Merovingian_SA
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2015
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 0
Is it not time we have a look at how we are being blindly robbed by the major cellphone companies, who have the monopoly and make the rules.
Why are we being forced into their clever "terms and conditions" with no other options, if you want the phone you have to play by their rules, which only protects their interest and not you the consumer.
You can even make a formal complaint with the ombudsman or the National Consumer Commission, you will not get your problems resolved and the Multimillionaire Cellular giants gets away with your hard earned money.
Below are examples how you are cheated out of your money.
"Terms and Conditions"
When agreeing to a new Cellular deal, you will be contacted by a sales representative, who most of the time just reads a script given to him/her. There is no point asking questions as you will most likely be directed to call the customer care department or go to a website.
A "shortened " Terms and conditions are read over the phone, just to cover the basics, like they are allowed to debit your account etc. the important terms are provided to you in a neatly sealed package when the phone is delivered and you have already signed for the phone with the 3rd party courier company. By signing for the phone, you have agreed to the terms," still sealed in the box and you are bind to play by their rules for the next 24 months.
Even if you ask for these terms prior to the delivery of the phone, you are more likely to see a unicorn in city centre.
"Perishable" Talktime
Talk time expiry dates, If you do not use your allocated talk time, whether it's contract or topup within a certain time period, e.g Cell C 90 days, Vodacom 6 Months,etc. You will forfeit this accumulated talk time.
Carryover rule, sounds great on paper, but if you do not use your talk time the amount will be carried over, but at the beginning of the new month, your new talk time will be allocated to your account, you can only use your carry over talk time, once you have depleted the new month's talk time.
This is like opening a carton of milk, you have to use this milk before it expires, but half way through carton 1, you are told you should start using a new carton and can only finish carton nr. 1 , on completion of carton 2 . It just does not make sense for the consumer, but the Company scores, since you have paid for the value of the talk time, and now you lose because you have not used it.
Data Bundle disasters
Data charges, Why do we even have different data bundles etc. Once again there is two cleverly hidden money making schemes here.
1st - You are being charged excessively if you are out of bundle, so you have a new smartphone that chows data quicker than a student grabs Mcdonald's after oppi, So you plan for the data usage during the month, if you go over the allocated data which is provided by your network operator, you will be charged as per below.
Service Data bundle size Price Out of bundle rate Out of bundle bill Overcharged
Cell C - 100MB - R 29 - R 0.99 - R 99.00 - R 70.00
MTN - 100MB - R 29 - R 0.65 - R 65.00 - R 36.00
Vodacom - 100MB - R 29 - R 2.00 - R 200.00 - R 171.00
Telkom - 100MB - R 29 - R 0.29 - R 29.00 - R 00.00
So if you used your 100mb and by any chance use another 100mb out of bundle, Vodacom in this case will charge you R200 in stead of R29, which gives them a profit of R171.00. What justify's this huge out of bundle charges ?
Expiry dates, even if you try and avoid the excessive charges for Data on your phone, you cannot use all your data because of the carryover rules and expiry dates similar to the talk time.
To close off, why should there be a limitation placed on a product with a certain value , that you as the consumer should use your data, sms and Talk time within a certain amount of time, Why are these terms and conditions not mentioned when you agree to the Terms and Conditions at point of sale.
We have to stand together to bring down this Tirent rule of the the Cellular providers.
Regards
M
Why are we being forced into their clever "terms and conditions" with no other options, if you want the phone you have to play by their rules, which only protects their interest and not you the consumer.
You can even make a formal complaint with the ombudsman or the National Consumer Commission, you will not get your problems resolved and the Multimillionaire Cellular giants gets away with your hard earned money.
Below are examples how you are cheated out of your money.
"Terms and Conditions"
When agreeing to a new Cellular deal, you will be contacted by a sales representative, who most of the time just reads a script given to him/her. There is no point asking questions as you will most likely be directed to call the customer care department or go to a website.
A "shortened " Terms and conditions are read over the phone, just to cover the basics, like they are allowed to debit your account etc. the important terms are provided to you in a neatly sealed package when the phone is delivered and you have already signed for the phone with the 3rd party courier company. By signing for the phone, you have agreed to the terms," still sealed in the box and you are bind to play by their rules for the next 24 months.
Even if you ask for these terms prior to the delivery of the phone, you are more likely to see a unicorn in city centre.
"Perishable" Talktime
Talk time expiry dates, If you do not use your allocated talk time, whether it's contract or topup within a certain time period, e.g Cell C 90 days, Vodacom 6 Months,etc. You will forfeit this accumulated talk time.
Carryover rule, sounds great on paper, but if you do not use your talk time the amount will be carried over, but at the beginning of the new month, your new talk time will be allocated to your account, you can only use your carry over talk time, once you have depleted the new month's talk time.
This is like opening a carton of milk, you have to use this milk before it expires, but half way through carton 1, you are told you should start using a new carton and can only finish carton nr. 1 , on completion of carton 2 . It just does not make sense for the consumer, but the Company scores, since you have paid for the value of the talk time, and now you lose because you have not used it.
Data Bundle disasters
Data charges, Why do we even have different data bundles etc. Once again there is two cleverly hidden money making schemes here.
1st - You are being charged excessively if you are out of bundle, so you have a new smartphone that chows data quicker than a student grabs Mcdonald's after oppi, So you plan for the data usage during the month, if you go over the allocated data which is provided by your network operator, you will be charged as per below.
Service Data bundle size Price Out of bundle rate Out of bundle bill Overcharged
Cell C - 100MB - R 29 - R 0.99 - R 99.00 - R 70.00
MTN - 100MB - R 29 - R 0.65 - R 65.00 - R 36.00
Vodacom - 100MB - R 29 - R 2.00 - R 200.00 - R 171.00
Telkom - 100MB - R 29 - R 0.29 - R 29.00 - R 00.00
So if you used your 100mb and by any chance use another 100mb out of bundle, Vodacom in this case will charge you R200 in stead of R29, which gives them a profit of R171.00. What justify's this huge out of bundle charges ?
Expiry dates, even if you try and avoid the excessive charges for Data on your phone, you cannot use all your data because of the carryover rules and expiry dates similar to the talk time.
To close off, why should there be a limitation placed on a product with a certain value , that you as the consumer should use your data, sms and Talk time within a certain amount of time, Why are these terms and conditions not mentioned when you agree to the Terms and Conditions at point of sale.
We have to stand together to bring down this Tirent rule of the the Cellular providers.
Regards
M
