Out of bundle capping on prepaid

[DotKomrade]

Obviously I get annoyed when I run out of data and my airtime gets annihilated in like 5 minutes. Then I'm left with no airtime and no data.

I have no doubt this has been covered before, but I've just spent an hour on the phone with customer care and have been following the Jannie Van Zyl thread.

In it someone asks him about this and he says there are various notification types that can let you know when you're running out or have run out of data. I've never received an sms on this, ever. Don't see anywhere to opt in for emails or other notifications in the app.

In the app, it also states that on prepaid you'll receive smses at 5MB and at 0Mb.

The customer care supervisor assures me that Vodacom is under no obligation to send this sms - "it's a courtesy sms" - and there's nothing I can do about this problem.

How the hell is this possible? This actually even has potential problems for personal safety. Sure I can manage my data useage on Android, but that's not what I feel I deserve as a Vodacom customer.

Am I wrong?!?

 

[DanDango]

Telkom mobile stop Internet access if data runs out.

 

[Ockie]

Is this in a phone or a modem?

 

[DotKomrade]

It's in my Nexus 6 phone.

Thanks for the response. I was ranting a bit up there.

 

[Ockie]

It's in my Nexus 6 phone.

Thanks for the response. I was ranting a bit up there.

Best that I can suggest is to set the data cap on your phone. My Meizu has a function where you put in what you get as a monthly allowance for the month and it stops or warns you when you have reached it. I know it is not ideal, but the best idea that I have for you.

 

[Johnatan56]

Settings > mobile data > Limit mobile data usage. Drag the bars on the graph to what you want. You can also restrict data used in the background per app.

 

[DotKomrade]

I always to forget to set the data limits. Because I buy at random times of the month I can't set recurring settings. This system is good but has not been effective for me.

So when Jannie said, "There are a whole bunch of tools and products already in place. From Top-Up to notifications in various formats (mail, SMS, alerts, etc.) to locking your account when you go OOB," in response to, "What will Vodacom do to prevent customers falling victim to “out of bundle” charges?" he was mistaken?

 

[Ockie]

I always to forget to set the data limits. Because I buy at random times of the month I can't set recurring settings. This system is good but has not been effective for me.

So when Jannie said, "There are a whole bunch of tools and products already in place. From Top-Up to notifications in various formats (mail, SMS, alerts, etc.) to locking your account when you go OOB," he was mistaken?

Those systems are more or less for open data and voice contracts.

 

[DotKomrade]

Damn. I was hoping that was not the case. Thanks for the info anyway.

 

[Ockie]

Damn. I was hoping that was not the case. Thanks for the info anyway.

Sorry about that.

What I will say is that Vodacom is busy with a massive transition to a new billing system. The one that is currently in use have been in service for 20 years. As they put it when I went for my training on it, this system have served us well, but is now on its last legs and Vodacom have gotten as much out of it as it can. Time for change and it will help us go to market with new products and services quicker. The new and old systems are running concurrently at the moment, and contract and hybrid customers are being migrated over to the new system in stages. Prepaid and corporate/business account are to follow after that.

So once the new billing system is fully up and running and everyone is migrated over, I hope to see good things come out of it - though consultants in shops might struggle a little at first assisting you with your request on it, because it really is a dramatic interface change with completely different ways of doing things ...... SO PLEASE DONT SHOUT AT US if we do take a bit longer to assist you. It is a big change for us .... but in the long run when we are used to it, it will be for the better

 

[The_MAC]

Telkom mobile stop Internet access if data runs out.

As mentioned, Telkom are the latest entrant, but were able to already do this.

Personally, I think Vodacom are not doing it intentionally, can you imagine how this pushes up their ARPU, with every fool (me included) falling into the OOB trap at least once..

 

[HideInLight]

Sorry about that.

What I will say is that Vodacom is busy with a massive transition to a new billing system. The one that is currently in use have been in service for 20 years. As they put it when I went for my training on it, this system have served us well, but is now on its last legs and Vodacom have gotten as much out of it as it can. Time for change and it will help us go to market with new products and services quicker. The new and old systems are running concurrently at the moment, and contract and hybrid customers are being migrated over to the new system in stages. Prepaid and corporate/business account are to follow after that.

So once the new billing system is fully up and running and everyone is migrated over, I hope to see good things come out of it - though consultants in shops might struggle a little at first assisting you with your request on it, because it really is a dramatic interface change with completely different ways of doing things ...... SO PLEASE DONT SHOUT AT US if we do take a bit longer to assist you. It is a big change for us .... but in the long run when we are used to it, it will be for the better

If Vodacom ever gives you a proper feature to stop OOB via USSD and brings back the 20gig for R499, and a variant of 10Gig for R250 30 days, use anytime I'd eat a hat and maybe actually switch to Vodacom again.

 

[BigAl-sa]

Interesting, between my wife and I, we have five devices using vc prepaid data and all of them get the 5MB limit sms.

 

[DotKomrade]

So, good news for me. I got a call from a customer care guy called Theo who not only activated sms notifications for me on data usage, but also topped me up with R110 of airtime because of the out of bundle usage from this month. I'm not usually that guy but...

Thank you Vodacom! Always appreciate good service, especially when it's not expected.