called extra.

        Telstra seem to have a bit of a cashflow issue at the moment with this, the axing of a stack of jobs and the re-structuring of the business - reeks of S.T ruggling!

        I certainly hope that is the case… Couldn't happen to a more deserving company!

  • wallet72 on 10/02/2021 - 16:02
    +6

    mandatory direct debit means minimizing debt for Telstra (reduce overdue bills, reduce people that run off etc), and paying upfront (it's not PostPaid) means pretty much next to no chance of users racking up debt.

    From the back of house side of things, this really is just ditching postpaid and making everyone prepaid, so simplifying the billing system they run and support.

    I guess one thing that bugs me about this is the crap history Telstra has with incorrect billing. Direct debit means they screw up your bill and you wake up with a banmk balance of zero and having to get A Current Affair involved to get your money back (yes, there are ways to save yourself from this, but my point is still valid)

    • burningrage on 10/02/2021 - 18:15
      +7

      It is much harder to claw back monies from companies than not paying them in the event of a dispute. This is one single reason why I don't like direct debit.

      In addition to this, is the precedent it introduces. Once a company gets away with doing this, the rest of the industry will catch up.

      • kyle on 10/02/2021 - 21:47

        TIO would be so busy.

      • wallet72 on 11/02/2021 - 08:16

        yep 100% agree.

        I will never allow direct debit without it being a fixed amount on a fixed day, and even then it would have to be something I really need.

        This Telstra thing is like handing them your ATM card and telling them to go nuts.

      • mhz on 11/02/2021 - 10:05

        I won't allow direct debit on anything after having Optus help themselves to double what they were allowed on a previous phone contract for over 9 months and then a battle to get them to return it. Bank told me a direct debit just provides any company with a blank cheque to your bank account basically.

  • ESEMCE on 10/02/2021 - 16:25

    This probably explains our first Telstra Internet Bill for the "billing month" 17 Jan to 04 Feb despite connection occurring on 05 Feb. (received modem 17 Jan, actual connection to NBN took a further ~3 weeks… despite the fact we've previously had NBN at this premises in July 2020 with Superloop and it only took them 15 minutes to activate. I don't know whether to blame Telstra or NBN this time around)

    I have since seen that there is a note added in the graph at the top right indicating that it's for a forward billing period of 05 Feb to 04 March.
    Feels like they've already implemented it into their system but have only half updated the billing format.

    • ardie-chengz on 11/02/2021 - 09:16

      Honest question; why did you move to Telstra from Superloop (or any NBN provider at this point) in 2020?
      Having moved off Telstra a few years back due to a frequent billing issues and consequently incompetent customer service, I kinda figured I should've heeded all the warnings from other people's similar anecdotes and just stayed with them out of convenience. Is there anything Telstra offers better over other providers for you personally?
      I assumed it was well known Telstra wasn't really worth it unless you lived in a remote area (even though coverage is becoming less of an advantage for Telstra these days).

      • ESEMCE on 11/02/2021 - 11:02

        I didn't.
        I moved from 4G Optus to NBN for our home Internet.
        Chose Telstra solely due to their pricing. $40/month for 12 months is hard to beat!
        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/540263

        And I was on 4G cause I wanted to flip NBN the finger for giving us such a shit connection.
        I'll happily go back to 4G (or 5G) at the end of this Telstra deal depending on pricing available at the time.
        Our 4G speeds were the same or exceeded the ever declining max possible speed of our FttN NBN (currently 30/9, formerly 50/20 back in 2016 when it was first activated) and I was paying only $60/month including repaying a Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. Again pretty hard to beat.

        I was using the Superloop connection
        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/510082
        as a dedicated work from home connection until I was made redundant in June.

  • lunchbox99 on 10/02/2021 - 17:29

    Well this explains why when I signed up to postpaid on Nov 3 that I received my first bill on Nov 5. My service had not even been activated by the time the bill arrived.

  • bostos on 10/02/2021 - 17:30

    I wonder if this is what causing loss of mobile data on lots of devices

    • Ezekiel2320 on 10/02/2021 - 20:59
      +1

      No that's just because Telstra is shit

  • bargain huntress on 10/02/2021 - 20:55
    +2

    just switch to prepaid then?
    cheapest roll over pre-paid plan is $30
    cheapest 'post paid' plan was $40

    • wallet72 on 11/02/2021 - 08:18
      +1

      yeah I think that is ultimately what they want 'Joe and Jane Average' to switch to. The new prepaid postpaid service is something companies and businesses would be able to deal with so it seems to be aimed at them.

  • watchman2 on 11/02/2021 - 08:52
    +1

    i feel sorry for people where Telstra is the only teleo forcing them on this

    • burningrage on 11/02/2021 - 10:54
      +1

      I noticed since COVID, (big) businesses are emboldened to implement their agenda bullrush-fashion.

      I start with Supermarkets and Chemist Warehouse. They banned return / exchanges (unless under law) and it hasn't come back since. To date, my loss is when I bought a vitamin of a wrong size (say instead of 30 tablets, I bought 10 tablets version), and they steadfastly refused to exchange. It was customer service back then, now, they feel they have the upper hand.

      Some companies deleted their phone numbers and forced people to go to either chat or email to put forward complaints. Ironically, Telstra is the worst where I can't even find their phone number and if I do find a number, their automated system hung you up and referred you to the email / chat. Lorna Jane was hard to call and you had to resort using email for delivery concerns. Doing this, enabled them to ignore your emails and if they do reply at the time of their choosing instead of regular SLA which can range from 2 days to weeks. Ausnet is strangely an exception. I emailed them and the next 3 hours I got a reply.

      Some organization stop accepting cash BUT forces you to use credit card with surcharges. Vicroads come to mind. The other one is Peppers Lunch.

      Costco has now implemented a 30 days peace-of-mind return although satisfaction guarantee is still there

      Yes, customer service is so yesterday!

  • iknowtj on 11/02/2021 - 10:50
    +3

    I am seriously considering leaving Telstra after 13 years over this.

    In that time I've been incorrectly billed by them - once for $1200.

    What is to stop them messing up a bill cycle and doing that to 100's, 1000's of people?

    What about the elderly (like my parents) who have no idea how to use the internet let alone set up direct debits etc? And yeah, these people do exist - my parents literally head to the post office to pay all their bills each fortnight. Been doing it that way for 30 years and have no desire to change.

    What about those who financially tight who like to split their payments, or god forbid be a week or two late dealing with life's emergencies?

    It's a really anti customer move imho.

    • Lastchancetosee on 11/02/2021 - 11:24
      +1

      Consider yourself lucky. For a whole year, about six years ago, I had to ring Telstra every month to get them to correct their billing. Got quite friendly with the guy in the Philippines in the end. I was stuck with them because Wi-Fi was erratic and cable was the only reliable internet for work and study (me and children).

      When I moved into my new build in Jan last year, Telstra said they could connect me immediately to the NBN. Absolute tosh, as it turned out that the NBN connections weren't in place, and wouldn't be for at least six months. Took numerous calls, threats to contact ombudsman for providing false information to get my money back for a service not provided.

      TLDR Yes, Telstra are absolute rubbish.

  • this is us on 11/02/2021 - 11:33

    I hope Boost pre-paid is not affected. I just pay 12 months in advance and have nothing to worry about. Can't really justify post-paid anymore.

  • AssociatedONEMariachi @ Telstra on 11/02/2021 - 12:22

    Direct Debit enforced so no option to receive bill and manually pay it later

    I'm intrigued as to where they got this info, as there is no mention of anything like this on our internal memos.

    You can still make direct payments, and they're only doing this for new customers, not existing.

  • afah0447 on 11/02/2021 - 12:24

    "customers more choice, flexibility, and control" - corporate spin 101.

    When you want to screw someone over you say you are introducing 'flexibiilty'. This also happens in a lot government messaging.

  • tooblue on 12/02/2021 - 17:58

    Losing Telstra Air permanently:
    https://www.telstra.com.au/support/mobiles-devices/automatic…

    Some features will no longer be available on your new Upfront Mobile Plan, such as:
    Voice to Text
    Caller Tones
    Mobile Protect
    Telstra Air

  • JAF on 19/02/2021 - 12:07

    Does this affect all current Telstra customers? I’m on a postpaid plan since November last year and I haven’t got any email about this change. I just happened to stumble upon this post whilst checking forums.

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