The major mobile providers in the country have become less transparent with their customers, a consumer watchdog has found.
Consumer NZ’s yearly assessment in collaboration with the Commerce Commission revealed that Spark, One NZ, and 2degrees all received low scores.
For Consumer NZ product test writer Nick Gelling, the new 2degrees app was less useful than the previous version in displaying data usage.
“Usage data is now only available in a daily view, instead of the monthly view that was previously offered. Spend data also used to be presented as a chart – now it’s just a list of transactions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Spark has discontinued sending the annual ‘Made For You Review’ summaries that detailed customers’ calls, texts, and data usage.
“Last year, we were really stoked about that because it offered a personalised suggestion for each customer to either stay on their current plan or switch to a better one, better suited to their usage. We thought that was great. But that’s gone this year, so it’s a real shame,” Gelling said.
One NZ had made no changes at all.
Although One NZ still provided the most detailed annual summary email, its app only displayed the last two to three months of customer history.
Gelling said they were “unfairly limited to viewing stats by the season.”
“One NZ’s excellent annual summary shows it’s collecting really useful information. We’d like to see that communicated in the customer app, too.”
“Consumers have a right … to know their own usage, their own information, so that they can make good choices.”
“The providers seem to be going backwards on some of this,” he said.
“You deserve to have easy and clear access to that information, too, so you can switch plans or providers to get the best deal for your specific needs.”