Tweet from Pieter Uys

[BinaryJack]

The problem with this sort of response from Vodacom is that they firstly haven't actually apologised whatsoever to customers, and secondly that they've set a precedent from a customer's perspective that they are happy to screw over customers until the backlash threatens to have tangible, negative impacts on their bottom line. Even if this wasn't their intention, from a PR perspective, it is the outcome.

This move has severely tarnished their name, from all aspects of their customer base - not just BIS users. If they don't show some additional form of goodwill, combined with an apology, they simply will not rectify this disaster and it will still impact their bottom line.

Interestingly, VOD investors saw this as a positive move and lifted their price nearly 2% on the news. If there is a correlation here between the news and VOD share price, then the current price is not sustainable...

Completely agree with this observation.
The old saying applies: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

 

[EGT]

I think what Vodacom didn't realise is, no one on a Blackberry BIS plan actually know how much they use! [We] don't need bandwidth meters or manage bundles, and likewise there's no service from Vodacom/MTN/Cell-C that tells you how much you actually used.

I mean i don't do anything extreme on my BB, but i don't ever know how much i really use either , so 100MB sounded totally insane.

It would help Vodacom to teach their BB customers about their usage, via tools or notifications if it's a problem. Surely Vodacom PR must understand the pleasure of BIS is not having to monitor usage at all. No one on a BB service knows how much they use, so how would you "sell" a cap to them if they can't determine that the cap is in fact "fair" ?

I would also assume if such a cap/throttle plan is implemented, that it implies Vodacom would have to provide a BIS-bandwidth monitoring service to customers too with warnings and all the bells and whistles as you get with regular data bundles. [how else would they know how to manage their usage? ] ? I wasn't aware BIS got all these goodies?

+1