When Telstra announced a radical revamp of its mobile plans several months ago – and a new aim to earn $50 or more per month from postpaid customers – it was inevitable that they would start shifting off contract postpaid customers onto these new plans bit by bit.
We have now heard from a few people that were off contract on old Telstra postpaid plans that they were being told by Telstra that they would automatically be switched to new plans soon.
Our contact at Telstra affirmed that was correct for “less than 7% of our entire consumer and small business mobility customer base”.
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To be fair to Telstra, there will be a percentage of winners and a percentage of losers from these changes. Telstra are running a for profit business – not a charity – so there can’t be 100% customer winners from changes to products/services.
Some people who managed to negotiate postpaid mobile plans for $29-$40 with lots of data and other inclusions will lose, because their minimum cost will rise to $50/month if they stay with Telstra postpaid.
On the other hand, there are many Australians who don’t pay attention to the best available mobile, gas, electricity and other utilities plans, so they will benefit from being forced onto the new Telstra postpaid plans as their inclusions will improve and they can’t get bill shock anymore from using more than their monthly data quota or domestic calls/sms.
No date Yet For ‘All Post-Paid Customers’ to be Migrated to $50 or More Plan
The Telstra spokesperson further advised:
“There is no date yet for ‘all post-paid customers’. In this instance, selected older plans that have not had a price change recently have been impacted so will be moved to the latest in market plans available. Some of these plans are more than 10 years old”.
“The changes will commence from 26 August 2019 and we wanted to give our customers plenty of notice so they could look at different plan options available to them before they are migrated over”.
“We are unable to provide a full list of plans, however at this stage post-paid mobile customers who are on plans less than $50 a month should expect to receive a email or direct mail notification of change to bring them in line with our current in-market plans (from a spend and inclusions perspective)”.
“We understand that there is never a good time to make price changes and we don’t make these decisions lightly. From time to time we need to review our mobile plans to ensure we’re offering customers value while managing our own costs”.
“We know affordability and value is important to our customers and we have worked hard to keep any price increases to a minimum”.
“We continue to offer the Telstra Bill Assistance Program for eligible customers. For more information customer can visit us online or in store”
How Will You Know If You’ll Be Auto Migrated to a new Plan?
Telstra advises that customers being auto migrated should have been advised well in advance by Email and Direct [posted] mail.
Telstra said they are emailing or writing directly to customers affected by the changes. The changes will come into effect from 26 August onwards for Consumer plans, and from 29 August onwards for Small Business plans.
Customers have been given plenty of notice so they can look at different plan options available to them.
Who Will Be Forced to Change First?
Telstra advises from 26 Aug 2019, existing customers (consumer and small business) on some of their older post- paid mobile plans will be auto-migrated onto the latest in-market plans with the new minimum monthly price and additional inclusions.
Will The New Plan Change Be Automatic?
These changes will occur automatically, no action is required by the customer and, unless they chose to cancel their service, they will be migrated to latest in-market plan.
Customers will have the option of re-contracting to an in-market plan if they wish. To discuss their options customers can call Telstra on 13 22 00 (Consumer) or 12 20 00 (Small Business) , visit us at their nearest Telstra Store or the online store .
Will I Have to Pay An Early Termination Charge?
Telstra Customers will not incur an early termination charge if they choose to stay on Telstra but change their plan manually to a new one. The only exception would be if a customer is paying off a mobile handset and they decide to leave – in this instance they would have to pay out any remaining charges against that handset.
This has me worried. I am on the only plan I can use and suits me, the $199 per month premium plan. My finishes next month, and I am going to stay on it, as new plans do not offer what I use and need. Does this mean that telstra is going to change me onto a $50 plan? I hope not. I am paying $199 a month, and will keep paying that amount as I have been
Hopefully they will do what I am about to do and that is go to another provider.
I have been a Telstra customer for 20 years and when I called them to discuss their attitude was o’well we do not care, do you want to disconnect now.
Getting more money from non existent customers equals $0.
I don’t understand what a post-paid mobile means, do you run up all the calls and data and pay later? We have had no internet or landline for a week, although it seems that Google works sometimes but Telstra Media (email BigPond) does not although Telstra is our server. They are going to charge us $200 for a new modem because they can’t work out the problem, we will see what they say when that does not work, most unsatisfactory.
do you run up all the calls and data and pay later?
That’s correct, you get billed at the end of the month
This is disgusting for pensioner users who are commonly on Telstra, don’t want any of the extras, hardly use any data and just want a cheap plan they can afford. They are making these people pay for the heavy users who stream content all the time. So unfair but typical Telstra.
There’s nothing stopping pensioners from using Telstra prepaid which costs much less than $50 /month
Or Boost prepaid which has access to all the same 4G towers as Telstra and costs much less than $50/month
The utter contempt that Telstra display towards their customers is truly astonishing. I have worked for Telstra in a removed capacity in the past, and they have absolutely no clue as to what the customer wants or needs and nor do they care – it’s always about keeping the shareholders content.
Depends on your point of view
Some people think companies should just focus on shareholder returns
Others including me think companies should consider all major stakeholders including customers, greater community, the environment etc
Telstra do NOT notify everyone to be migrated ahead of time One older person I know was migrated without her knowledge…till the bill came…..Needless to say she migrated to another telco with an even better deal than Telstra gave her….this is no way to treat a customer how may others were treated the same way
That’s no good
How does a company spokesman release a statement with the phrase ‘a email’?
“We are unable to provide a full list of plans, however at this stage post-paid mobile customers who are on plans less than $50 a month should expect to receive a email or direct mail notification of change to bring them in line with our current in-market plans (from a spend and inclusions perspective)”.
Sounds like it’s a win win for Telstra. If you’re paying too much, you’re not being migrated as you’re already spending over the $50.
Also, how many people would be out of contract, but with handset repayments remaining
People out of contact but still owing handset repayments can still port out of Telstra to Optus, Voda etc as long as they continue to pay Telstra for the handset each month til the debt is cleared.