A source within Telstra has informed Gizmodo that customers will see a new $29 connection fee if they choose to sign up to a Telstra Home Bundle. Combo discounts are also set to disappear from new contracts as well as at the end of currently existing contracts, potentially costing bundled users as much as $40 per month.
Documents viewed by Gizmodo show that Telstra staff have been told that the additional fee is due to the increased expense of provisioning additional bundles for customers. The fee is set to activate as of 7th March.
According to our source, the fee comes after an extended, and ultimately failed, attempt by Telstra to update their Seibel customer management system. With manual updates to customer bundle information still required, new and existing Telstra bundle customers will pay the connection fee to setup or switch bundles.
Perhaps most costly is the end of Combo savings for Telstra customers. The documents Gizmodo has seen point to the end of the $10/month savings for users of bundled services, which currently save as much as $40/month.
However, the fee structure might not be so negative after all for Telstra customers. It’s worth keeping in mind that Telstra may be moving to an alternative bundling structure, like the type shown here, where the discount is returned to the customer by the better value of the bundle. It would be this shift away from the ‘legacy’ style of bundling that could be part of the reason for the fee change.
We got in contact with Telstra media spokesperson Kathyrn McFarlane, who confirmed the information for us:
“We are introducing a one-off $29 Bundle Contract Connection fee to cover the administration costs associated with establishing new bundles from standalone services. This will be quickly offset as our bundles enable customers to save between $17.85 and $41.85 per month compared to taking up standalone home and broadband plans on a 12 month plan.
Customers who have the Combo Rewards will continue to receive the benefits as we are not removing them from existing customers.”
Mitch
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 4:11 PMGreat, here we go again. I called up on the 9th, before there was any mention of these combo rewards being dropped, and my landline and internet have still not been set up, because the person I spoke to did not submit the order properly.
I bet I’m about to be screwed over because the services won’t finally be connected until after they stop offering the combo rewards, which I was told I am eligible for, and will save $20 a month.
Might have to advise you of the outcome on this.
Glenn
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 5:49 PMTelstra would have to be the worst telecommunications company in Australia by far. Before I dumped them I had so many problems with them saying they will do something and then not doing it. I would always have to call again to be told the original order was lost, or that a change had not been made. I will do anything before ever using them again.
Iain Graham
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 7:53 PMIncorrect.
They have one of the best products avaliable to anybody in Australia. The problem is that it’s absolutely gutless, and has no support behind it.
Paul McManus
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 1:14 PMWhen I got one of these bundles set up it took (no joke) at least 10 phone calls to sort out. I was constantly told ‘[something] will be done within 4 hours’ and then nothing would happen. My guess was 4 hours was when the person on the phones shift was ending.
Mitch
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 11:32 AMAt this stage, all is sweet. They finally called me back this morning and went through it all with me, and the good news is I will still get the discounts for combining.
All this was sorted over Twitter, so much better than calling up and being put on hold all the time. :)
Steve Tran
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 6:22 PMAnd they wonder how a small start-up like iinet could just come out of nowhere and eat everybody’s lunch.
Pretty much every ISP is doing a better job than Telstra at this point.
Annon
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 9:50 PMWhilst Telstra’s implementation of Seibel is solely responsible for this issue and is, in my opinion, responsible for the majority of customer service issues (along with the overseas call centres) it is important to note that iiNet had Ozemail’s client base and does not provide the same number of services as Telstra/BigPond.
On a side note, in-store bundles are now provisioned by back of house employees via webform which is most likely what has caused this one off fee as once upon a time, staff would perform this task in-store
That guy
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 11:15 PMI admit I hate telstra, I used to work there as a DSL programmer but to be honest it allways made me laugh when people said they would switch to another carrier. The majority of ISP’s still rely on telstra’s copper In the ground. So ur still going to have to deal with telstra just not directly.
Adam
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 12:25 AMI was just about to sign up to a new Telstra mobile plan, the thing that swayed me was that I could save $10 off the standard plans by bundling.
Seeing as this saving is being removed, I will be taking my money elsewhere..