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Question of the Day: Which is the most hair-raising South African mountain pass you've driven?
Telkom Internet Uncapped User Feedback.
- Thread starter Yuu
- Start date
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MickeyD
RIP
I'd like to see some official feedback before responding... most call centre agents don't know their arse from their elbow.
Goodluck getting that.
Complaint filed with ASASA, for what its worth....... if anybody is interested, you can send complaints to [email protected]
Don't think it will amount to much but who knows.
Nature of complaint:
The complaint is against Telkom SA in regards to their Broadband offering. Telkom SA advertises and offers their lower-end broadband services as having NO LIMIT in regards to data usage and state that the services are all 'uncapped' meaning that there are no upper limits on data usage. The image below was taken from Telkom SA's website, see link below the image.
Above taken from http://www.do.co.za/broadband/offerings/telkom-internet-plans/
It can be noted however that they do have a clause pertaining to the No Limit which refers to their 'fair use' policy which can be found on the following link: http://www.telkom.co.za/general/termsandconditions/downloads/TelkomInternetAUP.pdf
I as a consumer believe that this form of advertising should be stamped out. This is nothing more than 'baiting' in so far as certain claims are made only to be excluded again in the terms and conditions. The new Consumer Act specifically states that facts may not be hidden in the terms and conditions which in my opinion is being done here.
You cannot advertise a service as being 'UNCAPPED' and having 'NO LIMITS' only to state in the terms and conditions that actual limits do apply. The terms 'Uncapped' and 'No Limit' in this case is nothing more than an advertising ploy to state that TelkomSA offers an UNLIMITED broadband service in order to compete with the other ISP's out there while in actual fact this is not the case as they are in actual fact applying what they refer to as 'soft-capped' caps on the limits.
Other service providers offer a true unlimited service where there are no caps and or any terms and conditions. Telkom SA cannot compete with these providers and seems to now have resorted to what in my opinion is nothing more than false advertising in an effort to create the impression that they do offer a similar 'unlimited' or 'uncapped' service.
The services on offer by Telkom SA are not unlimited and or uncapped as stated but in actual fact a service which carries limits.
By hiding this fact in the terms and conditions and or in the small print is not in the spirit of the Consumer Protection act and or in the spirit of honest marketing and as stated, is nothing more than a ploy to lure consumers in to taking up their service offerings as they, the consumers, believe that the services are really uncapped and or unlimited.
It is asked of ASASA to investigate this form of 'bait' advertising and to make a ruling that companies, like Telkom SA in this case, may not hide the actual facts of their service in the small print but rather that they explicitly tell the consumer upfront and in clear language what it is that they are actually offering, which in this case is either a capped service and or a limited unlimited service.
As stated, this is nothing more than false advertising, no matter how you look at it. If not false advertising then at the very least a brilliant effort to pull the wool over the eyes of the consumer in so far as the actual nature of the service they are offering.
Please do not hesitate to contact the writer hereof should you require any additional information.
Regards
xxxxx
Don't think it will amount to much but who knows.
Nature of complaint:
The complaint is against Telkom SA in regards to their Broadband offering. Telkom SA advertises and offers their lower-end broadband services as having NO LIMIT in regards to data usage and state that the services are all 'uncapped' meaning that there are no upper limits on data usage. The image below was taken from Telkom SA's website, see link below the image.
Above taken from http://www.do.co.za/broadband/offerings/telkom-internet-plans/
It can be noted however that they do have a clause pertaining to the No Limit which refers to their 'fair use' policy which can be found on the following link: http://www.telkom.co.za/general/termsandconditions/downloads/TelkomInternetAUP.pdf
I as a consumer believe that this form of advertising should be stamped out. This is nothing more than 'baiting' in so far as certain claims are made only to be excluded again in the terms and conditions. The new Consumer Act specifically states that facts may not be hidden in the terms and conditions which in my opinion is being done here.
You cannot advertise a service as being 'UNCAPPED' and having 'NO LIMITS' only to state in the terms and conditions that actual limits do apply. The terms 'Uncapped' and 'No Limit' in this case is nothing more than an advertising ploy to state that TelkomSA offers an UNLIMITED broadband service in order to compete with the other ISP's out there while in actual fact this is not the case as they are in actual fact applying what they refer to as 'soft-capped' caps on the limits.
Other service providers offer a true unlimited service where there are no caps and or any terms and conditions. Telkom SA cannot compete with these providers and seems to now have resorted to what in my opinion is nothing more than false advertising in an effort to create the impression that they do offer a similar 'unlimited' or 'uncapped' service.
The services on offer by Telkom SA are not unlimited and or uncapped as stated but in actual fact a service which carries limits.
By hiding this fact in the terms and conditions and or in the small print is not in the spirit of the Consumer Protection act and or in the spirit of honest marketing and as stated, is nothing more than a ploy to lure consumers in to taking up their service offerings as they, the consumers, believe that the services are really uncapped and or unlimited.
It is asked of ASASA to investigate this form of 'bait' advertising and to make a ruling that companies, like Telkom SA in this case, may not hide the actual facts of their service in the small print but rather that they explicitly tell the consumer upfront and in clear language what it is that they are actually offering, which in this case is either a capped service and or a limited unlimited service.
As stated, this is nothing more than false advertising, no matter how you look at it. If not false advertising then at the very least a brilliant effort to pull the wool over the eyes of the consumer in so far as the actual nature of the service they are offering.
Please do not hesitate to contact the writer hereof should you require any additional information.
Regards
xxxxx
Last edited:
Check the fair usage policy here http://www.telkom.co.za/general/termsandconditions/downloads/TelkomInternetAUP.pdf
Telkom do apply 'soft' caps or at least throttle the services of those in question. That is why so many only get around 40kbps, seems like that is where the throttle limit is set.
EDIT: See section 3.1
"All Telkom Internet uncapped products are never capped. However, Telkom does
reserve the right to apply restrictions on individual uncapped account service if any
specific user behaviour is determined to be affecting our network performance, or more
specifically, the performance of other customers on our network. As such, these
individual customers may be classed as a “power users”."
And 3.5
"Telkom Internet accounts operate on shared resources. You are prohibited from
excessive consumption of resources, including central processing unit time, memory, disk space and session time."
Last edited:
MickeyD
RIP
I'm more interested in this clause:
TI must inform you that you are to be throttled PRIOR to doing so...
So what Telkom is indirectly telling you is that your service is a shared service and that you may never really get the true speed you are paying for.
Also, if you do 'abuse' the service according to their criteria, a criteria they are not willing to share, then they may throttle your service as and when they decide.
The terms 'Unlimited' and 'Uncapped' are thus for marketing purposes only as the service is not unlimited and or uncapped as stated.
Its like advertising a convertible vehicle and putting in the small print that you may only drop the hood on Mondays and Wednesday and only do so 10 times a month otherwise the hood will be locked in place for the rest of the month.
I would like to see a car dealer get away with that, yet Telkom can do as they please as neither ICASA nor any of the consumer bodies have any 'teeth' and SA consumers have no rights.
Also, if you do 'abuse' the service according to their criteria, a criteria they are not willing to share, then they may throttle your service as and when they decide.
The terms 'Unlimited' and 'Uncapped' are thus for marketing purposes only as the service is not unlimited and or uncapped as stated.
Its like advertising a convertible vehicle and putting in the small print that you may only drop the hood on Mondays and Wednesday and only do so 10 times a month otherwise the hood will be locked in place for the rest of the month.
I would like to see a car dealer get away with that, yet Telkom can do as they please as neither ICASA nor any of the consumer bodies have any 'teeth' and SA consumers have no rights.
Although I have not yet been softcapped on my 4mbps uncapped account I do feel that Telkom misled me when this uncapped account was sold to me. Very very disappointed in Telkom Internet in this regard. The fact that they have announced that they will do away with speed limitation is also FALSE advertising and is the main reason I considered them as a uncapped ISP.
Its shocking to say the least. For the same amount of money I bet you can get better performance and download quantities on a IS based account? The R59 @lantic uncapped after hours account comes to mind. Way better than any other account I used before and sooooo much less.
My TI usage on my 4Mbps account still getting good speeds but looking everyday at usage tracker fearing this very dreadful throttling to basically dial up speeds is not worth it.
You are within your data allowance
Usage for February Current Active Sessions
Data Available:
In-bundle 0.0 MB
No Blended Active Sessions
Used Data: 248.5 GB
Remaining Data:
In-bundle 0.0 MB
Out-of-bundle 0.0 MB (limit 0.0 MB)
TopUp 0.0 MB
Its shocking to say the least. For the same amount of money I bet you can get better performance and download quantities on a IS based account? The R59 @lantic uncapped after hours account comes to mind. Way better than any other account I used before and sooooo much less.
My TI usage on my 4Mbps account still getting good speeds but looking everyday at usage tracker fearing this very dreadful throttling to basically dial up speeds is not worth it.
You are within your data allowance
Usage for February Current Active Sessions
Data Available:
In-bundle 0.0 MB
No Blended Active Sessions
Used Data: 248.5 GB
Remaining Data:
In-bundle 0.0 MB
Out-of-bundle 0.0 MB (limit 0.0 MB)
TopUp 0.0 MB
Billy
Expert Member
I get a sense of Deja Vu.
My Wireless was fantastic for the first few months. No cap. Download as much as you want. Then the throttleing started.
Now same thing with Telkom. Great reports on their Uncapped. Now the throttleing starts.
My Wireless is no more. Telkom???
My Wireless was fantastic for the first few months. No cap. Download as much as you want. Then the throttleing started.
Now same thing with Telkom. Great reports on their Uncapped. Now the throttleing starts.
My Wireless is no more. Telkom???
My tit-racker still shows the legacy capped account reports.
Well it won't be uncapped.
Billy
Expert Member
Interesting. My downloads are back to where they were before Telkom started meddling.
akescpt
Honorary Master
what have u bullies done to ranger?
Billy
Expert Member
akescpt
Honorary Master
Yip can confirm being soft capped at 200GB on my 2 mb line as well now chugging along at 40KB/s on usenet
So next month it will be reset right?
40kb is amazing during the day. telkom just used to switch off from 8-6pm
ToxicBunny
Oi! Leave me out of this...
Hmmmm... this is worrying...
sallyspencer
Senior Member
this is a joke.........it has to be......
2 meg uncapped and not soft capped yet.....
south african test
Test conducted on 2/25/2013 10:16:15 AM
Download Speed: 107 kbps (13.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 406 kbps (50.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 177 ms
international.........
Test conducted on 2/25/2013 10:24:01 AM
Download Speed: 15 kbps (1.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 325 kbps (40.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 321 ms
2 meg uncapped and not soft capped yet.....
south african test
Test conducted on 2/25/2013 10:16:15 AM
Download Speed: 107 kbps (13.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 406 kbps (50.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 177 ms
international.........
Test conducted on 2/25/2013 10:24:01 AM
Download Speed: 15 kbps (1.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 325 kbps (40.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 321 ms
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