2017-09-04

Moving on...

The review of A&A tariffs is going well.

We have list of changes we can make that are not controversial or a big issue to do, and some are not dependant on something else. Sadly some are, and that means a delay in announcing them. I expect to have this all sorted by end of next month.

We have increased the standard non terabyte Home::1/SoHo::1 tariffs by 50GB (somehow I got sweet and sour sauce on my keyboard whilst typing that)... This is a change we have been planning for some time.

Even that hit a slight snag - previously we had 150GB, 250GB, and 350GB, now moved to 200GB, 300GB, and 400GB. But, unknown to many people we had a couple of "secret" tariffs, including one at 200GB, which was priced between 150GB and 250GB. And a customer on that asked what was happening...

Fortunately it is all sorted out now, but basically he stays on 200GB at a lower price, the old 150GB rate, so good news. But he was asking now for 250GB? The answer is simple - if usage justifies 250GB, then that would be the cost of the previous 250GB tariff and we are happy to do that for him but give him an extra 50GB making 300GB for that price now. Either he needs 50GB a month more or not. If so, he actually gets 100GB more for what he expected to pay for 50GB more, or not, and he gets the same 200GB for less money. Simples. A couple of interim low level "secret" tariffs have now gone, as that makes it a lot simpler for everyone.

I only mention it to try and explain how even the simplest of changes can be more complex than you realise.

However, the good news is some changes, partly inspired by the blog feedback, for which I have set up a page to track them...

http://aa.net.uk/news-2017-tariffs.html

As you can see, one change is for top-up not to expire. We have coded the change and all looks well to do a final live test on someone on lunar billing in two days. If it as expected we update the web site and officially launch that change...

The other one you will see, which I have not started on yet, is allowing tariff increases to be applied immediately, mid-month, for a pro-rata charge. This will provide an alternative to top-ups, increasing tariff right away when you realise you have higher usage. The logic is simple, pay an extra amount for remainder of the month and get an extra quota for the remainder of the month. You can still do it "on next bill" as now if you prefer.

I hope both of these are welcome changes, and we have a long list of other ideas we are working on. My plan is to roll these out as soon as we can and update that web page with details (as well as the main web site, obviously).

Thanks again for all the feedback.

P.S. Full moon happened, and code on live system did not work as expected (top up vanished), so back to testing. Looks like may be some other place in the "system" that zaps it. Humph. P.P.S. working now, so next step is updating web site.

13 comments:

  1. That's brilliant news on the topups, much appreciated, thankyou Adrian.

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  2. Don't feel pushed into things you honestly can't sustain or really can't justify or just feel uneasy about. I gave you a long list of "wishes" but keep your core values at the fore.

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  3. Why do you have secret plans?
    What else is secret at A&A?

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    Replies
    1. Well I never liked them, just that at some point in history we decided to be a bit flexible.

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  4. I have to say your simple description of what is happening to the person on the 200GiB tariff made my head hurt. Maybe there *is* an IQ test for A&A, and I fail it! :)

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    Replies
    1. Sorry. I maybe could have worded it better. It comes down to whethe he needs 200GB or has an increased need for 250GB. Either way the tariff change is good (one way cheaper and the other is more for same money).

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  5. I really appreciate the openness here - especially on the implementation side of changes in http://aa.net.uk/news-2017-tariffs.html. It makes it clear that you're working on things, and gives a sense of when to expect you to get it done - rather than three months of silence then a big announcement all at once.

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  6. Now that BTW have released pricing on their GFAST product (and I'm sure Talktalk and others will soon too) is a 160Mbps GFAST product something to consider as part of the new tariffs? I know 330Mbps is a little too risky when links to the individual LNSs are still only 1Gbps or 2Gbps LACP but presumably a 160Mbps product would be acceptable?

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    Replies
    1. I'd go for 160/30 G.Fast unless the pricing is ridiculous. Personally I'd go for it capped at 80/30.

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    2. I agree an option for a faster upload speed with the same max download speed would be nice, particularly for off-site backups, and would be a unique selling point.

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  7. I think I would only ever have bought one top up if it never expired. It's not relevant now, I've not topped up since the tariff went up to 150GB.

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