iBurst's Pricing Trickery

Alkazar

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iBurst are trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes. They have made misleading statements and should be held accountable and forced to adhere to their stated intentions.

They promised to add 500 MB or 200 MB respectively to all packages.

They stated that they were only renaming the packages but that the packages were still the same packages, just with the extra 500 MB or 200 MB added on.

Either they have not added the full 500 MB (or 200 MB) extra as promised, or they have decreased the original allocated bandwidth on all packages - depending on how you look at it.

They have broken their word in one way or the other - most probably thinking that we would be too stupid to realise it.

They have also tried to make it seem like the increase in additional bandwidth prices is not as high as it really is.

They have done all of this by trying to fool people into believing that 1 GB is equal to 1000 MB instead of 1024 MB. They correctly used the figure of 1024 MB previously.

Following is a breakdown of the differences between the old and new pricing structure. You will notice that someone on the old G9 package is only saving 0.3c per MB or R3.65 per GB on his package but paying 6.3c per MB or R64.78 per GB more for an additional GB of data.

Code:
  Old   |              OLD PRICE            |                   NEW PRICE                  | Decrease |            |
Package |  Allocated B/W |  per GB | per MB | Allocated B/W | B/W Added |  per GB | per MB |  per GB  | % Decrease |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G1   | 1 GB (1024 MB) | R469.00 |  45.8c |       1500 MB |    476 MB | R320.17 |  31.3c |  R148.83 |    31.7%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G3   | 3 GB (3072 MB) | R199.67 |  19.5c |       3500 MB |    428 MB | R175.25 |  17.1c |  R 24.42 |    12.3%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G6   | 6 GB (6144 MB) | R149.83 |  14.6c |       6500 MB |    356 MB | R141.63 |  13.8c |  R  8.20 |     5.8%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G9   | 9 GB (9216 MB) | R122.11 |  11.9c |       9500 MB |    284 MB | R118.46 |  11.6c |  R  3.65 |     2.6%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Add-On Data:

Code:
  Old   |              OLD PRICE            |         NEW PRICE          | Increase |            |
Package | 1 GB (1024 MB) |  per GB | per MB | 1000 MB |  per GB | per MB |  per GB  | % Increase |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G1   |    R179.00     | R179.00 |  17.5c | R199.00 | R203.78 |  19.9c |   R24.78 |    13.8%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G3   |    R159.00     | R159.00 |  15.5c | R199.00 | R203.78 |  19.9c |   R44.78 |    28.2%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G6   |    R149.00     | R149.00 |  14.6c | R199.00 | R203.78 |  19.9c |   R54.78 |    36.8%   |   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G9   |    R139.00     | R139.00 |  13.6c | R199.00 | R203.78 |  19.9c |   R64.78 |    46.6%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  Old   |              OLD PRICE            |         NEW PRICE          | Increase |            |
Package | 3 GB (3072 MB) |  per GB | per MB | 3000 MB |  per GB | per MB |  per GB  | % Increase |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G1   |    R439.00     | R146.33 |  14.3c | R499.00 | R170.33 |  16.6c |   R24.00 |    16.4%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G3   |    R399.00     | R133.00 |  13.0c | R499.00 | R170.33 |  16.6c |   R37.33 |    28.1%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G6   |    R379.00     | R126.33 |  12.3c | R499.00 | R170.33 |  16.6c |   R44.00 |    34.8%   |   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   G9   |    R349.00     | R116.33 |  11.4c | R499.00 | R170.33 |  16.6c |   R54.00 |    46.4%   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
They basically increased the price on "out of bundle".. ouch
 
Heh, HDD manufactures lie about GB's too.

When last did you get a 160gig HDD that was actually 160gigs?

And 4.7gig DVDs? Isn't it amazing how they only hold 4.5 gigs of data?

Either way, they're just using the same bullcrap tactics that the rest of the industry is using. Heck, even the 1MB per second statement is designed to fool people who don't know the difference between bits and bytes.
 
Well if you look at the old and new packages, they steel MB's from their users.
Old G1 was 1024MB, add 500MB to it, it's suppose to be 1524MB they short you with 24MB.
Old G3 was 3072MB, add 500MB to it, it's suppose to be 3572MB they short you with 72MB.
Old G6 was 6144MB, add 500MB to it, it's suppose to be 6644MB they short you with 144MB.
Old G9 was 9216MB, add 500 MB to it, it's suppose to be 9716MB they short you with 216MB.

Somewhere some one at iBurst mess up the whole idea of adding 500MB to they packages.
 
Heh, HDD manufactures lie about GB's too.

When last did you get a 160gig HDD that was actually 160gigs?

And 4.7gig DVDs? Isn't it amazing how they only hold 4.5 gigs of data?

Either way, they're just using the same bullcrap tactics that the rest of the industry is using. Heck, even the 1MB per second statement is designed to fool people who don't know the difference between bits and bytes.

If they had been using this "Chinese Maths" from the beginning then everything would have been fine with their price and package changes.

It is the fact of changing the calculation at this point in time so as to fool the public and not keep to their promises that is the problem.

Seems like they are getting lessons from Telkom!

If a HDD manufacturer was always selling a 160 GB drive that was 163 840 MB then suddenly changed it to 160 000 MB for the same price or said that they would give you 10 000 MB extra for free but then gave you a 170 000 MB drive instead of a 173 840 MB drive - they would be being dishonest by changing the calculations to suit themselves and to fool you.
 
Last edited:
We;ve been through this in the thread titled something like does iBurst know what 500MB is. Or some such.
 
It's obvious iBurst know what 500 MB is, just as they know what 1000 MB and 1024 MB is.

The problem is they seem to think that the public do not know what 1 GB is!

A new thread was needed as this covers way more than what was being discussed in the other thread and those iBurst subscribers who do not realise how iBurst is now cheating them need to be made aware of the fact.
 
Heh, HDD manufactures lie about GB's too.

When last did you get a 160gig HDD that was actually 160gigs?

And 4.7gig DVDs? Isn't it amazing how they only hold 4.5 gigs of data?

Either way, they're just using the same bullcrap tactics that the rest of the industry is using. Heck, even the 1MB per second statement is designed to fool people who don't know the difference between bits and bytes.

And 8.5GB Dual Layer DVD's only hold 8.25GB. I wanted to write House MD Season 2 on a "8.5"GB dvd only to find out that it's short by 50MB. :mad:
 
Basjohn - At the risk of repeating myself, it is the underhanded manner that iBurst have gone about it that I took umbrage with. Back in March when they announced the packages I actually suspected that this is exactly what they would do. It is little things like these that, in my eyes, shows iBurst treats its customers with contempt.

Who seriously refers to packages above one 1gig in MB terms anyway.
 
To the OP - you must be an accountant :)

Me too. Just popping in to say the calculations make sense... they are actually ripping us off even more than before.
 
Heh, HDD manufactures lie about GB's too.

When last did you get a 160gig HDD that was actually 160gigs?

And 4.7gig DVDs? Isn't it amazing how they only hold 4.5 gigs of data?

Thats because of the way hard drive makers measure a gigabyte. They see a GB as 1000mb and not 1024mb (Gibibyte).
 
Is there anyone who signed a 24-month contract in March this year? Do you have x GB + 500MB? eg 3072MB + 500MB instead of 3000MB + 500MB.
 
i have the wonderfully arb limit of 3502.08 MB now. I dont even wanna know what sorta maths went into it...
 
i started the month with 4.72GB so i aint complaining. atleast their price hike wasnt as dramtic as it was first going to be.

i still dont think its cool that they increase prices while everyone is dropping prices.
 
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