Maybe I missed something, how is anyone being forced to use this new service? - surely those that don't like it, can simply not use it, and therefore not pay for it either [when the service fee kicks in]?
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Short Voice Service
- Thread starter vodacom3g
- Start date
LancelotSA, I think the service is awesome. For example, if you were my customer I would rather spend 90c leaving you an SVS than wasting my time paying for a drawn out debate with you about some petty issue.
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vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
I assume you're responding to my response to your post on SVS where you basically stated those less fortunate than you (illiterate and vision-impaired, for example) do not deserve the same rights as you?
If you found my post condescending, I apologise but I'm still shocked at your viewpoint.
LancelotSA
Banned
I think we would do well to join these two threads that discuss the same thing, as the mods would immediately do to most normal poster's threads, as I have mentioned my view of this defence of certain individuals on here in the other SVS thread already.
Milano, you only come out of the woodwork when it suits you so I am not surprised by your appearance here... the unfortunate part is that you have not really said very much so apologies for not being able to humour you more.
LancelotSA
Banned
No, V3G if you took the time to check the time of the above post and your response to me in your other thread you will see that I posted this before your message there (EDIT : In fact I just checked and they were both posted at 9:17 showing that my view was not tainted by your comments on there).
The post above was based purely on what I read in these threads.
The post above was based purely on what I read in these threads.
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That is just your "stalkee-fantasy" playing up again
Out of the woodwork? If you were actually one of the "technology-savvy, educated, literate, English speaking" people then you would once again notice that I was actually involved in this thread long before you!
vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
Read my post above as it applies to you too.
And this façade of punting this service for the benefit of the "blind, illiterate, Zulu chap" becomes even more humorous when it is being punted on a forum which in all likelihood is full of "technology-savvy, educated, literate, English speaking" people!
This is not a direct response to you Lance, so you don't need to respond, but to put a few facts on the table:
1) One of the primary reasons this service was developed is exactly for the reasons I stated above.
2) Most new services from all networks are discussed on this forum. Why not this one?
3) Forumites will recall a discussion in the News section recently about voice-mail and SMS. Thus telling people about this service was pretty relevant.
4) There are other uses for this service which WOULD appeal to this community, BTW. For example the fact that you can easily leave a tongue-in-cheek message or even a soppy one. Something that won't come across as well as a SMS.
For example, the two numbers that have sent each other nearly 700 messages in the first few days are probably two lovestruck teenagers!
LancelotSA
Banned
Well now if you read my later posts you will see that I made a call for Vodacom to provide this "great service" of theirs cheaper, or even free, to those less fortunate than me.
Your conclusion also took an incorrect path somewhere as if I were to read my post again it seems quite clear to me that I referred to my monthly financial spend with Vodacom in comparison to that of a pay as you go user rather than me seeing the zulu man as being less than me! Now it does not take much deduction to conclude that in Vodacom's eyes I would be of far > desirability as they can make more money out of me! This ties in perfectly with my greed argument... thanks IC.
ld13
Honorary Master
vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
Have not seen any of that in my interactions with Lancelot. Been mostly about his issues with a tower on his block of flats. IIRC, we sorted out his fears about radiation and it turned out to be an MTN tower.
Let's recap:
All companies constantly expand their services to ensure their own growth. It's Business-101. These services are developed to address a (strongly) suspected need and hopefully the intended audience will find the service useful and are willing to pay for it. If you stuffed up your market research, you're going to loose money on the service, not recovering your development and infrastructure costs at the least.
People who like the service will thus use it, those who have no need for it, can safely ignore it. Just like everyone does with probably a large % of services offered by any company. You use a sub-set of the services on offer.
In this case, Vodacom looked at how one can bring IM services to a specific market segment and came up with (what I believe is) a great solution. It's not often you can build a service that can really benefit a new section of the population.
But I must have missed the bit where subscribers are being forced against their wills to use the service.
As to forgetting the market segment represented by this forum; Why would VC spend 18-hours a day here talking to forumites and then develop products like Data TopUp (which was a direct request from here, especially from ic!) and a number of other products / features that originated on myADSL?
Think about it.
LancelotSA
Banned
But I must have missed the bit where subscribers are being forced against their wills to use the service.
As to forgetting the market segment represented by this forum.
Think about it.
You see here are the bits I was talking about... you had a post which you stated was not aimed directly at me hence no response from me, but then you could not resist having the last word. Your last word was fairly good until you got to the end and then started having little digs again...
I have heard numerous requests for the lowering of call/data costs? When is Vodacom going to act on these? Or is it only profitable requests they act on? Yes, I know they are a business and I am totally accepting of this but then do not try to punt a product as something which Vodacom is providing as a service to the people. It is all about money!
EDIT : As an aside, if I try to punt a new service I am offering on here do you think I'd get a number or "RAS" responses?
One further note, you will see from my original posts that I did not have much of an issue with the service itself but more the attitude which I was concerned (or perhaps felt through experience) was representative of the company offering it.
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vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
Now you're just being paranoid.
I gave a general summary. How in any way was that a 'dig' at you? The post was not even aimed at you in any way. (Except for the bit where I said, I always had good interaction with you. But clearly I'm mistaken to think so.)Who says the pricing structures are not being re-evaluated?
And this service IS aimed at people who most likely did not have it before. And NOWHERE did Vodacom ever say it would be free. Correct?Most new services by the BROADBAND providers are discussed in detail here. This site is called myBROADBAND.
If you have a relevant service, I'm pretty sure this is where people would like to hear about it. I know I would.
You rather seem to have a problem with the fact that Vodacom, for some reason, did not do something new for 'your group'.
"Ignoring" a service is sometimes possible, such as the current voice message system which can be deactivated, not activated. I am still waiting to hear if I can opt out of the service, and by that I mean SVS will not be available on my number, not that I won't receive the SMS.
Why not send an SMS to all active numbers explaining the service and clients can reply with "1" for opt-in or "2" for opt-out? That way other Vodacom clients won't waste money on something that definitely will be ignored.
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vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
We're looking into an opt-out function but right now there is a sum-total of 1 (
) request for this on the table, so we're waiting to get more feedback from other subs. So this will probably happen over the next few weeks. Again, it's a bit like saying 'I've got a street address but if you mail me something, you're going to waste your money on a stamp as I won't be reading my mail".
Anton, while I logically understand your request (and have passed it on), I still don't quite get the problem you face. Maybe you can help a bit. Are you being spammed, do you have a stalker on your case, etc?
Obviously don't give specifics, but why would your own, personal number be open to abuse (getting messages from people who know your number but you don't want to listen to)? And that from people you would want to 'protect' from the 90c cost? And when you're already blacklisting the SMS?
If it's unwanted messages, let them leave it. It's no skin off your back and will automatically be deleted. If it's from friends then surely they know by now you don't do messaging and they should not bother?
Just curious.
rwenzori
Honorary Master
I must support LancelotSA's accusation of occasional condescension - personally I would say arrogance. It is occasional though. Maybe a language issue. Maybe when you get annoyed. Here is a clear example. LancelotSA posts:
You blithely sidestep the "When is...?" question with:
Which sounds like "imminent" to me. Reminiscent of old Lulu when she was Telkom's mouthpiece.
Then you pluck this one out of the blue:
I could not see anything in LancelotSA's posts to imply that.
Just as , countering my claim of deep-rooted mistrust, you quote a few spurious figures about HP and then dismiss what I said. I do agree with you that the vast majority get a decent service. Pricey, maybe, but technically good. I am one of those.
But, every time I am due for a free R150 upgrade I do the following:
- Friday I go the mosque
- Saturday I walk to shul
- Sunday I praise the lord
- Monday I spill pagan blood
all to get the gods on my side, because I know that if that new phone is fscked, I am in for weeks and months of frustration and bad service. Thankfully the gods have been kind.
If you REALLY are here "formally on this forum is to gauge public perception", I suggest doing so, not dismissing criticisms by dodging them and being aggressive.
IMHO. My 2c. And all that. Please take this constructively.
You blithely sidestep the "When is...?" question with:
Who says the pricing structures are not being re-evaluated?
Which sounds like "imminent" to me. Reminiscent of old Lulu when she was Telkom's mouthpiece.
Then you pluck this one out of the blue:
I could not see anything in LancelotSA's posts to imply that.
Just as , countering my claim of deep-rooted mistrust, you quote a few spurious figures about HP and then dismiss what I said. I do agree with you that the vast majority get a decent service. Pricey, maybe, but technically good. I am one of those.
But, every time I am due for a free R150 upgrade I do the following:
- Friday I go the mosque
- Saturday I walk to shul
- Sunday I praise the lord
- Monday I spill pagan blood
all to get the gods on my side, because I know that if that new phone is fscked, I am in for weeks and months of frustration and bad service. Thankfully the gods have been kind.
If you REALLY are here "formally on this forum is to gauge public perception", I suggest doing so, not dismissing criticisms by dodging them and being aggressive.
IMHO. My 2c. And all that. Please take this constructively.
vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
I must support LancelotSA's accusation of occasional condescension - personally I would say arrogance. It is occasional though. Maybe a language issue. Maybe when you get annoyed. Here is a clear example. LancelotSA posts:
You blithely sidestep the "When is...?" question with:
Which sounds like "imminent" to me. Reminiscent of old Lulu when she was Telkom's mouthpiece.
Then you pluck this one out of the blue:
I could not see anything in LancelotSA's posts to imply that.
Just as , countering my claim of deep-rooted mistrust, you quote a few spurious figures about HP and then dismiss what I said. I do agree with you that the vast majority get a decent service. Pricey, maybe, but technically good. I am one of those.
But, every time I am due for a free R150 upgrade I do the following:
- Friday I go the mosque
- Saturday I walk to shul
- Sunday I praise the lord
- Monday I spill pagan blood
all to get the gods on my side, because I know that if that new phone is fscked, I am in for weeks and months of frustration and bad service. Thankfully the gods have been kind.
If you REALLY are here "formally on this forum is to gauge public perception", I suggest doing so, not dismissing criticisms by dodging them and being aggressive.
IMHO. My 2c. And all that. Please take this constructively.
I always do.
You'll find countless posts where I urge forumites to engage in constructive debate. But, again as I've posted many times, if someone comes out attacking without first getting the facts or even just thinking about the subject, I do sometimes get annoyed and it probably comes out in my posts. Not just on VC, but on any topic.
I've never shied away from criticism about Vodacom on this forum, but I always insist both sides of a story should be considered. Read my posts again and hopefully this will come through.
Unfortunately it seems accepted policy that someone can post information here that is not correct, biased or just plain wrong but if I point it out, it's arrogant? I don't quite agree with that. If this forum wants a place where they can attack and expect canned, sanitised responses then they should use 155, etc. Those poor sods are trained to take it on the chin, however unreasonable. I'm not, so expect a non-bot answer.
So, I'm here to engage you guys in debate, not as a bot. Just like you guys engage each other in debate (often much more heated than anything I'd ever get involved in
).Maybe you guys must give me some feedback on how you want to do this thing? I can definitely get the team who look after HP to pick this up.
Let me know.
To get back to your points above:
New pricing and products is one of the (hopefully) best kept secrets in any company. Furthermore, VC has a policy to not 'launch' something if it does not actually exist. So my answer to Lancelot was structured to convey more information that what I'm supposed to post. Notice the winky at the end of the sentence.
If you read Lance's first posts, you noticed he questioned the need for this service while lamenting the fact that 'they' are left out.
Lastly I never dismiss anything anyone says on this forum. Unless it's patently false or designed to incite. What I did say to you is that, though at any given point people will have issues with Vodacom's services (and these should be addressed), it's important to see it in context of the size of the customer base.
Thanks, that's what i want to hear. Incidentally, how many requests did you get for this service, except from the bean counters?We're looking into an opt-out function but right now there is a sum-total of 1 (
Unfortunately there are people who won't take "no" for an answer, and keeping your number private is not always as easy as it seems. Other people who I will accept messages from are now also leaving messages. I thus need to opt-out of this service. The SVS SMS' cannot be deleted...
I have another number on which I will accept voice messages, but that's another story..
vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
As per usual we COMPLETELY underestimated the uptake of the service. So while I don't have the original 'request' numbers, the service is massively popular, i.e. it hit some sweet spot. Biggest number from 1 single subscriber so far is 1500 messages. (Maybe it's the guy trying to reach you
)OK, so if they won't take no for an answer, at least you can ignore them safely for now while we look into this.
I assume you mean the SVS SMS cannot be blacklisted by your app?