Many readers will be aware that I use Twitter. One of the people I follow goes by the Twitter ‘handle’ @VodafoneNZ. This person is, in fact, Paul Brislen. Paul contributes all manner of content, both directly Vodafone related and other stuff. One of the key things he does is help out Vodafone customers wherever he can, which really is pretty cool. Of course, he will also from time to time let followers know about Vodafone offerings, especially new ones.

It was a recent tweet from Paul about some new data plans that sparked a fair amount of discussion about iPhone data use. I contended to Paul that I was paying an ‘early adopter tax’ on my plan for my iPhone because I signed up on day one.  In fact, I was one of the first 50 in the country (I reckon), and certainly the 23rd person in Wellington to get an official iPhone 3G at the July launch last year. Paul initially responded that ‘early adopter tax’ should be expected and gave the example of plasma TVs (I know that, I bought mine a few years too early I think!) You see I think the iPhone handsets are cheaper now – but that’s not my issue.

At the time of launch, the lowest “iPhone plan” was “iPhone 80″.  The “80″ refers to the $80 per month plan charge. Whilst many people at the time moaned about these expensive plans, I defended them. The key thing here was that they were no worse than other Vodafone plans. Which is to say, expensive. The problem was the public wanted Vodafone to use the iPhone launch as a catalyst to lower prices. They didn’t.

After much discussion in the queue about the various plan options I decided that $80 a month was too much. Too high an entry point for me. It was as good a value as you could get, but the entry price was too high. So I went with my existing YouChoose 20 plan, plus TXT100 and added the minimum data plan of 200Mb. This equated to approximately $20 + $6 + $30 = $56. At the time, that was the minimum total plan enabling voice, text and data use on the iPhone.

Shortly after the launch, Vodafone announced the casual data plan which was 10Mb per day for $1 per day. Taking an average 30 day month, there is a theoretical 300Mb for $30 – better value than the plan I was forced to sign up to at the launch. Of course my 200Mb can be used however I like over the month without incurring additional charges, but that isn’t really a value proposition than a possible flexibility issue.

Later, and I’m not sure when, a new iPhone plan hove into view. The iPhone 40 plan offers 20 minutes, 100 TXT and 250Mb of data for $40.  That’s the same voice and TXT allocations as I currently have and 25% more data, all for 28% less cost. That’s significant!

Next I went to the Vodafone site and searched (for quite some time) to see if I could figure out if I could economically transfer to this new plan. I eventually found on the iPhone plan page the fact that I could transfer from YouChoose 20 to any iPhone plan for no charge after 6 months. I’m 9 months into my contract, so yay!

So I went in into the Wellington Vodafone shop (the real one) and asked for confirmation of this because the web site had been a little confusing if you looked at the YouChoose pages. The chap I spoke to seemed confident I was right and was therefore rather mystified when he entered the order and it popped up with a $160 transfer charge!!

This clearly well learned Vodafone employee took a considerable time, and some prompting from me, to discover that whilst I could transfer from YouChoose to iPhone plans for free, to break my minimum data plan was going to cost me the whopping $160 if I switched within the first 12 months (of my 24 month contract).

So to my point.  Because I baulked at the $80 entry fee and went with the cheapest option of $56 I am ineligible to take advantage of the newly introduced $40 plan (that provides more data allocation) without a whacking great cost. Thankfully, if I wait another 3 months, that charge drops to a more palatable $30 at which time I will make the change.

I expect early adopter tax on hardware. I’m unconcerned at the price I paid for the phone and would pay the same again now, but I feel I was railroaded into an expensive plan because I was in on the ground floor. Had I not been so ‘cheap’ at launch, I would be stuck paying $80 anyway.

I understand that hardware is more expensive to produce in the beginning and that it is a real cost that has to be passed on to the buyer. But if Vodafone can sell cheaper minutes, bits and bytes now it’s because they can provide them at a lower actual cost.  If they can provide low cost minutes and bits to a new customer, then they can provide them to ALL customers.  It’s a real-time service, not an expensive bunch of components. I realise the network is being expanded and improved and that must cost real money. But the market sees the service prices being dropped, so clearly you’re not trying to pass that cost onto the customers. In fact, your existing customers are paying for it! We’re subsidising your drive for new customers. If there were a benefit to be had from this either now, or down the line, I might be OK with it, but I’m not seeing any love at all.

There was a time when long time customers were valued customers.  That time appears to have passed. All sorts of new offers are thrown to the market to attract new customers and existing customers get shafted.  Apart from a brief time when I had an employer-provided Vodafone handset, I have been a personal Vodafone user since before they were called Vodafone.  I have experienced what used to be the best and the coolest customer service out there, and I have seen it devolve into something of a farce.

I see signs of the old Vodafone returning, but they have a long way to get back to where they were. I still recommend Vodafone to friends, but no longer because they have great service. Rather because they’re not quite as bad as the competition. (That’s a whole other story!)