Astronomical costs for 3G dongle (R70k +) PLEASE HELP!!!

[falcon786]

The other thing to note is why they only notified you yesterday when you have been clocking monthly amounts of R12-13k?

This is the biggest issue here in my opinion, if they had told you in the first month you could have paid the R16000 and curbed your usage so the same thing doesn't happen again. Not an ideal situation but at least it's an amount that's easily recoverable from.

Your manager needs to tell you why they waited so long to tell you this especially since you don't have access to the account to check yourself.
We have had a similar situation a couple years ago when one rep raked up a bill of R9000 on a blackberry through vodacom because he thought YouTube videos were included in the bbm package. We however notified him after the first bill and did not make him pay, he did not every go over his normal talk 500 contract ever again. Because we then advised him that excessive usage would be billed to him going forward. That's a fair situation Imo.

 

[T-Rex66]

VODACON, VODACON, VODACON = Please let jannievanzyl appear now!

I have learnt a lot from all of you so far, thank you so much for all the advise and comments. I never knew these kind of consumer cons existed with such large companies such as Vodacom. I also trusted my company to have set limits correctly and to have notified me on month 1 (December) that it was abnormally high. I would have given them the damn dongle back right then and there!! Now I am going to be down R70k and maybe a job just before my first child is born. I literally have no words to describe what my feelings are. Ive never been so angry and hurt at the same time. Im going to have to sell my car or something... Just when you take a few steps forward in life you get thrown back 10 times.

 

[T-Rex66]

This is terrible.

Your company should have stated clearly when giving you the device that you are liable for Out of bundle (OOB) costs if you go over your cap. They should have also mentioned how much it would cost so you were aware.

I don't have the full picture but from what you've told us it sounds like the company was negligent supplying you with the device and not making all this very clear.

Also, does your employment contract contain anything in it to regard to a scenario like this?

There is nothing stated in my contract about this. My company has been extremely negligent about many, many other issues in the past so this is not a new thing.

 

[Electric]

Most people don't even know what a gigabyte is or that YouTube defaults to HD on 3G. You're assuming that everyone is as tech savvy as you. OP's company is at least partly to blame for having crappy systems that, firstly, didn't set a usage limit on the line, and secondly, didn't pick up the first R10k+ invoice from Vodacon.

I agree but the fact that OP has admitted to using it for personal use has opened up a loop hole here for the company.
The company however should have been way more proactive in controlling the 'abuse'.

 

[T-Rex66]

Nasty, just a small calulation:

R 12 000 / (R 2.00 per MB) = 6000 MB's (5.85 GB's worth of data) + (Bundle 1024 MB's [1GB])

This means you used at least 6.85 GB's worth of data per month.

Normal YouTube if done without ss it would stream at 720p. About 3 hours worth of watching will run you about 1GB. So you would have had to view youtube for about 18 hours per month more or less. So unless you downloaded big files I would say it's pretty easy for you to figure out if you spent at least 40 minutes or so per day watching YouTube.

If I have watched maybe 40 minutes of youtube videos in 6 months total it would be a lot!!! I seriously dont watch many videos especially because in my office I have 6 people so I cant even have sound on!! This must be some kind of scam like a sim copy, or they have the entire company costs on my account - something has gone terribly wrong! I am on the internet for about 3 hours a day x 5 days a week. I download emails, check Facebook and maybe google and research some things. That is it!

 

[Pitbull]

If I have watched maybe 40 minutes of youtube videos in 6 months total it would be a lot!!! I seriously dont watch many videos especially because in my office I have 6 people so I cant even have sound on!! This must be some kind of scam like a sim copy, or they have the entire company costs on my account - something has gone terribly wrong! I am on the internet for about 3 hours a day x 5 days a week. I download emails, check Facebook and maybe google and research some things. That is it!

ooooo Facebook also chows about 50MB's per hour just browsing. If you click pictures and so on it gets worse.

 

[Frikkenator]

This sucks, but you sound highly stressed, so just take some time to cool down, and don't do anything rash.

The first port of call would be to sit down with the manager in question, explain to him that you had no means of knowing this was happening, and that no one informed you after the first month of this happening.

Worst case scenarios:
1. They decide to fire you: Do not make any scene or do anything stupid. Go to the CCMA and have them handle it, I'm 99% certain you will win, because "They fired in order to sort out the maternity leave problem".

2. They decide you need to pay it back: Do not agree to this, the fact that this went on for 6 months is negligence on their side, not yours. They can't deduct this from your pay unless you agree to it, if they do, go to the department of labour.

But firstly, try talk it out with them, explain your position and ignorance on the data usage, ask them why it took 6 months before you were notified, and don't do it again. Try to come to an agreement.

 

[colin87]

If the usage was not described in a contract she signed, there is no way they can claim the money back, or fire you. Simple as that.

There is no way they will win the case, go to the CCMA this will be a quick victory.

 

[Pitbull]

4.68 hours per day of Facebook 30 days a month = 6.85 GB

Just know this is nothing more than a guesstemate at best.

 

[Paul Hjul]

Nasty, just a small calulation:

R 12 000 / (R 2.00 per MB) = 6000 MB's (5.85 GB's worth of data) + (Bundle 1024 MB's [1GB])

This means you used at least 6.85 GB's worth of data per month.

Normal YouTube if done without ss it would stream at 720p. About 3 hours worth of watching will run you about 1GB. So you would have had to view youtube for about 18 hours per month more or less. So unless you downloaded big files I would say it's pretty easy for you to figure out if you spent at least 40 minutes or so per day watching YouTube.

Vodacom postpaid contracts OOB rate is R1 per meg so the numbers are doubled.

 

[Electric]

If I have watched maybe 40 minutes of youtube videos in 6 months total it would be a lot!!! I seriously dont watch many videos especially because in my office I have 6 people so I cant even have sound on!! This must be some kind of scam like a sim copy, or they have the entire company costs on my account - something has gone terribly wrong! I am on the internet for about 3 hours a day x 5 days a week. I download emails, check Facebook and maybe google and research some things. That is it!

1hr of 1080p is well over 1gb of data.

fyi

 

[Frikkenator]

OK, its not as simple as OOB rates.
a similar thing happend to a user at our office.

this is what happened.
on the statement - check the times and dates that the data has been used - lookout for times and dates you know you have not used.
infact - hand the dongle over to your boss and request that the usage be monitored.

what happened to one of our users was that his SIM got duplicated (dual sim) now both sims cant run at the same time however the culprit with the copied sim uses at say 2am in the morning daily until about 6am.
So by the time he used his sim for official work his none the wiser...

do this!

Also do this. If there is a cloned SIM, and your bill for June is this high again and you still have the 3G card they do have a leg to stand on. Use your own phone for internet this month if you have to, but make sure you are not in possession of the device or SIM, and make sure it is on record that you aren't.

 

[Pitbull]

Vodacom postpaid contracts OOB rate is R1 per meg so the numbers are doubled.

Apologies then. Yes, just double all the totals then.

 

[Pitbull]

Wish people would start using the following when watching youtube.

Open a video in youtube. Copy the URL. Post it in notepad, now add ss between the www. and the rest of the address. Copy the address from notepad and past in the browser. Once in you can browse all videos and also select the quality of the video. Download them and what not. Alot less data intensive

 

[Electric]

What does the ss do?

 

[DA-LION-619]

What does the ss do?

Allows you to download the video stream without need of Java or flash etc.

 

[Electric]

Cool, thanks.

 

[GreGorGy]

Are you 100% sure that there are NO browser hijackers on the machine? They use nasty amounts of background data and naive users don't have a clue.

 

[grok]

Why didn't the company set a limit? If the company did set a limit, why didn't Vodacon enforce it? The company also received a few bills of R12k-R16k over some months, why didn't alarm bells ring sooner?

You cannot trust Vodacom & their limits, I'm pretty knowledgable and the Vodacom OOBshark still bit me.

I requested a limit be put on my one 3G card as I wasn't the one using it, yet 2 months later I still got > R1000 bills. Phoned them, their excuse was 'the system' automatically lifted the limit a few hours after I set it. Yeah doesn't make sense does it .. but I never got a cent back and to this day they never got back to me on the supposed investigation they were going to do.

Vodacom are greedy SOB's and their school fees have always been very expensive.

 

[kianm]

This is quite unfortunate I think companies should just put hard-cap limits on 3G accounts before issuing them out to the users, we did so for our users on TM once they use up the allocation they have to wait for the monthly cycle. Also helps teach them to manage their usage better i havent had complaints about data running out mid month. As for OP I don't think she should be held liable for this