Complaint against Vodacom

I am on prepaid data bundles, and had alot of stuff on my pc Updating in the background eating my cap. so I installed a firewall well comodo firewall its a bit of hassle to set it up and check every program that wants to access the internet but after long time I have made it only stuff that ask me to update will go thru without any problem , I had stuff like googleupdate.exe . abobeupdate.exe , they just update never asked so just Blocked them using comodo works like a charm, at most now I have between 10 to 3 incoming out going connections
 
Fudzy said:
Since moving onto Vodacom I got an SMS warning me that my limit was close and I would be charged OOB rates. Is it a new service? Pretty lame not assigning it to existing customers.
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Been available to ALL Vodacom data users for years.

And you can even nominate an Alternate Number (ALTNUM) if you won't see the SMS's going to the SIM, for example in a router.

Then there's CLL. Been available for years.

Really no reason to go OOB. And if you want to go OOB but not pay high rates, get Advanced. Been available for years....wait I've already said that.......
 
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BBSA said:
Agree, this is probably illegal under the national credit act(NCA). Blu should fight this in court.
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Telecoms providers are deemed Continuous Service providers. Just like your electricity and water.
 
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BBSA said:
Correct, Vodacom should have 'n credit limit for each customer based on affordability and make sure the customer does not exceed that limit.
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All subs do have a credit limit as determined by their own profiles. This will trigger a hard-lock. But you can set up your own soft-lock, called CLL.
 
Why is there even such a price difference in the first place?
OOB should be the same price as a bundle unless of course this is what the networks initially wanted. How many people get shafted with this? I am sure hundreds of thousands.
 
Many people seem to get new arseholes riven by the cell networks in this way.

The DTI had ( hopefully still has ) a process for dealing with "Harmful Business Practices" such as this, even a committee nogal.
The Act ( which I presume still stands - IANAL and all ) has this appropriate definition:

“unfair business practice” means any business practice which, directly or
indirectly, has or is likely to have the effect of -
(a) harming the relations between businesses and consumers;
(b) unreasonably prejudicing any consumer;
(c) deceiving any consumer; or
(d) unfairly affecting any consumer.
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I would suggest approaching the DTI with your situation, as this sort of nonsense should be stopped.
 
This practice which is unethical IMO should be challenged in all and any legal avenues.
Its disgusting the prices we pay for data bundles and then god help you if you go over them.
Not everyone is technical and understands how the network cartels do their dodgy business, some people just want to be able to get onto the net and do what they want to do for a reasonable price.
 
i do believe that service providers introduced irresponsible lending on purpose. Especially when you sign up for a contract, credit vetting is done establishing your credit limits. I think it is irresponsible that Service Providers after the fact announce that you can do this or that to monitor/cap usage. This should be explained properly upfront. Your regular user needing internet connectivity will basically see an offer to get a 3G stick on contract and the retail outlets really don't care/bother (or even know) that those facilities exist.

I always wondered why service providers don't apply a concept like banks similar to daily/monthly withdrawal limits - but then again, this would really hurt the turnover and would not be in the interest of share holders. Regardless if the usage was legitimate (i.e. your PC/laptop used those 20GB), I would still challenge it and refuse payment and then report it to ICASA / NCC. I see it the same way as a bank allowing you to infinitely spending money on your overdraft. In the end it benefits no-one - bad press for the service provider (and possible debt write off).
 
jannievanzyl said:
Been available to ALL Vodacom data users for years.

And you can even nominate an Alternate Number (ALTNUM) if you won't see the SMS's going to the SIM, for example in a router.

Then there's CLL. Been available for years.

Really no reason to go OOB. And if you want to go OOB but not pay high rates, get Advanced. Been available for years....wait I've already said that.......
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All those systems don't really prevent you going OOB, the delayed updates mean you could be well over by the time the warnings or locks come through. The question is still why do you charge R2/Mb. You could charge the in-bundle rate for a few hours allowing the account to lock without user running up ridiculous rates. Also Vodacom don't allow night owl for users on top up contracts which suggests they are "rewarding" those they expect to profiteer off with their OOB rates.

Your advanced data is too expensive.
 
marine1 said:
Why is there even such a price difference in the first place?
OOB should be the same price as a bundle unless of course this is what the networks initially wanted. How many people get shafted with this? I am sure hundreds of thousands.
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Been there for a long time. Called Broadband Advance. Was originally built on request of this forum. Pity then the members don't use it. ;)
 
R13... said:
All those systems don't really prevent you going OOB, the delayed updates mean you could be well over by the time the warnings or locks come through. The question is still why do you charge R2/Mb. You could charge the in-bundle rate for a few hours allowing the account to lock without user running up ridiculous rates. Also Vodacom don't allow night owl for users on top up contracts which suggests they are "rewarding" those they expect to profiteer off with their OOB rates.

Your advanced data is too expensive.
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You've got a few facts mixed up it seems. OOB on contract (where there might be delays today) is not R2/MB. And if you want to go OOB (many do - do you really want to be cut off in the middle of a 1GB download?), then use Advance.

If you want to be cur off at the end of the bundle, use Top Up. TopUp runs on the prepaid systems to ensure real-time management of your spend, i.e. you can only go OOB if you activly put money in the account to do so. But NO does not work on the PP system.
 
jannievanzyl said:
You've got a few facts mixed up it seems. OOB on contract (where there might be delays today) is not R2/MB. And if you want to go OOB (many do - do you really want to be cut off in the middle of a 1GB download?), then use Advance.

If you want to be cur off at the end of the bundle, use Top Up. TopUp runs on the prepaid systems to ensure real-time management of your spend, i.e. you can only go OOB if you activly put money in the account to do so. But NO does not work on the PP system.
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I wanted top up but also want night owl. Why is night owl only on normal contracts?
 
R13... said:
jannievanzyl said:
You've got a few facts mixed up it seems. OOB on contract (where there might be delays today) is not R2/MB. And if you want to go OOB (many do - do you really want to be cut off in the middle of a 1GB download?), then use Advance.

If you want to be cur off at the end of the bundle, use Top Up. TopUp runs on the prepaid systems to ensure real-time management of your spend, i.e. you can only go OOB if you activly put money in the account to do so. But NO does not work on the PP system.
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I wanted top up but also want night owl. Why is night owl only on normal contracts?
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Night owl is on prepaid as well.
 
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