Meteor's price increases for original tarrifs

foggy_lad

i always thought from when i became a Meteor customer on the original tariffs that meteor had advertised their 9cent text rate would never increase, does anyone else recall this?

it was around the time that o2 were increasing thieir text rates i remember getting a text on both my numbers from meteor stating that the text rate would always remain the same as long as i remained a meteor customer and did not change price plans. they are now telling me they have increased the rate as of the 8th of december to 12cent per text.

Mr E

Its been noticed alright, foggy lad.
Big discussion (and lots of disgruntled users) on the mobiles/pda forum.

foggy_lad

can they just increase prices after stating a few years ago that text prices would never be increased past 9cent each though?

here is the reply i recieved from meteor

Dear XXXX

Thank you for your email.

Further to your query, I can advise that as of the 8th of December there are new rates for chargeable SMS messages on <INSERT CUSTOMERS TARIFF PLAN>. These changes were announced through various publications including the Irish Times. The new rates are 12c for an SMS to any Irish network and 25c for an international text message. However you can still avail of 300 free SMS web texts via your My Meteor account on www.MyMeteor.ie. You can log in by entering your Meteor phone number and password.

<IF CUSTOMER IS NOT ON ANYTIME CHOICE>

Did you know that we have extended our great new Pre Pay offer, the Anytime Choice tariff plan? Customers can now sign up for this plan until the 31st of January 2009. On this tariff plan you can choose either of the following great promotions:

Free Meteor to Meteor Talk and Text for Life
Or
Free Any Network Texts for Life

With either of these you get great value Anytime and Any Network voice and video calls for only 29c per minute and 12c per sms! As previously mentioned you still get your free 300 web texts and also free voicemail.

If you would like to know more about this great new tariff plan and how to sign up, please see www.meteor.ie or advise us by reply e-mail and we would be happy to provide you with further details.

<IF QUERYING MIN CALL FEE>

The minimum call fee for any call is 9c per minute. A minimum call fee is an amount charged when a voice call connects and equates to a specific amount of talk time on each call. For example, when making a call on the Anytime Choice Call Plan the 9c Minimum call fee is equal to 19 seconds. The amount of talk time is linked to the standard rate on this plan which is 29 c per minute. After this time they call is charged at the standard rate per minute so in real terms once the call goes beyond the time paid for the minimum fee then the call fee has no effect on the cost of the call.

I hope this helps to clarify the new pricing scheme for you however should you have any further questions or queries in relation to this matter please let me know by reply email and I will be more than happy to help you.

Contact us with any further queries on free phone 1905 or info@meteor.ie

Regards,

XXXX XXXX
Customer Care Department
Meteor Mobile Communications
Phone : 1905
Email : info@meteor.ie

but their website says different here https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/

Sam Vimes

i don't remember them ever saying the 9c text rate wouldn't increase. Maybe you're thinking of the "free texts for life" offer?

And it's possible the figures on the website are ex vat. Mine used to be ex vat so maybe your's still are because you're on an old tariff

foggy_lad

the figures on the website are including vat as are last months and i am well aware of the free text terms and conditions and meteor rewards and as far as i remember it was at a time when o2 were increasing their text rates that meteor advertised that theirs would not increase as long as you remained a meteor customer and did not change price plan. this is going back to before mms messaging was introduced by meteor. i thought it wvery odd that the website shows 9cent and my usage shows 9 cent yet i was charged 12 cent. is the other 3 cent being counted for tax etc?

Sam Vimes

foggy_lad wrote: »

the figures on the website are including vat as are last months and i am well aware of the free text terms and conditions and meteor rewards and as far as i remember it was at a time when o2 were increasing their text rates that meteor advertised that theirs would not increase as long as you remained a meteor customer and did not change price plan. this is going back to before mms messaging was introduced by meteor.

possibly they did but i don't remember anything like that. and if they did they must have had some terms and conditions that allowed them to increase the prices under certain circumstances or they wouldn't be doing it now.

foggy_lad wrote: »

i thought it wvery odd that the website shows 9cent and my usage shows 9 cent yet i was charged 12 cent. is the other 3 cent being counted for tax etc?

what do you mean by "counted for tax"?

maybe they just haven't updated the website's cost calculator with the new rates. it would be reading the database as just a number of seconds that the call lasted and then calculating the price before displaying it so they might not have updated that part yet

foggy_lad

Sam Vimes wrote: »

possibly they did but i don't remember anything like that. and if they did they must have had some terms and conditions that allowed them to increase the prices under certain circumstances or they wouldn't be doing it now.

what do you mean by "counted for tax"?

maybe they just haven't updated the website's cost calculator with the new rates. it would be reading the database as just a number of seconds that the call lasted and then calculating the price before displaying it so they might not have updated that part yet

we would hope they had some terms and conditions and are not just pulling a fast one over the christmas.

by counted for tax i mean are they paying tax on 9cent for texts as appears in their price plans and in my call/text history or the 12 cent per text that they reduced my credit by?

they may not have updated the websites cost calculater but the texts i was charged 12 cent for are advertised in their price plans shown in my post above as 9 cent so they have not changed anything with the two original plans but they are still charging extra for the texts!

Sam Vimes

foggy_lad wrote: »

by counted for tax i mean are they paying tax on 9cent for texts as appears in their price plans and in my call/text history or the 12 cent per text that they reduced my credit by?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say meteor are not evading tax on something that they advertised in national newspapers a few weeks ago

foggy_lad wrote: »

they may not have updated the websites cost calculater but the texts i was charged 12 cent for are advertised in their price plans shown in my post above as 9 cent so they have not changed anything with the two original plans but they are still charging extra for the texts!

well it's also possible that a mistake has been made by charging you 12c which will be fixed when they respond to your email. Unless you accused them of trying to pull a fast one over christmas and evade tax in the email? In which case of course any right thinking meteor employee would delete the email and have a laugh about it with his mates at lunch

foggy_lad

whatever way they have obviously made a mistake somewhere along the line and changing the webpage price from 9cent to 12 cent is beyond their capabilities.

foggy_lad

just to update on this, after making an official complaint about the descrepincies in my account meteor are now charging 9cent per message again.

i am sure that the two original plans "anytime" and "leisuretime" are locked at the same call and text price forever as this was advertised by metyeor several years ago when other providers were increasing their costs around the time of the euro changover.

calex71

wow 25c for an international text :eek:
it's only 14c on vodafone to text the uk

Yeah, looks like my days with meteor are numbered. It's the connection fee of 9c that does my head in and if you only have 8c you can't make a call, or send a text. I remember having 4c and calling mates just saying "Call me back!" really quickly

taram

Papa Smut wrote: »

Yeah, looks like my days with meteor are numbered. It's the connection fee of 9c that does my head in and if you only have 8c you can't make a call, or send a text. I remember having 4c and calling mates just saying "Call me back!" really quickly

That my problem too! You can send call me texts, but people never hear them if they're out shopping and such, and I HATE ringing someone, getting their voicemail, but still being charged 9 cent. Using up my credit at an almighty pace here.

bealtine

foggy_lad wrote: »

i always thought from when i became a Meteor customer on the original tariffs that meteor had advertised their 9cent text rate would never increase, does anyone else recall this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/business/28digi.html

SMS costs the carriers close to zero see link...
They must be running short on cash....