BEWARE International Data Roaming charges!!!

D

dracolusus

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Hi,

I'm posting here on behalf of my girlfriend, who has decided to take this matter to the public, just to raise awareness and not to get her money back. See below comment (excerpt from mail to Vodacom MD's office and Credit & Risk departments)

http://www.hellopeter.com/the_comment.asp?recid=165352&comp=357

"I would like to raise awareness of the EXTREMELY high roaming charges in CHINA. It costs R140.89/meg i.e 1 gigabyte costs over R140,000 where 1 gigabyte from Vodacom costs R290 - more than 480 TIMES cheaper. I cannot believe that Vodacom is prepared to allow charges like this to be charged to their Customers albeit by another Network - it is daylight robbery and shows absolutely no Social Responsibility from a Company that maintains high Corporate Governance."

She is well aware that roaming is expensive, and she is a frequent traveler and has no problem spending money on phone calls etc while roaming. She is NOW aware that she should check the data roaming tariffs before embarking on a trip again :D . She only used about 6mb = R840!!! Imagine if she downloaded a GB! take out a second bond for a GB; when you could get it for like R70 at the corner garage!

The main point is, htf can a respected company like Vodacom, actually allow another company to charge their customers these rates. Especially from a country that has some of the cheapest broadband in the WORLD!!! Its unacceptable and Vodacom should never allow such a travesty!

Any thoughts?
 
AGAIN, never never use roaming, you will always end up second best... always get prepaid local... they are very seldom much more expensive than SA. I really hope she uses this opportunity to get the publicity required to get her money back... that's the only way to do it... the more noise the more likely Voda is to do something. Google roaming on this forum and find the other articles... see who wrote the news bits and send them this info for a follow-up article... have you pm'd RPM?
 
Bradbowlllama said:
AGAIN, never never use roaming, you will always end up second best... always get prepaid local... they are very seldom much more expensive than SA. I really hope she uses this opportunity to get the publicity required to get her money back... that's the only way to do it... the more noise the more likely Voda is to do something. Google roaming on this forum and find the other articles... see who wrote the news bits and send them this info for a follow-up article... have you pm'd RPM?
Click to expand...

I'll search now, thanks...RPM?
 
Sorry to break it to you but this issue was raised a couple of months ago. I think Autopage issued a release about data roaming costs.
The funny thing is that SA has some of the lowest roaming charges for people coming here. It isn't just China its everywhere else in the world that you get ripped for data roaming.
 
pope24 said:
Sorry to break it to you but this issue was raised a couple of months ago. I think Autopage issued a release about data roaming costs.
The funny thing is that SA has some of the lowest roaming charges for people coming here. It isn't just China its everywhere else in the world that you get ripped for data roaming.
Click to expand...


Granted...but why even allow it at all??? Just so you can advertise, "oh look, we have 100 roaming partners for data!" ???
 
Spain, Ireland the UK. 2 week visit. Roaming costs R3500.00
Horrible. BUT. It's a tradeoff. I don't need to schlep around looking for people who speak proper English to get me sorted when there's a problem. I can't be looking for prepaid cards. I've better things to do. I don't have to fiddle my settings. I don't like looking for dodgy internet cafes in back alleys and I hate paying ripoff hotel prices. It's the price one pays for convenience. Steep? Heck yes. Then again, look at those who fly economy class and pay 1/5 of those who fly Business Class to the same place in the same metal tube. Same logic.
 
dracolusus said:
Hi,

I'm posting here on behalf of my girlfriend, who has decided to take this matter to the public, just to raise awareness and not to get her money back. See below comment (excerpt from mail to Vodacom MD's office and Credit & Risk departments)

http://www.hellopeter.com/the_comment.asp?recid=165352&comp=357

"I would like to raise awareness of the EXTREMELY high roaming charges in CHINA. It costs R140.89/meg i.e 1 gigabyte costs over R140,000 where 1 gigabyte from Vodacom costs R290 - more than 480 TIMES cheaper. I cannot believe that Vodacom is prepared to allow charges like this to be charged to their Customers albeit by another Network - it is daylight robbery and shows absolutely no Social Responsibility from a Company that maintains high Corporate Governance."

She is well aware that roaming is expensive, and she is a frequent traveler and has no problem spending money on phone calls etc while roaming. She is NOW aware that she should check the data roaming tariffs before embarking on a trip again :D . She only used about 6mb = R840!!! Imagine if she downloaded a GB! take out a second bond for a GB; when you could get it for like R70 at the corner garage!

The main point is, htf can a respected company like Vodacom, actually allow another company to charge their customers these rates. Especially from a country that has some of the cheapest broadband in the WORLD!!! Its unacceptable and Vodacom should never allow such a travesty!

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

One thing that comes to mind is that your girlfriend at some point CONSCIOUSLY activated roaming on her contract. I.e. it was off by default and she actually had to ASK to get it turned on.

Did she check at that time why Vodacom does not just allow anyone to roam at will and run up massive bills? Why she had to ask to hve it turned on? Because it's a huge credit risk for all involved, herself and Vodacom.

If your girlfriend's account went way out of line it would have triggered alerts and be investigated at that time. But spending R840 while roaming would be way within her account limits.

R100/Mb for roaming data is not unheard of. And again Vodacom (the evil one) tried to address this with the Vodafone Passport product that gives you a fixed roaming charge across the group of R17/Mb.

So Vodacom did it's bit to protect your girlfriend against herself. To the point that she had to call someone and ask them to please remove the restriction on her account.
 
pope24 said:
Sorry to break it to you but this issue was raised a couple of months ago. I think Autopage issued a release about data roaming costs.
The funny thing is that SA has some of the lowest roaming charges for people coming here. It isn't just China its everywhere else in the world that you get ripped for data roaming.
Click to expand...

AFAIK just recently some journo wrote an article on the merits of roaming and how it wasn't that expensive... I think this needs MORE coverage... I agree that Vodacom should rather NOT offer roaming when the charges are so exorbitant!
 
vodacom3g said:
One thing that comes to mind is that your girlfriend at some point CONSCIOUSLY activated roaming on her contract. I.e. it was off by default and she actually had to ASK to get it turned on.

Did she check at that time why Vodacom does not just allow anyone to roam at will and run up massive bills? Why she had to ask to hve it turned on? Because it's a huge credit risk for all involved, herself and Vodacom.

If your girlfriend's account went way out of line it would have triggered alerts and be investigated at that time. But spending R840 while roaming would be way within her account limits.

R100/Mb for roaming data is not unheard of. And again Vodacom (the evil one) tried to address this with the Vodafone Passport product that gives you a fixed roaming charge across the group of R17/Mb.

So Vodacom did it's bit to protect your girlfriend against herself. To the point that she had to call someone and ask them to please remove the restriction on her account.
Click to expand...

The total bill was a few thousand rand, not anything she wasn't expecting; she has racked up these before (yes, a service which she requested)...its not the roaming bill, its the fact that Vodacom would actually offer something so ridiculous is the issue here...and its R140 a mb ;)

PS: Vodacom are not the evil ones...just plain blind / short sighted that they'd rather care more to advertise the number of roaming partners, than to actually care about the customer :-P
 
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No offence, but she should of checked the charges for the country she's going to. The cellphone network can't sniff she's going to China and warn her in advance... unless of course you log your travel plans with them.

Unfortunately its a lesson hard learnt...
 
dracolusus said:
...its not the roaming bill, its the fact that Vodacom would actually offer something so ridiculous is the issue here...and its R140 a mb ;)
Click to expand...

So you say they should not offer it then? What about the Big Boss at Paper Scraps SA what want to roam with his new iPhone 2? R140/MB is small change for him. They offer it because there was a need for such a product in the first place.
 
dracolusus said:
PS: Vodacom are not the evil ones...just plain blind / short sighted that they'd rather care more to advertise the number of roaming partners, than to actually care about the customer :-P
Click to expand...

So here is this expensive service that's available to mobile subscribers around the globe with obvious advantages, i.e. you can stay connected while traveling abroad.

But it's expensive, so Vodacom does not make it available to everyone by default. You have to phone up and ask for it. In addition Vodacom actively tries to manage the cost of roaming down to around 15% of what you'd normally pay.

So you're advocating that Vodacom must rather not provide a service because some subs can't manage the service? The best way to protect consumers against themselves is to refuse them (actually everyone) a service?

Not trying to insinuate in any way your girlfriend is ignorant, but she actively subscribed to a service and must / should have checked the costs of the service before using it. I.e. it was not something that got added to her contract without her consent.
 
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ok, that not caring about their customers was a poor argument :P

There will always be a justifiable answer to everything...so, there is no real point arguing :)

Just stating my views...
 
xrapidx said:
The cellphone network can't sniff she's going to China and warn her in advance... unless of course you log your travel plans with them.
Click to expand...

Won't the foreign network check your credentials when you use that network for the first time? Then Vodacom could pick up this request and send you a reminder SMS about roaming charges? You might even be required to reply with an acknowledgement.
 
Tallboy said:
Won't the foreign network check your credentials when you use that network for the first time? Then Vodacom could pick up this request and send you a reminder SMS about roaming charges? You might even be required to reply with an acknowledgement.
Click to expand...

You already had to get roaming activated though, it wasn't automatic.
 
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