Vodacom data cap issues and really big bills

J

JoeHof

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Getting back to an issue at least 3 years old:

ant101 said:
Back to the original topic...
I understand that there are false claims against usage, but in reality every claim gets treated as "false" -this is unacceptable especially with the weak usage solutions that are in place.
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The customer is by default at fault until he has tracked, hunted and cornered a suitable vodacom employee (or some distant techie relative), which has enough knowledge to uncover the truth.

Else the customer would be told by some customer care person (with medium intelligence or knowledge) that "the company says that [you're screwed]"

But when the pain is in excess of 10 times your monthly contract value, it is not easy to accept "the company's" response.

Why does Vodacom not contact the client and say: “Sir/Madam, there seems to be a sudden excessive usage on your account, we have investigated it, and have found that we have a problem on our/your side, or that we have failed to adequately protect you from harming yourself to the tune of R8500.”

Is there any honest report on the number of clients who have experienced data usage invoices exceeding their package [MB] size by 10 times or more? (for whatever reason)

See, the reason why it has happened, and whose mistake it was, is irrelevant.

Cellular companies should provide practical assistance to practical problems, especially for non-technical people.

I.e. making a 200% HARD cap the DEFAULT setting for ALL data contracts. It would then be at the discretion of the client to request removal or adjustment of this limit.

It is THIS CHOICE that vodacom makes [to make the default condition un-capped] that is the bitter pill and gives the impression of greed.

[apologies for the sarcasm]

What will be done about this? :(
It would certainly go a long way to remedy client relations!

Johannes
 
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There are a limit on all new contract for the first eight months. There after people can load a limit if the feel that it will make them sleep better at night. Or even better, go on a top up contract. Customers are just lazy. There are ways out there to make sure your kids doesn't give you a heart attack at the end of the month.
 
1. Note that I am taking the perspective of the non-technical people, who are probably 50% - 70% of the population.

2. There may be technical causes which is even over the head of the [avg] technical user.
vodacom3g said:
Without fail, up to now we could show that the data was actually downloaded
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Can Vodacom3G tell us if this is still the case?

Johannes
 
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Limit locking info:

NOTIFICATIONS:
Prior to reaching your limit, you will receive three (3) SMS messages (Short Message
Service) informing you that you have reached a certain percentage (i.e. 50%, 75% & 90%)
of your call limit.
Once your limit is reached, your line will automatically be barred for outgoing calls,
except to Emergency 112, for the remainder of the month.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
If for any reason whatsoever your limit is not enforced you will remain liable to pay all
charges incurred whether in excess of the limit set or not.
If you are on either a Weekend Plus, Talk 100, Talk 200, Talk 500 or Talk 1000 package
please remember that neither SMS, Service calls, nor International Roaming calls
costs are included in your free minutes. Please take this into account when setting your
limit.
An automatic re-opening of the line takes effect on 1st of the month.
 
JoeHof said:
1. Note that I am taking the perspective of the non-technical people, who are probably 50% - 70% of the population.

2. There may be technical causes which is even over the head of the [avg] technical user.

Can Vodacom3G tell us if this is still the case?

[No kids]

Johannes
Click to expand...

Please direct your question @ VodacomData. He is the Vodacom rep now. Vodacom3G has left the building.
 
R4028!!!

With ADSL that amount would be R29-R58 outside of the initial purchase. That makes Vodacom's out of bundle rates up to 140x more expensive than ADSL. Hands up all those that think Vodacom is ripping us a new one?
 
In a current case: my non-technical friend [no kids] has probably been sold the wrong package, did'nt know to worry or set cap, because many months went by faultless, and then experienced a technical problem which vodacom haven't been able to figure out. And believe me - there is'nt 8.5GB of downloaded data on the computer. Now she's R3000 out of pocket, and [external] blacklisted for the balance of the R8500. [We're busy pursuing it with Vodacom.]

Thus, it is quite plausible that any of our other non-technical friends or parents may end up in a repeat of this.

I believe my friend is already the repeat of http://www.hellopeter.com/vodacom-complaint-to-compliment-%5B348135%5D
And then: http://www.hellopeter.com/vodacom-complaint-[350869] Still not resolved.
and Slightly different problem with 93GB invoice, acknowledgement and still R12000 debit order: http://www.hellopeter.com/vodacom-complaint-[362014]
and another person with a R15000 bill: http://www.hellopeter.com/vodacom-complaint-[360796]

and these are only the big ones for Jan 2010, those which was actually reported on HelloPeter. See my point?

The thread title should be: "10 times + bills and the network still handles the customers in the same manner" :mad:

Eg. in the Auto industry this type of problem would call for a recall and fixing of the problem. Can't Vodacom do this? [do a campaign to ensure all helpless people has the correct settings/cap]

Johannes
 
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Mod Note: I have moved this thread into a new one. JoeHof if you have a better suggestion for a title I can change it. The original topic was more about billing anomalies which I believe are resolved. The capping topic and lack of real-time billing on contracts is however still relevant.
 
I am not sure what more to say or do regarding these issues. Vodacom has a great and working data monitor functionality where you can see how much data you have left. The data rates are very well published and available for anyone to inspect. Yes, it is perhaps expensive compared to other countries and their respective services, but that is not the issue here. We also have a service where you may nominate a alternative number for Vodacom to notify you of your data usage and once data bundle is depleted. On the Vodacom supplied modems, it clearly states that your hardware like laptop or PC and software that runs on it is your responsiblity. Vodacom will not be held responsible for any kind of viruses, updates etc etc that your laptop or pc contracts and attracts.

My sister has been using 3G for many years now, and not once has she had a billing issue or exessive data usage incurred on her account. Why? Because she makes use of the tools that Vodacom has made available to customers to monitor data available. If she is running low, she asks me to add her a new bundle. Yes, data usage might be a bit delayed by a little, but not by such a long time that it will prevent you from making a informed decision regarding your continued usage of the service.
 
ocleroux said:
I am not sure what more to say or do regarding these issues. Vodacom has a great and working data monitor functionality where you can see how much data you have left. The data rates are very well published and available for anyone to inspect. Yes, it is perhaps expensive compared to other countries and their respective services, but that is not the issue here. We also have a service where you may nominate a alternative number for Vodacom to notify you of your data usage and once data bundle is depleted. On the Vodacom supplied modems, it clearly states that your hardware like laptop or PC and software that runs on it is your responsiblity. Vodacom will not be held responsible for any kind of viruses, updates etc etc that your laptop or pc contracts and attracts.

My sister has been using 3G for many years now, and not once has she had a billing issue or exessive data usage incurred on her account. Why? Because she makes use of the tools that Vodacom has made available to customers to monitor data available. If she is running low, she asks me to add her a new bundle. Yes, data usage might be a bit delayed by a little, but not by such a long time that it will prevent you from making a informed decision regarding your continued usage of the service.
Click to expand...

oc while the systems are in place to monitor your data, contract users are at a serious disadvantage when compared to pre-paid users. The fact that there is no real time billing for contract nor a hard cap for data is a big problem. We all know that using the rand value cap system on a contract with voice and data is a nightmare. In addition because there is no real time billing on data even with the rand cap you can still exceed your limit before the cap kicks in. What you need is a hard cap for data only that caps you exactly when your bundle runs out just like on ADSL. Vodacom have been well aware of these issues on contract for a while now but have not upgraded their systems.
 
ocleroux said:
I am not sure what more to say or do regarding these issues.
Click to expand...
My thought process is as follow:
While I don't dispute that there are tools provided by Vodacom, I think the problem is in matching it to the clients.
[think outside the box of daily & current company constraints]
1. Vodacom has to stop abdicating the problem of 10times x bills [for whatever reason!]
2. Vodacom has to realise that they have to help the constant stream of people experiencing this [painful] problem [regardless of the reason they end up in it]

Definition: Painful = R5000 to R15000 on a non-Sandton income + inevitable blacklist [if you are not willing to give Vodacom the money until you can fight them to reverse the initial investigation outcome]

This is not even mentioning getting on with your own life in terms of finding replacement internet access during the arbitration. Think realistically - many people have only 1 internet connection. And that she can’t run her business’s debit orders w/o internet from her own computer [custom bank software install.] It does get complicated.

ocleroux said:
My sister has been using 3G for many years now, and not once has she had a billing issue or excessive data usage incurred on her account. Why?
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OC, not all are as lucky as your sister, to have an insider. It's like having my brother tell me where [example] the panelbeater is going to screw me / drop the ball, because he works inside. Then I'm lucky enough to ensure they give that attention to MY car. [read: my car only, not your car]

morkhans said:
oc while the systems are in place to monitor your data, contract users are at a serious disadvantage when compared to pre-paid users.
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I believe this is the issue, but not from a techie point - from a non-techie point. As mentioned above, there are tools, but it's not easy for non-techie users - and it's not and/or not only about lazy - tell that to everyone on HelloPeter.

Example: my friend believed the supervisor when told that if she cancelled a download, she pays for it. She then admitted to cancelling a [40MB] download and thought that that’s the reason for the R8500 bill!!! This is how it goes wrong for some people! [and these non-tech people probably doesn't know of HelloPeter either]
The fact that vodacom could get my friend to accept the bill with an incorrect reason is what gets me really mad as well! :mad:

[If even the techies admit techie problems, then the non-techies are at a serious disadvantage.]
and it doesn't automatically mean that top-up is the best solution for them.

morkhans said:
How about "Vodacom Data Cap & Realtime billing issues on contract"?
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morkhans, my beef is specifically with 10 times + bills - the ones that really hurt.
Please rename to: "Vodacom Data Cap Issues and really big bills"

Note, I’m not trying to be sarcastic, but as open and honest as possible.
Johannes
 
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While people may attempt to turn around and claim ignorance on how to check their balances how much difference is there in checking your airtime / data balance on vodacom4me vs. checking your bank account balance online? How much difference is there in sending USSD codes via your phone vs. pushing your card into an ATM and punching in your pin and following some on screen prompts? Nothing really IMO. Users do need accept some responsibility, however the reason people get huge bills on contract is because:
1) There is no real-time monitoring
2) Because there is no proper system to cap you on your data usage. You need real-time billing to implement this. The current Rand value cap is flawed.

Vodacom have had real-time billing in place for pre-paid users for a long time now. We have been told in the past that the billing system is a difficult animal to make changes to, but honestly how much time does Vodacom need? Real-time billing on contract has been so long overdue now it's not funny. Along with that a system that caps your data usage, just like the ADSL users have been accustomed to since it's inception, can really not be that difficult to implement.
 
morkhans, you are spot on.

1. When my friend started complaining about the huge bill, a technician told her that the modem's "View usage" is not correct, and should not be used. He advised her to remove the sim from the modem and insert it into a phone, each time she wanted to know the true usage. I'm not sure if this is the correct method.

2. If a hard cap was enforced (even a "disaster management" approx twice your package value - rand or data value, doesn't matter), she would have been spared the huge bill, and on first inspection at the customer care, the fault on her laptop or network or modem driver or whatever, would have been uncovered, and corrected.

One of the common threads of the huge bills, is that all of the users claimed not to be heavy users. Vodacom3g though, did report that all the cases proved to be some mis-use, i.e. movies dl, or kids. In my friends case I suspect a software problem (not updates) on the laptop, or some weird modem or network problem. In all of these cases, even the mis-use ones, the hard cap would have limited the damage.

Johannes
 
JoeHof said:
1. When my friend started complaining about the huge bill, a technician told her that the modem's "View usage" is not correct, and should not be used. He advised her to remove the sim from the modem and insert it into a phone, each time she wanted to know the true usage. I'm not sure if this is the correct method.
Click to expand...
One can check the balance on a phone, but some modem dashboards allow you to check the balance without removing the SIM from the modem.
On pre-paid this method will show you real-time balances, but on contract this information can be several hours old and you can still go out of bundle, no matter how careful you are.

O/T: Does anyone know far behind the contract data counters really are?
JoeHof said:
2. If a hard cap was enforced (even a "disaster management" approx twice your package value - rand or data value, doesn't matter), she would have been spared the huge bill, and on first inspection at the customer care, the fault on her laptop or network or modem driver or whatever, would have been uncovered, and corrected.
Click to expand...
+1

I hope the new credit act will sort this mess out. Imagine what would happen if a credit card company allowed you to spend more than tens times your credit limit. I don't think they would get any sympathy. Why does Vodacom get away with it?
 
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