THE FUTURE IS FRIENDLY: Vacation Disconnect service to be discontinued

[kamp_krusty]

This is effective July 12th by the way -- I searched to see if this had been mentioned already, and I didn't see it. If it has, I am sorry.

Before, we had the option of so-called "Vacation mode". It was good in some scenarios (leaving the country for several months while in a contract, and don't want to pay at least $25 or so each month while gone) but bad for other reasons (requires changing away from your plan, which runs the risk of losing it if its no longer available when you return -- plus it extended your contract)

...but not anymore!

A paraphrasing of their solution is: 'if you're leaving, we can now offer you to switch to our lowest in-market price plan ($20/month) and that way you'll still have call services like voicemail, plus your contract won't pause.'

Other notes:
- This shouldn't affect anyone who is already on vacation disconnect

- This is consumer (PCS) only. MiKE, business, and corporate remains the same

- Leaving for military reasons will still allow extended Vacation Disconnect (also, a former Client Care employee told me that VAC Disconnect was discounted as a monthly recurring credit for military to make it $0/month -- I doubt this will change, although I can't say for sure)

Reason for change according to article: "To align with competitors and industry standards."

[mottivi]

I thought this was stupid and I'll tell you why.

This only confused people, as they believed several things when being put on VAC Disconnect such as:
1. They can go back to their plan even if it was discontinued or grandfathered in the time they were on VAC.
2. That it ate their contract
3. That they claim "this is not what I was told" as they ***** to Loyalty about items 1 and 2 above.

I hate to take TELUS' anti-future-friendly side, but this one makes complete and fair sense to me. You want a phone? Get one.

You want to travel? Take it with you.

You want to sign contracts? Ride them out, don't pause.

As for the Military thing? I have no comment, clearly men and women serving our country are certainly entitled to some extra perks once in a while.

[crumbworks]

^ to the above.

1. The best thing for a rep to do is write in their notes that the person is aware of the risk of possibly losing their plan.
2. Same as above -- write they were advised of the contract extension
3. I believe customer service reps have the ability to add special notes that are the first thing that pop up when someone calls in. If that's true, then that seems good enough as "proof".

However, when all is said and done, I agree with you. From everything I have read about Vacation mode, it sounds like an overly complicated process. Never needed it myself, as I don't even leave my town much let alone the country.

Oh, but I don't like Telus' reason for getting rid of it (align with competitors? that's what they always say!)

However, as an amendment, I think there should be a cheap option to stop service if your contract is done, like for maybe 4 or 5 months max.... other than cancelling and resuming service altogether.

Also, I agree with both above posters about the military thing. If you need to leave to serve your country, you should be able to cancel the contract without a penalty. It's the least a big company can do to support the troops.

[libyyc]

I thought this was stupid and I'll tell you why.

This only confused people, as they believed several things when being put on VAC Disconnect such as:
1. They can go back to their plan even if it was discontinued or grandfathered in the time they were on VAC.
2. That it ate their contract
3. That they claim "this is not what I was told" as they ***** to Loyalty about items 1 and 2 above.

After I came back from a vacation disconnect a couple of years ago I called in threatening to cancel and buy out my contract if they didn't give me my grandfathered plan back and they did it without even hesitating! "No problem, we can do that right now for you, sir" is pretty much what the phone rep said, hahaha.

[Que_Ball]

You were lucky then.

There are 2 categories of expired features and plans. In one case the codes are completely removed from the activation systems and even if they wanted to restore the plan or feature they could not do it.

So your plan must have still been listed in the activation database for you to get it back. If any part of your plan or features had been deleted you would not have gotten that portion back.

[fooledme]

^ to the above.

1. The best thing for a rep to do is write in their notes that the person is aware of the risk of possibly losing their plan.

Reps have to check off a box that says something like "client is aware of contract extension and maximum 6 months use." Doesn't stop people from claiming they were never told. You get a crap load of information given to you when dealing with reps, it's not surprising people forget and are too lazy to write things down and instead just claim they were never told.

Oh, but I don't like Telus' reason for getting rid of it (align with competitors? that's what they always say!)

Their "positioning" on it is that GSM/HSPA works overseas, so people can take their phones with them, so the vacation disconnect thing is not needed.

But yeah, everything Telus does is to "align with competitors" to keep the oligopoly in place.

[crumbworks]

You get a crap load of information given to you when dealing with reps, it's not surprising people forget and are too lazy to write things down and instead just claim they were never told.

Yeah, but a rep that is doing their job should write it in their notes. Then the rep restoring service should see that, and if its there, should just say "I don't care if you don't remember... we told you."

All in all, it caused a lot more issues than it prevented.

[Kardall]

I always explain to the customers:

1) Your contract will be paused, and it will extent the term for as long as it is on vacation disconnect
2) If you choose the vacation disconnect plan, you will lose your plan and any promotional features
3) If your plan is currently available, but when you come back in 6 months it is no longer available, then you will still not be able to get your previous plan.

In Addendum, the other motivation is because of the hspa devices ability to do international roaming a lot easier/efficiently than CDMA. Way more coverage, and it's a lot cheaper than it used to be. Now, not saying it's cheaper than getting a phone over seas and using it while you're gone, but you would have to take into account your own bill you're paying on top of the price of the phone you are using over seas for that period of time. It probably works out to be about the same as if you took your own phone.

$1.25/min. for Australia phone calls, really isn't that bad if it's emergency usage. Honestly, it really isn't that bad. You're going to spend how much on a phone anyway, and some kind of pay and talk program over there anyway... You're probably going to spend $100. That's 80 minutes of talk time with your phone over seas, no hassles with sign-ups, just get off the plane and enjoy vacation time.

Anyway, tornado warnings in effect, i'm closing shop now... cya after the long weekend

[AahH]

As for the Military thing? I have no comment, clearly men and women serving our country are certainly entitled to some extra perks once in a while.

Free feature for the military?

What they deserve is a leader with a backbone and not a pansy boy.. also how about some Halo Suits and plasma guns to further Canada's initiative for World Domination... oops I said too much...


wow!