EFTel Planet Netcom improvements coming during March 2007!
At EFTel, we're always looking for new ways to provide a better service to our customers. For some time now, we've
been working hard to introduce a range of improvements to your account. Now that we're almost ready to implement the
improvements, we're writing to tell you everything you need to know.
Some of the improvements include:
- Major upgrades to our network infrastructure. We pride ourselves on providing industry-leading reliability. These
upgrades will make your EFTel service even more reliable than before, and help us to introduce exciting new features in
the future.
- A new billing system. We've redesigned your bill to make it much easier to understand. Plus, you'll soon be able
to enjoy the convenience of a single bill for all your EFTel accounts, including telephone, Internet and any other
services you may have with us.
- Updated terms and conditions. We've updated our terms and conditions to make them easier to understand. And since
we know you're busy, we've even provided a summary with the main points that you need to know.
We will be introducing these exciting new features on Monday 26th March 2007.
If you pay your account by BPAY, please especially note important information under the heading 'BPAY payments'.
Your settings are not changing
We've taken great care to ensure that your current settings will remain the same. Generally, unless we contact you
separately, there is no need for you to change any of your settings. However, if you do experience any difficulties
after the upgrade, please contact us and we'll be pleased to help you.
Changes to billing
Due to the introduction of the new billing system, there will be a change to when you can expect to receive your bill.
Presently we send your bill approximately 2-3 days after the start of each billing period. When we change over to the
new billing system, you should receive your bills about 2 weeks prior to the due date. There is no change to your
billing period, only the date on which you will receive your bill. Your accounts will be due at the commencement of
each billing period. As you will now receive your bills earlier, you may receive two bills within a short time of each
other. Because the billing period remains the same, you will be paying no more than you are at present.
If you expect your payment to be late, please call us and we'll be happy to discuss payment arrangements with
you.
Credit card payments
If you have elected to pay your account using EFTel Auto-pay, our convenient automatic payment method, this arrangement
will continue as normal. This free service saves your time and effort by ensuring that your account is automatically
paid from your credit card or bank account on the due date. Following the changeover, your credit card or bank
statements will show EFTel as the biller.
Direct deposit payments
Direct bank deposit is not a preferred method of payment. Often we do not receive enough information with these
payments to accurately identify the correct customer. This can result in your account remaining unpaid and access
being restricted unnecessarily. The good news is that from Monday 26th March 2007, we
are introducing a range of new payment methods. We believe that you will find these options much more convenient:
- automatic direct debit from most savings or cheque accounts (contact accounts on 1300 550 550 for
more information).
- automatic credit card payment (Visit My Account or contact accounts on 1300 550 550 for more
information)
- BPAY using telephone banking or Internet banking
- cash, cheque or EFTPOS at any Australia Post outlet (you must take your postal invoice with you)
- credit card via My Account. Just visit and
follow the My
Account link
- credit card over the telephone - just call 1300 550 550 for personal service. We accept Visa,
MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club cards.
Important changes to BPAY payments
If you currently pay your Planet Netcom account by BPAY, you will need to change the biller code and customer reference
number that you use for any payments after 26th March 2007. For technical reasons, if you use
your old Planet Netcom biller code and customer reference number after 26th March 2007, there may
be a considerable delay in payment reaching your account.
What you need to do
If you are paying a Planet Netcom invoice (one with the Planet Netcomm logo at the top), use the biller code and
customer reference number printed on the invoice if you are making payment up to . For all
BPAY payments from , you must use your new EFTel biller code and customer reference
number.
The new biller code and customer reference number will appear on all invoices issued from the new billing system.
These invoices will have an EFTel logo at the top of the page, instead of the Planet Netcom logo. We will also email
your new BPAY details soon after the conversion to the new billing system is complete. This will enable you to pay any
outstanding invoices. You will also be able to check the amount outstanding on your account, make an online payment,
or obtain your BPAY biller code and customer reference by logging on to My Account.
Tip: If you have the Planet Netcom BPAY details saved in your Internet Banking
BPAY payee list, don't forget
to update the details there as well.
Email
As part of the upgrade process, mail which is in your mailbox prior to the integration will be transferred over to the
EFTel servers. Due to the substantial quantity of mail that will need to be migrated, there may be a delay in making
this old mail available. We expect all email to be transferred within 48 hours. No email will be lost during this
transition period. New email will appear as normal. Sending of email will not be affected.
Domains
We will be migrating client websites to new high performance servers during the changeover. We don't anticipate any
issues, but if you have a website, please ensure that you make a complete backup of your site prior to commencement of
the changeover. During the transitional period FTP/upload access to your domain will be disabled. This is to ensure
that the data that we migrate to our servers is the most recent copy of your site. Once the migration is complete,
FTP/upload access will be enabled again. You should also check your website immediately after the changeover to ensure
that it is still operating correctly. Please call us if you experience any difficulties that you think may be
attributable to the migration.
Planet Netcom website - www.pnc.com.au
The Planet Netcom customer self service pages will be withdrawn prior to the commencement of the upgrade for the
duration of the changeover. We expect this to take a maximum of 72 hours. A notice to this effect will be placed on
the PNC website. During this time you will not be able to access the Member's portal.
Once the upgrade is complete, you should visit . There you
will find self-help information, and full details of our range of Internet services.
My Account
Following the upgrade, you can use EFTel's customer self service portal, My Account (the old PNC Members portal will
redirect you here) to:
- Find out more about what is included in your EFTel plan, and how much it costs
- Check your usage statistics
- View past charges and payments
- Pay your account or change your payment method
- Change your password
- Send secure messages to EFTel
- Send SMS messages (if you currently have this service with PNC)
To access these facilities visit . You can
enter
My Account from any page on our website by entering your full EFTel/Planet Netcom email address and
password at the top right of any page.
Webmail
Webmail is a free service that you can use to check your email using a web browser. This is especially handy when you
are travelling away from home or at work. To access webmail visit webmail.pnc.com.au. When you log on to webmail,
please use your full email address, and your current password. Webmail will operate as normal during the
changeover.
SMS
If you currently use our SMS service via , this
will now be available from EFTel's My Account site. Once the changeover is complete, visiting isms.pnc.com.au will redirect
you to My Account, where you will need to login with the username and password of the account to which your SMS
services are attached.
Changes to Terms and Conditions
As we mentioned earlier, we've rewritten our standard Terms and Conditions of Service in a new plain-English format
that is much easier to understand. The new version is called our Standard Form of Agreement. We have also simplified
the Acceptable Use Policy. Both will apply to your account from .
While we recommend that you read the new Standard Form of Agreement, we do understand that you're probably very busy
and may not get around to it. To save your time we've prepared a summary, which doesn't cover everything in the
Standard Form of Agreement, but does mention the most important points. You can always find the current version of the
Standard Form of Agreement, the summary, and the Acceptable Use Policy on our website. Just visit and follow the "terms and conditions" link.
Should you have any queries about these changes, please call our helpdesk on 1300 550 550 or email
.
Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to providing you with an improved service.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Rolfe
Network Business Manager