Vodacom 3G Rip-off

[vodacom3g]

Some history on these adapter cards.

When we launched 3G a few years ago, only the PCMCIA data cards were available, no USB.

Vodacom is not in the PC component business but at that point one could not find PCMCIA adapters in the PC shops in SA and I eventually sourced a specific brand in the UK (after being beaten up on this forum ). We brought these in to help out but they required drivers and were never a big hit.

These were sold as separate components and never as part of a Vodacom-designed bundle. Could well be that some of the shops included them in contract bundles or just gave them away to sell the contracts.

After a few months, the local PC component importers woke up and started bringing these adapters in. Some of these were based on the same Ricoh chipset found on motherboards and thus required no drivers.

Forumites and others quickly discovered they were better and the Vodacom-supplied cards died a natural death.

I'll be surprised to still find the original 'Vodacom card' in any shops anywhere.

Was the first adapter still in it's warranty period (1st year) when it popped?

 

[Iam3G]

Omdat dit elektronics is , weet mens nie of die 1ste kaart dalk 1 uit 'n miljoen wel 'n fout op gehad het , en die mainboard seer gemaak het nie. Difficult to do fingerpointing.

This specific PCMCIA Card(1 in possibly 1000's) was only tested on 2 PC's. There's no way to pinpoint the problem JUST to the PCMCIA Card

Thats exactly what i meant

 

[ic]

Thats exactly what i meant

Sometimes it helps the message get through when more than one forumite posts the same message...

 

[PCTECH]

Some history on these adapter cards.

When we launched 3G a few years ago, only the PCMCIA data cards were available, no USB.

Vodacom is not in the PC component business but at that point one could not find PCMCIA adapters in the PC shops in SA and I eventually sourced a specific brand in the UK (after being beaten up on this forum ). We brought these in to help out but they required drivers and were never a big hit.

These were sold as separate components and never as part of a Vodacom-designed bundle. Could well be that some of the shops included them in contract bundles or just gave them away to sell the contracts.

After a few months, the local PC component importers woke up and started bringing these adapters in. Some of these were based on the same Ricoh chipset found on motherboards and thus required no drivers.

Forumites and others quickly discovered they were better and the Vodacom-supplied cards died a natural death.

I'll be surprised to still find the original 'Vodacom card' in any shops anywhere.

Was the first adapter still in it's warranty period (1st year) when it popped?

Yes it was still under warranty. Yes, it was part of the contract - as you say possibly done by the local shop in order to sell the contract.

It is interesting to get the background on the cards and the replacement one I sourced after the first one blew was a Ricoh chipset

Whatever caused the second card to blow (probably Eskom!) my issue was that the local shop shrugged their shoulders when the first card blew. I didn't make it clear in my original post that my frustration was with the local shop not honouring the warranty the first time round. Obviously, I have different ideas on warranty.

I will remember not post again while I am angry and frustrated because I do not express myself clearly and I confuse the issue - sorry!

 

[ic]

...my issue was that the local shop shrugged their shoulders when the first card blew. I didn't make it clear in my original post that my frustration was with the local shop not honouring the warranty the first time round. Obviously, I have different ideas on warranty.

I will remember not post again while I am angry and frustrated because I do not express myself clearly and I confuse the issue - sorry!

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about that: your customer is the contract holder, and by the sounds of it, all this happened a long time ago.

Also, these cards are not prone to blowing up PCs, it is likely that something as mundane as a power surge knocked out both cards.

Your customer would be well advised to invest in proper surge protection equipment.

 

[Mr M]

Bios Update

@ PCtech - From my experience I don't think the PCMCIA adaptor with the Ricoh chipset is the cause - I have tested the adaptor on Gigabyte,ASUS,Chaintech mobo's and they ran without issues.

Suggest you update the problem pc with the latest Bios updates as they may include changes for handling data cards. I had an issue with a video card cutting out - turns out the mobo supplier released new bios updates to alter the voltage settings.

Those adaptor cards could be handling the voltage differently - it's worth a shot.

 

[Ghost02]

Vodacom isn't as great as they want everyone to think

 

[ic]

Vodacom isn't as great as they want everyone to think

Which is of course somewhat irrelevant in this thread which is about PCI<-->PCMCIA adapter cards for normal PCs, and a specific Vodashop that did not want to replace such a card that was presumably still under warranty, but thanks for your insightful comment.