According to a new post at the Telstra Exchange blog, Michael Ackland, who is Telstra’s Group Executive of the Consumer and Small Business division, Telstra wants you to have “the best”.
Ackland says that’s why Telstra offers “Australia’s best network, backed up by the best devices and the best loyalty program”.
He continues, stating that Telstra wants to make sure “you get all that for the best price, too”, which is why Telstra is making “a price promise” called the “7-Day Price Match”.
Now, whether this is a perfect match or not is something Greg Evans might know something about, but Telstra says it wants to “make the gifting season more affordable than ever”, which Ackland says is “why we’re putting our money where our mouths are”, which does sound pretty perfect to me.
After all, Telcos experience churn to them and away from them, and the best that Optus and Vodafone can do, with smaller networks than Telstra has, is to one-up Telstra by offering larger download limits at lower prices.
An example I saw yesterday was a poster advertising Optus selling a 500GB plan for $65 per month, while I note that Vodafone currently sells its 500GB plan for $55 - and offers you endless data after that half a terabyte is used up, but at 10Mbps “speed capped” speeds, which is pretty impressive.
It’s well known and widely acknowledged that Telstra unquestionably has the best network coverage across Australia, with the fastest speeds, so one way that Telstra can fight back is with its 7-Day Price Match.
Ackland says it’s simple to understand: “if you find a better price from an Australian retailer on a huge range of post-paid phones within 7 days of receipt of the phone, we’ll credit your bill.
“We not only go further than our competitors on our network, but also on our price match promise. Instead of having to go in-store to claim your price promise credit, we’ll let you submit the claim online by showing us a similar deal or just sending a photo of a catalogue, etc.
“And you can claim on phones both purchased outright from us or on a phone payment plan.
“With a comprehensive 7-Day Price Match, you can shop with confidence with us. Plus, we have more ways than ever to purchase the latest phones. You can purchase a device outright, pay it off over 12- or-24 months, or even trade in an old phone for credit towards a new device.
“Plus, you can connect your new phone to one of our truly flexible month to month plans, with no excess data charges”, continued Ackland.
He also made sure to mention Telstra’s rewards program called Telstra Plus, which I recently used to chip $200 off the price of the Apple Watch Series 6 that I purchased from Telstra, over a 12 month period.
I had earned enough points since the reward program’s introduction to do that, and I was very happy to be able to spend my points this way - it’s certainly better value than I’ve received from other rewards programs, that’s for sure.
Anyway, Ackland expands on this further, stating that “the rewards don’t stop, either”, as he notes that “as a customer, you can join our rewards program, Telstra Plus”.
He states that “the Telstra Plus rewards program gives you benefits just for paying your bill, with access to cheap tickets for movies and other events, access to a redemption store where you can spend your points on the latest devices, and more”.
So, Ackland concludes by stating: “It’s all about making sure you get the best value on Australia’s best network, so you can have a great festive gifting season”.
Now, as per usual, there are some terms and conditions, the biggest of which is that Telstra “will not match with online only retailers or clearance items, and there are limits to the number of phones per customer we will match the price for”.
Other common-sense examples where a “lower price is ineligible” is if the offer is:
- for secondhand or refurbished devices
- for products with pricing set significantly lower than the RRP or Market Value
- for clearance, liquidation, auction/warehouse or likewise sale items
- inclusive of cashback, coupon offers or gift cards
- for commercial quantities
- from an online only retailer
- from an international retailer
- on Gumtree, Facebook or any other grey market channel
- a corporate benefit price
- priced incorrectly
You can find the full terms and conditions at the 7-Day Price Match page, just scroll down to the "lower price is ineligible" section, after which you'll see a link to the full terms and conditions.
So, Telstra hopes you’ll buy a new device from the company with confidence, and given there are likely to be some great deals over the next three or four weeks leading up to Christmas, Telstra may well have to make good on its price matching promise!
