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- Joined
- Jun 5, 2004
- Messages
- 308
Maybe I'm just slightly delayed in discovering this, but a family member recently (this week) bought 2GB data from MTN and paid R389. I was a bit shocked at the price and so told him that he was ripped off. I also asked where he purchased it for that price and apparently it was done via the Fastlink software on the Huawei E153 device.
He then showed me:
Self service tab > purchase data > 2GB = R389
I then asked him to go to the device tab enter the USSD code (which I got form this forum) into the USSD keypad
*141*2# > purchase data (or something like that) 2GB = R245
What is interesting about this is that both options take the appropriate amount of funds from your prepaid airtime balance. Using the self service option does not charge the user the lesser amount. Thats almost R150 more for EXACTLY the same thing. We also tried to update the Fastlink software on the device thinking that if we did this the correct self service amount would display. This software reported that it was the most up to date version.
Given that the family member is an elderly person, I can't blame him for not knowing he was being ripped off, but I can blame MTN for allowing this. Surely 2GB of data should be charged at one price?
He then showed me:
Self service tab > purchase data > 2GB = R389
I then asked him to go to the device tab enter the USSD code (which I got form this forum) into the USSD keypad
*141*2# > purchase data (or something like that) 2GB = R245
What is interesting about this is that both options take the appropriate amount of funds from your prepaid airtime balance. Using the self service option does not charge the user the lesser amount. Thats almost R150 more for EXACTLY the same thing. We also tried to update the Fastlink software on the device thinking that if we did this the correct self service amount would display. This software reported that it was the most up to date version.
Given that the family member is an elderly person, I can't blame him for not knowing he was being ripped off, but I can blame MTN for allowing this. Surely 2GB of data should be charged at one price?
