Quantitative research report
Amount spent on highest unexpected bill
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- Phone usage
- Level of contract understanding
- Most difficult aspects of the contract to understand
Amount spent on highest unexpected billThe mean amount of the highest unexpected bill for post-paid 3G bill-payers from fixed-line households is $230, compared to an average monthly bill of $56. Figure 21 shows that 66 per cent of these customers have spent up to $200 on their highest unexpected bill. The trend for bill-payers using 3G features is to generally spend more money on their highest unexpected bill—48 per cent have spent between $200 and $700 on this bill compared to 30 per cent of those from a fixed-line household. Among adult bill-payers, 30 per cent spent between $200 and $700 on their bill, compared to 21 per cent of parent bill-payers. It should be emphasised that the findings for parent bill-payers are based on a very small sample and therefore should be treated with some caution.
Phone usageOverall, bill-payers who received an unexpectedly high bill were more likely to have used the internet than those who did not receive an unexpectedly high bill. This corresponds with earlier findings indicating that 3G feature users were slightly more likely to experience an expectedly high bill than non-3G users. However, despite this trend, 3G feature users are more likely to experience bill shock from phone calls and other tools than from using 3G features.
Level of contract understandingIn March 2010, the TIO reported that 15.19 per cent of mobile complaints related to contracts.2 This has steadily increased every quarter for the past year. Chapter 5 reports that, while 3G bill-payers reported a good general level of understanding of their contract, some aspects were less understood, including excess usage and data usage charges. This section examines the extent to which consumers’ level of understanding of different aspects of their contract varied according to different billing experiences. Chapter 4 established that the majority of bill-payers have a good general understanding of their contract, and there was very little variation between those who received an unexpectedly high bill and those who did not. The level of understanding of specific aspects of the contract in relation to billing experiences is examined in the following sections. Most difficult aspects of the contract to understandBill-payers from fixed-line households who have received an unexpectedly high bill or run out of credit sooner than expected with their current phone are more likely to have difficulty understanding certain aspects of their contract than bill-payers who have not experienced these circumstances (Figure 23).
Case study—messaging/SMS-related bill shock The following case study illustrates the experience of one consumer who received an unexpectedly high bill due to SMS use. It is based on qualitative interviews undertaken with 3G bill-payers on 6 and 7 May 2010. Joanne* lives in regional Australia with her husband and 18-year-old son Tom*. Joanne has been with the same telecommunications provider for as long as she can remember, as she believes it provides the best mobile coverage. Recently, Joanne moved onto a home phone, internet and mobile bundle to get ‘all these goodies off’. She also likes the simplicity of having all of her telecommunications services on one bill. Joanne pays Tom’s mobile bill, so he is also with the same provider. Tom is on a $79 cap, which includes $540 worth of calls. His phone bill had been as expected for a number of months but then a bill arrived for $270: ‘Tom’s bill had been fine, within the cap, then this one came right out of the blue.’ Joanne had been keeping a close eye on Tom’s monthly usage and, at usually less than $300, it was well under the included value of the cap, so she was certainly not expecting a bill of this size. Joanne went into her local service provider’s shop to find out why the bill was so high and was told that the $79 cap did not include text messages, something that was not explained to Joanne at the time she signed up. Joanne acknowledges that Tom had been ‘sending a fair few texts’ that month, but was not happy about the bill amount. Joanne had read her contract when signing up, but admits that she didn’t read all of the fine print. As she had been with her provider for a long time, Joanne felt comfortable with the explanation provided by the sales assistant and didn’t feel the need to go through the contract in great detail, but realises ‘if I had read the fine print I might have learned that’. As a result of this bill, Joanne has switched Tom’s mobile over to a different service provider, as that provider’s $79 cap includes text messages, ‘it includes anything and everything’. Joanne admits that, as a result of the previous bill shock experience, both she and Tom were far more aware of the possible limitations of the new cap and knew what questions to ask. Since switching to this new cap, both of Tom’s bills have been as expected. *name changed Directory: media media -> Applications to Drill media -> Unicef voices of Youth Chat Theme: Children and aids nigeria and Zimbabwe 13 October 2006 Background media -> Tsunami Terror Alert: Voices of Youth media -> Biblical Eschatology Presentation by: D. Paul Beck May 4, 2016 Ground Rules media -> Guide to completing the collection using the Omnibus system media -> The milk carton kids media -> Events Date and Location media -> The Gilded Age: The First Generation of Historians by H. Wayne Morgan University of Oklahoma, April 18, 1997 media -> Analysis of Law in the United Kingdom pertaining to Cross-Border Disaster Relief Prepared by: For the 30 June 2010 Foreword media -> Cuba fieldcourse 2010 Download 498.14 Kb. Share with your friends:
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igure 21 Range of amounts spent by post-paid bill-payers on unexpectedly high bills (%)
