Pacnet's tollplus plan (First created on Feburary 1999)

    I really cannot believe that this plan is convincing to anyone, that it actually beats Singnet's own plan. As economic undergraduates and graduates, one essential truth we have learned is that a cash-transfer always results in a higher utility to consumers as compared to a goods voucher (Public Finance course J). You know what Pacnet thinks? They give us a scheme where we can redeem our surfing hours for Takashimaya's vouchers and they claim this beats Singnet's toll-free plan, where Singnet offset the phone bill cost through reduction of the Internet charges?

    This must really be the greatest insult any firm can actually throw at their customers. I can understand if you just admit that it is very difficult to match Singnet in this, which you have already said, since both Singtel and Singnet are basically the same firm. If you promise us cheaper surfing rates, provide other kinds of extra services and things like that, we might be sympathetic to your cause. Certainly we are made to look like fools now, having to tolerate a better offer from Singnet for about two months, sincerely believing that Pacnet would provide us with a better deal. Now that it has insulted our intelligence and patience with a plan like this, I think it is time to finally call it quits with Pacnet. I will not be switching over to Singnet though, since I have had a NUS account for sometime already. It is more to make a stand that such treatment of customers will not be tolerated.

PS: I have emailed this comment to Pacific Internet through their website. Stay tune for their response, if they do J .

Here is the reply from Pacnet. They are quite fast, replying the very same day I send it out. Must be many people complaining J .

Dear Kelvin,

Many thanks for your feedback and your support for Pacific Internet. While we appreciate your comments, we urge you to take a closer look at the toll savings scheme. To begin with, our offer at 45 cents per hour is 7% premium BONUS above our competitor's 42 cents per hour. And considering the fact that off-peak periods (i.e. 6pm to 8.30am and weekends) are more popular surfing hours time for most subscribers who are working during the daytime, a quick mental sum will show you that total savings accrued are substantially more significant than our competitors!

And yes, rest assured no effort was spared when we search for vendors to work with. We have taken into consideration convenience, locality, a one-stop centre with an extensive range of goods from necessities to lifestyle. Cold Storage and Best Denki in Takashimaya more than provide the full range of groceries and household goods that meet the daily needs of subscribers. Takashimaya department store has a fashion range to suit both the young, trendy and the established.


We would like to reiterate that subscribers will be receiving Cash Vouchers and not discount vouchers as some may have mistaken they to be. Therefore, you are receiving a Cash Voucher which you can use it to purchase anything of equal value from Takashimaya, Cold Storage and Best Denki. In short, the voucher is as good as cash.


There you are, TollPlus is a savings programme that is more than meets the eye. Try it and discover the real savings. At the end of the day, this is the only toll savings plan that allows you to translate your savings into real tangible goods of your choice.

And thanks for mentioning "extra services" in your email, because we can't wait to tell you the full range of customer benefit programmes we have for valued subscribers like yourself to enjoy. Just to recap, we have:

TimePlus

This programme enables all Pacific Internet subscribers to carry forward unused Internet access time to the following month.

<The rest of the offers are snipped to save space J >

Need we say more? All we can say is stay as the list of benefits will certainly grow in time to come...and hopefully grow on you as well!

With Best Regards,
Pacific Internet

     Very interesting for them to regard their toll-plus plan as the only plan that "translate your savings into real tangible goods of your choice." Pacific Internet does not seem to get my point. Perhaps any one of you who take Public Finance should work in their PR section J .

    The issue here is the difference between cash savings and savings in terms of a voucher. Pacnet is correct when they say that, based on current phone charges of 0.7 cents a minute for off peak periods, a Singnet subscriber would only save $0.42 an hour compared to what they are offering us, that is $0.45. The main difference is that the former is cash savings while the latter is a voucher. They then claim that "In short, the voucher is as good as cash". There are clearly two main objections to that.

    Firstly, and amusingly, Pacific Internet seems to be telling us that cash savings in our pockets do not allow us to "translate our savings into real tangible goods of our choice." J . I never realised that a voucher that redeems goods is better than cash, which is legal tender, in our pockets J. Someone from EC3206 should draw the indifference curves diagram to show them the difference? Or one of you from Money and Banking should explain to them the meaning of legal tender?

    Secondly, I fail to see the point how their deal/tie-up with Takashimaya benefits us more than cash savings, even if I grant them the ignorance of the first objection above. Cold Storage? The prices that they charge for groceries there are surely higher than NTUC Fairprice. Other shops they described in Takashimaya all have to face higher rents, being located in Orchard Road. Surely the prices they charged for whatever goods in there would be higher than what we, with our "cash savings" from Singnet, can get by choosing other shops.

    Certainly, I disagree with them about their voucher being as good as cash. As I said earlier, they not matching Singnet's offer do not annoy me. If I am concerned about the higher cost, I would just leave Pacnet and they only need to lose a single customer. I am annoyed that they gave us the impression that they will beat Singnet's plan, and then come out with this kind of plan and expect all of us to believe that it indeed beats Singnet when it clearly does not. What kind of intelligence do they attribute to their customers? They earned a large amount of profit earlier by charging unlimited users $100 a month, which is much higher than what the ISPs in the US charges, indicating monopoly pricing. They could at least propose to lower our subscription charges or give us more hours. Another objection is that their so call timeplus plan was already offered by Singnet months before they do. Instead of apologising to us for delaying their own introduction of this plan, Pacnet claim that these are the extra services to us for sticking with them J .

    In short, what I feel should be done is to apologise to us for this apparent complacency in their customer-oriented service. In fact I would speculate that, ever since they won the best ISP award in Singapore years ago, they have since slackened and allow Singnet to overtake them. If Pacnet keeps on being ignorant about their customers' feelings, and come up with plans like these, it will not be long before many of us leave Pacnet.

Any of you readers want to add anything or to object to what I am saying here, feel free to email me at [email protected] and I will put it up here in this section. I really encourage you to do that.