Vodacom: #EpicFail

Please excuse the cross post, is of relevance here too :

It would be interesting for more people to measure what their useage is and then feedback to make a more productive debate on the matter. I have heard of people downloading large numbers of MP3's and tv episodes via their Blackberry (and BIS). Clearly this is abuse, but then 100mb is also very low.

A year ago I did an exercise to try and measure the useage. I would encourage people to follow suite and measure their and then contribute to the debate. Link here : http://j-j.co.za/?p=213 and followup here : http://j-j.co.za/2010/08/followup-on...uth-africa-in/

Look forward to others sharing their usage stats.
 
Vodacom wants people to communicate and sociable again.

The crapberry cheapskates are always the ones standing in a dark corner at a party, busy abusing a plastic keyboard. Waiters/waitresses try to avoid them like the plague, cos when they put their crapberries on the table, they know there won't be a tip. I can go on, but I'd rather spare everyone the gory details.

This also spell the end for blackberry in South Africa. HOORAY!!!
 
my contract expires 22 sept, seems i will be porting off this network, have had nothing but trouble with voda, maybe its time for a change... -1 client here.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Why is it an #EpicFail? People have been abusing the system for far too long. The writing has been on the wall for a while, and people can't claim that they weren't warned about being reckless.

I doubt that the other networks will be very far behind.

OT: this may be the beginning of the end for BB in SA. Never thought my prayers would be answered :p
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Why do you think 100mb is abuse?

Budza said:
Fail because 'abuse' is defined as "more than 100MB" :sick:
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I agree 100% with you.
 
xiixvi said:
Just having a look at all the comments, BB services were being abused for free movie downloads, etc....I know of people who keep their phones on charge permanently to do downloads using BB....hence slows down the network for honest BB users....

Do research people, this is not a Vodacom thing! It's done by most networks all over the world! Mtn, cellc and 8 ta to follow....
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100MB is really short of abuse especially if you get a 3G version of the Blackberry as you want to be able to enjoy rich content. 300GB is a completely different story, so make a throttle level something that won't affect normal users - say 1GB to EDGE and 3GB down to GPRS. Simple, that takes care of abusers, but doesn't ruin the experience for normal medium to heavy device users.

I didn't bother with the BB because of speed and having to run everything through RIM, glad I made that choice now! The point here is quite clear, VC are changing the terms of the contract unilaterally without offering the clients a chance to opt out. I would ask VC to take back my BB phone and end the contract now if I were in your (BB contract people) situation.
 
kingrob said:
Vodacom wants people to communicate and sociable again.

The crapberry cheapskates are always the ones standing in a dark corner at a party, busy abusing a plastic keyboard. Waiters/waitresses try to avoid them like the plague, cos when they put their crapberries on the table, they know there won't be a tip. I can go on, but I'd rather spare everyone the gory details.

This also spell the end for blackberry in South Africa. HOORAY!!!
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Why are all networks doing it?

You seem to have a very bad attitude towards bb users for some reason :D. Do you go to parties?
 
killadoob said:
Why are all networks doing it?

You seem to have a very bad attitude towards bb users for some reason :D. Do you go to parties?
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BB users are pains!
They post non stop crap on FB and Twitter, they broadcast BS on BBM everyday! Downloading massive amounts of illegal movies, videos and music!

Well done Voda!
The rest will follow as they always do ;)
 
4Motion said:
BB users are pains!
They post non stop crap on FB and Twitter, they broadcast BS on BBM everyday! Downloading massive amounts of illegal movies, videos and music!

Well done Voda!
The rest will follow as they always do ;)
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What he said. :D
 
A Youtube video can eat that 100mb without blinking. I think Sentech...er... I mean Vodacom, should pull their heads out their asses and stop blaming the 5% who makes the service slow for the other 95% and just stick to upgrading their backbone infrastructure to handle what they're selling.

I sound like a broken record when I say this, and I've said it numerous times when Sentech (who? correct, WHO!!?) pulled the same **** blaming a handful of users for their own incompetence... but, the little of what I know about business is simple:

Create demand
Supply demand
Rinse+Repeat
Profit

Now, the "Supply demand" is pretty simple concept to understand. I have 10 apples, I tell everyone how delicious these 10 apples are. I get 10 people interested in buying each of my 10 apples, one of them wants 2 apples instead of just 1.

Do I take an apple away from 1 user and give it to the other? Or do I go pick more apples?

Now sure, I've oversimplified this and ISP's has to have things like shaping and contention ratios in place to be able to sell maximum their bandwidth and stay profitable. But the main concept is there. With all these undersea cables having landed, Google now having a local presence in South Africa (the very least caching servers) and Vodacom having invested heavily in their own Fibre infrastructure, I can't for the life of me understand why you would stop increasing supply as your demand increases.

Sure, it's finite what we can do with 1 cell tower or 1 backbone link or 1 STA line, but when it comes to the point where we're running at maximum capacity, do we just go ahead and tell everyone to stop using?

Much like how Eskom said to conserve our electricity usage, then bitch and moan to government about the profit-loss because of it and then having to hike prices even further to help with the loss in profit?

Lack of understanding of simple business concepts like these from someone like vodacaom boggles my mind. Why create demand if you can't fill the supply? Stop selling Blackberries entirely until you can satisfy the need for your current customers. South Africa wants to focus on the mobile market since it's "easier" to deploy etc, but they don't want it to grow into a huge market...? riiiight
 
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Problem is....

Once you have used up your 100mb "cap"....

You may want to continue enjoying 3G speeds on a BB...

How does one achieve this Vodacom? Cost aside. If one has a data bundle on their BB (why I don't know), will they be allowed to remain on a 3G signal?
 
n00berizer said:
Throttling an already cr4p service? You just lost me as a customer VodaFail, porting as soon as this contract is up.
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So what does your contract say about your data usage on the blackberry package you currently have? Surely it says that you have unlimited usage. I am pretty sure that when my husband signed up what the advert said was 'unlimited', therefore at what point are they allowed to change their contract with him?

Edit: Oh well Bern said it better.
 
Read the fine print of your contracts, I'm sure it'll be covered somewhere there.
 
Big CPA mass-action opportunity here if you BB users have the heart to carry it...
 
I know of one guy who purly uses his blackberry to download movies and then transfers them to his PC.
I think they trying to stop this kind of action.
 
EPIC HEADLINE!

I NEVER dream't I would see Vodacom and Epic Fail in the same headline on MyBB!

Sep 11 will forever be known for events that took place across the pond.

Sep 12 will forever be known as the the day MyBB grew elephant-sized balls!
 
Murmaider said:
I know of one guy who purly uses his blackberry to download movies and then transfers them to his PC.
I think they trying to stop this kind of action.
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So then stop them, why must they nail the users who just browse and use it normally? Why are they collectively punishing all the users because 5% abuse the service?
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Why is it an #EpicFail? People have been abusing the system for far too long. The writing has been on the wall for a while, and people can't claim that they weren't warned about being reckless.

I doubt that the other networks will be very far behind.

OT: this may be the beginning of the end for BB in SA. Never thought my prayers would be answered :p
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LOL @ 3.5 Mb per day being abuse. That's not even enough to do email and browsing on most people's phones.
BB will die a slow death for Voda - this is little to do with abuse and more to do with Voda trying to wean people off BB and on to Android where they don't have to charge a set fee IMO.
 
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