Type of pricing - what the average consumer rarely draws attention. In the description of any rate, this parameter is present, but more often in the list of footnotes in very small print. Per second, per minute, every second the second minute ... What, in essence, is the difference? If only minute talk was cheap, so these figures are all watching very closely. In fact, the type of pricing is an important parameter which largely determines the cost of a call. And we pay in the end it was a conversation, not specified in the tariff, "minutes". Fans plenty to talk not so little, but most conversations fit into a half or two, at least - three minutes. The average length of call operators prefer not to voice, but a spokesman for Beeline directly a question once had the imprudence to reply: "According to the switches, at least 30-40 seconds." It is clear that 30 seconds - the same average temperature in the hospital, and the statistics greatly distort the numerous fans to communicate free three-second intervals. But even with the "trehsekundnikov" Statistics makes think.
"Do not think of seconds down"
After the first of July (the beginning of the CPP) universal transition to minute rounds in the Moscow license area has become an instrument of compensation for the loss of free incoming calls. And a very effective tool: the customer's eyes is not evident, and performs its task properly. Why are there "in the eyes is not evident, if sometimes the type of pricing generally forget to specify in the description (for example, TA" The Family "Beeline-SPB), and this oversight for many months no one noticed. Long before July 1, Moscow GSM-operators have already had to abandon the tariff plans with fully one-second billing, though in many parts of the "real posekundka" preserved. Some idea of the price issue can be obtained by comparing different versions of the archive of tariffs: a variant with a second charging minute was worth almost half (approximately 44%) higher than at the same rate with posekundkoy the second minute. And the real difference for our wallets certainly exceeds the coefficient of 1.5, or why it was so purposefully produce "second by second" version of the tariff treatment? Waiver of posekundki the second minute and the transition to continually rounding operator brings less money to spare, but still a lot: according to experts, Per minute rate increases the average cost of call by about 20%.In regions where "posekundka" still remained, the transition to larger quanta billing is a great marketing tool. From the perspective of the operator's revenue, per-second rate of 12 cents per minute will bring less profit than the per minute from 8 cents per minute, but which plan the user chooses? As the saying goes, a fortune-teller can not go: a subscriber vote rubles for 8 cents more attractive and ... in the end will give the operator of the most noticeable rubles more.
A good example of marketing games with the type of tariff - tariff "Simply put," the St. Petersburg Beeline. The inscription in large type, "Every second minute - it's free!" it is simply impossible not to notice, "transition costs - $ 0." rendered almost in the first line describing the tariff. Straight-away gift, can not refuse. Besides, why give up when every other minute, just give, without any license fee and connection fee for this service? However, tears of emotion begin to dry out as you read the fine print at the bottom of the description of the tariff. It turns out that when activating the type of tariff changes with one-second in the second minute to minute, ie gift does not look attraction unprecedented generosity. But that's not all."Free" distribution of the second minute stop on Feb. 28, 2007 (another line of small type), but recovered a per-second billing from March 1? In the description of the tariff Automatic reset to the previous type of pricing is not mentioned, Customer Service Department to answer this question is difficult. If after March 1, action will not be extended, and users will remain with the per-minute billing, the present begins to looks like a Trojan horse.
"City Detective
If a young marketing ploy in St.Petersburg "Simply put," you can still understand yourself, then the last sentence in a popular tariff "City" could not even cope subscription service distinguished operator. News of an unusually cheap calls appeared on the site between 12 and 14 November (dated November 7), and promises to you calls to fixed phones for 45 cents from 17 November. Right and write: "The tariff plan is the" City "the cost of calls to PSTN is reduced from 1.50 rubles and 45 kopecks." Fantastic price reduction more than three times? Not at all. Read the fine print: "The price is for 30 seconds of air time." Oh, those marketers that and look ... wait for the announcement of "The new tariff" Super-Duper "absolutely all outgoing calls are free !!!". And the fine print note: "The price is for first 2 seconds of air time." However, much more interesting than the appearance of 30-second intervals billing. The first 30-second interval will be tariffed at 45 kopecks, and how much it will cost you a full minute? Returning to the description of fare - will cost 1.5 rubles. Or is it 90 cents? And how much will it cost the second and subsequent minutes? At the same time would be nice to find out the type rating (in describing the tariffs are forgotten): every second from the second minute, or minute interval to 30 seconds? Unfortunately, even after a lengthy meeting with colleagues Call-center worker was able to confirm for sure only a transition to a 30-second intervals billing (per second was from the second minute). As a result, was born in cautious terms: "Most likely, the first minute will cost you after all 90 kopecks (45 +45) and each subsequent poluminutny interval - from 45 cents. With a 30-second rounding. Information on the 30-second intervals billing might have forgotten to include in the description, and the figure one and a half rubles per minute could remain on the previous version of the tariff. But full confidence in all that I have not. " Take this opportunity to express their sincere apologies to the girls from the contact center, including an advance for future abuse. How could they, the poor, must hate me! With regard to factual information, then someone from our readers in St. Petersburg will agree to pick up the stopwatch and spend ten rubles to the experiments. And we, in turn, pledge to transfer the data to Beeline.Note: We have repeatedly expressed a fair claim: we write, say, about one and on the links given in the text is quite another. Because we possibly try to provide links to those versions of documents, descriptions, etc., that existed at the time of writing material.