Vodacom 3G/HSDPA USB card

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Khyron

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Vodacom 3G/HSDPA USB Modem

This question is also for Vodacom3G:

I have a family member who has just purchased a new laptop. She only found out afterwards that it does not have a PCMCIA slot, which means she cannot use her current data card. She is about five months away from completing her two-year contract.

What would be the best way to go to upgrade her current 3G/HSDPA card to the new usb one?

Thanks a lot.
 
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Don't know what V3G will have to say but I was recently in the same position when I purchased an HP Pavilion laptop. Vodacom wasn't interested in my problem, eventually I had to purchase the E220 (USB modem) at my own expense.

Good luck!
 
Best option would probably be to take out a new contract and cancel the old one after 5 months. You can get 500MB for R250, then she can upgrade that to whatever she wants/needs when the old one expires.
 
salmo said:
Don't know what V3G will have to say but I was recently in the same position when I purchased an HP Pavilion laptop. Vodacom wasn't interested in my problem, eventually I had to purchase the E220 (USB modem) at my own expense.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

As an analogy; When you upgraded your laptop, did you go to the supplier of the old laptop and asked them to give you free memory as the old laptop's memory won't fit in the new machine?

Not quite fair to expect a vendor, whose product you bought and used without a problem, to swap it out for free because you changed another component in your setup?

Just a thought! :)

Khyron, I agree with Syndre, get a PCI-Express card as soon as your contract comes to an end. This will also give you 7.2 when it becomes available.

Otherwise she'll need to buy a USB modem. You can't find someone who'll do a swap for 5 months?
 
Thanks guys,

This is pretty much what I expected. I thought maybe this also works like voice contracts where you can upgrade after 20/22 months.

The laptop was an entry-level FSC one bought from Makro, so no ExpressCard interface either, only USB.

You win some, you loose some.
 
The option to upgrade, even on a “data only contract”, should be available in the 22nd month of the contract. The upgrade date of the specific contract can be checked on the vodacom4me site or by phoning your service provider.

You can also enquire about early termination of the contract with your service provider, but this option is likely to be more costly than buying a new USB modem.

IMO the only other possible option left in your laptop scenario would be for your family member to use a phone as a modem via USB or bluetooth. This would entail swopping sim cards whenever a data connection is needed and would also only be worthwhile if the phone being used is at least 3G enabled if a fast connection is required. Even so, this option would be better than having no data connection at all or paying for a contract that you can’t use because of incompatible hardware.
 
vodacom3g said:
As an analogy; When you upgraded your laptop, did you go to the supplier of the old laptop and asked them to give you free memory as the old laptop's memory won't fit in the new machine?

Not quite fair to expect a vendor, whose product you bought and used without a problem, to swap it out for free because you changed another component in your setup?

Just a thought! :)

Khyron, I agree with Syndre, get a PCI-Express card as soon as your contract comes to an end. This will also give you 7.2 when it becomes available.

Otherwise she'll need to buy a USB modem. You can't find someone who'll do a swap for 5 months?
Click to expand...


Massive difference between a laptop and a pos piece of equipment from you guys, new laptop is an upgrade sticking with you guys is a joke. ADSL though i h8 telkom is 500 times better i burst about 200 times better and guess what they both about 1000 times more reliable.

Only went 3g for the laptop now i regret it badly, just a total waste of money, anyway no stupid questions been asked them all and answered them all and guess what still zero satisfaction bye bye 3g
 
Microd SA based in Gauteng supplies them - I paid around R1200 plus though...
 
vodacom3g said:
As an analogy; When you upgraded your laptop, did you go to the supplier of the old laptop and asked them to give you free memory as the old laptop's memory won't fit in the new machine?
Click to expand...

Fair comment V3G, I would have thought that since I maintain several cellphone contracts, as well as the data bundle with Vodacom, alltogether worth a good couple of grand to them each month, they might have shown some good public relations by offering to upgrade the card to a USB modem at either no cost or a nominal one. They would have had a goodwill ambassador for life, instead they have a resentful client. The only reason that I stay with VC is because it would be too much hassle to take my business somewhere else, but I'll never recommend them to anybody. It's just bad business to p#ss off your customers, one day it is likely to backfire, look at Telkom, the day that there is a viable alternative they will hemorrhage clients, everybody hates them.

Incidentally when I discovered that my data card wasn't compatible with the laptop the vendor offered immediately to replace it with one that was, I just like the computer so much in every other way that I preferred to keep it. That company will always have my business and my loyalty and I will always recommend them (Incredible Connection at Cavendish) to anybody.
 
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salmo said:
The only reason that I stay with VC is because it would be too much hassle to take my business somewhere else, but I'll never recommend them to anybody.
Click to expand...

That's not strictly true, to give positive comment where it's due, Vodacom does have great coverage and their 3G service has been very good IMO, it's their customer support that is lacking. The active participation of vodacom3G in these forums is a welcome exception (a big hand for V3G here), can you imagine Telkom doing the same? The mind boggles.

From what I've read in discussions about other providers they are as bad or worse. But being known as the the best of a bad bunch isn't the way that I'd want my company to be viewed.
 
@salmo, when Vodacom launched HSDPA about a year ago, Vodacom exchanged thousands of vanilla-3G data cards for HSDPA data cards for free - that was a one-time thing, but still excellent for everyone that took advantage of the offer & benefited from it, also worth mentioning that this free swap out cost Vodacom millions and a lot of headaches as well, my point being that Vodacom isn't quite as evil as you might think.
 
Customer Service or lack thereof...

What in your opinion makes the Vodacom Technical support service (155) so bad?
 
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