Vodacom Data Pricing Strategy?

[VC-1]

Just another fail by VC and their marketing systems. For example this company thinks it is fooling the consumer, lets give you an good example.
Data by VC is marketed as and the EHOD (Executive Head of Department) will confirm that this will NEVER CHANGE.
1) BROADBAND DATA=Contract/Top Up Data with or without a device for eg. Router and 20GB x 24months for R599pm.
2) SMARTPHONE DATA=The old Ad Hoc Data Bundle (a) Once Off (b) Monthly Re-occurring to any Data contract or Voice line eg. 20GB for R999 Once Off/pm
THEY STATE THESE ARE TWO DIFFERENT PRODUCTS!!!!!

What does this mean in practice? Well lets have a look.
A) It means two separate lines with two pools of data that cannot be joined in daily use across devices.
B) VC are CROSS SUBSIDISING their data products.

Other network operators here and in the UK (Vodafone) offer One Line and Multi Data SIMS enabling the customers to have ONE POOL of data across multi devices. Wakeup VC you do not FOOL the SA Consumer

 

[BBSA]

vote with your wallet

 

[MervynB]

Just another fail by VC and their marketing systems. For example this company thinks it is fooling the consumer, lets give you an good example.
Data by VC is marketed as and the EHOD (Executive Head of Department) will confirm that this will NEVER CHANGE.
1) BROADBAND DATA=Contract/Top Up Data with or without a device for eg. Router and 20GB x 24months for R599pm.
2) SMARTPHONE DATA=The old Ad Hoc Data Bundle (a) Once Off (b) Monthly Re-occurring to any Data contract or Voice line eg. 20GB for R999 Once Off/pm
THEY STATE THESE ARE TWO DIFFERENT PRODUCTS!!!!!

What does this mean in practice? Well lets have a look.
A) It means two separate lines with two pools of data that cannot be joined in daily use across devices.
B) VC are CROSS SUBSIDISING their data products.

Other network operators here and in the UK (Vodafone) offer One Line and Multi Data SIMS enabling the customers to have ONE POOL of data across multi devices. Wakeup VC you do not FOOL the SA Consumer

The discrepancy between the Broadband data and the Smartphone prices does seem high but the Smartpone is catering for calls, SMSs and data so they are not really comparable.

Vodacom may well have discontinued the offering but for the past several years I have had a post-paid data only contract with two additional data SIMs at R8.99 each. They all feed from the same data pool. I recently renewed the contract so as to add a new modem and there was no problem with keeping all three SIMs.

The main SIM is in my desktop machine while the other two are in a laptop and a tablet. This arrangement suits me as I don't know from one month to the next how much data each device will use. A few mouse clicks from my desktop gets me my data balance whenever I want without having log in to the Vodacom website with another couple of mouse clicks to top up if necessary.

I have a separate phone contract which doesn't include data. I don't need or want data on my phone but I believe I can have up to five SIMs on the data contract so if I had a dual-sim phone I would presumably be able to take data from the same data pool as well.

 

[VC-1]

The idea of having one SIM with Multi Data SIM's active on your Smartphone and other data devices eg. Routers/Modems is not new. This coupled with ONE POOL of data has practical data management benefits.

Unfortunately VC does not wish to change it's marketing strategy by forcing separate SIM lines on the consumer and taxing those with differing views with higher prices for data. Present pricing for 20Gb on Data Contract R599 x 24months and R999(R1000) Once Off/Monthly re-occurring bundle for the ONE POOL of data customer.

When pointing out this issue to the VC CEO by way of an formal letter he does not have the common decency to reply, but he is happy to take the customers money!!

The one reason for this VC Data Policy could just be to keep all the franchisees owners happy eg. Vodashops, Vodacom 4U, Chats Cellular, Cellucity to augment the upgrade system, just wondering.