Hi Guys,
My first post here, but I had to find somewhere to complain about this. I am a new 3g user and wish I had seen this site first as it would answer a lot of questions before signing up. Sales staff selling the 3g contracts either tell white lies, or sometimes just dont know any better.
3 months ago I was looking at 3g and went into a certain Vodashop. The sales guy inside was friendly, and seemed to know what was going on. I was not sure if I needed the 500 Mb or 1 Gig contract and I asked if I took the smaller, could I upgrade at any time after. The answer was a most positive YES. So I thought, ok cool. He asked me to sign a blank form with the 500Meg option ticked only.....as my other details were known to Vodacom, being a cell phone contract customer. This sounded ok, and I took a copy of the form.
2 weeks later I see I am apporaching my limit and call through asking if I can get my contract upgraded as this seemed like my normal usage....gaming, surfing, downloading the odd patch here and there etc...I was told I can only do so at the start of the new month, and I need to buy an ad hoc bolt on this month. Fair enough I accepted this but it was not what was told to me upon signup. I then asked the consultant on the phone to upgrade my package to the 1 Gig and he said he would activate it. - problem solved? NO.
I tried to log in to vodacom4me website ( as advised by the call cenre) to check data usage , but when I tried to do so with my modem number, it stated the number was already in use. This worried me so I logged in to the site with my cell number, and sent a query off to customer care. After having a few replies, none of which hit the mark, I just gave up. I still to this day cannot register my 3g modem number to see balances, etc on my 3g contract. ( I need this for effective data monitoring as the bundled modem software only works on one PC, and that is if you dont format it, which I regularly do to keep it running smooth. I also use the modem at my Dad's house and at work.)
Towards the end of the second month, I finally check my bill and what a shocker. I see a huge amount. I query this and it turns out I am still on the 500 Meg contract. I then kick up a storm for my R1800 data bill. Firstly, I requested an upgrade and was told it would happen, and secondly, I was not aware that out of bundle data is so ridiculously expensive. I was not ever made aware of this at signup, and was only given an Ad sheet stating 20c per Mb with my contract....I believe this is very false info. I also ow see on the MyADSL forums it states that we are supposed to have a cutoff limit for new customers to prevent surprise bills. That never happened in my case, and additionally I never received any of the notifications at any time, even till today that I am ever at 80, 90 and 95% of my data usage.
I then went back to Vodashop and I was refunded some cash, to cover for the first 500 MB that was supposed to be on the 1G bundle while I was still on the 500 MB, and for failing to inform me of higher out of bundle rates at signup. This is an admission they were incorrect. Their excuse was that they did not know the higher out of bundle rates themselves! Ok so I think all is well.....Not! I then try to activate the higher package and I am told this is not possible in the first 3 months of signing up. So now I am suddenly treated like a new Vodacom customer, but when it suits Vodacom, I am an existing customer( for signup puposes, and not limiting my data on new contract). This 3 month probation is actually BS considering I have 2 other cell contracts with Vodacom and which cost me R1500 each month. This is also not what I was told upon signup, if you refer to my initial query with the sales person.
The next month, I get another R2000 bill. The problem is that this bill was actually incurred just prior to me making all the noise the month before. You only end up paying you bill, 2 months after you started using the data. You open a contract, use data that month.....at the end of the month a bill is sent for payment the end of the following month. So thats 2 months from when you start the data usage. At no time while I was complaining about the high data rates, and my contract not being upgraded was I told that there was already another bill in the post with the same problem. So I was refunded for the previosu months data, while the sales person keep quite about the second bill on the way. I find that very poor show.
SO out of all of this I have had to pay a R3600 bill this month. I cannot see how a contract 2Gb package costs R489, and Vodacom can justify charging me R2000 for around 1,5 Gb of data. It is actually crazy. This info is not made known when you take out these contracts and is very very misleading to the public. Bear in mind, I took out this contract because it is R250......because that is what I could afford......not R2000.
I accept that there has to be a higher out of bundle rate, but the example I used above just shows that we are being unknowingly ripped off here. I also object to this insane amount as I wanted to upgrade my package in the very first month, and was not allowed to do so. I am therefore tied into using data at higher costs for the first 3 months.
Vodacoms site has a problem letting me get access to monitor my own data usage, and the problem is most definitely on their side. How can I be held accountable for this data usage if I cannot be given acces to monitor it, or even verify if it is in fact my usage? I do have the emails querying this login problem, if anybody is wondering.
I would like to see what Vodacoms response to all this is.
