y'know that guy from nz
His name is Ludwig Wendzich and he doesn't usually speak in the third person. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand after emigrating from South Africa when he was seven years old.
He has a passion for art and design. He is currently a web designer stroke developer who has a particular interest in designing the user experience; mixing usability and accessibility with aesthetics to maximize efficiency and enjoyment.
We are all on Vodafone, because everyone else, not because we want to be and Vodafone know this. Unfortunately, “That’s about it” and things won’t change until enough people take the plunge to Telecom or 2degrees’ pool so that Vodafone’s pool becomes too small for it to be of any value.
Latest article I’ve written for 3news.co.nz.
It hasn’t been long since I vented my frustration at Vodafone’s disdain of their customers. Now we are back with another installment. Since my last rant Telecom has upped the anti and are now offering (for a limited time) unlimited text messages to any network for just $12 a month.
Texting on Telecom’s XT network is now virtually free (doing the maths, $12/∞ = 0.) Of course it’s not that simple, as “Fair use policy applies,” but it’s fair to say this is the best text bundle NZ has ever seen.
So, what do Vodafone offer? Yet another kick in the groin for their customers. We get TXT4000, an amazing deal for consumers that also only costs $12 and let’s Vodafone customers send 4000 texts to their friends (that’s $800 worth of texts!) Unfortunately this deal is only for Vodafone—Vodafone texts so in actual fact it’s only $20 worth of texts and not much more useful than TXT2000 because you still can’t text your Telecom friends without paying a hefty off-network tax. 4000/12 = 0.3c per text to Vodafone vs 20c to Telecom. That’s a hefty 19.7c tax! On Vodafone you pay 666% more to text Telecom than Vodafone.
I think that the Satan Tax off-network charges that Vodafone forces their customers to pay to text their friends who are now clearly on a superior network is just diabolical! Vodafone, you hate your customers and they are starting to hate you — which is why you feel the need to lock them into your network with anti-consumer tactics.
I am still a customer of Vodafone, but only because I can’t move to Telecom. My friends are all on Vodafone and they will stop texting me if I move to Telecom (thanks to off-network charges) which makes my phone pretty much useless. They can’t just switch to Telecom either because all their friends are also on Vodafone and they like using their phone to have two-way conversations with their other friends and not just me. We are all stuck.
2Degrees doesn’t discriminate against networks. Telecom doesn’t discriminate against networks. Vodafone is the only player who still won’t play nice, and it just shows that they hate their customers; you and me.
(These are the impressions I get from Vodafone’s behaviour and not something Vodafone actually said.)
Vodafone, do you have anything to say for yourself?
