MTN and e.TV SMS competitions probed

I doubt they will be contravening the lottery act based on the "points gathering" component of the competition. That said, I like all the negative publicity this competition is getting. If it wastes MTN's time and money fighting legal battles, then it is certainly deserved.
 
One entrant, Mike Ferreira, spent R15 000 in one week in the contest, he told Business Report.
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Come on!!! - if you going to spend R15K on SMS competion you have serious other problems, dont blame MTN.

"This is nothing more than a revenue generating exercise...
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Another MTN customer who spoke on condition of anonymity said she would not be surprised if MTN recouped all the money it spent on the luxury prizes through the money made from the entries.
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DUH!!!

and

DUH!!!
 
"This is a game of substantial skill and therefore does not require permission to be sought from the lottery board. We have sought legal advice and are confident that we are not in breach of the lottery regulations," the company said.
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Did your legal advisors not warn you about reputational risk? All these "competitions" do is confirm the no-holds-barred-money-grab nature of doing business in SA. A 15 year celebration prize giveaway could have been so good for your image and brand loyalty, MTN, if you hadn't turned it into yet another means to fleece your customers.
 
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MTN insists that the competition was not a draw and that players won according to points accumulated in a particular game. It had been transparent about the cost of each SMS and sent users regular updates to ensure that they were aware of how much they had spent on the competition.
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So transparent it was invisible :p
 
The time is actually right to ban all Value added service, ie premium rated SMS's and so called subscription services. These all flout common law practices and the cellphone companies should be forced to stop all these deductions from the cellphone accounts.

They are not bankers or finance houses after all.
 
MTN is terrible, I can never make phone calls, and My messages are never delivered, but whats this, they want to spam me for some stupid competition i did not choose to recieve spam for?

Wow, those come through just fine... bastards
 
ernstn said:
The time is actually right to ban all Value added service, ie premium rated SMS's and so called subscription services. These all flout common law practices and the cellphone companies should be forced to stop all these deductions from the cellphone accounts.

They are not bankers or finance houses after all.
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Regulate it. They've shown they can't do it responsibly so make them apply for a license.
 
Sackboy said:
Regulate it. They've shown they can't do it responsibly so make them apply for a license.
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They are trying. Its not as easy as you think.
They have tried to impose heavy fines, upto R500 000 for mismanagement or breach of other t&c these guys tend to pay the fines, no questions asked, in fact some offshore companies even budget for fines:rolleyes:

The networks also have a tough time dealing with customers trying to sort these things out. Theres been an increase in customers, mainly repaid who actually get rid of the sim cards because of these subscription services...
What happens after that is the sim is then recycled and then sold again in a prepaid starter pack after a period of 6 - 18 months. The new user who buys the sim is now getting billed!!!
 
can;t wait for all those tv ads gone, I wonder how this will impact on station advertising revenue though, i am sure it will flouted as a major disadvantage :p
 
What percentage do the cellphone companies take for acting as bankers.

They should not be allowed to deduct monies for third parties from your account.

If the means for getting funds stop, the services will also stop.

Imagine that your ISP starts deducting money from your account because some third party asked tem to because you suppoosedly bought some porn from them.

I am in the process of taking Cellc to the small claims court to recoup monies deducted from my boys account. I wrote to them stating that it is a ten year old boy that uses the cellphone and that he cannot enter any legal contracts, yet they continued deducting monies for that account.

The sum thus deducted is now big enough to take the MD to the small claims court. Today I have cancelled my contracts with them and in the coming weeks I will sue them. The buck according to me stops at Cellc for deducting the money in the first place.
 
JK8 said:

They are trying. Its not as easy as you think.
They have tried to impose heavy fines, upto R500 000 for mismanagement or breach of other t&c these guys tend to pay the fines, no questions asked, in fact some offshore companies even budget for fines:rolleyes:
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Then they're not heavy fines. Make them R500 million or R50 billion.

In general these type of fines should never come from company funds, but from the pockets of the top management and board members. The fines should be punitive, escalate with each contravention and for repeat offenders result in substantial jail time. The companies involved should then also pay back their ill-gotten gains.
 
Isnt it anti competitive to only allow one company to have control of all forms of lotteries. If the lotteries act allowed other companies to also run similar competitions it would create an open market for other companies too. Or is my thinking wrong.

If these other companys are allowed to run competitions and obtain a legal licence to do so there has to be strict measures in place to make sure that everything is done properly. By incorporating all the sms competitions into such a new law strict control can be done on all the unscrupulous operaters only those who comply can get licences.
 
noxibox said:
Then they're not heavy fines. Make them R500 million or R50 billion.

In general these type of fines should never come from company funds, but from the pockets of the top management and board members. The fines should be punitive, escalate with each contravention and for repeat offenders result in substantial jail time. The companies involved should then also pay back their ill-gotten gains.
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Or something in percentage form. If found guilty upto 50% of earnings.
The problem with a R500mill fine is it will kill off little companies, might make them more detailed with handling their admin and make sure they dont break any of the rules but its worth it just to scare them of.

Or better yet just get stricter on offshore companies!! Because they really dont care much for the SPs or the customers!!
Also all projections for content services and these game things are on a decline and by 2012 they will not even be worth using. So I think the current guys are milking it.
Well done to ICASA for investigating, hope they get rid of these guys or impose very strict buy ins!!

I watch and play Brainbox and Game time whenever im watching. In a half hour time slot, they take 2 calls only and sometime only 25 minutes into the show!!!!
 
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