Exetel Reneging on "Lifetime of The Plan" Pricing

pauly85 on 16/10/2024 - 13:57

I've been with Exetel for about 4 years now, and back in December 2022 they sent me an email saying that they're giving me a special price of $64.95/mth for "The lifetime of my plan" (this is for 50/20 NBN).

The only caveat is that I don't change plan or switch to a new provider.

Today I got an email from them saying as of next month, my monthly charge is going up to $79.99/mth.
I haven't changed plans or switched providers in the meantime.

I queried this with customer services and they just told me their supplier prices have changed and there's nothing they can do.

Keen to get anyone's thoughts on what I should do here (beyond cancelling and churning).

Is this worth reporting to the ACCC?

Screenshot of the original email here

Internet Broadband nbn

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Comments

  • djsweet on 16/10/2024 - 14:01
    +6

    Seems pretty clear cut…
    Report to ACCC obviously. You won’t get any outcome from this though. You will need to contact your fair trading body for conciliation if you want to force them to stick to the agreement. Probably more effort than it’s worth though.

  • spackbace on 16/10/2024 - 14:02

    Screenshot of the original email here

    And the rest of the bottom of it? The fine print?

    • pauly85 on 16/10/2024 - 14:09
      +2

      Sorry, not trying to conceal anything there.

      It says "*(Ahhh yes, the asterisk) If you change plans, or switch to a new provider, your discounted price is no longer applicable"

      There's no further fineprint or links to terms in the email.

  • liquornoodlescabbage on 16/10/2024 - 14:03
    +6

    Is the plan still called "Extra-value nbn"? Might be they're moving you to a different plan to get around that.
    Pretty strange they'd every offer that deal in the first place given how often NBN Wholesale prices change, can't image they've been making any money off of you for a while.

    • pauly85 on 16/10/2024 - 14:14

      Hmm I can't see a name for the plan anywhere.

      Each month I get billed for:
      "Monthly Internet Charge On Plan NBN 50/20 Unlimited - $69.95/mth"
      And then a $5 credit:
      "Broadband Credit - $5.00/mth"

      The only way I can see they might squirm out of it is I got flipped to fibre earlier in the year and the service number changed.

      • minadein on 17/10/2024 - 11:16
        +1

        It could be due to flip-to-fibre. This caused me grief too.
        After my flip, exetel decided they wanted to charge me $5/m for a static IP (which was always included for free).
        I had to ring them and escalate a few times to get that charge permanently removed.

  • brendanm on 16/10/2024 - 14:33
    +18

    Looks like the "lifetime of the plan" has come to an end.

    • lightfoot on 21/10/2024 - 00:58

      this is the only answer

  • pharkurnell on 16/10/2024 - 14:38

    "The lifetime of my plan"

    Define lifetime of the plan.. Was the plans lifetime only 2 years… 2 years are up. It didnt mean your lifetime.

    • pauly85 on 16/10/2024 - 15:08

      There was no end date defined as far as I'm aware.

  • skittlebrau on 16/10/2024 - 14:46
    +7

    "Lifetime of the plan" means that if they no longer offer that plan (ie. not allowing 'grandfathered plans' indefinitely), then you'll be put onto another one.

  • netjock on 16/10/2024 - 14:58
    +9

    LOL there is always a clown that decides to run a promo like this and leave someone else to pick up the bag.

    Did they not think that NBN would increase the cost (as other overheads will also increase). Best part is nobody in the company put a stop to it before it go out.

    • freefall101 on 16/10/2024 - 15:34

      To be fair, wholesale prices on a lot of plans have dropped over the past couple of years. Technology gets cheaper over time.

      The price dropped on the 100/20 plan AND they stopped charging ISPs for CVC during that time. And in Sept 2025 the 100/20 plan will jump up to 500/50 with only a $1.20 wholesale price increase.

  • freefall101 on 16/10/2024 - 15:23
    +4

    Time to switch to a new provider, loyalty gets you nowhere when it comes to NBN plans. A $15 hike when the 50/20 plan increased by $2.52 for FY25 is a bit of a joke.

    That said, NBN has been ramping up the price of 50/20 pretty quickly to get people to switch to 100/20 (it's less than $5 more at wholesale to switch). Exetel really backed the wrong horse when they came up with that "lifetime" offer.

    • pauly85 on 16/10/2024 - 15:37

      Yeah pretty much planning to move either way after this.
      It's a shame because I've had flawless service from them for the past 4 years.
      I've referred quite a few people to them too (IRL people, not just referrals from here).

  • MS Paint on 16/10/2024 - 15:30

    What did the dedicated customer team say?

    • pauly85 on 16/10/2024 - 15:35
      +1

      They copy and pasted a message saying this with no further elaboration:

      "The plan prices have been increased due to supplier price changes. Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. You can contact our Customer Success Team directly on 13 39 38 during our working hours Monday – Friday: 8:30 am – 7:00 pm & Saturday & Sunday: 10:30 am - 6:30 pm ( AEST)"

      • justworld on 16/10/2024 - 15:50
        +2

        Imagine your job being to copy and paste some bullshit explanation to customers with a genuine and valid concern. Yuck

    • Cheapskate Paul on 16/10/2024 - 20:08

      I queried this with customer services and they just told me their supplier prices have changed and there's nothing they can do.

      @MS Paint. This is in the OP. It often pays to actually read the OP before asking questions that have already been answered.

      • MS Paint on 16/10/2024 - 20:09
        +1

        Thanks. Yes I did skim over that bit. My bad.

  • Frederico Z on 16/10/2024 - 15:47
    +1

    "Life time" deals are a bit of a sham. I've been caught twice.

    • Company A offers "Lifetime" deals.
    • Customer takes offer
    • Company increases user base and adds "value"
    • Company "A" sells out to Company "B"
    • Company "B" says Company "A"'s life time deal doesn't exist because company "A" no longer exists. There was a thing once that Company "B" would take on the liabilities of Company "A" under such circumstances. No longer, it seems.

    On the up side I've been on an unchanged "life time" deal with a VPN provider for years.

    • netjock on 16/10/2024 - 16:17

      On the up side I've been on an unchanged "life time" deal with a VPN provider for years

      My Windscribe "lifetime" is 10 years then I have to email them for a 10 year extension. Maybe at the time they would pretend it doesn't exist.

      Also on the Zoolz lifetime 1TB deal that turned out to be something else.

      Maybe lifetime of some animal we are not aware about, need to read the T&Cs.

  • morse on 17/10/2024 - 06:20
    +2

    Contact fair trading. Aim to keep your deal. Don’t change your plan in the meantime. Seek to be refunded the difference if they charge you the higher price?

  • 2025 on 17/10/2024 - 10:50
    +2

    Collect the evidence and go to the TIO https://www.tio.com.au/

    Problems that we can help with include billing complaints, faulty services, contracts, connections or disconnections and privacy issues.

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