Advanced vs Retarded Vodacom Customers.

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Guys i want to know if the is no way of complaining to icasa and asa that our cell phone product provider's are

providing products that are confusing 1.
that an average user will not be able to get anything back if the make a mistake 2.
and users are not protected from making mistakes 3.

because as things stand now we are being abused.... from the cell phones charges which are expensive
to products that are not easy to understand....

this goes for all phone operators (cellc , mtn, telkom, neotel,vodacom)
 
Phew...
I almost made the same mistake! Luckily I now read this thread...the only reason i have not done this is because i tried activating the service via the full website, and noticed that the service cost full price.Made me a bit suspicious, so I held off on buying. Lucky me...

Good luck with this. Hope they at least refund you the money for the 20Gb, cause thats really rough...anyway, maybe you should write to the papers. I know the Beeld "Tot u diens" service is really usefull, maybe you'll make complaint of the week, I'm sure Vodacom will love that :-). Plus other potential victims will be warned...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
 
Really dumb for Vodacom not to have made this available to ALL subscribers - with the advertising going on, people not eligible (and who don't know that they were not eligible) will definitely try to purchase this bundle and then get a shock as did some of the forumites here.
 
CyberMatix said:
This is the problem. Previously on the "Double your Data" promotion there was no indication that you were actually getting something different from what you were buying when you were on the "add a data bundle" page. Only after you bought the bundle this additional data "magically" appeared on your account. I, like the absolute retard I am, thought the same principle would apply when you bought the 20GB bundle. You would click on the bundle, the full price would be displayed, but if you look on your account the amount of R499 would "magically" appear. Not so.
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It was at this point you should have done your homework. Above you are admitting that assumption is indeed the mother of all f-ups. Good on you for helping others (below) and bad (or retarded as you rightly put it) for not thinking things over. And good on Vodacom for refunding you even though you messed up.
I hate Vodacom as much as everyone here, but this one is squarely on your shoulders.

Here is two nice quotes that read like testimonials:

"I've been wanting to take advantage of the same bundle, but in my once off/monthly data bundles on the vodacom site I only have the standard/advance options at full price... Based on your experience there's no way I'll click or even send their suggested SMS activation method before it displays the reduced price on their site for activating the service." - Vio

"Phew...
I almost made the same mistake! Luckily I now read this thread...the only reason i have not done this is because i tried activating the service via the full website, and noticed that the service cost full price.Made me a bit suspicious, so I held off on buying. Lucky me..." - hannodewind
 
cpu. said:
It was at this point you should have done your homework. Above you are admitting that assumption is indeed the mother of all f-ups. Good on you for helping others (below) and bad (or retarded as you rightly put it) for not thinking things over. And good on Vodacom for refunding you even though you messed up.
I hate Vodacom as much as everyone here, but this one is squarely on your shoulders.

Here is two nice quotes that read like testimonials:

"I've been wanting to take advantage of the same bundle, but in my once off/monthly data bundles on the vodacom site I only have the standard/advance options at full price... Based on your experience there's no way I'll click or even send their suggested SMS activation method before it displays the reduced price on their site for activating the service." - Vio

"Phew...
I almost made the same mistake! Luckily I now read this thread...the only reason i have not done this is because i tried activating the service via the full website, and noticed that the service cost full price.Made me a bit suspicious, so I held off on buying. Lucky me..." - hannodewind
Click to expand...


You've already correctly concluded that I'm retarded, what the hell do I know about "doing my homework"? The last "homework" I did was at school, many decades ago, and I always got it wrong and got into serious trouble because of it.

What exactly is this "homework" that you wanted me to do? Maybe something like the following:

1) A comprehensive study on the display, menu and functional inconsistencies and disparities of the Vodacom web presentation in particular over different sites and over different promotions.

2) I Could have read the book: 101 ways your SP can fool you into paying them exorbitant OOB charges, and how you can avoid it - for dummies.

3) I could have just read this thread, then you could have added me to you list of "testimonials".

On the other hand I must admit I always "do my homework" when I go and "Top Up" with fuel at the petrol station, to prevent ending up with a tank full of Kerosene Class A Jet Fuel.

And I always "do my homework" when I go to the shoe store to buy a pair of bunny slippers, to ensure I don't leave with a full Alpine Skiing Outfit plus skis.

If after all this I had still more of my copious spare time left I can read the book: The deep inner mind working and and psychological manifestations of individuals that cannot help themselves but to defend the indefensible.

PS: If they don't reverse the data-bundle charges (they haven't yet) I'll sue them. I just know they won't reverse the OOB charges, because they just don't, ever. It's not in their nature.
 
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AirWolf said:
Really dumb for Vodacom not to have made this available to ALL subscribers - with the advertising going on, people not eligible (and who don't know that they were not eligible) will definitely try to purchase this bundle and then get a shock as did some of the forumites here.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. I would love to hear the convoluted logic and bonehead reasoning to come to this stupid conclusion. Their contract customers are supposed to be their target market but then they get excluded from the promotion. Absolutely brilliant! NOT.
 
Dolby said:
VD - why don't Vodacom simply drop the Advanced and Standard data bundles?

I've always been one for options - but perhaps when it comes to data bundles, simple is better.
Click to expand...

I agree with you , having Advanced bundles only would make more sense.
 
CyberMatix said:
Agree 100%. I would love to hear the convoluted logic and bonehead reasoning to come to this stupid conclusion. Their contract customers are supposed to be their target market but then they get excluded from the promotion. Absolutely brilliant! NOT.
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Promo for Contract

Start date: 7 November 2011
End date: 6 December 2011

First 3 months subscription is zero rated on New / Upgrade 24 month data contracts Broadband Standard MyMeg 500, MyGig 1 and MyGig 2

Standard carry over rules apply

Night Owl will be allocated as per usual

Applicable out of bundle rate applies
 
VodacomData said:
Promo for Contract

Start date: 7 November 2011
End date: 6 December 2011

First 3 months subscription is zero rated on New / Upgrade 24 month data contracts Broadband Standard MyMeg 500, MyGig 1 and MyGig 2

Standard carry over rules apply

Night Owl will be allocated as per usual

Applicable out of bundle rate applies
Click to expand...

Relax, the internet's free this summer.
Sign up for a 24-month data Contract between 7 November 2011 and 6 December 2011 and you will get your first three months data subscription free!

Thanks, I've got a contract already. Don't need another one. Double my chances of getting ripped off?

Note: ZERO RATED is a term used in the context of TAX, or are you trying to just confuse me even more?

Applicable out of bundle rate applies Of course it does.
 
VodacomData said:
I went to the site on my Blackberry , saw the promo , clicked or tapped on the banner and it said 20Gb Prepaid and Topup once-off data bundle promotion.

Forgive me for being ignorant here , but i am still trying to see how this is a Vodacom error when all the information is readily available on the mobi site.
Click to expand...

The error is assuming that customers are familiar with Vodacom's terminology. Not being a Vodacom customer, the words "Broadband Advanced" mean nothing to me.

There are so many adverts purporting to offer the latest and greatest, so I would assume (if I had not already read the above) that is was just part of a sentence to persuade customers to buy the product. Just because it is clear to you, and the team that wrote the advert, does not mean it is clear to all who might read it, as the originator of this post pointed out. A few different words, even the word "only" would hjave made the difference, or else an offer to explain the terms and conditions properly. The link at the bottom takes you to a long page on the main website which says nothing about this new offer, only the generic terms that all mobile operators apply to their customers
 
I don't know who's right or wrong here, but from a PR point of view this Vodacomdata, the Vodacom Representative, is bogus. Good thing Vodacom refunded you, but regardless of his opinion it is in the best interest of the brand to apologise and make the effort forward this onto the relevant people so that they can amend the ad as soon as possible (by the way Vodacom Representative, it's an advert, not an addvert...) This should have been clearly communicated to the customer. Instead, you made them out to be the bad guy in a public forum. Not sure how that best represents the brand you are supposed to represent?
 
mon_star said:
I don't know who's right or wrong here, but from a PR point of view this Vodacomdata, the Vodacom Representative, is bogus. Good thing Vodacom refunded you, but regardless of his opinion it is in the best interest of the brand to apologise and make the effort forward this onto the relevant people so that they can amend the ad as soon as possible (by the way Vodacom Representative, it's an advert, not an addvert...) This should have been clearly communicated to the customer. Instead, you made them out to be the bad guy in a public forum. Not sure how that best represents the brand you are supposed to represent?
Click to expand...

Marketing 101

1) It's much cheaper to hold on to your existing customers than to get new ones.
2) If you lose a customer through bad service, perceived unfair treatment and humiliation, you have lost him forever.
3) the good times might not last forever.

This is obviously not apparent for the Vodacom marketing department. Maybe they missed that lesson.

Apologise? Not on this planet. If they should apologise they would first have to admit they made a mistake, that would make them liable for for some legal distress.

They haven't refunded me yet, I wouldn't be surprise if they should "forget". They won't refund me for OOB. The few hundred bucks they would pay will be negated multiple times by the bad PR they are making, and the loss of my custom.

Fix their ads? - No, see above.
 
CyberMatix, I fully agree. This Vodacom representative is in the wrong regardless. What I'm saying is that if he / she were smart about it, they would have nubbed this out right in the first page of this thread, done, dusted. They didn't.

Either way, you should be refunded immediately. It's BS. I would be through the roof.
 
Tried buying the MyGig 20 Advanced through the phone(TopUp135). All Ok until last step- Technical error. Please try again later. Similar result through the Web. Asked CustomerSupport WTF, sweetheart asked me to hold and spoke to her supervisor. Apparently having an ongoing broadband standard(the measly 30MB included in the TopUp135 package) prevents me from buying it. Yes, she says, it doesn't say so in the advert, but it is so. So- I am another retard to confess. If this is not BS, then the cow is dead. :sick:
 
oitar said:
Tried buying the MyGig 20 Advanced through the phone(TopUp135). All Ok until last step- Technical error. Please try again later. Similar result through the Web. Asked CustomerSupport WTF, sweetheart asked me to hold and spoke to her supervisor. Apparently having an ongoing broadband standard(the measly 30MB included in the TopUp135 package) prevents me from buying it. Yes, she says, it doesn't say so in the advert, but it is so. So- I am another retard to confess. If this is not BS, then the cow is dead. :sick:
Click to expand...

Hi

Please send me your number and i will see if i can get the bundle added for you.

Regards

VD
 
Of course Vodacom won't do something like this for contract customers. You're already locked in for two years - why should they offer you any enticements to stay on? Once they own your soul they have no need to keep you happy.
 
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