3G Billing accuracy

[zambussi]

I signed up a mymeg 500MB 3G bundle in June, and was hit around R 600 for "out of bundle data" - this despite my usage on the Vodacom4me wesbite, and the vosacom supplied software on the laptop showing that I was well within my limit.

I tried to resolve this issue with Vodacom, who came back to me with their own internal usage list, showing that:

a) Emails which I sent which are 1.15MB in size, reflect as 5MB files on their usage list.

b) Data Usage at odd times (like 3AM) when the laptop is off, and the 3G card unplugged.

Vodacom's explanation is that their internal usage billing is correct, and the Vodacom4me website usage is incorrect - but that's not their problem as they have an indemnity in place to cover such eventualities. Also the software on the laptop is inaccurate (despite being told to download a 45MB UPGRADE to make it accurate).

On the question of the discrepancy in the sizes of files sent and what they perceive these sizes to be - their immediate comment was " your system has a virus", until I explained to them that I had a new copy of Norton Anti-Virus with the lastest updates installed. This then resulted in a minutes silence - after which they said that they would get their data people to call and explain the situation - which to date has not happened.

Also they claim that even though the laptop is switched off and the card is unplugged, my laptop must obviously be busy with a "software update", which even though it's off, their server is receiving (hence the charge), and that it will then be available as soon as I reconnect (for which I am sure they will charge in any case).

I wonder if they went to the same school for creative stories as the orcs from sentech ?

Bottom line from Vodacom is that their billing is right, and I'm wrong, so pay up and Sh@t up !

Right now I am leaving the 3G card locked in my draw for 2 weeks and will then see how my usage will "miraculously" skyrocket.

Has anyone else had anything like this happen to them ?
Is there anything I can do ?
I tried to cancel and was told I needed to pay them R 6,800 to get out....................

 

[Double1]

Join the club!

Last month, my first month I made sure that I was within my 500MB range.

No-one informed me about the reports on vodacom4me, also the sim card I use for my 3G card has a seperate number so you have to register again.....

Anyway the software said I used 430MB, my invoice says 870MB!!!!!!

Almost double, the big FFFFF YOU to Vodacom!!!!!!!!!


All I get told by the investigation department is:

"Sorry Sir, you are liable for the charges, we cannot help you"

FFFFFF YYYYOOOOOUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[74466]

Join the club!

Last month, my first month I made sure that I was within my 500MB range.

No-one informed me about the reports on vodacom4me, also the sim card I use for my 3G card has a seperate number so you have to register again.....

Anyway the software said I used 430MB, my invoice says 870MB!!!!!!

Almost double, the big FFFFF YOU to Vodacom!!!!!!!!!


All I get told by the investigation department is:

"Sorry Sir, you are liable for the charges, we cannot help you"

FFFFFF YYYYOOOOOUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALMOST DOUBLE
looks like more than double to me.

Well i have not even activated my contract sim for data, fffff me if i am going to let them ffff me out of my fffffffffin money.

Ill use my prepaid, which i majke sure i never have more than R60 on, so let them overcharge me... ill know and ill leave....

This is BS that all software are wrong, but voda is right....

ps, make sure u remove the sim from the datacard, maybe the data card became datahungry

 

[MyDraadloos]

I was given a 3G card to test. Set up the card on my post-paid SIM untill the data became active on the pre-piad SIM.

Used 18.5 MB on my post-paid SIM, then swopped it with my new pre-paid SIM loaded with R110 and R55 voucher.

I thought that it would be good for 82.5 MB @ R2 p/MB, but it has died at 56.5 MB

Does not compute ..........

I will buy some more airtime and repeat the excercise tomorrow after I have reset the counters.

 

[ic]

Are you looking at the data usage reported by VMC or on vodacom4me? and which APN are you using?

 

[MyDraadloos]

Are you looking at the data usage reported by VMC or on vodacom4me? and which APN are you using?

I am looking at the data usage as indicated by the network card (VMC)

Should I also set up a profile for this SIM on V4Me ?

I am using a 3G only profile.

Edit ---------

Results from V4Me

Transaction Start Date/Time Sponsor Destination Duration
(seconds) Volume Amount Roaming
1 GPRS 2006-07-29 16:57:30 - internet 10446 15527074 R 29.62 No
2 GPRS 2006-07-28 19:22:04 - internet 2288 21800812 R 41.58 No
3 GPRS 2006-07-28 15:36:14 - internet 6858 15994365 R 30.51 No
4 Recharge 2006-07-28 15:28:48 - - 0 - R 110.00 No
5 GPRS 2006-07-28 09:07:19 - internet 3038 3913917 R 7.47 No
6 GPRS 2006-07-27 17:54:04 - internet 9403 7986928 R 15.24 No
7 GPRS 2006-07-27 14:51:28 - internet 3937 3138262 R 5.99 No
8 GPRS 2006-07-27 13:09:17 - internet 2039 1446693 R 2.76 No
9 Recharge 2006-07-27 00:13:38 - - 0 - R 55.00 No
10 Connection 2006-07-27 00:11:22 - - 0 - R 0.00 No


I only have to look at the last entry to know that it is a load of BS. At 5pm that SIM was lying in it's box. Don't think the billing is trust worthy ........... makes you think about the other services and how they bill for them.

As another test I am going the check my voice calls as well ; timing each call with a cesium atomic clock to determine if Vodacom is eating more cheese than what is due to them.

Pass the vaseline !

 

[charl.voster]

they sent me the sms telling me that I was over my limit 3 days late this month.

 

[zambussi]

Billing accuracy

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study as to wether the amounts we are billed (data, voice) are indeed correct.

If Vodacom can't get the billing right for 3G, (billing for use when the card is not even plugged in), then I think it's safe to assume the same of their voice billing. Maybe their billing system uses TELKOM maths (about the same mathematical ability that a retarded donkey would have - and comparing the Donkey to anything Telkom is insulting the Donkey !).

When it comes to billing issues - Vodacom is about as consumer-centric as other greats like: Telkom, Spoornet, The minister of Health etc.

 

[UnDeR±tAkEr]

These billing errors are leaving me WTF.

I'm just doing some simple maths here, and if VC does this to say 10,000 contract customers @ say 200-300MB overbilled, that's a few mil in their pockets for something that hasn't cost them a thing.

The scary thing also is the prepaid inaccuracies. At R2/MB, this is very costly.

Maybe VC has always had a billing problem, and just kept quiet about it (reminds of some of the reasons why PPDD has never been introduced so far). We the customers are definitely not the winners here. But when do we ever win?

Me thinks it's best to stay on prepaid until this sorts itself out. (At least no R500+ funnies a month or two later).

 

[Veneficus]

R500 funnies?

I worked out the other day that if you use a HSDPA connection for 24 hours running @ 900Kbs


Then you will have a beautiful bill of over R18000 (this is if you use it after your standard limit)

At least it is beautiful for Vodacom

 

[DBrasco]

** MyDraadloos **
I might be able to help with this matter or launch an investigation for you.

Where on Vodacom4Me are you pulling the report from?

You can PM me if you prefer.

 

[MyDraadloos]

** MyDraadloos **
I might be able to help with this matter or launch an investigation for you.

Where on Vodacom4Me are you pulling the report from?

You can PM me if you prefer.

Not sure how you will be able to help, but knock yourself out !

I got the info from V4Me website - My Account /Account Info / Last Ten Transactions

If you PM me your e-mail addy I will send you the screen shots.

 

[3GisDaMan]

Where am I? » vodacom4me home (logged in) » my account » account info » balances

balances

We are currently experiencing problems accessing your account information.

Please try again later.

 

[zambussi]

Still Voda-Screwed

My ongoing billing saga with Vodacom continues.

When I queried my 3G billing stating that it didn't correlate with any of the figures I got off the V4me site or Altiva Pro, or Netmeter, Vodacom produced their "inner" set of figures that they do the actual billing on, which showed that the 1MB emails I sent, were being recorded on their system as 5MB emails.

Wen I tried to query this, I was told to apply to them under the access of information act (and pay more money), to get these records which they had inadvertantly emailed me.

So Vodacom's billing is up the creek, and they don't accept the figures from any other software than their own - sounds like a scam to me.

Naturally I can't cancel the contract, so I leave the datacard lying in a draw at home, while the data (which I am not transmitting), is building up..............

Oh for some decent consumer protection............................ In any other 1st world country thieves like Vodacom would have been nailed long ago........

 

[vodacom3g]

zambussi, I'm going to PM you my e-mail address.

Won't you please mail me everything that's happened up to now? I'd like to help sort this out.

I saw a radical increase in my own data usage (on 4me on my voice number) over the last week or so, jumped from Kbytes per day to Mbytes.

I use this sim to sync my mail (headers only) and have made no changes to the account settings. So I KNOW it's not my phone......or so I thought.....

Loaded a GPRS monitor on the phone (K-Jam) last night and the bugger is downloading something, the data usage reported on the phone matches exactly what I see on 4me.

Now I need to figure out what. I've run virus scans, closed all open apps, etc.

Anyone know of a 'netlimiter' type of utility for Windows CE?

 

[MyDraadloos]

I have spent to much time looking at Netlimiter graphs. I collected about 200 relating to GPRS network, but nobody was interested in looking at them.

At times the connection dies, but it won't disconnect without yanking out the USB cable or rebooting the phone.

I stuck one of those i-find "flashy" thingies on the back of my phone so I could see when data is being sent ....... also works as early warning system for phone calls and SMS.

But mostly to monitor the data ..... when it stops flashing the connection has been lost. Low tech.

 

[MyDraadloos]

Anyone know of a 'netlimiter' type of utility for Windows CE?

http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Network/Cellular-Phone-and-Network-Monitor-15318.shtml

I sent a few other potentials via e-mail .........

 

[vodacom3g]

Thanks, I ended up buying a netstat type utility for CE ...

http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/Communications/NetStat2004-10059.shtml

and after having paid for it, got a mail from Handago that the author will contact me at some point to give me the license key

 

[ic]

...
Loaded a GPRS monitor on the phone (K-Jam) last night and the bugger is downloading something, the data usage reported on the phone matches exactly what I see on 4me.

Now I need to figure out what. I've run virus scans, closed all open apps, etc.

Anyone know of a 'netlimiter' type of utility for Windows CE?

Hmmm...what if you switch it to use wifi and then tweak your wifi router to block all traffic from your K-Jam, then look at the wifi router's logs to figure out what has been blocked coming from the K-Jam...?

 

[vodacom3g]

Hmmm...what if you switch it to use wifi and then tweak your wifi router to block all traffic from your K-Jam, then look at the wifi router's logs to figure out what has been blocked coming from the K-Jam...?

Could work, but the netstats utility shows all tcp connections, exactly what I need, must just get the bloody license....

I suspect it the M$ mail back-end doing this and need to get to it via the internet apn.