Getting an iPad going on 2degrees

I have previously posted on getting an iPad going on the 2degrees network. Essentially I said it was easy.

I have now found that it is not.

It is easy to get going on a casual rate but that costs a fortune. It has proved to be almost impossible to get a iPad going on one of their well priced data plans.

The process seems to rely on you owning an iPhone 4.

The problem is the txt messaging SIM application that is required to buy the data pack. It has no way of receiving a txt. This means you don't get a txt confirming you have bought the pack. It also means you don't receive the txt saying the purchase of the pack failed because the moment you connected the SIM it chews 1cent of the credit meaning you don't have enough credit to buy the pack.

To check that the purchase of the pack is successful, you need to go on their website. However, you can not get a password to the website because the password gets txt to your iPad (and remember it can't receive txt)!!!

You can't get a password through their call centre either.

Basically you are stuffed. You have to buy the card AND more credit.

That doesn't seem such a big deal... If you know about it in advance. You can buy credit via their phone system.

That's if your name isn't Sym... In which case your credit card number is rejected by their system!

My only option is to buy vouchers from a service station... Which is pretty third world. Frankly I'm not sure it is worth the effort.

My current recommendation is to avoid 2degrees for ipads because they don't have their processes sorted.

I also wonder about their customer service. When, after 2 weeks, we finally got to the reason why I couldn't connect (despite regularly chasing them) and established that really their processes were stuffed for iPads, they gave me a $10 credit. This of course prompted me to try to add credit and then expose other faults in their system. A better customer service approach would have been to get me (customer) to the point I was trying to get to. That would have been a good customer experience... Not a poor one like I have had.

I won't be moving my iPhone from Vodafone anytime soon. Vodafone have looked after me well over the years.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad