Upgrade fee with Vodacom

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Mamajyot

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Hi

I am a little confused.

Why do we pay an upgrade fee (R150) with Vodacom?

What are we actually getting for this fee?
I just asked the sales consultant and they dont know what we are paying for exactly, except that Vodacom charges a fee when upgrading.

Can anyone explain to me what this fee is for?

When we sign a new contract we pay sim and connection fee. I understand this. Why no admin fee when signing new contract? Lot more admin work when signing contract?

Anyone with some insight, please advise.
 
Great point!

An upgrade fee, lol, another way the networks take our money for doing nothing. I know some service providers who will not charge you the upgrade fee - so why cant they all do this? Or is it a case of if you dont make a fuss or dont know better, they just sucker you out of R150?
 
All SPs charger an "admin" fee when upgrading.
 
JK8 said:
All SPs charger an "admin" fee when upgrading.
Click to expand...

No ways dude, a guy from work didnt have to pay. The guys who did his deal sold it to him as such.
 
Last edited:
catweasel said:
No ways dude, a guy from work didnt have to pay. They guys who did his deal sold it to him as such.
Click to expand...

I didnt finish, but its easy to get away with not paying it, upto the dealer obviously.
 
JK8 said:
All SPs charger an "admin" fee when upgrading.
Click to expand...

They never used to. I find it annoying that you can start a new contract for free, but to continue your old one they hit you with a fee - just because they can.
 
Colin62 said:
They never used to. I find it annoying that you can start a new contract for free, but to continue your old one they hit you with a fee - just because they can.
Click to expand...

Errrr ye they never used in 1999, but since then they do charge!!
 
LOL, they will only drop it when it becomes a barrier to entry.
Let the contract expire and re-apply? Nope. You risk losing your number, and you have to go to their poorly staffed service centres ... kekekekek

Much like the whole - Must buy a starter pack and activate it in-store rubbish - that they still insist on doing with the purchase of a phone.
I let the store people do their thing and then turn off my new phone, open it up, remove the new sim-card and throw it into the dustbin.
What a pile of bollocks, and I know it's only being enforced just because the SP wants their number of subscribers to increment when you buy a phone.
Madness!
 
stoke said:
Let the contract expire and re-apply? Nope. You risk losing your number, and you have to go to their poorly staffed service centres ... kekekekek
Click to expand...

If you let your contract expire, you just move to a monthly contract, you wont lose you number.
 
catweasel said:
If you let your contract expire, you just move to a monthly contract, you wont lose you number.
Click to expand...
Okay, let me rephrase.
To get out of the contract, you have to actually cancel it, even though the contract term is over. Nice trick that.
When you send in the fax to cancel it, you risk losing your phone number.
Otherwise, you could just cancel the contract and then apply for a new contract and avoid this upgrade fee.
But .. then again .. it's designed like that.
 
stoke said:
Okay, let me rephrase.
To get out of the contract, you have to actually cancel it, even though the contract term is over. Nice trick that.
When you send in the fax to cancel it, you risk losing your phone number.
Otherwise, you could just cancel the contract and then apply for a new contract and avoid this upgrade fee.
But .. then again .. it's designed like that.
Click to expand...

Once your contract term is up, to get out of the contract you can drop down to prepaid. All it takes is call to vodacom and within 24 hours they move you down. Did it myself before i eventually ported to MTN.

Maybe you could drop to prepaid and sign up again for a new contract, thing is you might have to pay the connection fee - i dunno
 
catweasel said:
Once your contract term is up, to get out of the contract you can drop down to prepaid. All it takes is call to vodacom and within 24 hours they move you down. Did it myself before i eventually ported to MTN.

Maybe you could drop to prepaid and sign up again for a new contract, thing is you might have to pay the connection fee - i dunno
Click to expand...

Do you still have to give notice before dropping to prepaid?
 
Another thing that bothers me with an upgrade is that for example the Sony Erricson X1 (same with most other phones aswelll) you can get for free if you take out a new Talk 500 package, but if you already on a Talk500 and you want to upgrade, you have to pay something ridiculous like R2k extra to get the phone. So much for rewarding loyal customers.....b@stards
 
Thanks catweasel.
What I find a wee bit confusing is that:

The contract is over because the term has expired.

The contract includes a whole bunch of features that added value to the contract and therefore justified the monthly rates and charges (Like a "free" phone).

Now, if you do not take some form of action, your contract is automatically extended, at the same rate as before, but, without the "free" phone and perhaps some other contract specific features.

This I find more than a bit dishonest.

And, then they throw an upgrade fee at you as well, if you do in fact take some action.

Bollocks!
 
Mamajyot said:
Do you still have to give notice before dropping to prepaid?
Click to expand...

No. As long as the contract has expired you fine. You will however pay for the current months monthly subscription fee.
 
When Icasa finally get their act together the handset subsidy reglations prohibited charging an admin fee for upgrades.

If I recall corectly then I think that this might not make it through to the final draft.
 
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