8ta Out of Bundle Billing

[SHANRSA]

I just want to relate my experience with and out of bundle charge I had on my 8ta internet 5 Promo. On Friday 27th of September I reached my 10Gb cap and duly agreed to go out of bundle for the weekend. That same afternoon I checked the web interface and saw that I had already racked up a bill of R80(or so) and decided to purchase the R149 2+1gb effectively putting me back in bundle. On Saturday evening I checked my web interface again and saw that I had 800mb left. Heavy usage for 1 day. Sunday morning I checked in again and saw that I had 89mb left. I left for the day and when I got back late Sunday evening I checked in again only to see that I had now an accumulated outstanding amount of R864 and was effectively out of bundle by 1,3Gb.

I thought impossible, I was not even home on Sunday, how could this happen???? I called 8ta on Monday to be told that I used up my 2Gb and was further out of bundle by another 1,3Gb on Saturday night already. These are my problems.

1) Why was the web interface giving incorrect information and misleading me in terms of my data usage.
2) I never authorised a further out of bundle after buying the 2+1Gb so how can it just automatically go out of bundle and let the data flow without me being prompted.

I have been given a run around with 8ta with no answers forthcoming. When I called back recently I was told that someone tried to call me but could not get a hold of me so they just cancelled the query. The consultant then said he would get that person to call me the next day. I am still waiting.

Moral of the story- Do not under any circumstances go out of bundle ever

I currently have a TP Link MR3420 (works brilliantly) connected to a Huawei E367 modem connected to an outside antenna. My desktop connects through ethernet and the 3 apple devices connect via wifi. My wifi is locked down( Not broadcasting SSID) and I use mac address filtering, WPA2 security, not bullet proof but reasonably secure.

For the month of November I decided to monitor my usage and track how I am consuming bandwidth. I installed networx on the desktop which is the hungry bandwidth consumer and data master on the apple devices. My wife also connects her blackberry to the Wifi when she loses signal sometimes. I have just run out of cap again in the middle of the month. My desktop shows 5Gb usage, the combined apple devices are roughly 500mb. I could not work out the blackberry consumption but I can assume its not 4,5Gb.

Something is strange about this situation. I wonder if any other internet 5 Promo customers are experiencing their bundles depleting rather quickly. I have enjoyed the 8ta service until now. Its cheaper than ADSL, speeds are reasonable and I thought it was the best until you start to deal with 8ta customer services with a problem like this.
I suppose you get what you pay for, cheap bandwidth, cheap service.

My original complaint Ref: 1959633

Here is a similar complaint on HelloPeter
http://www.hellopeter.com/8ta/complaints/incorrect-data-bill-charged-out-of-bundle-831648

 

[sajunky]

On Friday 27th of September I reached my 10Gb cap and duly agreed to go out of bundle for the weekend. [...]
2) I never authorised a further out of bundle after buying the 2+1Gb so how can it just automatically go out of bundle and let the data flow without me being prompted.

It is possible that once you have authorised OOB it is remembered, sort of programming glitch. I never allowed OOB, so I cannot verify, maybe someone else has similiar experience will add to the story.

 

[Vis1/0N]

It is possible that once you have authorised OOB it is remembered, sort of programming glitch. I never allowed OOB, so I cannot verify, maybe someone else has similiar experience will add to the story.

That is what I though as well. As far as I understand, you accept OOB and then add a top up bundle to this, once that expired you would be back to OOB rates.

Maybe 8ta needs to set it up to add another check when each of these Top up bundle is used up. CellC and 8ta seems to actually be able to do changes like this. Your experience would be much much worse if you were on Vodacom.

As for the linked Helopeter compaint, ouch!

 

[Telkom]

Hi there

We will take this up with the relevant people to make some changes as to alert users as to when whichever bundle purchased has been depleted. According to your reference number, our back office has tried contacting SHANRSA on a number of occasions and has been unsuccessful in reaching you.

Regards,
Social Media Team

 

[SHANRSA]

Hi there

We will take this up with the relevant people to make some changes as to alert users as to when whichever bundle purchased has been depleted. According to your reference number, our back office has tried contacting SHANRSA on a number of occasions and has been unsuccessful in reaching you.

Regards,
Social Media Team

They have told me the same thing, Chevon from customer services contacted me 3 times in one day, I am very easily reached on my listed Vodacom contact number, my business depends on it so I can't accept that.