I'm a prepaid Vodacom BB user (I buy the R59 BIS bundle every month) and I recently noticed that my airtime seemed to be going down faster than normal. I logged into my vodacom profile and looked at my mini-statement (the d!ckheads charge you R10 to see a full 30 day statement-another con of note), and I saw a whole lot of data debits to my account. Now I was under the impression that all on-device browsing was included in the BIS package (I don't download, stream or tether my device), and so I called the call centre and was told some vague story about data being free when you use an app (the facebook app for instance), but if you you use the internet browser, depending on what site you are visiting, data will not be free and you will be billed at out-of-bundle rates. Gosh. So I asked what sites were billable and what sites weren't, and was told another vague story that using the vodafone live service is billable (?) and/or I should be able to see on my browser if I am being billed (I can't). I apologize if this seems confusing but that's about all I could make sense of it.
Anyway, this clearly didn't seem kosher to me so I went and looked at the terms and conditions, and found the following on the prepaid BB terms:
- "Data usage for Internet browsing using the BlackBerry Internet browser is unlimited when using browsing on-device and is included in the monthly BlackBerry subscription."
I'm no legal expert, but that seems pretty damn straightforward to me. But alas, I then found a separate Blackberry terms of use policy (no mention of which is made in the prepaid terms and conditions) and found the following:
- "Vodacom; may from time to time identify certain websites with Research In Motion, where access to these sites will be charged for at the customer`s prevailing data tariff plan."
Bingo. There we have it folks. Buried in the terms and conditions is this little clause giving Vodacom carte blanche to charge you for any browsing you do, despite marketing the BIS as "unlimited on-device browsing". Again, I'm no legal expert, but if these two clauses I've listed above don't contradict each other then I don't no what does.
I thought about taking further action, such as writing a snotty complaint on HelloPeter, but then I thought, what's the point. They're entitled to make ridiculously misleading terms, shafting the customer at every turn, and one more complaint on HelloPeter is not going to change their minds (they already get ~30 complaints per day). So I simply vowed to myself that when this months bundle expires, I will be porting far far away, and will not be returning anytime soon. So au revoir Vodacom. It's been real. (real *****)
Anyway, this clearly didn't seem kosher to me so I went and looked at the terms and conditions, and found the following on the prepaid BB terms:
- "Data usage for Internet browsing using the BlackBerry Internet browser is unlimited when using browsing on-device and is included in the monthly BlackBerry subscription."
I'm no legal expert, but that seems pretty damn straightforward to me. But alas, I then found a separate Blackberry terms of use policy (no mention of which is made in the prepaid terms and conditions) and found the following:
- "Vodacom; may from time to time identify certain websites with Research In Motion, where access to these sites will be charged for at the customer`s prevailing data tariff plan."
Bingo. There we have it folks. Buried in the terms and conditions is this little clause giving Vodacom carte blanche to charge you for any browsing you do, despite marketing the BIS as "unlimited on-device browsing". Again, I'm no legal expert, but if these two clauses I've listed above don't contradict each other then I don't no what does.
I thought about taking further action, such as writing a snotty complaint on HelloPeter, but then I thought, what's the point. They're entitled to make ridiculously misleading terms, shafting the customer at every turn, and one more complaint on HelloPeter is not going to change their minds (they already get ~30 complaints per day). So I simply vowed to myself that when this months bundle expires, I will be porting far far away, and will not be returning anytime soon. So au revoir Vodacom. It's been real. (real *****)