Cell C, Virgin Mobile: great partnership or lost cause?

[rpm]

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Cellular/1081.html

 

[theStudent]

Virgin publicized 'great deals' when opening, thinking that offering customers less was the great deal....
For the same price per month with MTN or Vodacom on a contract, you can get a new phone with free minutes etc...

Virgin thought that offering no 'hidden costs' would get customers to move over...... well at least they starting to realize now that offering a customer nothing, in return for no 'hidden costs' isn't working out!

 

[antowan]

I prefer no hidden costs to be honest. The only reason I stopped using their network was because it wasn't working. Simple. It wasn't working at ANY cost.

 

[Abe]

Virgin publicized 'great deals' when opening, thinking that offering customers less was the great deal....
For the same price per month with MTN or Vodacom on a contract, you can get a new phone with free minutes etc...

Thats not quite true. My wife and I now have two VM accounts and get more calls then I did on only one account with MTN.

 

[theStudent]

But for the 1st few months of operation, they didnt offer free handsets and had similar contract prices to the other providers.

 

[Syndyre]

Virgin Mobile's Maweni downplays the company's battle with Vodacom and MTN, saying that they do not see the two mobile giants as competition.

This has to be one of the dumbest statements ever made.

 

[theStudent]

This has to be one of the dumbest statements ever made.

Nah... they dont see it as competition... the mobile phone industry is an oligopoly... therefore all fix prices high enough not to worry about competition....

 

[Skeptik]

Virgin could have picked the cream of SA's mobile workers or even imported specialists from their UK division. Instead, they picked dummies who could not handle any problems. For example; the VRewards system still doesn't work as advertised. Their internet service is a shambles despite complaint after complaint.
I repeat my prediction. They will go under within a year if nothing major is done.

 

[AirWolf]

It is really a joke that Cell C targets the lower end of the network while Virgin targets the higher end --> they both using the same infrastructure and what exactly does VM have to offer the higher end of the market when they don't have access to a 3g Network? Mr Branson, I think you just stepped in poo

 

[Skeptik]

Well Branson has just relinquished responsibility for the Virgin brand (all of them).

 

[AirWolf]

Well Branson has just relinquished responsibility for the Virgin brand (all of them).

When? Link please

Edit: I checked the news stories - you are pulling my leg

 

[DragonLogos]

Virgin has from its early days in the Seventys been a price cutting, budget brand. It is its advertising that makes it look up market - not everyone can afford cutting edge, and they offer a cheaper alternative to Telkom dial up

 

[dionb]

It would be sad to see them go (down/gone).
Even to be absorbed into and existing show like cell-c, unless the model remains of course.
The brand I am not really glued to - not a brand only person - the offering, and loss thereof. The choices are not available from others basically.
When will South Africans start to realize that nothing is for free.
Why would a corporation (who is not a welfare institution, rather a money making machine with t-rex appetite for money) spend millions to promote/advertise something "free". You are being ripped off wholesale somewhere else basically..

 

[AirWolf]

At the end of the day perception is reality

 

[xrapidx]

I was with Virgin briefly, and used my phone as I normally did on Vodacom's 120m anytime package... My phone bill on Vodacom averaged R400-R700/pm.

The two months I was with Virgin it was about R1200-1400/pm.

They're not offering anything special.

 

[Cara]

I was with Virgin briefly, and used my phone as I normally did on Vodacom's 120m anytime package... My phone bill on Vodacom averaged R400-R700/pm.

The two months I was with Virgin it was about R1200-1400/pm.

They're not offering anything special.

I'd say ... seems like they're offering something a lot more expensive from the figures you've provided above. Not sure what Voda's 120m anytime package is but I'm assuming the two packages were comparable?

 

[JK8]

Virgin publicized 'great deals' when opening, thinking that offering customers less was the great deal....
For the same price per month with MTN or Vodacom on a contract, you can get a new phone with free minutes etc...

Virgin thought that offering no 'hidden costs' would get customers to move over...... well at least they starting to realize now that offering a customer nothing, in return for no 'hidden costs' isn't working out!

The thing about those great deals is they made the SA public out to have being robbed and they were going to save us lol!!

In the end they packages are more or less the same, noone really wants to pay for a phone every 2 years.

 

[dionb]

What we all have to remember is that Virgin has to operate within existing parameters = the deal they are afforded by Cell C in their case, who in turn has to tow the line with Vodacom and MTN. Don't try and tell me there is no cartell type issue here. Or do they just follow one another the way they do.
In short - anybody who was expecting next to nothing cellular call rates from Virgin - is on the wrong planet or in the wrong era.
Virgin is nothing other than a Service Provider with extra branding (noticed this morning the Virgin has been replaced by Cell C on cell info???), but they are not towing the network retail line on rates.
Like anything (virtually) out there - you have to look at it carefully.
You do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out - if you are looking at off-peak rates or off-peak sms rates, bundles and higher usage - you are not going to score much - and possibly loose on Virgin.
If you are looking at peak rates in typical 120 minutes a month bracket, hands down Virgin.
They do not offer data bundles, and their 50c/MB is not the cheapest since the big guys dropped their rates, but is very fair when you compare it to out-of-bundle rates or even smaller add-on bundles.
Actually I am using Virgin right now - MS update messed up my Vodacom 3G usage budget. Why pay out-of-bundle or an ad-hoc bundle (of which the change goes down the loo tonight). My Virgin credit has been lying on the sim for 2 months, added R35 and still working - and it does not go down the loo tonight.
MTN charge me 85c/sms anytime, also more than Virgin.
Then the 10s of hearing a message where I cannot leave a message, costs me a minute of air-time.
They all "offer" per second billing at the bottom and mid-range, but at sky-high rates. Cell C are in the region to R3.30/min eq.
Bottom line - variety is good, and the 3 network operators are all offering similar deals as it were. Complex deals at that.
You can use Virgin without tying into a 2 year torture session, and duck if you are not happy.
At least the consumer - which is what this forum is about - has another choice. For some the choice is good and others not.

 

[xrapidx]

I'd say ... seems like they're offering something a lot more expensive from the figures you've provided above. Not sure what Voda's 120m anytime package is but I'm assuming the two packages were comparable?

Just can't remember the package name from Vodacom, it was one of those where you get 120m/free pm. I had the Virgin R100/pm one.

 

[AirWolf]

Vodacom's package is called Weekend Everyday.