Almost half of Australia’s mobile phone users considered switching carriers last year, but less than a third of those consumers actually did so. What’s driving us to want to switch mobile providers, and what’s holding us back?
Picture by Daniel X O’Neill
A study of 1,600 mobile customers by Macquarie University found that 41 per cent had considered switching in the last year, but just 16 per cent actually did so. There’s obviously a variety of reasons why consumers might change, and in many cases more than one reason will apply.
The dominant issue uncovered in the research (sponsored by Amaysim) was poor network coverage, cited by 39 per cent of those surveyed. It’s probably fair to assume that Vodafone’s network woes were a major factor here.
The next most common reason was wanting to switch handsets or poor customer service, both of which scored 30 per cent. We’ve often advised that signing up for a 24-month contract is risky, and clearly the urge to shift is affecting many people. Many of the other reasons (as you can see in the infographic) relate to changing needs and usage patterns.
So why don’t we switch? Again, the research highlights a number of reasons, but a major recurring theme is inertia and difficulty:
Again, it’s worth noting that being locked into a contract is the dominant reason for not switching.
We’re going to run a more detailed analysis on the whole report later this week on Lifehacker, but in the meantime we’re interested in your experience. Have you contemplated switching? Did you actually switch? Tell us in the comments.
Republished from Lifehacker
Jamie
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 3:35 PMI want to switch, because Vodafone is crap. Poor service, slow data, yadda yadda.
I don’t switch because I’m on a contract. When my contract is up, I still don’t switch because I get a free phone which I use on WiFi 90% of the time so don’t really care about the crap coverage.
I’m just a tightass as heart.
Steve
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 3:49 PMJust switched couple weeks ago from Vodafone. Same reason. If you ring up their customer care, and go over your issues, they should let you out of contract without early termination penalty. If not, follow up with the Telecoms Ombudsman.
You can pay off the rest of your phone if you want to keep if. Or you’ll have to return the phone if it’s still on contract, with free unlocking.
Chose to sell the IP4 and used it to fund my Galaxy Nexus which should be shipping any minute now :)
Richard
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 5:46 PMYou’d still get a phone with the other providers but…
light487
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 3:38 PMThere’s also the thing that reminds you that if you do switch and go through all the crap in doing so, paying off early exit fees and all that stuff, that when you do get to the “green grass across the bridge” that it may turn out to be the same or even worse than you had previously. I guess this could go into the category of “no better alternative” but it’s more of a perceived thing than an actual thing.
I think for me it’s more about perceived or misunderstood limits and/or rights. I would love to have awesome mobile broadband but since I can get reasonable 3G most of the time and on top of that I get “infinite” calls/SMS/MMS/PXT to all landline and mobile phones in Australia.. it’s kinda not too bad really… I hardly ever have any problems with Vodafone.. and from what I hear, again a perception thing, even if I went with Telstra I may not be much better off in some situations.
Damo
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 4:37 PMI’ve switched from Optus to Vodafone and finally to Telstra. The grass really was greener with Telstra because of their vastly superior coverage. I just wish they were a more agreeable company.
FSM
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 8:22 PMTelstra’s mobile network quality is actually nowhere near as good as it was about a year ago, the massive push they had and increasing the data limits seems to have had an effect on their network.
That said, there is still no way I’m going with Voda or Optus, Telstra still runs circles around them, which is unfortunate because with their limits I could spend $20 a month and get insane value, if their networks weren’t shit.
MDolley
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 3:46 PMI was lucky enough to have early exit fees waived because of poor coverage. I am now with Telstra on a BYO plan and while it is slightly more expensive the coverage is so much better.
If you want to switch because you aren’t happy with the coverage start a dialogue with your carrier on social media. It currently seems to be the best way to deal with them. That is how I got out of my previous plan with Three.
Penmonicus
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 3:48 PMI’ve recently switched back to Tel$tra. First SIM was with One.Tel – did they re-sell Optus?
Then was with Optus, then Tel$tra while I worked for them, then Optus when I left, now back to Tel$tra [though, thankfully, still not working for them]. The cost per month seems like it’s abotu the same, plus the data speeds and coverage are HEAPS better.
I’m in Adelaide, for reference.
doubleDizz
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 3:52 PMOptus can SMD. When my contract is up I’m gone.
Over the last 18 months, I reckon my SGS hasn’t had more than 10% of its total connection time connected to the 3G network.
Telstra LTE here I come.
cayal
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 4:12 PMBeen with:
3 – They sucked balls. Horrible Reception.
Optus – They also sucked balls. Reception sucked. Calls randomly cut out (due to the iphone)
Currently with Vodafone – Actually had no issues with them.
Sicarius123
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 7:29 PMOptus “claimed” my iPhone was causing dropped calls too.
Funnily enough the same iPhone had zero issues on Telstra after the TIO helped me get off Optus awful network a year into my plan.
Jason
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 8:13 PMTelstra don’t do LTE handsets
Thruppence
Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 7:21 PMI thought getting one’s ‘balls sucked’ was a good thing…
awallafashagba
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 4:27 PMI am a pom here on a 457 for 4 years so naturally when i got off the horrible 29 hour flight and headed into Sydney CBD i went straight to a Vodafone shop and got a wi-fi dongle and iphone 4 contract. At first things were rocky but i called and they explained and gave me free line rental for a while. Now working in Chatswoo everything is tickety boo. data has always been a tad slow but it gets there and for $45 pm i aint complaining – I do occasionally get caught out with international calls on a Friday after 23 News but het my bad. Sticking with Voda and wont change.
What does get my goat is the total disregard for the ability to save say 25% on a business communication package. I work for a decent full service provider – one of the “good guys” and we absolutely struggle to sign up small co’s. The larger the easier it is ! Aussies just do not wanna change for some daft reason – even when its clear they are paying too much for a service and utility that they “could” pay less for..
dave
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 4:38 PMI wanted to switch carriers due to experiencing very poor reception. And after jumping through all of the hoops and troubleshooting with the company, the came out and said i would have to pay out my contract in full to leave them. After a bit of research I discovered I could leave the contract i was in at the time due to the reception issues i was facing, I ended up calling the call centre to have another crack at cancelling my plan. After having to escalate the issue to the centre manager I finally got out of my plan.
I think uneducated people try to cancel their contract first call to be told they cant do it. If it was an easier process to cancel a contract due to poor service, im sure the figures would be higher.
bthenbell
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 5:23 PMHad better reception with vodafone while on holiday in Fiji.
Telstra, cant go wrong.
chugs
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 5:50 PM39% of respondents are with Vodafone
nicky
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 6:11 PMi JUST switched from Virgin to TPG…$15/month, $500 included calls to all numbers including international, free TPG to TPG, 1.5GB…cannot be beaten
Mmmmm
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 8:53 PMI’m on the same deal, I b ought a nexus S outright and have not looked back. TPG are pretty good with their phone service I have never had to hang on very long and found the staff always to be polite and helpful. I have my children on the $10 deal per month was cheaper than the prepaid I used to use. They resell the Optus network, I have not had any problems with poor phone or data conections.
Can’t say the same for my dad though he bought a phone through Virgin great deal for him and the optus conection was great where ever he traveled alll the way up to Rockhampton and back through central NSW. Where ever he stoped he could skype to his hearts content. When he got home to Melbourne the conection in his suburb is next to useless. He has since bought a telstra nextG dongle
Salmonpie
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 6:22 PMBecause they offer you a shiny new phone 3 months before the end of the contract and we’re all gadget whores who can’t wait 3 months!
FSM
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 8:37 PMHaha yeah, Telstra rang me a couple of months ago saying hey, you don’t spend anywhere near your limit (old $89 business plan) and have a couple months left, if you like I can sign you up to a $59 plan which will suit your needs perfectly, and restart you contract date from today.
I was like, mmm, call me again next week, let me take a look at what u have available, I wanna check out what phones you have etc.
When he called back after I had checked them out, I just said “thanks, but your pre-paid plans are so good atm, I think i’ll keep my phone for a bit and just recharge for $30 every month which will more than suit my needs. ; D
Richard
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 10:05 PMTelstras prepaid plans IMHO are somewhat gems actually…I dare say they are as good if not better than the post paid equivalents. If you go with the CAP options that offer a few hundred in calls you are able to use the recharge amount to buy data packs, allowing you to get 4 or 5 gigs or whatever it may be now off a $50 recharge which smokes their postpaid plans.
Only issue with the prepaid I’ve found is that voicemail isn’t included in the cap credit, so if I spend the entire lot on a data pack then I can’t access voice mail. Not a huge issue since more often than not I can just return the call anyway; and if the numbers silent I tend to favour not caring anyway.
FSM
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 10:45 PMHaha, yeah their pre-paid smoked their post paid plans (I guess they have to compete a bit harder to keep non contracted customers ; D ).
Oh, and I hate voicemail…with a passion, I hate having to call up and turn it off whenever I get a plan with anyone…ugh!
CallerID and text messages/email…why do we need voicemail, certainly….why would I want to pay for it!
spk
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 11:58 PMjust get a free VoIP account on your phone and call 1800 135 102. Its message bank 101. Put your phone number and pin in and check your voice mail for free.
AdamF
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 7:24 PMBeen with Vodafone for years,finally had enough of their shit coverage, I couldn’t get signal in the middle of Sydney or at home in Parramatta, moved to Telstra two weeks ago, coverage is fast and constant, cheaper plan for a better phone and any things getting sorted for the change over were done very fast and effectively. happy I made the switch
Sicarius123
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 7:26 PMIt looks like 39% of people in the first table should switch to Telstra!
Steve
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 8:52 PMTelstra, is still night and day compared to goddamn Vodafone. Yes, it costs more, but it’s just worth the convenience and peace of mind. With Voda, I feared to open emails if I hadn’t done it within the past 24 hours, because anything over 10 emails would be unbearably slow, even text-only. Don’t bother streaming, or image-heavy sites. Final straw was when my IP4 connection timed out making a mobile payment that was charged twice.
/end Vodafail rant.
Graz
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 9:08 PMI’ve been with all the carriers over the years. The most pleased i have been was before smartphones were the norm and i was was with Vodafone on a standard $49 gsm cap.
I’ve since had an iPhone 3gs for the past 24 months with 3mobile and It has been a pretty average experience. I live in the centre of Sydney and with the standard settings it jumps between 3mobile 3G/edge etc and 3G/edge roaming. Because I pay extra $$ to use data when roaming I have it hard set to only use 3 Mobile 3G, which means when i lose that 3G signal I just lose all service (searching..). Some people’s phones apparently drop the 3G when it roams as long as you have data roaming option disabled but that doesn’t work with my handset.. /sigh. So the only time I can use my phone is if I have 3mobile coverage unless i want to potentially incur roaming charges.
Now that my contact is up and Telstra’s plans are way more competitive than they used to be, I will be making the switch in the next couple of weeks. I’m more than happy to spent 10$ p/month more with Telstra and have proper coverage wherever I am and likely get decent bandwidth too.
Nathaniel
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 9:48 PMA couple of years ago I signed up with 3 on a 24 month contract with an iPhone 3GS. Their horrible service was apparent and I was constantly charged excessive fees due to their roaming service. I called them and was transferred multiple times and finally received compensation after being notified that I could not do anything about the excessive charges. As my contract with 3 is coming to a end I definitely didn’t want to sign with vodafone for another 2 years. Instead of waiting for my contract to end (1 Month) I signed a new plan with Virgin and I got a new number. Their service and speed is so much quicker and better and I am satisfied so far! Changing was not difficult.
yvpan1
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 1:36 AMI have switched among carriers from Optus to Vodafone then 3 then I finally switched back to Optus.
Optus to vodafone –> Voda provides a flat rate for text message, but the coverage is crappy and even it gets easily congested
vodafone to 3 (before they’re merged) –> all my friends were on 3 and i thought having free calls among us would be a great benefit, however, it turned out that the service was even crappier, with even more intermittent coverage & data issues, causing myself to switch over to Optus by paying a hefty expensive early exit fee as I was not happy at all with 3.
Optus nowadays has improved a lot based on my experience, I have been with Optus for more than 3 years since I have switched back, and I have noticed the extensive coverage improvement as well as better data coverage & penetrations by the implementation of its UMTS 900 MHz. I do hope within the next 6-12 months the network will grow even stronger, wider & faster before they’re moving towards the introduction of the LTE.
dox
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 9:04 AMBeen with telstra mobile since 97. Only been on contract about 5 of those years, now i just buy outright, and sit happy on a postpaid plan.
Speed has suffered recently (sydney) must be all those voda converts
Merc
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 12:38 PMI was so tired of Vodaphone’s shit that I went to Optus and switched from pre-paid to a cap plan and got a Samsung Omnia 7 for the hell of it. Better phone and coverage? That’s a win in my book.