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Massive Vodacom data bills
- Thread starter gizmoza
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- vodacom billing
Privacy and capabilities aside, having a print out would not help your case at all.
However if you're like me, since you've already paid the amount, one of the most annoying things is wanting to know for sure what happened. Partially to prevent it happening again, and partially to just understand it.
On the topic of Vodacom real time billing, watch this space... Ok, not this EXACT space, but the Vodacom space
However if you're like me, since you've already paid the amount, one of the most annoying things is wanting to know for sure what happened. Partially to prevent it happening again, and partially to just understand it.
On the topic of Vodacom real time billing, watch this space... Ok, not this EXACT space, but the Vodacom space
Amazing that a company that turns over billions on data contracts can't put a real-time billing system in place. I suppose "can't" is the wrong word, it should be "don't want to"
Why? Some people don't mind being fools?
Depends from which side you're looking!
I don't know whether VodacomData feeds back to management or not. If he does he must be terribly frustrated as it seems he's ignored more often than not...
Grouter
Executive Member
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No offence intended to VodacomData, but something tells me he doesn't quite have the same clout ol' Jannie did...
How can they not give you information regarding YOUR browsing?, But why if you download something you shouldn't...hehe, they can send you a detailed email with exactly what you downloaded etc etc?.
BS, If they expect you to pay a sheit load of money for internet, You would think that you would get some sort of "service" from them.
If I can get the details it will help me... Like I said the bill has been paid, but I would like to know where all the bandwidth is going. So if I can see the sites accessed eg. updates.microsoft.com then I will know that it was updates or if it is a dodgy site then I will know it is a virus... Right now Vodacom is leaving me in the dark, we all know that Windows and its malware, viruses etc. can cause chaos with bandwidth, but I think Vodacom loves windows users cause they can bill people for things like this. I mean, the poor users that know nothing about pc's get massive bills and not even their service provider can tell you "You have accessed this site and that is caused by x y and z" why? Cause they make money from things like this!!!
Do you have any idea how and when I use my data? Or where I am irresponsible? No you don't, so you are not quite in a position to make comments like that. Working FOR vodacom doesn't mean you know anything.
you being a customer and of opinion doesnt mean you always right
wordhog
Active Member
Ridiculously overcharged for data usage by Vodacom - how common is this?
I'm in the process of trying to sort out a problem with Vodacom, whereby they have billed us over R14,000 for our monthly data usage. We know that this is completely impossible*.
On mentioning it to some friends via Facebook, it seems that we are far from alone with this situation - one mentioned she had to pay R6k when Vodacom "proved" that she had overused on her data allowance, another paid over R2k, another R17k (I think that might have been voice roaming rather than data). All three dispute that they used the data/made the calls, but Vodacom insisted that they must have either had a virus or someone else had used the data/phone. My friends gave up and paid.
I'm not going to give up because I KNOW I'm right. But I'm worried now - has anyone ever taken Vodacom on about something like this and WON?
* Proof that it's not possible:
We are a wireless internet provider. It's a MyMeg500 contract and we only use it rarely as a backup when all the ADSL lines go down (it's attached to our load balancer as a failover). Last month, the ADSL lines all went down for approximately approximately 20 minutes on one day. Only one of our customers is configured to use the failover and they are aware they must only use it for email - they were alerted to this at the time as a reminder. The rest of the time, the 3G modem was not in use - we have logs to show the data usage was less than 100Mb during the ADSL outage. Nobody has removed the 3G modem and borrowed it - it would be a sackable offence. According to Vodacom, it was used for around 2 hours on a Saturday (this is BS - it hasn't been used at all at a weekend) and 9Gb was downloaded in that time. Again this is BS - where we live it isn't physically possible to squash 9Gb down the line within 2 hours - and there is no record of this kind of throughput on our logs.
Despite all this I'm worried that Vodacom will force us to pay to retain the service - pay now and we'll sort it out later, that kind of tactic. But more than that, I'm outraged that Vodacom can bully customers into paying for something they didn't use. If we were not a service provider, we wouldn't have the means to prove our innocence. I am a freelance writer and I'm seriously considering writing an exposé on this. Stories and perspectives welcome...
I'm in the process of trying to sort out a problem with Vodacom, whereby they have billed us over R14,000 for our monthly data usage. We know that this is completely impossible*.
On mentioning it to some friends via Facebook, it seems that we are far from alone with this situation - one mentioned she had to pay R6k when Vodacom "proved" that she had overused on her data allowance, another paid over R2k, another R17k (I think that might have been voice roaming rather than data). All three dispute that they used the data/made the calls, but Vodacom insisted that they must have either had a virus or someone else had used the data/phone. My friends gave up and paid.
I'm not going to give up because I KNOW I'm right. But I'm worried now - has anyone ever taken Vodacom on about something like this and WON?
* Proof that it's not possible:
We are a wireless internet provider. It's a MyMeg500 contract and we only use it rarely as a backup when all the ADSL lines go down (it's attached to our load balancer as a failover). Last month, the ADSL lines all went down for approximately approximately 20 minutes on one day. Only one of our customers is configured to use the failover and they are aware they must only use it for email - they were alerted to this at the time as a reminder. The rest of the time, the 3G modem was not in use - we have logs to show the data usage was less than 100Mb during the ADSL outage. Nobody has removed the 3G modem and borrowed it - it would be a sackable offence. According to Vodacom, it was used for around 2 hours on a Saturday (this is BS - it hasn't been used at all at a weekend) and 9Gb was downloaded in that time. Again this is BS - where we live it isn't physically possible to squash 9Gb down the line within 2 hours - and there is no record of this kind of throughput on our logs.
Despite all this I'm worried that Vodacom will force us to pay to retain the service - pay now and we'll sort it out later, that kind of tactic. But more than that, I'm outraged that Vodacom can bully customers into paying for something they didn't use. If we were not a service provider, we wouldn't have the means to prove our innocence. I am a freelance writer and I'm seriously considering writing an exposé on this. Stories and perspectives welcome...
Ockie
Resident Lead Bender
Have you logged a query with 082155 for them to investigate the usage? Once you have ther ref number, you can PM the details to VD perhaps for him to have a look at.
wordhog
Active Member
Thanks for the suggestion. Will give that a try. But I'm still interested to know how often this happens and whether people manage to prove themselves innocent.
Ockie
Resident Lead Bender
It seldom happens....and when a investigation is done....the usage is normally proven to be accurate. But get the call logged and ask VD to look into it for you.
Welcome to the wild world of unlimited credit for post paid contract users. Convert yourself to a top-up contract or go pre-paid.
I believe there should be a case for reckless lending in all these situations, but someone with deep pockets will have to prove that in court.
I believe there should be a case for reckless lending in all these situations, but someone with deep pockets will have to prove that in court.
Pavan
Expert Member
14k? wtf thats insane dude... you better not just settle and pay them! I guess you're fortunate that you have logs and ways to prove that your usage is nowhere near what they claim. That probably puts you in a much better position that your two friends (who paid up) were in.
also, +1 for converting to prepaid. Mitigate these sort of risks entirely.
also, +1 for converting to prepaid. Mitigate these sort of risks entirely.
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Send me the 3G number please i will check.
tom110584
Well-Known Member
sorry about that bud. time to migrate to cell c.
wordhog
Active Member
Thanks, VD. Will PM it to you.
MrGray
Honorary Master
I can't believe that so many people are seemingly outraged that an ISP does not have readily available detailled records of your browsing activity! Are you people serious? You actually WANT your ISP to log every website you visit and what you transfer on the Internet? ISPs should only ever have usage records available, that is to say connection times and how much traffic you sent and received.
Do you not realise that it is PUNISHABLE by up to 10 years in jail to intercept and monitor your actual traffic without a court order? They generally do have global logs available somewhere securely that could be used for forensic purposes but these do not feed into their billing services and are not identified directly by user but by the ip address of your session which means that they would have to extract your session ip's. Normally, only a handful of people would have access to these logs and would never look at them normally, and if they did they wouldn't have much meaning as they would not be identifiable to a specific user. These logs will normally be compressed and rotated periodically and often discarded after six months anyway.
Please think about what you are complaining about, people. Do you really want some anonymous helpdesk or billing person to have access to your browsing activity and even packet level data including what actual data you sent and received (including passwords and credit card numbers)??? Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
Do you not realise that it is PUNISHABLE by up to 10 years in jail to intercept and monitor your actual traffic without a court order? They generally do have global logs available somewhere securely that could be used for forensic purposes but these do not feed into their billing services and are not identified directly by user but by the ip address of your session which means that they would have to extract your session ip's. Normally, only a handful of people would have access to these logs and would never look at them normally, and if they did they wouldn't have much meaning as they would not be identifiable to a specific user. These logs will normally be compressed and rotated periodically and often discarded after six months anyway.
Please think about what you are complaining about, people. Do you really want some anonymous helpdesk or billing person to have access to your browsing activity and even packet level data including what actual data you sent and received (including passwords and credit card numbers)??? Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.