New Plans for New Customers Only

[Pete]

The new plans have been available for over 2 months but when enquirer about these plans for current customers I get a reply stating the wholesaler does not provide these rates to existing customers.
I replied queering how the wholesaler governs plans to new and current customers the reply now states the new plans are a Special Price.

Alarm bells here!

What's the normal price?
When does the Special Price end?

[JamesL]

The new plans have been available for over 2 months but when enquirer about these plans for current customers I get a reply stating the wholesaler does not provide these rates to existing customers.
I replied queering how the wholesaler governs plans to new and current customers the reply now states the new plans are a Special Price.

Alarm bells here!

What's the normal price?
When does the Special Price end?

Our wholesale providers are only interested in new customers, hence any new customers we sign up with us are at a better rate than our legacy base.

[Pete]

I hope I have it wrong :

Exetel purchases a chunk of bandwidth from a wholesaler and the wholesaler deems how the purchased bandwidth gets distributed?



Imagine how those (potential) clients I could have signed up would look appon my business now!
Utter disgusting practices either from Exetel or from (very unlikelihood) the wholesalers.

[JamesL]

I hope I have it wrong :

Exetel purchases a chunk of bandwidth from a wholesaler and the wholesaler deems how the purchased bandwidth gets distributed?



Imagine how those (potential) clients I could have signed up would look appon my business now!
Utter disgusting practices either from Exetel or from (very unlikelihood) the wholesalers.

Your sentence doesn't make sense, what do you mean?

Any business is interested in growing their customer base, and that means attractive pricing to get new business.

[Pete]

Your sentence doesn't make sense, what do you mean?

The whole post was quoted, which sentence don't you understand?

[JamesL]

Your sentence doesn't make sense, what do you mean?

The whole post was quoted, which sentence don't you understand?

Your posts are inaccurate, and do not make sense to me, perhaps someone else can translate.

[CCCMikey]

I think Pete thinks Exetel purchases bandwidth only.

While it is true Exetel purchases bandwidth, they also use the wholesaler's equipment to sign up new customers.

The wholesaler probably has some fixed costs such as backhaul, and the number of ports in their exchanges, etc.

It's in the wholesaler's best interests to have as many customers as possible generally speaking, since even resold customers represent some form of income / Return on Investment.

Therefor those wholesalers may make special offers to get *new* customers to utilise idle equipment.

Unfortunately for end users, this isn't obvious so they see it as a 'dirty trick' from Exetel when really it's just Exetel passing on the incentives as they themselves receive them.

I don't really know how Exetel can resolve that - perhaps by being open on the plan pricing pages and saying 'yes these plans are cheap because our wholesalers are offering us a discount on new customers only' then they could avoid the hassle a bit?

[Pete]

@ CCCMicky
Thank You VERY much for explaining what I've been needing an answer to for the last month.

My 2 cents worth (only 2 cents because I'm worth nothing)

Exetel, Get onto Whirlpool and clear this mess up.
Advertise the New Plans as SPECIALS from the WHOLESALERS and Exetel are passing the saving onto New Customers. Since it's a Special, a Retail Price should be shown and an Expiry Date (end of Contract?)

James if you recon I make no sense, have a talk to the support staff!

[affinity]

Unfortunately for end users, this isn't obvious so they see it as a 'dirty trick' from Exetel when really it's just Exetel passing on the incentives as they themselves receive them.

It's a difficult situation, if you get a small bonus for new customers or even a large one, it is hard to share that benefit across existing and new users fairly -- so the new users benefit and the old users get to suck eggs; a solution for the old user is to become a new user elsewhere and later return to collect the new user bonus.

It doesn't matter how this is handled, it will always produce inequities. As the incentives have been used (not just right now), old users feel dudded and new users get a nice deal, even if somewhat artificial and then they don't like it when they become old users and the new new users get more benefit. How do you fix that?

Perhaps the only way is to pass on the benefits, but to ALL users ... hopefully regular pricing and other benefits should keep Exetel in the market without needing to /discount/ new users significantly with plans that are not available to the longer standing loyal users.

[JamesL]

Unfortunately for end users, this isn't obvious so they see it as a 'dirty trick' from Exetel when really it's just Exetel passing on the incentives as they themselves receive them.

It's a difficult situation, if you get a small bonus for new customers or even a large one, it is hard to share that benefit across existing and new users fairly -- so the new users benefit and the old users get to suck eggs; a solution for the old user is to become a new user elsewhere and later return to collect the new user bonus.

It doesn't matter how this is handled, it will always produce inequities. As the incentives have been used (not just right now), old users feel dudded and new users get a nice deal, even if somewhat artificial and then they don't like it when they become old users and the new new users get more benefit. How do you fix that?

Perhaps the only way is to pass on the benefits, but to ALL users ... hopefully regular pricing and other benefits should keep Exetel in the market without needing to /discount/ new users significantly with plans that are not available to the longer standing loyal users.

It's impossible to pass the pricing onto all users, it would just cut our revenue and profit.

We might make the higher ones available if customers bundle their phone with us.

[austserve]

Hey guys. After reading this forum I've had to chip in and back up James here.

I'm lucky enough to have a 'friend' who works for T, and another friend who works for O. I personally had also worked for T for 20 years, sadly.

These providers DO offer better value incentives to new customers only. Just look at T Retail at the moment. $20 discount off all plans to NEW customers ONLY, no exception. That may be horrid, but it's how it is.

Exetel, as far as my understanding goes, buys each connection form T or O as a service on pre negotiated rates, which is then routed to Exetel, and finally the internet.

As far as the rates negotiated, Exetel has the ability to negotiate the best deal possible, but like any customer, if O & T won't give the same deal to old as new customers, why would they offer it to a service provider?
And finally, if you really want the new plans and don't mind a new number, then order a second service and once it's active, transfer your emails, VoIP etc and cancel the old one.


As far as our customers knowing which wholesale provider is being used, they really don't need to know. They are buying from Exetel, not the wholesalers. As far as the concerns about wholesale provider reliability goes, if there is an issue, as I had with one of my customers, we were able to change the wholesales provider to fix the problem, otherwise the customer is really non the wiser. I have a number of customers, big (corporate level) to small home & not one has any idea about providers other then they talk to me and pay Exetel.

And finally at the end of my rant, James, where is the VoIP, SMS etc info in the new site?

P.S. My post is not meant as an attack on anyone, just my point of view

[affinity]

The Telstra $20 offers are for those wanting to pay for high cost bundled products. Such discount is not worth anything in reality unless you have no option but to go with Telstra.

[affinity]

The wholesaler is a good reason to point out to the customer why the option is a higher cost, if it is more obviously pointing the finger at the wholesaler, then that is better. The OW options have their disadvantages too, but the pricing makes up for them.

[JamesL]

My statement is still valid.

This awesome pricing we are offering, is based on promos from our wholesalers who are only interested in new customers.

BUT we are working on something for some parts of our existing base.

[conb]

...is based on promos from our wholesalers who are only interested in new customers.

What about keeping existing customers?
As new customers are concerned, these prices are great, but for existing, if they can't upgrade, they may look at TPG or iinet that are offering the same rates, be it on a 24 month contract, the customers I have that want to upgrade have been with exetel for 5+ years, so a 2 year contract is a no brainer.