Koodo changed plans

[jackie999]

Just noticed a few changes to Koodos plans...the $20/$25 plans used to include 7pm/5pm unlimited evening and weekends but didn't include caller ID and voicemail. New plans include caller ID and voicemail but the $20 plan looses the unlimited evening/weekends and the $25 plan is now 7pm (was 5pm) ...little confusing I know..but if you're a subscriber you may want to trade up/down depending on the features you like.

[ceredon]

Just noticed a few changes to Koodos plans...the $20/$25 plans used to include 7pm/5pm unlimited evening and weekends but didn't include caller ID and voicemail. New plans include caller ID and voicemail but the $20 plan looses the unlimited evening/weekends and the $25 plan is now 7pm (was 5pm) ...little confusing I know..but if you're a subscriber you may want to trade up/down depending on the features you like.

For many people, the basic features to price value is almost the same. Basically, they added $5 to the cost, but also added VM and CID. But if you also want messaging, then you need to the $5 add-on. Effectively, prior to the change, if you wanted VM/CID and messaging, you had to add a $10 VP, so that much is exactly the same.

The big downsides are: some of the plans lost minutes minutes (I think one went from 150 down to 100) and the really biggie is they are now charged per minute instead of per second and the per minutes PPU went up. All combined, it means that with fewer daytime minutes and with time counted by minutes instead of seconds, you are much more likely to exceed you limit and pay PPU rates, which conveniently went up by 12.5%.

For anyone considering the unlimited plan, it would be net effect of no difference (since billing changed don't matter with unlimited). But for anyone with a limited plan that bumps up on their max daytime minutes often, this will create frequent, large overages.

This isn't a great move. Koodo was gaining a reputation as only one of 2 (along with Virgin) of the Big3 family of carriers that was taking it to the newbs, by combining plans with better value than the big 3, unlimited long distance and offering it all on their whole network (as opposed to the chatr and fido zones meant to bring roaming charges within canada). If people think about these changes and what they really mean, they will see it is not a positive for the consumers.

[jackie999]

Thanks for the extra info ceredon. I'd only touched on the surface, combined with your very helpful comments I think people will decide to keep their existing plans. If I were looking for a provider today unfortunately Koodo isn't as attractive as it once was...

[HammerJoe]

Koodo execs must think we are stupid.
Slap a 20-25% price increase and include call display/vm that costs peanuts and bill by minute and then tell us that their plans got better? Good thing im grandfathered otherwise I would dump them faster than you can say idiots.

[hordosr]

thought they billed by the second?

[ceredon]

thought they billed by the second?

They did. Past tense.

All part of today's changes.

[ceredon]

Koodo execs must think we are stupid.
Slap a 20-25% price increase and include call display/vm that costs peanuts and bill by minute and then tell us that their plans got better? Good thing im grandfathered otherwise I would dump them faster than you can say idiots.

Does anyone know if there were recent management changes at koodo? They seemed to be the most progressive of the big 3 lately but this type of move goes right back to their robellus roots.

[Jimboski]

I don't get It, Is this a good or bad change? Lol.

The way I see Is that either way you're losing a couple of key features that way you have to pay more to add them In..?

[jackie999]

I don't get It, Is this a good or bad change? Lol.

The way I see Is that either way you're losing a couple of key features that way you have to pay more to add them In..?

It's bad. I posted over on the howardforums (Koodo section) about the change and posters have added their opinions re other changes I hadn't noticed. I have to agree Koodo is looking bad. Personally I wouldn't be recommending them to anyone as I had in the past...

No more per second billing - this was a major plus with Koodo,
The old $20 plan now costs $25
Plan minutes have lost 1/3 weekday minutes
Go over your minutes and you're paying .45cents a minute now as opposed to .35cents

Percentage wise it's quite a jump in price.

[ceredon]

It's bad. I posted over on the howardforums (Koodo section) about the change and posters have added their opinions re other changes I hadn't noticed. I have to agree Koodo is looking bad. Personally I wouldn't be recommending them to anyone as I had in the past...

No more per second billing - this was a major plus with Koodo,
The old $20 plan now costs $25
Plan minutes have lost 1/3 weekday minutes
Go over your minutes and you're paying .45cents a minute now as opposed to .35cents

Percentage wise it's quite a jump in price.

It's funny, because I was recommending them quite a lot. Their retail plans were better than most retentions plan from Rogers and Fido. But now, not so much. Too bad.

[nicfortin]

Was planning to switch soon (end of contract), now I'm not happy at all. The per second billing was the decision maker for me... Anyone at Koodo can tell me if I go to kiosk with my own phone and beg for old plans are they still available in the system?? Thx

GF switch couples of weeks ago should have done it then and pay cancellation fee! Grrrrrr f**&%$ higher management decision... give us some names heads will roll

[Kurtz7834]

It's never good to see price increases. But Koodo is no contract and the market very much dictates its prices. current customers can cancel at any time and with higher rates, new customers might look elsewhere. If activations decrease and cancellations increase they will be forced to drop rates again.

So vote with your wallets, people.

[dlseeker]

For low voice users Virgin is a good alternative.

If you bring in your own phone for $20.00 you get 100 Canada wide wk day min, unlimited 7PM ev & wk ends, VM, CD, and cheap flexible data from $5.00 per month when you use it.

[nicfortin]

It's never good to see price increases. But Koodo is no contract and the market very much dictates its prices. current customers can cancel at any time and with higher rates, new customers might look elsewhere. If activations decrease and cancellations increase they will be forced to drop rates again.

So vote with your wallets, people.

Well if I had signed 2 days ago I would 1st be happier and 2nd stick with my "waayyyy better (old) plan". Old plans subscribers keep what they have as long as they don't change anything.

[ceredon]

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if Rogers went to their friends at Telus and suggested that they were rocking the boat a little too much. Koodo's plans weren't amazing but they were much better than what Rogers/Fido was offering. This almost seems like a way to make them less competitive. Why else would they make their plans inferior in a 'competitive' market (a very lucrative one)? Rogers, Bell and Telus always acted as though they were in cahoots. Only recently did koodo (and virgin) start to have half way decent plans. Rogers wouldn't like that since they actually raised their prices in the same period. It goes against years of apparent silent agreement not to compete.