Out-of-bundle usage must die

[jes]

Out-of-bundle usage must die

What we have at the moment is an unbalanced, flawed system which really makes no sense at all

 

[w1z4rd]

Its legal rape. Its intentionally designed by the telecoms operators to screw their customer out of more cash. There is absolutely no other explanation for out of bundles rates other than to milk a customer for extra cash.

 

[Pavan]

look @ operator models every where in the world. Packages that aren't 'unlimited' have the same OOB price difference as we do in SA. For this to change soon, is wishful thinking,...

 

[Sodan]

I understand that the mobile operators want people to use their phones more when the network is not bust, that is why they have all these smart systems for their pre-paid users that give them discounts when they are using a cell (tower?) that is quiet

When the network is bust, phones can't be used on that network anyway. So one would hope that people use their phones more when the network is not bust, compared to when the network is bust.

 

[Beri]

wish i had the time back that i spend reading this crap article

 

[Jakes147]

You already get that with vodacom advanced

For Broadband Advanced, out-of-bundle rates will apply, out-of-bundle rates are equal to the in-bundle rates (IB=OB).

 

[mitchb80]

Good one Ben - thanx for bringing all these issues to the fore.

One of the things that has always irked me is that my unused minutes ( Voda Talk 120 package ) get rolled over for up to six months BUT, say i have 30 odd minutes unused from say Sept last year, i HAVE TO USE UP ALL my unused minutes from the previous months to gain access to these minutes! ie oldest minutes are last ( least ) accessable.

I feel this is so unfair and totally uneccessarily predjudical to us subscribers. it would be no skin off their nose to alter this to "oldest first" scenareo. they are our allocated minutes and PAID FOR !

In the same way, when interconnect went down, Vodacom gave us ( a choice of ) extra weekend ( default ) or afterhours weekday minutes.
We dont want this! we have Business packages for a reason - give us some extra WEEKDAY minutes.

I always feel that the networks resent giving us anything extra- its madness that us, their so called valued customers get shafted like this - Ben, give this a bit of exposure too, if you feel the same !!

Shot!

 

[mitchb80]

Good one Ben - thanx for bringing all these issues to the fore.

One of the things that has always irked me is that my unused minutes ( Voda Talk 120 package ) get rolled over for up to six months BUT, say i have 30 odd minutes unused from say Sept last year, i HAVE TO USE UP ALL my unused minutes from the previous months to gain access to these minutes! ie oldest minutes are last ( least ) accessable.

I feel this is so unfair and totally uneccessarily predjudical to us subscribers. it would be no skin off their nose to alter this to "oldest first" scenareo. they are our allocated minutes and PAID FOR !

In the same way, when interconnect went down, Vodacom gave us ( a choice of ) extra weekend ( default ) or afterhours weekday minutes.
We dont want this! we have Business packages for a reason - give us some extra WEEKDAY minutes.

I always feel that the networks resent giving us anything extra- its madness that us, their so called valued customers get shafted like this - Ben, give this a bit of exposure too, if you feel the same !!

Shot!

 

[entrepr]

One concept that irks me every month is that my in-bundle minutes are depleted at the same rate whether peak or not peak, but the out-of-bundle minutes are charged differently (depending on the package of course). That means that a 20minute weekend chat in my first week of the month is more 'expensive' than the same weekend chat on the last weekend.

MTN Anytime, of course, gets around this by charging peak-level rates all the time!

 

[grok]

There is a reason they post such monumental profits each year, after all.

 

[uchoose]

I am sure cell C would look at it, the other two lost the plot long ago.

 

[Asterix_T]

I don't think it's such a bad idea (not that the networks will listen). But yes, then I could choose up front what I would pay per meg. for the whole month. At the moment I use my laptop for pleasure and when the small bundle I buy is used up, I just wait till I get home to use my ADSL. If this system was in place I would have data for the whole month at a price I could determine.

Try to contribute or STFU.

 

[Tomtomtom]

Agree the out-of-bundle scam must end. Just because there's a precedent for it in the rest of the world doesn't mean it should continue here.

Operators are passing on their need to predict usage in order to maximize ROI on to the customer. But we have a competitive mobile space here: I'm fully expecting a company will come along and shake this up sooner or later.

 

[Pavan]

i agree that this article is trash... it doesn't exploit or reveal anything new about this model...

 

[w1z4rd]

. But we have a competitive mobile space here: I'm fully expecting a company will come along and shake this up sooner or later.

I hope you are right, I feel like we more have a cartel than competition.

 

[TwoCents1000]

Is this not what you get with Vodacom Advanced?

Once you've bought a bundle, you pay the same rate when you go out-of-bundle.

Sounds like Ben should do more homework.

 

[Juice]

It also provides the incentive for customers to upgrade to larger packages.

Bingo! I don't think out-of-bundle is the big evil here: it's the concepts of bundles entirely. For example, an ISP doesn't make the most money out of the mark-up on the bandwidth they sell: they make quite a bit more money on the bandwidth their customers bought as part of their 3Gig, 5Gig, 10Gig, etc data bundles and then DO NOT USE. The bigger the bundle, the more likely the amount of unused bandwidth there is and the more likely it is that there will be a pot of gold at the end of the customer's bundle. Think about it. Why don't we have data roll-over on cell-phone bundles? Why don't we have roll-over on voice bundles? Because the remainder of your bundle at the end of the month goes towards the company's profit margin. Here's what we billed, here's what was used, here's what it cost to provide what was used, here's the pure profit.

Juice

 

[kdub]

I would suggest that the OOB rates are higher to try and coax people into upgrading there contracts onto the next Tier. For example if you are on Talk 120 (or whatever) and you use all your minutes and are charges OOB rates, they would argue that you should then take a Talk 240 contract instead and use up those minutes instead of being charged for OOB rates. It makes sense to me (from a business perspective of course - not consumer)

 

[milomak]

The data bundle sizes are also screwed up. They should have them available in increments of 100MB at least

 

[Novel]

ICASA shud step in n make that happen, If they leave it up to the operator, nothing will change for a very long tym.