Vodacom CEO discusses data pricing and rigid contracts

Dear customer: Sorry that we charge you a 300% premium over CellC, this is to ensure you have stable 1 Meg connection apposed to a stable 3 or 7 Meg Connection on CellC.

Now go home and tell your wife how lucky you are being part of the Vodacom family, and will be until your contract expires.
 
Uys said that the price of data was going to fall, but that to engage in a wholesale price slashing would have a real impact on the quality of service that Vodacom customers experienced on its network.
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Hey Vodacon, you've had years to upgrade your network and massive truckloads of money to do it, but you CHOSE to sit on your butts and keep raking in massive profits, and using those profits to throw massive parties and buy popular songs for stupid advertising campaigns and blast us with adverts on TV every five minutes, instead of upgrading your network, so go to hell.

I for one cancelled my Vodacom contract yesterday and I am so glad to be rid of those bloodsucking parasites <pops champagne>

They won't drop their prices because they're still making money hand over foot, taking advantage of customers locked in, and customer ignorance on alternatives in the market.
 
Didnt even waste my time reading what those thieves have to say. Bring prices down FFS and start providing a service, sick and tired of making calls and during the call, you get this beeping noise like you dialed an unrecognizable number, during a Fing call :mad:
 
jes said:
Vodacom CEO discusses data pricing and rigid contracts

Vodacom answers questions as to why they haven't reduced their data pricing and suggests that rigid contract terms may become a thing of the past
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Hahahahaha Hehehehehhe Hahahahah. What a lame excuse. I am waiting now for 3 years for vodacom just to sort out the cell phone signal in Albertsville, not to talk about the bad internet connection, and all I get is, It is in the pipeline. Well i hope that pipe burst. I for one have a much better service with Cell-C. At the Moment in Amanzimtoti and I really surf the high waves here. Thanks Cell-C for take care of your customers.
 
Although the core network is mostly built, Uys said that the company is having real problems getting local municipality approval to lay the cables that connect the base stations to the core network. That would require some digging and approvals for doing that have not been forthcoming.
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Government owns Telkom shares rigghht??
 
poorestguy said:
well that was a pointless meeting?
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Couldn't agree more. Nothing new in the article. Vodacom keep churning out the same responses in the hope that the public somehow become less intelligent as the days pass by...
 
Uh....so whats the reason the OOB rates are more expensive than In Bundle then?
 
phenom said:
Government owns Telkom shares rigghht??
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Yes, government owns 39% of Telkom, so there is a blatant conflict of interest, naturally they will always block competition to their own money-making (though decreasingly lucrative) pet entity.

Still, Vodacom firstly should know that governments take long, and planned for it back when they were spending money on animated meerkats and R30 million year-end parties, and secondly Vodacom have had over a decade, and tens if not hundreds of billions in cash, to do these kinds of network upgrade investments. What's happened is Cell C have caught them napping, and suddenly now they're trying to do what they should've done earlier.

Uys doesn't seem to me to be as good as Knott-Craig was. Granted, Knott-Craig never had to go against "proper" competition, but Uys has stepped in at a time when there is suddenly competition, and all he seems to have done is launch a new website which was a disaster, is engaging in a costly rebranding exercise, and all he does is whine about how his poor little network cannot handle the load if they drop their prices. I know quite a few people who are juts waiting for their Vodacom contracts to expire. I mentioned to Vodacom multiple times that I'm not hpapy with their bandwidth costs and they even sent me detailed form letters with long lists of pre-prepared and flawed excuses about it being a third world country and explaining to me how if I really 'use my tiny amounts of bandwidth wisely' then it can be 'a valuable asset to my business'. Meanwhile it's only thanks to my Cell C stick that I could upload important files to my customers this morning in Asia quickly, before their day ended, so yes, I know that Vodacom. Granted there have been some connectivity issues recently, but even with those troubles it's been better value than Vodacom.
 
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lol why the hell would VodaCom drop prices in SA, they drop prices in Europe because they are leeching of Africa's streaming and endless revenue. It's a crazy system I am telling you...we pay the high prices despite our low salaries and below standard service, while these fat cats charge dirt cheap in Europe even though the average GDP per Capita is much higher in Europe.

Doesn't this all strike anyone as just a bit...odd?
 
Tick said:
Hey Vodacon, you've had years to upgrade your network and massive truckloads of money to do it, but you CHOSE to sit on your butts and keep raking in massive profits, and using those profits to throw massive parties and buy popular songs for stupid advertising campaigns and blast us with adverts on TV every five minutes, instead of upgrading your network,
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So true.
 
No justification at all - a fig leaf to cover their need for greed

Almost laughable reply really. Anyway, the good news for Vodacom, its CEO, Board and Shareholders is that little by little (they haven't noticed yet), their customer base is slipping away to Cell C, which should enable them to eventually start pricing their product like they actually want the business.

Frankly I'm astounded that Vodcom's central argument is that they actually don't want more business at the moment and its all the fault of local councils. Expect the same mantra from MTN.

I moved my data business to Cell C in November. There have been a few hiccups recently, but re-using a Neotel external antenna allows me to peek over nearby rooftops and trees, I've finally joined the ranks of those experiencing download speeds between 5-8mbs. Fabulous.

Today I went out to purchase an additional 2Gig SIM only Smartdata package for R999 (or R83.25 per month for 2Gigs :love:).
 
Ben Kelly you are a tool and I personally think VC paid you for this article.

Excuse no 1 : My impression is that Uys knows that broadband prices are higher than they should be but that the company is holding them steady until the network is ready to cope with additional load.

What bull****! Vodacom's never been philanthropic with their pricing & now he's telling us they're doing it for our own good? What about 2009 when Seacom's entry to market caused a wide-scale drop in bandwidth prices? We begged VC to drop prices too but was flatly ignored us on this very forum, you're welcome to search for my username under those threads if you don't believe me. When it became obvious you weren't going to drop prices & gonna milk us for as long as you can, I closed my data account with you, took the plunge & got myself ADSL. You're doing the exact same thing now, so please pull the other one Mr Uys you may just hear bells.

Excuse no 2 : The other issue that I raised was that of contracts and why, in my view, contract customers seem to get the short end of the stick. Uys said that there have been, over the past year, increases in the amount of free minutes that contract customers have been entitled to as a way of increasing the value that they get from their contracts.

Nicely sidestepped that one, and Ben if you're happy with that answer then you're not just a tool but you come off as either not so bright or being paid for this article. Nothing personal I don't know you but you're a journalist - you're supposed to be trained to recognize when an interviewee sidesteps a question. That wasn't a step it was a jump!

The question was why does VC continuously treat their higher-maintenance customers better than their lower maintenance customers? The answer, Mr Uys, isn't to highlight some pitiful crumbs you threw us some time ago, the proper answer is 'cos we know we can get away with it & we don't really care how you feel about that!

Worse thing, Ben, you've addressed none of the original issues you highlighted in your open letter to VC! That letter was direct and to the point & hard hitting .. Wake up VC!! .. with a subtle hint that you're giving them this one last chance before porting your account. What happened? This interview was rather like mushy peas, not altogether unpleasant but not terribly inspiring or exciting either.

Sorry if I sound personal or harsh, I would probably croak too in an interview with him, but this started off great and you had a great opportunity to get some real answers - instead you let the man walk all over you. See why I think you've been paid? I'm disappointed.
 
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Hey Ben, Please don't getted SUCKERED by this con artist. Uys is such a smooth talker. I've heard via the grape vine that most of their network in urban areas have sufficient backhaul.

Vodascum is full of Bovine Scatology. Well every contract has an expiry date, mine too.
 
To those saying it's a pointless meeting, it wasn't

Now YOU KNOW why you are paying high prices - it's because vodacom decided to use the money elsewhere instead of upgrading their network.


Maybe we should support companies like CellC who ARE ACTUALLY investing in their Data Network, and, lol, cost Considerably less too


Get your fat ass to a CellC Shop, it's that simple folks.
 
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