Beware Webafrica capped plans ripoff

[atunguyd]

Just a warning to all you out there planning to switch to webafrica for a capped plan.

No matter what time in the month you sign up for they will charge you for a full calender month. No pro-rate, no reduced data... nothing.

I signed up on the 27th of last month for a 120GB plan and probably used about 5-10 GB. I saw today that they charged me a full months payment for those three days.44I phoned them and I was told that they do not do pro-rata on capped accounts because "you get the full amount of data from the day you signed up".

I feel that this is totally unfair and not something that is made clear when signing up. I paid for 120GB over one month, not 120GB over 3 days.

I have tried to resolve this in private with them on the phone but so far only empty promises to call back later, further it is not possible to talk to anyone higher then telephone support in the chain.

Not a good way to start a business relationship Webafrica!!!!!!

 

[bokka1]

I think you should read their terms and conditions before ranting here, nowhere do they mention that you will pay pro rata.

And you paid for 120GB in a calender month not 30 days.

 

[atunguyd]

When signing up with a capped plan there is no mention of calender month - they just say "per month" which leads one to believe that you get a good 30 days of service.

Here's the signup page - where does it say calender month or make it clear that you will only get a partial timeframe even though you will pay for a full period:
https://www.webafrica.co.za/cart.php?a=confproduct&i=0

I honestly think this is totally unethical on web africa's side, I have never come across a monthly service before that either does not charge a pro rate amount or bills over a 30 day period not calender months.

I must admit I did not study the terms and conditions when signing up, but I took a look now and I cant see this covered there:
https://www.webafrica.co.za/about/legal/#legal-terms

Again it seems like they have not really detailed this and are taking a chance here.

 

[Orihalcon]

School fees.

 

[Chevron]

Just a warning to all you out there planning to switch to webafrica for a capped plan.

No matter what time in the month you sign up for they will charge you for a full calender month. No pro-rate, no reduced data... nothing.

I signed up on the 27th of last month for a 120GB plan and probably used about 5-10 GB. I saw today that they charged me a full months payment for those three days.44I phoned them and I was told that they do not do pro-rata on capped accounts because "you get the full amount of data from the day you signed up".

I feel that this is totally unfair and not something that is made clear when signing up. I paid for 120GB over one month, not 120GB over 3 days.

I have tried to resolve this in private with them on the phone but so far only empty promises to call back later, further it is not possible to talk to anyone higher then telephone support in the chain.

Not a good way to start a business relationship Webafrica!!!!!!

How do you expect them to know what line speed you have?

With even a 10Meg line you can finish that data in a few days. A few hours if you have 40Meg line.

 

[atunguyd]

School fees.

Oh so ripping off customers is ok as it teaches them a lesson?
What was my lesson here? Read the terms and conditions, which never stated this? Or always signing up for monthly services on the 1st?

 

[atunguyd]

How do you expect them to know what line speed you have?

With even a 10Meg line you can finish that data in a few days. A few hours if you have 40Meg line.

Simple bill monthly, I paid on the 27th so my billing cycle should run from the 27th to the 27th of every month.

This is not rocket science and not something that is hard to implement, every other service i have ever had did things this way.

Or....


Charge pro rate - I paid on the 27th so give me 3 days and 10% of the data allocation.

What about the person who signs up the night before the end of the month? DO they get charged a full months data allocation for 12 hours?

If this is the way their system works then it should have been made clear up front.

 

[Orihalcon]

Oh so ripping off customers is ok as it teaches them a lesson?
What was my lesson here? Read the terms and conditions, which never stated this? Or always signing up for monthly services on the 1st?

Ask the question. Receive the answer. Same as what Chevron said. If you had a 40mb line you can burn through that 120gb with ease.

Also them giving the full amount stop them getting queries on why aren't I getting all my data. Capped offers concurrent connections as well - should they have smelled that only a single user was going to use it? Up to 4 people could have connected to that account on 4mb - 40mb accounts and have used the 120gb in a day?

See what I'm getting at?

 

[Joker]

If anything they should at least have 1 line when signing up alerting customers to this..

 

[Orihalcon]

Simple bill monthly, I paid on the 27th so my billing cycle should run from the 27th to the 27th of every month.

This is not rocket science and not something that is hard to implement, every other service i have ever had did things this way.

Which other ISP runs their billing cycle on a client per client sign up date?

 

[atunguyd]

Which other ISP runs their billing cycle on a client per client sign up date?

TO be honest I am not sure simply because I have not used many ISP's in SA.

But my cell provider charges me on the date that I signed up, my electricity bill is charged on the site that I signed up.

We are beyond the times when a clerk ran the billing manually on a typewriter, there is no technical reason why you cannot charge clients based on their signup date, especially when you consider that this is a IT based company.

 

[ghanslo]

Reading through all this leads me to believe that the following should happen:

You cannot hold Web Africa to blame for billing you the full amount for 3 days, as others have stated, dependent on your line, you can burn through this in less than a day. How is Web Africa to know what line speed you have.

Although having said this, I can also understand that customers have the right to be informed before purchasing any CAPPED data that they will be charged in full regardless of the fact that only 3 days remain. And they can state there reasons as well. This will atleast allow the customer to purchase a smaller package for the 3 days and then purchase the bigger one come the 1st of the month.

If Web Africa does have this info available, I think it best be available/displayed to the customer whilst the purchase is in progress.

When a company is transparent about their products, situations like this will not happen.

Just my 2c.

 

[envo]

TO be honest I am not sure simply because I have not used many ISP's in SA.

But my cell provider charges me on the date that I signed up, my electricity bill is charged on the site that I signed up.

We are beyond the times when a clerk ran the billing manually on a typewriter, there is no technical reason why you cannot charge clients based on their signup date, especially when you consider that this is a IT based company.

They inform you upfront of everything. Your failure to read what you are confirming before the purchase is your own fault

 

[ghanslo]

They inform you upfront of everything. Your failure to read what you are confirming before the purchase is your own fault

And if that's the case, then I have to agree with envo.

 

[bokka1]

When you had the option to activate the service I am sure they asked if it was for this month or the next month.

Also it is clearly stated in the T&C's:

See point 54:

Web Africa products and services are not pro-rated with the exception of Adsl lines, Adsl complete and Hosting packages (including Dedicated servers).

AND even on the sign up page there is zero indication of pro-rata payments.

 

[ghanslo]

When you had the option to activate the service I am sure they asked if it was for this month or the next month.

Also it is clearly stated in the T&C's:

See point 54:

Web Africa products and services are not pro-rated with the exception of Adsl lines, Adsl complete and Hosting packages (including Dedicated servers).

AND even on the sign up page there is zero indication of pro-rata payments.

And that's a wrap! Till next time folks.

 

[Kayoss]

Also it is clearly stated in the T&C's:

See point 54:

Web Africa products and services are not pro-rated with the exception of Adsl lines, Adsl complete and Hosting packages (including Dedicated servers).

AND even on the sign up page there is zero indication of pro-rata payments.

Point 54!?!?

I can't believe everyone is jumping to support WebAfrica here. If that's the case, why is everybody jumping down Mweb's throat for having their capped data set by default to be uncapped. It says so in their terms and conditions!

To argue that people can burn through 120GB in a matter of hours, or that it's your own fault for not confirming beforehand, or that it teaches you a lesson, etc, does not make it OK for them to charge for an entire month, when there's only 3 days left. If this thread were about Mweb or Openweb doing the same, people would be foaming at the mouth!

Look, here's my take on it. Other ISP's charge you pro-rata when doing the same, and unless WA make it VERY clear before signing up that they do things differently, it really is bad practice. Illegal? No. Unethical? Eh, perhaps not. But when people are looking to sign up to your ISP, and your first action is to bill them hard, and then claim T'&C's, you're not making a very good first impression.

It's a really poor decision by WA management to run things that way as it discourages potential clients from signing up during the month. But that's all it really is... a poor business decision. Nothing more.

 

[heartbroken]

When signing up with a capped plan there is no mention of calender month - they just say "per month" which leads one to believe that you get a good 30 days of service.

Here's the signup page - where does it say calender month or make it clear that you will only get a partial timeframe even though you will pay for a full period:
https://www.webafrica.co.za/cart.php?a=confproduct&i=0

I honestly think this is totally unethical on web africa's side, I have never come across a monthly service before that either does not charge a pro rate amount or bills over a 30 day period not calender months.

I must admit I did not study the terms and conditions when signing up, but I took a look now and I cant see this covered there:
https://www.webafrica.co.za/about/legal/#legal-terms

Again it seems like they have not really detailed this and are taking a chance here.

When I signed up for mine, there was a HUGE box which showed what I will be charged.

EDIT: Which after I saw that, I decided to wait until the first to signup.

 

[ghanslo]

Point 54!?!?

I can't believe everyone is jumping to support WebAfrica here. If that's the case, why is everybody jumping down Mweb's throat for having their capped data set by default to be uncapped. It says so in their terms and conditions!

To argue that people can burn through 120GB in a matter of hours, or that it's your own fault for not confirming beforehand, or that it teaches you a lesson, etc, does not make it OK for them to charge for an entire month, when there's only 3 days left. If this thread were about Mweb or Openweb doing the same, people would be foaming at the mouth!

Look, here's my take on it. Other ISP's charge you pro-rata when doing the same, and unless WA make it VERY clear before signing up that they do things differently, it really is bad practice. Illegal? No. Unethical? Eh, perhaps not. But when people are looking to sign up to your ISP, and your first action is to bill them hard, and then claim T'&C's, you're not making a very good first impression.

It's a really poor decision by WA management to run things that way as it discourages potential clients from signing up during the month. But that's all it really is... a poor business decision. Nothing more.

No business operates the same, so they say each to their own.

With other ISP's, it gets displayed during checkout the amount payable for X amount of data. If pro-rata applies, it gets displayed. In Web Africas case, it does not get displayed, so one would logically think that it does not apply. They work from a month to month basis. They do not lie or deceive in any way, it's purely assumption by the consumer that lead to this misunderstanding.

If the consumer is unsure, ask questions and I'm sure it will get answered.

Maybe it's a bad business decision to not offer pro-rata but surely you can't blame Web Africa for something with regard to misguiding or deceiving the consumer and billing them incorrectly.

 

[Webafrica Helper]

Just a warning to all you out there planning to switch to webafrica for a capped plan.

No matter what time in the month you sign up for they will charge you for a full calender month. No pro-rate, no reduced data... nothing.

I signed up on the 27th of last month for a 120GB plan and probably used about 5-10 GB. I saw today that they charged me a full months payment for those three days.44I phoned them and I was told that they do not do pro-rata on capped accounts because "you get the full amount of data from the day you signed up".

I feel that this is totally unfair and not something that is made clear when signing up. I paid for 120GB over one month, not 120GB over 3 days.

I have tried to resolve this in private with them on the phone but so far only empty promises to call back later, further it is not possible to talk to anyone higher then telephone support in the chain.

Not a good way to start a business relationship Webafrica!!!!!!

Hi atunguyd,

Really sorry to hear that you are this unhappy with us and it is definitely not a good start with us. We do not charge pro-rata for capped services as the full allocation of the data is provided to the customer. Another point to mention is that during the checkout process we clearly indicate what you are going to be billed today/immediately and if you've chosen to only activate next month it will show you that there is nothing owed today. See screenshots below:





So all the information was made available to you prior to you confirming the order. I have spoken to the agent who was handling your issue and I believe they have resolved the matter. Please let us know if you have received the feedback.