When Woolworths launched its Woolworths Mobile month-by-month mobile service in August, it said it also planned to maintain its Everyday Mobile prepaid option. But there’s obviously been a change of heart, with Woolworths stopping new subscribers signing up to the prepaid service at the end of October and planning to switch off the service altogether at the end of March 2012.
This switch actually got announced at the end of September, but I only just got pointed to a Whirlpool thread discussing it. Woolworths stopped selling recharge vouchers at the end of October, and is giving customers until the end of November to redeem them. Woolworths says the switch is motivated by the increasing desire of its customers to access 3G data services (the Everyday offering is 2G only). The market changes fast; back in March 2010, Woolworths told Lifehacker that the “masses” weren’t yet using data options.
Incidentally, the Whirlpool thread, started by a user who is complaining they are going to lose $150 of credit, seems based on a fairly whopping misreading of what’s actually happening and what they’re entitled to. Because the service is closing down, there’s no longer the ability to roll over credit, but any existing credit will still be available for up to 100 days after Woolworths stops allowing recharge vouchers to be redeemed on November 30 (the exact period depends on the terms of the plan).
It’s not an arrangement that it particularly likely to convince customers to switch to the cap-based Woolworths Mobile service, but it doesn’t strike me as actionably unfair — you just have to use your credit within a fixed period, which is the basis of most prepaid plans. Realistically, a customer who wants a long expiry prepaid plan is going to look elsewhere rather than switching to the other Woolworths plan.
Republished from Lifehacker.
Andrew
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 11:59 AMTo Amaysim!!
Michael
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 12:32 PMIf you are going to have $150 of credit, then why not go post paid. After all, most of these pre-paid deals all use Optus for the service anyway, so just get a cheap month to month post paid plan and quit your bitching.
Just This Guy ...
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 2:01 PM” Woolworths told Lifehacker that the “masses” weren’t yet using data options ”
This is what happens when a grocery business tries and fails to understand how much faster technology changes as opposed to how fast our food needs change.
I wouldn’t expect to get fresh fruit and veg from a mobile phone provider, so it beats me why anyone would thing a supermarket chain is a good place to buy tech.
But, to each their own I guess.
Ben Zemm
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 3:16 PMBringing their Dick Smith brand into Woolworths? Aldi seems to be going ok with its hybrid stores? FWIW Woolies near hear killed the local fruit and veg shop and now there’s a DSE there!
steve
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 12:14 AMthats a poor arguement. for starters, woolworths isn’t a “fruit and veg” company, they are one of the biggest companies in australia (woolworths, big w, dick smiths, petrol, liquor, etc).
secondly, their mobile offer was never aimed at a high end user. they were after the oldies, who just want to call and text.
Finally, they were not alone in thinking that mobile tech moves slower than it does. Nokia is a prime example of a huge company, losing out because they didn’t anticipate changes. I think it’s pretty ballsy for them to discontinue a service completely, and potentially alienate whoever is currently on their service (everday mobile and woolworths mobile are VERY differnt)