iBurst responds to pricing issues
iBurst came under fire from a group of its subscribers after the company did not automatically migrate users to cheaper packages offering higher monthly usage limits. The R 99.00 migration fee, for existing subscribers moving to cheaper packages, has only served to aggravate the situation.
In an attempt to placate their irate customers the company decreased the fee from the usual R 199.00 after the backlash but it does not seem to have done the trick.
In an online poll, 90% of subscribers felt that the migration fee was unjustified, and well known columnist Ivo Vegter called it ‘disgraceful conduct’.
In his ITWeb column Vegter writes: “This is, quite simply, disgraceful conduct. To those customers who are in a position to switch service providers, I'd say switch. Don't even think about requesting the upgrade, or giving in to the extortionate "downgrade" demand. Even if you switch to Telkom, it is a comparative amateur at abusing its customers.”
Vegter not only refers to the migration fee, but also to the automatic 95c per MB charge for subscribers exceeding their monthly threshold.
iBurst responds
iBurst however says that the R 99.00 migration fee is a standard administration fee.
When asked why only customers moving to lower tariff packages are charged this fee, iBurst said that “it wouldn't be fair to charge subscribers who are ultimately choosing to pay higher subscriptions a migration fee.”
The broadband provider also said that its pay-per-use is a standard opt-out on all packages. Here iBurst does not throttle or discontinue an account after the monthly cap is reached but charges customers 95c per MB for out-of-bundle usage.
“Pay-per-use eliminates the restrictions placed on subscribers by throttling and capping once their data quotas have been exhausted. They are simply billed for any additional data used rounded off to the next megabyte,” said iBurst.
“Subscribers also have the option of topping up their bandwidth with Bandwidth Booster once reaching their cap. Subscribers can easily opt-out of the Pay-per-use option when purchasing iBurst, or later by contacting the call centre. The opt out is implemented immediately.”
Some iBurst subscribers feel that migration to lower priced and/or higher usage packages after the iBurst price reductions should have been automatic. But the broadband provider said that the new product range is mainly intended for new customers.
“The range of subscription packages introduced are new packages, and not price changes on the old packages. Being a new product range, they are intended mainly for new customers. However, we are allowing current subscribers to migrate from the old packages to new, should they choose to do so,” iBurst said.
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