Changes to International Travel Pass

[paross]

I became a Vodafone mobile customer since I became concerned that Telsra's roaming charges were out of control several years ago - it used to do my head in!! My mates scoff at Vodafone's poor local coverage and say I should change back but, as I travel a lot and use a combination of local sims and Vodafone's $5 a day plan I save heaps. Telstra's latest 'effort' has convinced me to stay with 'second class' in the interests of my bank balance and my sanity!

[Palpatine]

Hi Paros, be assured that you carrier is not "second class" particularly in NZ ( where interestingly they now own the network built by Telstra Clear) but also in Europe where they have significant reliable coverage with their own network. Many of the old monopoly inter-carrier relationships do not work as well in the mobile roaming era!

[Yannick]

Update from Telstra CEO: Andy Penn

I am pleased to say we are changing two pricing decisions which we announced recently around international roaming and charges for paper bills.

http://exchange.telstra.com.au/2015/12/03/making-right-calls-customers/

[MikeO]

Andy,
Thank you for listening. The excess charge was my biggest gripe.
Michael O.

[eAJ2015]

Nice to see that you guys are attempting to listen however the changes are still an overall negative. 

Effectively for the former zone 2 zones that are now in zone 3 it is $5 dollars per day for an extra 25 megs per day or $1 per 5 megs or 20 cents per meg so the consumer would have been better off with the old pricing and then paying 3c/meg when they go over.

someone correct me if my math is wrong

[Palpatine]

Thanks for the update Yannick, BUT!

A good headline, but the increase from 3c/Mb to 10c/Mb was not the big issue as even the old 1.5Gb data allowance was generally sufficient for the majority of travellers.

Andy Penn continues to support the 50 - 100% increase in price for the Travel Passes based on increased data and increased countries. An approx 50% increase in the number of countries from 41 to 61 is commendable as such, but nobody travels to 61 countries at any one time. The real benefit is, say Western Europe, Belgium and Luxembourg added, Northern Europe and Baltic, Estonia and Finland added etc

Andy may have listened to what some “...customers clearly told us…” but he has not listened to the 50 Crowd Support Contributors or the 400 plus customers who have viewed these posts in the last 2 days!

In terms of competitiveness, have a look at Vodafone's $5 per day (meaning only days used charged) In Popular destinations such as Europe, NZ, USA South Asia, Vodafone coverage and reliability is second to none! 

[Centurion]

Too little and too late I'm afraid. I'm done with being continually ripped off by a company that despite making 4.3 billion in profit takes square aim at the consumer.

I've transferred 5 mobile accounts today to Vodafone. Telstra, I appreciate will not care.

[rachaeljb]

Good to see self care being introduced from the 15th December removing the need to call into Telstra. Will the 24x7 app to activate travel passses be metered or unmetered when connected to cellular network overseas?

[Steph]

Hi rachaeljb

It would be metered - we don't have any unmetered sites when you're roaming.

[mic33y]

It's good that Telstra has listened to the customers.

My biggest gripe was the excess data charge.

It was cheaper to pay for excess data charge than renting a portable wifi whilst overseas.

Now that has been reverted, I'm reasonably happy.

[Troubz]

So has anyone heard from Telstra advising they have reversed their descision?

[Palpatine]

To my understanding, this is the formal advice from Andy Penn, CEO

http://exchange.telstra.com.au/2015/12/03/making-right-calls-customers/

[Geoff170158]

I am in the same boat as several other contributors.  I checked the details of an International Travel Pass in early November.  I liked what I saw and "booked" a 14 day travel pass for Thailand to be activated on December 15.  Then, when that expired, a 7 day travel pass was to be activated.  This would have cost $70 for 14 days and $35 for 7 days; a total of $105 for my three week trip to Thailand. Perfect.  When I rang today to confirm that everything was going according to plan for our departure next week, I was eventually told that the price had doubled in the meantime (I was actually told that the price had tripled but that consultant was wrong.  Telstra? Go figure.) So after working my way up the food chain, I was eventually informed that since I had not actually PAID anything, just agreed to a deal, Telstra wouldn't honour the agreement. I was also informed that they were going to call me back about this price increase some time on the day that I was going to board the plane.  I may not have responded positively to being informed of this doubling in price as I boarded the plane. I must be a little sensitive, I guess.  Anyway, I guess the point is that you can't really trust that you have made a mutually benficial deal with Telstra until you look at your bill and determine whether what you agreed to is what you actually got. Very, very dissappointed in Telstra's performance but I doubt that anyone of any importance in Telstra actually reads these forums. I've been with Telstra since 1982 but I will be looking carefully at other service providers when my contract ends next year.

[Geoff170158]

What a load of cods from Andy Penn!!  Why couldn't you have done ALL of that and kept the pricing at a reasonable level? Using what you have listed as an excuse to DOUBLE costs is poor.  Doubling the price to offer very little extra to the customer is treating the customers with contempt. Hopefully, they'll reciprocate. I'm sure it must happen elsewhere, but I can't recall the price of anything doubling overnight. Except for Telstra. You guys really know how to upset your customers.

[davidinnoosa]

Andrew penn's response is typical management or pollie speak - not actually answering the question - he addressed what was not the real problem. Again as other contributors said there are countries like Uk and indo where a lot of travel occurs and i dont care about extra countries being added where i dont go - I travel to these fairly frequently and yes it is a pain to change sims and i dont want to be called and charged by telstra to tell me there is a message - so say on your voicemail" Do not leave  a message but text me on ********* and i will call you back| - far cheaper

[telstralongtime]

yes I am hearing you, increase data by nothing and DOUBLE rate for zone 2. NOT HAPPY Telstra!!!!!!!!

I too am heading to Thailand and was to use TP now looking at Vodafone seems like they have great rates even if it means dropping telstra after so many years. Give yourself a slap Telstra.

[vchampion64]

Yep, I'm ringing Telstra today for a payout figure on my existing contract. As I'm certain it will be WAY less than the $450 I would now have to pay them everytime i go OS and want to use my phone! 

[vchampion64]

You obviously aren't "working hard" enough. You haven't changed the key complain which is driving us all to a new carries - spend 20 days in Europe and Telstra charge $450 for the 'privilege' of using my phone. 

If if I travel twice in a year that is $900 !!  

Im off to Vodaphone. 

[taddy74]

Mr. Chambers,

What a wholly unsatisfying response. You have a future in politics I am sure, the way you can write an entire page responding to customer complaints without ever actually addressing the main issue, awesomely done. I cannot wait for the day, and I hope it is soon, that the Telstra stranglehold in Australia is ended...I look forward to ending my long-time relationship with you and your arrogant, price gouging company.