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Question of the Day: What is your ultimate pancake filling/topping?
The_Unbeliever
Honorary Master
A couple of good points there.
Also, prepaid do work out cheaper if you don't phone or SMS a lot.
Also, prepaid do work out cheaper if you don't phone or SMS a lot.
Turiko
Banned
and that's a fact. A toothless, incompetent regulator run by a bunch of fools is to blame for all of this.
South Africans constantly have to make efforts and fights to ensure they're not being done in.
South Africans constantly have to make efforts and fights to ensure they're not being done in.
Peder
Hobbit
i bought my phone on A vodacom weekender package (even though i maybe use a few mins a month) because i didn't have the money to pay in for the phone at the time, so i am losing bigtime. But after my contract finishes i'm going prepaid all the way!! I only use GPRS and maybe a few sms's a month. My bill sits at R220 a month cause i wanted the phone
Gone are the days when consumer was king. Now the consumer has to vigorously watch every bit-n-byte that travels through his fingertips in case the ISP's & Big-3 Cell-thieves over bill (and just you try to get your money back when, invariably, they do...)
It's time the consumer starts getting their asses in gear and make them realize that they need to return to a consumer-centric model.
Why should I have to count every byte and police the providers? My life is complicated enough thank you very much, and these things are already automated:- they just need to be corrected and slanted in favour of the consumer. I should be billed correctly from the start: true per-second billing, and true data usage. Screw these 24-month data contracts. Screw any form of lock-in.
It's time the consumer starts getting their asses in gear and make them realize that they need to return to a consumer-centric model.
Why should I have to count every byte and police the providers? My life is complicated enough thank you very much, and these things are already automated:- they just need to be corrected and slanted in favour of the consumer. I should be billed correctly from the start: true per-second billing, and true data usage. Screw these 24-month data contracts. Screw any form of lock-in.
RoganDawes
Expert Member
Forfeiting unused data
It really burns my arse that VodaCom steals the unused data that you have bought on prepaid accounts, if it is not used within 30 days.
e.g. buy 500MB for R189 (R0.38/MB), but if you only use 100MB in 30 days, you effectively paid almost R2.00/MB, since you forfeit the remaining 400MB.
I know I'll use 2+GB eventually, and would be quite happy to pay for it upfront, but I'm not prepared to lose it after 30 days.
To a certain extent, I can understand this on a contract, but on prepaid, this just seems like theft to me. Actually, I think that contract data bundles should also roll over, but let's start by getting prepaid to work the same way as ADSL (and voice minutes!).
Maybe if we make enough noise, the networks will fix their offerings!
It really burns my arse that VodaCom steals the unused data that you have bought on prepaid accounts, if it is not used within 30 days.
e.g. buy 500MB for R189 (R0.38/MB), but if you only use 100MB in 30 days, you effectively paid almost R2.00/MB, since you forfeit the remaining 400MB.
I know I'll use 2+GB eventually, and would be quite happy to pay for it upfront, but I'm not prepared to lose it after 30 days.
To a certain extent, I can understand this on a contract, but on prepaid, this just seems like theft to me. Actually, I think that contract data bundles should also roll over, but let's start by getting prepaid to work the same way as ADSL (and voice minutes!).
Maybe if we make enough noise, the networks will fix their offerings!
Concerning prepaid (I haven't read the article).
I signed up with Virgin Mobile when they just came out in South Africa (2006 if I recall).
Up to this year, there has been no mentioning that your "airtime" window expires, up to a few months ago that is.
I loaded R50 yesterday and it tells me the expiry date for it is 1 October. Now, that's roughly a month and a half for me to use R50.
It may sound like a long time to some, but it isn't to me. I use my phone when I need to, I don't feel forced to use it and I don't lend it to anyone either.
Isn't this unfair to you? Do you think it is?
I signed up with Virgin Mobile when they just came out in South Africa (2006 if I recall).
Up to this year, there has been no mentioning that your "airtime" window expires, up to a few months ago that is.
I loaded R50 yesterday and it tells me the expiry date for it is 1 October. Now, that's roughly a month and a half for me to use R50.
It may sound like a long time to some, but it isn't to me. I use my phone when I need to, I don't feel forced to use it and I don't lend it to anyone either.
Isn't this unfair to you? Do you think it is?
LCBXX
Honorary Master
That line is what ticks me off about the Cell Operators. Nowhere can you get a decent contract package without some "free phone" deal. I don't want a free phone, I'll buy it myself!! Yet if I do that I receive not rebate whatsoever from my Cell Provider.
At this moment the only operator who can offer me remotely what I want, is Virgin Mobile...
I wanna be a virgin again
... and soon I will be. Can't wait. I'm pro-actively shopping for a dress: call me Virgina.
Insider
Senior Member
MTN offers their dealers about 6 packages where you use your own phone. Ask the dealer to look up UYO as a handset code in the dealer price list.
Some examples:
MyChoice 75 TU R 35.00
ProCall 1000 R 1,419.00
ProCall 120 R 209.00
This has been in the market since 2006.
Are these packages available to the general public, or only to dealers?
If open to public: why is MTN so silent on these offerings? Has anyone seen these advertised anywhere? I certainly have not.
Insider
Senior Member
It's available to everyone. Probably not the best dealer commissions so the SP won't punt it.
risingtide
Senior Member
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It certainly sounds unreasonable. I am with Cell C and regularily out of window time before running out of air-time, and that is with R25 giving a 4 month window.
However, to clandestinly steal from the poor is a long-standing South African tradition. Bus companies 'expire' a clip card so quickly that if one doesn't use it on a single day during it validity window one loses out.
The principle should be simple, once one has paid for the goods it should not expire for at least 10 times a period in which it would normally be used. After all, the money paid, in advance of all things, does not expire either, does it?
francoislr
Expert Member
Voip...
At some point me recons with a smart phone and a voip provider one should be able to save quite abit. Use your internet for calls, your wireless when on location. Just waiting for the right combination. Minimal users suffer the most. You can buy 300 sms's for a good price, but have to use it in 1 month.
Once again, if the Voip thing turns out, whom benefits? Anyone who can afford a decent phone. Screw the poor, all they are good for is votes: that is what annoys me about our government and service providers. I hope ex-telscum boss Papi's new company's initiatives pull off. They will benefit the people who need it most, underprivileged and the poor. We need South Africa connected, the poor subsidized, or at least being given easy access to cheap communications.
At some point me recons with a smart phone and a voip provider one should be able to save quite abit. Use your internet for calls, your wireless when on location. Just waiting for the right combination. Minimal users suffer the most. You can buy 300 sms's for a good price, but have to use it in 1 month.
Once again, if the Voip thing turns out, whom benefits? Anyone who can afford a decent phone. Screw the poor, all they are good for is votes: that is what annoys me about our government and service providers. I hope ex-telscum boss Papi's new company's initiatives pull off. They will benefit the people who need it most, underprivileged and the poor. We need South Africa connected, the poor subsidized, or at least being given easy access to cheap communications.
