It is still a contract Telkom.

[47Ronin]

As most of us know by now Vodaom has introduced contracts that now last for up to 36 months. Anyone that had a Vodacom contract can tell you they don't really care for clients, and clients can't get out of those contracts easily. Also if a better deal comes out you will have to wait 36 months before you can even consider it.

This is where Cell C and Telkom use to be better. They use to offer good data packages on prepaid but sadly the signal quality was never stable or good, in many parts of the country it will be downright unusable. As someone that use to travel a lot I can say that Cell C clients do not enjoy good coverage and as a Telkom client the network is not stable and downloads will easily be lost. Especially if it is large files. This obviously add to the cost because sometimes the file corrupts when it was paused.

Then slowly the good data plans went away especially on Cell C and we dumped their sim cards about a month ago now. Not only did they get more expensive, they did not provide good speeds at all.

Telkom also got more and more expensive on their prepaid deals. Make no mistake they are not nearly as expensive as Vodacom but they are not cheap especially if you have to deal with large files.

Then we had the introduction of month to month and it offered really good packages and affordable pricing. However people that do not have pay-slips was simply not helped. So it is not a true month to month. It is however a contract that you can cancel. That still provide some control.

But to be clear month to month IS a contract, they do a credit check, they want to see your bank statements AND pay-slip. This was my first hand experience. Thankfully for me a family member said they will help as long as I pay the contract out front. Meaning I had to pay in the full value of the contract I selected.

Being in my current position, I had no choice and grabbed my savings as well as selling a few things I didn't need to make sure that I am covered for at least 2 years as it stands today. This will protect the family member and myself.

That said, why can't Telkom just accept a full cash payment for the entire year? Then it is at no risk to them, they got the entire contracts worth in a single day and they don't have to worry about debit orders and stuff like that. So they are getting a really good deal here.

So my open question to Telkom is: Why don't you allow us to "buy" a 12 month contract? We pay the amount in FULL that means you get 12 months worth installments in a single day. Your profits will look good because there are thousands of people just like me, willing to buy a contract.

Telkom Please understand "traditional work" and pay slips are becoming a thing of the past. Many people like myself work from day to day and we have to earn our money each and every day. We do not have employment nor can we register for self employment because running a business and having to provide for an accountant is a lot of money if our earnings is far less then the requirements.

Please consider this, it will help thousands and you will make good money. Come on Telkom you are not Vodacom you can truly make the difference here.


Thank you for reading.

 

[Cactus]

Thankfully for me a family member said they will help as long as I pay the contract out front.

I'm really happy you managed to find a way.

As for large companies, I think it simply makes accounting and planning easier. It's easier for a large company to plan when you have a set income X months than having to plan, fund and pay salaries and projects on larger "once off" amounts.

If you spend 5 million on a project now with no income in the foreseeable future, and you don't know how many new people will sign up, it becomes quite risky, so I fully understand why contracts are in place (even if it's month to month)

This is probably (but just my opinion) why prepaid is more expensive. The pricing is set up in such a way to try and get you to take out a contract.

 

[Mogo]

I tried paying up front (or a few months ahead) but had endless billing issues after the fact (Telkom). Kept getting billed and had to log queries to get them credited. Would then get billed again a few months down the line and had to repeat this process. Wasn't worth the headache.