Vodacom’s biggest blunders

The_Librarian said:
Refresh my memory, please? I am unaware of that...
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It was the 100 days 100 cars competition where people could send a R10-SMS to enter the competition to win a beemer a day - highly unethical as some people ran up cell-phone bills of 60-70K/pm. It never really made big headlines but I just remember that within a few days of launch of the competition VC had received close to 400,000 entries.

After the first month (when the bill run happened), there was major chaos as many post-paid subs spend several thousand Rand on SMS entries. I know of one guy who was "lucky" - he spent 150K in SMS and won a beemer and then sold it.
 
I thought this was going to be about all their untrue advertising over the years.
 
This article is pretty awesome. Vodacom have paid some massive school fees. At least they are moving forward and trying new ideas. Many companies don't try to diversify, so they become white elephants. Lets see a list of their biggest wins too. And for the other SPs.

MagicDude4Eva said:
It was the 100 days 100 cars competition where people could send a R10-SMS to enter the competition to win a beemer a day - highly unethical as some people ran up cell-phone bills of 60-70K/pm. It never really made big headlines but I just remember that within a few days of launch of the competition VC had received close to 400,000 entries.

After the first month (when the bill run happened), there was major chaos as many post-paid subs spend several thousand Rand on SMS entries. I know of one guy who was "lucky" - he spent 150K in SMS and won a beemer and then sold it.
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How is it unethical? So all casinos are unethical? Or all competitions with pay-to-win requirements? What about raffles?
 
MaryJane said:
How is it unethical? So all casinos are unethical? Or all competitions with pay-to-win requirements? What about raffles?
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Casinos are licensed. This was essentially an unregulated lottery where the people were paying for the cars and not a promotional competition to create brand awareness. Resulted (among other similar competitions) in the national lotteries commission instituting a maximum guideline about of R1.50 per sms.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
It was the 100 days 100 cars competition where people could send a R10-SMS to enter the competition to win a beemer a day - highly unethical as some people ran up cell-phone bills of 60-70K/pm. It never really made big headlines but I just remember that within a few days of launch of the competition VC had received close to 400,000 entries.

After the first month (when the bill run happened), there was major chaos as many post-paid subs spend several thousand Rand on SMS entries. I know of one guy who was "lucky" - he spent 150K in SMS and won a beemer and then sold it.
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Ahhh... Excellent idea for raising some cash quick-quick....
 
Swa said:
Casinos are licensed. This was essentially an unregulated lottery where the people were paying for the cars and not a promotional competition to create brand awareness. Resulted (among other similar competitions) in the national lotteries commission instituting a maximum guideline about of R1.50 per sms.
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Basically what happened.

Someone, somewhere did not realised Vodacom needed a gambling license to run this and this was the reason it got shut down.

Egg / face. :rolleyes:
 
Vodacom's failure to fix its inadequate contract data and voice billing system to work with realtime usage especially where data is concerned, should be on that list as it has created a lot of distrust with Vodacom's customers since 2005 and is effectively a huge blunder.
 
Swa said:
Casinos are licensed. This was essentially an unregulated lottery where the people were paying for the cars and not a promotional competition to create brand awareness. Resulted (among other similar competitions) in the national lotteries commission instituting a maximum guideline about of R1.50 per sms.
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Oh, wow. Thanks for that. Didn't know that. But one would still expect consumers to be smart enough to control their own expenditure. Guess we all have to plan for those few who will take it to the extreme or those who are not smart enough to realise that they are spending money.

MagicDude4Eva said:
That "someone" was involved in many other blunders ;-)
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Are you referring to the inventor of Please Call Me? Hehe. Hehe. Hehe.
 
MaryJane said:
Are you referring to the inventor of Please Call Me? Hehe. Hehe. Hehe.
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No. Insiders will now about the other blunders which have been quickly buried - but that particular division was certainly responsible for giving Vodacom legal division sleepless nights ;-)
 
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