24 month contract vs 30day notice contract

[ic]

Considering I-Go Everywhere on a 30 day notice contract and buying the UTD for R2800?

I decided to go with the 24 month contract, this is why:

1/I don't have R2800 lying around right now for the UTD
(especially since i've taken it out for my home office as opposed to one of the companies i work for).

2/After what happened with sucktech, i'm hoping that it will be easier for people to cancel out of the 24 month contract if they need to. Of course I could be completely wrong, in which case I might've shot myself in the foot and just don't realise it yet.

3/I calculated that once you factor in the cost of the UTD on the 30day notice contract and compare the cost over the same number of months to a UTD 'free' on a 24month contract, the 30day notice contract is R40 more expensive per month, and over 24-4=20 months that's R800 more expensive. This should not come as a surprise tho, wbs would benefit more from people signing 24 month contracts, and therefore they give you a small incentive to do so.

I also considered the option of perhaps trying to buy the UTD (cheaper) elsewhere, and not knowing anything about the modem i decided to just take the plunge and go for the 24month contract.

If you were wondering, the driver manufacturer under Win2KP says "KYOCERA CORPORATION", and the UTD also has "by KYOCERA" on it and elsewhere it says made in Japan.

Each UTD has a UTID which no doubt identifies it on the iBurst network.

So if you were able to buy a UTD cheaper somewhere else, you would have to negotiate with wbs to let your UTD's UTID into their network - at a guess that is...

This should equally apply to UTC as well.

4/Service, Service, Service. Ok so I added this as an edit. I WAS having a problem with international sites, and have been getting very good service from (Tshepo @) WBS helpdesk, he CALLED me just now to say that it was a problem with a router in Miami and that it is all sorted, which it is. The point is, these people are friendly and helpful, unlike the ISP is was using before (not sucktech) where the s.o.p. was blame the customer, tell customer no one else has a problem, it must be your settings, uninstall everything. Sound familiar, well I'm convinced that sucktech poached their orcs from my former isp's helpdesk.

 

[guest2013-1]

Exactly, I know a few people who bought Sentech modems for only a year contract and now they're stuck with a very expensive paperweight they can do nothing with.

I'm definatly (before buying the modem and switch to month to month) going to find out if they have a buy-back option, so if you wish to terminate the service, they will buy the modem back from you. This will also open up a 2nd hand market for people not able to afford such high prices, then again, I doubt they'll even HAVE a 2nd hand market as I'm clinging to this modem till death do me part (or bandwidth gets throttled, hehe)

Im even considering buying myself a UTC as well, so I can roam with my laptop. Unfortunatly the UTD does not have a battery like the Sentech modem, when the power goes down, so does your modem, but I've built a plug which goes into my UPS, so even if the power ***'s now, I have a few minutes of surfing left...

 

[Kai]

noone, please let me know what the outcome of the buyback conversation is, I also want to know how "easy" it is to get out of their contract if they go south. I've been bitten one too many times (MegaWAN, Sucktech... etc) and I don't want to sit in a situation where I can't cancel if I'm not happy. I'm prolly going to phone them myself as well, but I thought it would be good to have two perceptions of what they say.

Thanks in advance.

<hr noshade size="1"><font size="1"><i><div align="right"><font color="red">one day we will all look back at this... laugh nervously... and change the subject...</font id="red">
MyWireless256 on tower82(mintek).randparkridge.jhb|sig:9%|node:3|snl:0%|ber:28%</div id="right"></i></font id="size1">

 

[Azgard]

Could anyone tell me if it would be possible to get out of the 24-month contract if there was a real need to.

For example if there service was really bad and you wanted to get rid of it, or you lost your job and couldn't afford it anymmore.

I know very little about contracts so am not sure how this all works. I'm considering iBurst but need to convince my grandfather that it's a good idea. And obviously I have to know as much as possible before hand.

 

[guest2013-1]

Azgard, as far as things concerned (and this wasn't made clear in the Sentech contract either) is that you actually sign a 24 month contract with them because they're giving you the modem for free. Its a sortof guarentee for them to know they'd actually get paid at the end of the day. With Sentech, they made it out as if you're signing a 24 month contract FOR THE SERVICE, not because you're getting the modem for free (oh, WBS doesn't have a upfront fee!) This is also why Sentech is getting as many cancellations as they're doing now, because people started wising up and going, "hang on, I signed a 24 month contract because I am paying the modem off, if I give the damn thing back they'll have to cancel the contract" Plus... if sentech comes with the "you signed a contract for 24 months of service on so and so package" you can tell them to take a hike as well... you're not getting any service!

So Im pretty sure that if you decide not to have iburst anymore for whatever reason, you can return the modem in full working order and cancel the rest of your payments. They will then benefit in terms of "renting"(or even selling) the modem again and make even more out of the 1 modem than they would have in the first place.

Oh, and if you're not legalwise yet, get so, I think it's like 50 bucks a month and you'll get telephonic legal assistance and 1 hour consultancy free (I think, not sure, my dad has)

I always call my lawyer when a service provider starts getting pissy with me... they soon realise they dont mess with my oodles of money

 

[Azgard]

Thanks noone, starting to sound better to me Will talk to my grandfather about it again tonight and tell him the new stuff I've found out.

That telephonic legal assistance sounds like a good idea, once I can get an extra R50 a month I'll try get something like that

 

[raboobi]

for those of you who care:
http://global.kyocera.com/prdct/telecom/office/iburst/index.html