Quantitative research report
Understanding phone inclusions and usage charges
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- Understanding data allowance and excess data usage charges
Understanding phone inclusions and usage chargesMore than half of the bill-payers who experienced an unexpectedly high bill did so because of voice calls, while another 22 per cent did so due to SMS. Figure 24 shows that these bill-payers are slightly less confident in their understanding of what voice calls and SMS allowances their plan includes than those who have not received an unexpectedly high bill on their current plan. Bill-payers who have not received an unexpectedly high bill (81 per cent) are at least somewhat confident in their understanding of usage charges, compared to only 70 per cent who have received an unexpectedly high bill. There is very little difference in confidence levels among prepaid customers, regardless of whether they have unexpectedly run out of credit.
Post-paid bill-payers who have received an unexpectedly high bill on their current plan have low confidence in understanding excess usage charges, with 48 per cent in this group. This is significantly more than the 38 per cent with low confidence who have not received an unexpectedly high bill on their current plan.
Understanding data allowance and excess data usage chargesPrevious analyses identified that there was a relatively low level of understanding of excess data usage charges among 3G feature users. This section examines whether the level of confidence varies according to billing experiences. Among post-paid bill-payers who use 3G features, the level of understanding of excess data usage charges is lower for those who have received an unexpectedly high bill on their current plan, with 53 per cent either not very confident or not at all confident. For those who have not received an unexpectedly high bill on their current plan, the level of low confidence is 43 per cent (Figure 26). There were no significant differences in the understanding of data usage allowance between 3G feature users who received an unexpectedly high bill and those who did not.
Case study—Sarah’s bill shock experience The following case study highlights the experience of a 3G bill-payer who received an unexpectedly high bill. It is obtained from qualitative interviews undertaken with consumers on 6 and 7 May 2010. Sarah* is a recent switcher, having changed service providers for better reception three months ago and upgrading to an iPhone on a $99 plan. She is generally happy with the phone but is less impressed with how much it is costing her. She is wary of unexpectedly large bills: ‘I’m a single mum with children in private schools so I’m really aware of my budget.’ Sarah’s bill shock experience was with her first bill from her previous service provider: ‘It was 500 and something, $517. It’s meant to be a $99 cap and I’ve gone “Ahh you’re kidding me.’” This was a significant shock and she was ‘mortified’ as she expected the same $99 bill she usually receives. Believing that she did not make more calls than usual, she was confused about how the bill could be so high: ‘… to me, I haven’t used my phone any differently to the way I had been using it for the last contract.’ She was particularly surprised by her internet usage, which had not been a consideration previously: ‘…it’s the games, the kids have been on the phone and downloaded those games. I didn’t think about it, didn’t even think about applications, internet, any of that.’ Her service provider then informed her that to have these included in the plan she would need to pay an additional $10 a month, but this was not explained to her initially. She is still cautious about internet usage on her phone. In terms of contract information provided over the telephone, Sarah was given only general advice: ‘Basically, they said it’s what you’ve been using now, what you’ve been doing.’ She was told that this plan would be the best one for her, given that she was generally staying within her $99 cap. After receiving the bill, Sarah called and enquired about the bill and was able to get it reduced: ‘They did reduce it in the end, down to $409. Because they said, you know, I’ve got to take some responsibility.’ Even after making the call, Sarah does not understand what went wrong with this bill. Due to the size of the bill, Sarah was not able to pay it on the due date. She informed her service provider of this and arranged a new date for payment. She was further annoyed that, when she paid on the agreed date, she was still charged a $15 late fee that she was not informed about: ‘They’ve charged me this $15 overdue fee, even though we had an agreement on what day it would be paid.’ This experience has affected Sarah, who is nervous about the same thing happening again: ‘Every time now, I’m really paranoid about getting one of these big bills, because I didn’t use my phone any differently’. A key concern is that she does not understand how internet usage is measured and what a megabyte means in terms of usage: ‘I don’t know how much access that actually really allows us.’ As a result, she plans to use the service providers’ website to set up a tool that allows her to check her spending throughout the month, but has not done this yet. Sarah is now less trusting of using the telephone to sign up to mobile plans: ‘I’ll never, ever buy a phone over the phone again.’ She believes that a lot more information is provided when you go in-store and the use of visual material is helpful. *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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Denotes significantly different at the 95% confidence level, comparison between bill-payers who have received an unexpectedly high bill on current plan and bill-payers who have not received an unexpectedly high bill on current plan.
