Do free minutes also get downgraded ?

[The Thug]

I have had for the past number of years a Talk 130 package and decided that when it was time for an upgrade I would downgrade my contract to a Weekender (Blackberry Curve special offer). At the end of July when my existing package became redundant, I had the grand total of 485 minutes available.

Now that my package is a Weekender, have my free minutes been converted to weekender minutes or will I still be able to utilise the above minutes during business hours without being charged?

On looking at my account, everything seems to have changed in respect of those free minutes, i.e. (Talk 130 1st and Weekender 2nd)


March 10 - 61min 00sec: 147min 57sec
April 10 - 108min 30sec: 46min 06sec
May 10 - 110min 00 sec: 42min 53sec
Jun 10 - 115min 00 sec: 32min 10sec
Jul 10 - 91min 00: 83min 38sec

It seems to me that I've lost a hell of a lot of minutes and am now worried that if I now use the phone during office hours, I will be charged when in fact I've already paid for those minutes.

Anyone have any ideas, or have I just been royally screwed by Vodacom ?

 

[Ockie]

Your minute carry over would have been calculated by our business and bucket carry over rules. You can only accumulate 6 months worth of minutes. So, on the Talk 130 you would be able to accumulate a total of 130 x 6 = 780 minutes.
On the Weekender, you can accumulate 120 x 6 = 720 minutes. So lets say this applied to you, you would have then only been able to carry over 720 minutes to the Weekender package and would have forfeited 60 minutes. The 720 minutes that carried over, would also now have been converted to weekend minutes. Seeing that you are now on the Weekender package, your minutes can only be utilized from 20:00 to 07:00 during the week, the whole weekend and public holidays.

 

[The Thug]

Thanks for the answer ocleroux.

I'm quite happy in terms of the forfeiture of unused minutes but to convert already paid for "anytime" minutes to "weekender" minutes is as far as I'm concerned a total sleight of hand by Vodacom and smacks of pure profiteering.

Why should I now be charged for minutes used during business hours that I have already previously paid for ? They can't tell me that they don't have the systems to monitor the minutes under my previous package!

It just confirms mine and others viewpoint that Vodacom (and in all probability the other SP's) are a law unto themselves and try to rip the consumer off at every conceivable point!

BTW, give CrunchBang Linux 10 (Alpha2) a try far better than Mint.

 

[Ockie]

What is also important to note Thug (eish..it really sounds like I am insulting you by calling you that lol) is that the reverse is also true. Should you have accumulated 720 minutes on a weekender package, and then migrated to a Talk 130, then all those minutes would be converted to anytime minutes...SCORE!!!

Thanks for the CrunchBang hint. Will have a look at it.