Hi,   I was installing a new iiNet router at our local church a couple of months ago, and it came with a SIM card and 4G fallback capability. That was at an identical NBN connection price to what I'm paying TPG.   Our NBN connection was down again today and caused enough annoyance that I realised that a fallback 4G service would be kind of nice to have.    Anyway, I contacted TPG and asked about a 4G fallback router, saying I'd like one if it was available. Nope, we don't have one was the answer. I replied that if other service providers could supply 4G fallback NBN routers, including a TPG group company, why not TPG? The only thing I was offered was a 4G modem, at extra cost, not a 4G fallback router.   TPG have reduced the services available across the group, like email (and web) hosting services, and that's going to cost more once the honeymoon period is over with TMC . Web hosting adds yet more cost, and I've just been informed of a price increase for our NBN intenet connectivity.   Perhaps I'm being naive, but I have had enough business experience to realise that if you're offering an inferior service that costs the same as one from your competitors, you'd better have something special to make up the diference. TPG used to have prompt (low wait times in phone queues) and competent support services, but recent experience indicates that's no longer the case either.   To be honest, if it wasn't for the fact that my primary email account is with TPG/TMC, I'd rprobably be an ex-TPG customer because they have offered me absolutely no other reason to stay on board. They don't appear to care that I've been a loyal customer for well over a decade.   I suppose the TPG executives aren't worried about churn as long as marketting keeps getting new customers on board with the offer of discounted tariffs, but wouldn't it be more profitable to keep the customers paying full price on board? Do they realise that some consumers churn from one provider to another so they can stay on discounted rates?   How about  providing some incentives to existing customers, rather than reducing services and using them as cash cows?   Regards, Rick       ... View more

Hi, Marketing departments talk about churn, namely a customer moving from one service provider to another. The aim of marketing is of course to bring new customers into the fold, but it most often ignores incentives to keep existing customers. So we get the often ridiculous situation of companies spending marketing money and customer numbers being static because as many customers are leaving as are arriving. It's called the leaky bucket.   How do you attract new customers? You offer them special deals, special rates, 6 months at half-price, 1 month free and so on. All stuff that costs TPG money. WHat incentives do you offer  to keep existing customers from leaving? Most times nothing or worse. Leave them on more expensive, outdated plans while new customers pay less for the same services. Only "upgrade" them if they ask.   How is it that highly paid management types don't understand customer relations 101: The general estimate is it costs 5 times more to get a new customer than to retain an existing customer. Unless of course the cost of email services is more than 1/5th of the marketting budget in which case I might be wrong.   It's called mastering retention if anyone cares.   TPG HAD a significant, largely invisible incentive to keep long-standing customers from leaving; included email and web services. Sure it cost something, but it provided a huge incentive to stay with TPG for long-term customers that used TPG's email services for personal email.    Anyway, I will port my email to the messaging company to give me time to change my email address on the 60-odd places (that I have recorded or remebered) including my bank, insurance companies, club memberships vendors and so on. I will not enjoy doing this, but my TPG email isn't safe at TMC.. Read the terms and conditions.   When I've finished doing that I will ask TPG what possible incentive there is for me to remain an existing customer.      ... View more

Hi, Outlook is failing to connect to the TPG mail server. When I tried webmail I got the following message: Database Connection Failed Atmail could not communicate to the database resulting in an error. To continue please check the following: Database username and password are correct Hostname is authorized to connect to the database server The software has been installed correctly and the database schema created Validate your database connection details in the file config/dbconfig.ini The error message returned from the server includes: SQLSTATE[42000] [1203] User atmail already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections This is beyond stupid. I haven't initiated a mail account migration, but it's quite obvious that something is happening between TPG and AtMail right now, that's affecting existing accounts.   I NEED my TPG email. This is intolerable. TPG, Please fix this asap, because I am totally pissed off. Next step is contact the Communication Ombudsman. . ... View more

I've just read the news that Vocus Communications have made a preliminary offer to acquire parts of TPG Telecom's core business. Whether this happens or not is likely to be announced by September 6.   That probably explains the WHY? part of their migrating their email service to TMC and the timing, but I still think it's a move whoever owns TPG Telecom will regret, even if it's not the people who initiated this rather short-sighted and stupid decision the way they are implementing it.   ... View more

I've been on the atmail.com web site and they do a pretty good job of selling their services to companies. The basic message is we'll handle and support your email services for a lower cost than hosting them yourself. That's a decent message, and probably correct because Atmail have got economies of scale. So porting the hosting of TPG email services would probably save TPG money without costing them customers, IF they continued to "subsidize" TPG's customers email services on TMC/Atmail.   Otherwise TPG will lose customers, maybe many customers. ... View more

Hi, I received notification that unless I migrated my email account to The Messaging Company in 5 weeks time, I will lose my TPG email accoount.   TPG have generously offered a honeymon period of 12 months until September 2024 where this will cost me nothing extra. After that I will have to pay a "very competive" but unknown amount to THE Messaging company, in addition to the unchanged amount I pay for the TPG Services that no longer include email.   I note that my wife has a linked TPG email address. SInce other mail service providers charge for each email address, I would then probably have to pay double to keep both addresses active.   Cool. So I'd have to pay more for my TPG email plus TPG RSV services than I would have to pay other RSVs who include email services. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely want to keep my TPG email account BUT there is then no reason to stick with TPG. So if some other RSV offers me an internet or mobile service at a lower price, or with better features that TPG don't offer, what could possibly compell me to stick with TPG?   What will prevent customer mass migrations to other RSVs after September 2024? Where will the profit increase go if you have less customers? This is just rank stupidity. This is a message that needs to be passed to the ignorant management types with MBAs and no industry-relevant experience that make these really rather stupid decisions. ... View more

II've had an interesting experience with the validation process involved in getting a replacement SIM for a friend, which is worth sharing because it uncovers a major flaw in the process. Anyway, the story: I have a good friend that leans on me whenever their are any technology related issues. She went overseas recently, got a local SIM and put her australian SIM in a safe place. When she got back to Australia she had lost the SIM, so I contacted TPG mobile support on her behalf to get a replacement SIM. Everything went fine, we provided the drivers license details etc and were told the SIM would be on the way. Great. A day later I got an SMS message (I'd given my mobile number as a contact) that further validation was needed, with a link to a vodafone ID validation process. (tpgtelecom.com.au, but Vodafone splash screen). I ignored it because we'd done the validation already. Turns out ignoring the SMS text wasn't smart. I rang mobile support today to find out why the SIM hadn't arrived and found out you HAVE to complete  the additional the ID validation process. Okay, I was sent a new SMS text with the validation URL, but when I clicked on it, it wouldn't open on my iPhone 12 (supplied by Vodafone!). So I copied the URL to an email so I could open it on my PC. Found out the link would only work on a mobile device. Luckily my iPad is linked to the iPhone, and when I clicked on the link on the iPad, I got the ID verification page. Once my friend comes over AGAIN, to complete the verification process, we'll hopefully finally get a replacement SIM. Please take note that I had already been told a SIM would be on the way. Was that a communication issue inside TPG support, or is it a victim of the slow integration between TPG and Vodafone? Regardless, if a customer has a damaged SIM and their mobile device obviously doesn't work and if they don't have access to someone else OR their friend's mobile device doesn't open the validation app, what then? They're screwed because TPG haven't thought about that scenario. I'm 100% in favour of enhanced security, but what happens when a customer doesn't have easy access to another device that works? In my case I got my friend an ALDI prepaid SIM so she's got a phone that works while I sort out the TPG process. It's been a bit of a nightmare, particulalrly when I was on hold with Blue Man group music :-( (I quite like them, but over and over and over again?)   ... View more