Talking Points EXPIRE (didn't know that!)

[Skeptik]

I've just had some SMSs from number 12000 saying I must pick something with my Talking Points because if I don't, 173 of them will expire at the end of the month!!

What's the point of collecting these things and trying to get something decent with the total if they expire?

There's got to be a law against such sharkish behaviour.

 

[Napalm]

your Talking points on prepaid or contract?? (MTN , Vodacom, Cell-C, or Virgin) ??

 

[Skeptik]

Vodacom Prepaid.

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Why not ask in the Vodacom forum?

 

[Skeptik]

I cannot go there. I was hoping for a reply here. Helloooo??

 

[JK8]

Vodacom Talking Points Business Rules

• Points accumulate for a period of 18 months only.
• Points that are older than 18 months and have not been exchanged for rewards will be forfeited on the 1st day of the 19th month and no compensation will be given by Vodacom.
• All customers who have accumulated 100 or more points will receive an SMS on the 1st day of the 18th month reminding them to redeem their points or it will be forfeited. Similar to free bundled minutes. (On 3 July 2007 the first sms notifications were sent to our customers.)
• When a redemption is done the oldest points are used first.

 

[Skeptik]

They've also put an expiry time on the actual reward you get (SMSs) of 90 days.

If you spend your 500 Talking Points on 750 'free' SMSs, you've got to send 8.3 of these per day. That's not so easy!

This reminds me of that old petrol garage promotion where people feverishly collected tokens and then when they were just short of completing the set, they stopped the competition.

In order to get a cellphone (unspecified - possibly very cheap model) you need to earn 1000 points. If you recharged with a R275 recharge voucher (earning 28 points), you would need to do this 35.71 times. A total spend of R9821.42 over a period of 18 months ...
or R546 a month.

I see the Vodacom bean counters have done their homework

 

[kronoSX]

well for 10 rand a point you would have to fork out 30 000 for a decent phone,3000 talking points

 

[kronoSX]

so that means 30000 divided by 12 months,you do the maths,i have accumulated 350 points on my prepaid,i redeemed twice.So that means i probaly spent 15000 already from this was introduced,and i like prepaid better than a contract.I top up about 500 plus a month sometimes.that excluded my ppdb.

 

[kronoSX]

this still sucks thou about the expiring date,bet you not many ppl know this

 

[kiepie]

I cannot go there. I was hoping for a reply here. Helloooo??

Off topic - But why?

 

[Skeptik]

this still sucks thou about the expiring date,bet you not many ppl know this

They do now

For a comprehensive list of cellphones that can be exchanged for points visit a participating Vodacom Outlet or call 082 2411 082.

Why can't they put the list on their website. I smell another money maker here.

So the strategy is "reward people for buying airtime, make it difficult for them to get the rewards, put a limit on how many they can accumulate, limit the time the reward itself can be used - then charge them extra to find out what specific 'prizes' they can get."

Am I the only one who finds this quite unsettling?

Off topic - But why?

They couldn't handle the criticism - not wanting to upset forum sponsor I would guess.

 

[Donsy]

Time to alert the "False TV Advertising" board

Vodacom's "Talking Points" TV ad shows a MP3 playing Cellphone ("Britney Houston") - looks like SE W 800 series.

To qualify for that you need to spend R30,000 over 18 months on pre-paid

I'll stick my neck out and claim no one has ever won that prize

Another way to bamboozle the masses

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Exactly the same reason I terminated my contract with them, as I was accumulating "free minutes" for Africa, but was unable to use these so-called "free minutes" without racking up a hefty charge...

CellC's got my business.

 

[JK8]

Time to alert the "False TV Advertising" board

Vodacom's "Talking Points" TV ad shows a MP3 playing Cellphone ("Britney Houston") - looks like SE W 800 series.

To qualify for that you need to spend R30,000 over 18 months on pre-paid

I'll stick my neck out and claim no one has ever won that prize

Another way to bamboozle the masses

You would fall off your chair if you knew how many people have accumulated more than 30k points!

 

[Donsy]

IOL News
http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iArticleId=3943201

"Vodacom said on Thursday, July 19, that although its local customers grew by 6,9 percent to 24,6 million, they spent 5.6 percent less on calls and other services, or R118 monthly, compared with R125 in the previous quarter"

I read somewhere that 90% of users are Prepaid customers (stand to be corrected)

Based on that, the R118 per month = 12 Talking Points X 18 Months = 216 Points

The cheapest phones require 1,000 points Eg. Nokia 1600 (cost R299) Nokia N70 require 2000 points

Still think the TV ad is misleading - it doesn't mention you have to get the points over 18 months

 

[Skeptik]

Time to alert the "False TV Advertising" board

Vodacom's "Talking Points" TV ad shows a MP3 playing Cellphone ("Britney Houston") - looks like SE W 800 series.

To qualify for that you need to spend R30,000 over 18 months on pre-paid

I'll stick my neck out and claim no one has ever won that prize

Another way to bamboozle the masses

Excellent idea. Note the time and day and a brief description of the ad and which channel and away you go. I haven't seen it yet so I can't. You can do it all via e-mail so no probs.

You would fall off your chair if you knew how many people have accumulated more than 30k points!

I don't anticipate falling off any chair thanks. What I'd like to know is how you could possibly know considering you don't work for the company?

IOL News
http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iArticleId=3943201

"Vodacom said on Thursday, July 19, that although its local customers grew by 6,9 percent to 24,6 million, they spent 5.6 percent less on calls and other services, or R118 monthly, compared with R125 in the previous quarter"

I read somewhere that 90% of users are Prepaid customers (stand to be corrected)

Based on that, the R118 per month = 12 Talking Points X 18 Months = 216 Points

The cheapest phones require 1,000 points Eg. Nokia 1600 (cost R299) Nokia N70 require 2000 points

Still think the TV ad is misleading - it doesn't mention you have to get the points over 18 months

You must be talking about Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

So you've actually just proved that their ad is misleading because they aren't allowed to use an extreme case of someone spending R30,000 to reflect an offer in their ads.