Happy with Talk4me and Cell C
So I got two airtime only contracts from Talk4me on the once-off payment option. (Cell C says they can't/don't/won't offer airtime only contracts on a discount as "we need an IMEI number to link to the contract" :wtf: )
I decided to give Talk4me a go as they promptly respond to emails and their telephone number is a valid Telkom number terminating in Joburg Central according to Telkom's tariff calculator which is not answered by scaly Nigerians. So at least Telkom is doing business with them and they are paying their Telkom accounts, lol. I would not have trusted a business with only a mobile phone number.
My first contract was a Control Chat 75 contract (R85 airtime + 25 sms's). With the once-off payment of R585 it works out to only R24.38 per month x24. I first had to port my MTN number to Cell C. This way I saved on new simcard and courier fees.
After promptly getting this deal I decided to get another one - the Control Chat 100 (R115 airtime + 100 sms's) for a once-off payment of R995. This works out to R41.46 per month x24. The 2nd contract took longer to activate, a week to be exact. Talk4me told me there is a new system in place for activating new contracts. Pity, but at least the airtime I had loaded in the meantime on prepaid got carried over onto the Control Chat contract. Nice one, Cell C
According to Cell C customer care the Talk4me "contract" is with RMCS - they do contracts for Edgars, Jet and so on. Airtime is loaded monthly on the 15th by Cell C. I got the full amount of airtime and sms's loaded on the day of activation, and then monthly on the 15th a new bundle is loaded. When I checked this morning (15th Sept) at 05h30 my airtime was already loaded on both phones.
All in all the massive saving over getting a contract with a phone, especially since I'm still happy with my present phone, is worth the effort.
/off topic
My old Nokia's just needed new batteries. So I ordered two new genuine Nokia batteries for my old phones at R100 from DealExtreme in Hong Kong. Delivery is free, or you can pay a few dollars for tracking. It's amazing how we are raped on battery prices in S.A....
I discovered a few other nice things about Control Chat and Cell C. On
mytools you can register your number and send sms's. I can send to any network and my number is displayed correctly on the recipient's phone (i.e. +278396xxx).
I can also have specific numbers blocked or always sent to voicemail. So if my boss dares to call me on my cell, he will only get voicemail, hehe.
On the main site of Cell C if you register there you can specify 7 so-called "friends and family numbers." This gives substantial discounts, especially on the per second billing tariff.
