Vodacom 3G - Prepaid Issues

[RVD]

Hi All

After "lurking" for a number of years on this forum, finally decided to join
Hope the community can help on the issue re. thread title.

After having recently purchased a notebook and looking for ways to connect to the internet, I bought a MyMeg 500 prepaid package at the end of June. The sim card was loaded, put in an external modem and I was able to connect without any problems. Really enjoyed the speed of being able to access web sites . Was also able to register and log on to the vodacom4me site to check and monitor data usage.

On the 27th of July, I purchased another MyMeg 500 bundle from the vodashop at the the airport. The remaining data at that point was about 80 Mb. As I was going to be away for two weeks, I did not want to run out of data at a critical point! The salesman put the sim card in his phone and loaded the card. He showed me that the full MyMeg 500 had been loaded.

The problem started on the 2nd of August. I was unable to connect to the network. After much hassle, I found an internet cafe and logged into the vodacom4me site to try to see what was going on. My available data bundle showed 0.00 MB The recharge history showed that a USSD recharge to the value of R189 had been loaded on the 27 of July. The itemised billing showed that a GPRS transaction on the 2nd August to the value of R138 was also used.

So I phoned Vodacom Customer Care to find out what was going on. The lady who tried to assist me couldn't understand either and said that the issue would be escalated to the technical dept. A day later, I get a call from someone in the technical dept and this is the explaination that is given:

While the R189 had indeed been loaded, it han't been "converted into data". So in fact when I connected to the internet on the 2nd of August, I had in fact been making a very expensive phone call Furthermore, the "system" would not have allowed the data conversion, as the available data balance had to be less than 5 or 10 Mb.

As I did indeed use the internet on that day for that amount of time, I am not disputing the fact that the R189 was used up in a single day However, the following issues remain:

1. Nowhere in the terms and conditions of the vodacom4me site, do they refer to a minumum data balance being needed before a recharge can be loaded.

2. Could not find this either in V3G FAQ's in this forum (last updated in 2007!)

3. Why is the process so complicated, compared to buying airtime or prepaid electricity for that matter? As far as I am aware, you can load airtime or prepaid electricity at any point and not wait for a minimum threshold to be reached, nor a 30 day time period to elapse.

I would really like to continue to use this service, but don't want to get "caught out" again. Prefer using prepaid, as I can avoid recieving huge bills for "user error" isues - would have hated to see the bill for the above if I had been on contract Can somebody please clarify the best practise for recharging for those that make use of prepaid.

Apologies for the long post, but thought it best to provide as much detail, before asking for help.

Thanks.

 

[cfvh600]

sorry to hear about the problems. I've also been using prepaid and every time I load airtime on the sim I have to go and convert it to a data bundle. Not aware of the minimum threshold. The best would be to go and convert your airtime to a data bundle on vodacom4me every time you've loaded airtime.

 

[wishblade]

I remember reading somewhere that you are only able to load data bundles if you have only 10MB left... but I think the site has been updated since then, as I cannot seem to find it again

But if you use USSD to load a data bundle, with greater than 10MB, it's supposed to inform you that the data bundle cannot be loaded because you still have an existing data bundle in use. At least, that's how it worked before.

 

[somedude]

Crappy systems and greedy operators - data is data - wtf does it matter if you have an existing bundle or not - can't their multi-million rand systems do simple addition!?

Along the same lines - I can't use my purchased data bundles effectively, because Vodacom's signal craps out 50 times a day, in an area where their own maps indicate full and stable 3G access, less than half a km from a cell tower.

Go Patricia De Lille - give these greedy b@sat@rds all hell - time for the ripoffs to end, and time for the bad service penalties to kick in.
/bitchmode off/

 

[Keeper]

Vodacom don't want you to add a new bundle before the other one is finnished, because they WANT to let you go into R2,00 a MB mode - their systems can do it, they just make money out of "catching out" people, much like RVD.

I got caught out, as I had 50 MB's left (and R100 airtime) and tried to blow it as quickly as I can to load a new 2GB bundle, i mean, it's only 50 megs.....little did I know it was feasting on my R100 airtime - I didn't see the "Your bundle has expired" SMS - The vodacom software displays a new SMS for 3 secs, and dissapears.....i must have gone to the kitchen or something.

anyway - Vodacom sucks - read the threads on the forum before you buy a 3G modem - and their contract can get you in a big mess.

the bladdy iBurst users are downloading 10 times more than us 3G users !!!! !!!! !!!!!

 

[ginggs]

On the 27th of July, I purchased another MyMeg 500 bundle from the vodashop at the the airport.

With Vodacom's current rules it's best to buy your bundle at the beginning of a month instead of at the end of a month. For example the bundle you wanted to purchase on July 27 would have expired on August 31. If you purchased that bundle on August 1, it would expire on September 30.

He showed me that the full MyMeg 500 had been loaded.

How did the salesman show you that the bundle had been loaded?
It sounds to me that he loaded the airtime, but forgot to purchase a data bundle with the airtime. It is a two step process.

Furthermore, the "system" would not have allowed the data conversion, as the available data balance had to be less than 5 or 10 Mb.

There used to be a rule like this, you had to use more than a certain percentage of your bundle or have less than a certain number of megabytes remaining. AFAIK, this rule has been relaxed since April 1 when the bundle expiry date changed from 30 days from date of purchase to the end of the next calendar month ("up to 60 days"). I know of people who have been loading multiple 5MB bundles on pre-paid to take advantage of the 25MB free.

 

[netpreneur]

Keep a dedicated sim card for your 3g modem and another for phone calls. And to avoid Vodacom charging you out of bundle rates be careful to fully utilise any 'extra' airtime your sim may have.

 

[jasweb]

I call BS on the less than 10Mb remaining to load bundles...

Using Vodacom for realtime video streaming and 2 months ago had 230Mb left in the middle of a stream... So added another 2Gb without disconnecting the stream and checked vodacom4me and it was loaded.

I can't complain! NB to put on 3G only in software. NB to do speed.vodacom.co.za test. I run "unrestricted" free APN and works like charm

PS using MTN as backup 64kbps stream and also dit not have 1 disconnect for 8 hour stream

PS2. I feel so confident in VC' network that we have started a commercial venture using only Prepaid cards (since you can load as many databundles as you like when you like)!

 

[RVD]

Hi All

Thanks for your responses!

@ginggs: you have provided some practical advice on best practice - appreciated


@netpreneur: the sim card is used for data use only.

Can't understand why you cannot purchase prepaid "data" directly?