Vodacom have caps?

Dolby

Dolby

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I got another 3G contract on thw eekend and the lady made me sign the fact that she'd told me about a cap - and now it's my responsiily to call them and activate.

Vodacom have caps now? :/
 
Dolby said:
I got another 3G contract on thw eekend and the lady made me sign the fact that she'd told me about a cap - and now it's my responsiily to call them and activate.

Vodacom have caps now? :/
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Yes, pretty much based on the standard American Baseball Cap, but only in green and blue....:)

The form you 'had' to sign is something we brought in a while ago to ensure subs can't say they weren't told about the OOB situation.

A bit like the banks that now have to get your signature to confirm you've been told all the details of your contract.
 
vodacom3g said:
Yes, pretty much based on the standard American Baseball Cap, but only in green and blue....:)

The form you 'had' to sign is something we brought in a while ago to ensure subs can't say they weren't told about the OOB situation.

A bit like the banks that now have to get your signature to confirm you've been told all the details of your contract.
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But do we sign just make sure we know about them - are do you actually stop us going over the bundle?

The salesperson said they stop you?
 
Dolby said:
But do we sign just make sure we know about them - are do you actually stop us going over the bundle?

The salesperson said they stop you?
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The situations that make the headlines with people running up huge bills must have had caps, even if it was sometimes their fault. It depends on how often the billing system updates itself. You can load an airtime voucher and it is instantly available, so one would expect them to know when your cap is up.
 
Dolby said:
But do we sign just make sure we know about them - are do you actually stop us going over the bundle?

The salesperson said they stop you?
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Option1,if it isn't on paper it isn't worth squat
 
The "cap" is misleading. That only refers to voice calls. SMS (rated, premium and standard) are not covered and neither is data. I double checked this in December when I got my new 3G contract.

Pity as a bandwidth-cap would have been awesome.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
The "cap" is misleading. That only refers to voice calls. SMS (rated, premium and standard) are not covered and neither is data. I double checked this in December when I got my new 3G contract.

Pity as a bandwidth-cap would have been awesome.
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You can set a bandwidth cap (soft-lock) on your data account, just like you can do a voice one. And they actually use the same system and thus suffer from the same limitations, mainly not being real-time.

Cue ic, morkhans and everyone else to jump in here and beat me up some more on not having real-time contract billing engines in place. :)
 
Dolby said:
But do we sign just make sure we know about them - are do you actually stop us going over the bundle?

The salesperson said they stop you?
Click to expand...

Was he talking about data? As above you can request a soft-lock but this has some latency on it and at 1.8Mb/s it can be painful.

Quick question: Do you need a cap to completely stop any more spend or are you trying to avoid OOB?
 
vodacom3g said:
Cue ic, morkhans and everyone else to jump in here and beat the cellular companies up some more on not having real-time contract billing engines in place. :)
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Fixed it ;)

An optional hard cap will help customers not to go beyond their caps.

What is so different to the cellular setup that they cannot implement a hard capping system?
 
vodacom3g said:
You can set a bandwidth cap (soft-lock) on your data account, just like you can do a voice one. And they actually use the same system and thus suffer from the same limitations, mainly not being real-time.

Cue ic, morkhans and everyone else to jump in here and beat me up some more on not having real-time contract billing engines in place. :)
Click to expand...
With "soft" being the operable word here. What does it really mean and why isn't it hard?
 
The system for Normal 3G/GPRS on prepaid/Top-up sims are fine though,about 5minutes play and denying authentication when out of funds
 
Sackboy said:
With "soft" being the operable word here. What does it really mean and why isn't it hard?
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Not sure, stress maybe? You did move back to SA recently and such a move can be quite traumatic. Some might suggest Viagra, but good luck either way. :D

And before you start PM'ing me again, I'm just joking!
 
The_Librarian said:
Fixed it ;)

An optional hard cap will help customers not to go beyond their caps.

What is so different to the cellular setup that they cannot implement a hard capping system?
Click to expand...

Legacy really. The original contract billing systems were not real-time and thus can't block you the minute you go over your cap.

When we introduced Pre-paid, we could build a new system and it's real-time as the technologies are now available. But over the years the contract options became quite complex and it requires a completely new billing system to do this.

While this sound simple to do at face value, it's a massively complex process and have been ongoing for quite a while.

As I also point out in these conversations, it's one thing to build a system that server a few thousand users, completely a different matter when it gets into the 10's of millions. Not to say it can't be done. Just that's it's not something you do overnight.
 
vodacom3g said:
You can set a bandwidth cap (soft-lock) on your data account, just like you can do a voice one. And they actually use the same system and thus suffer from the same limitations, mainly not being real-time.

Cue ic, morkhans and everyone else to jump in here and beat me up some more on not having real-time contract billing engines in place. :)
Click to expand...

@morkhans: Administers beating :D
 
vodacom3g said:
Legacy really. The original contract billing systems were not real-time and thus can't block you the minute you go over your cap.

When we introduced Pre-paid, we could build a new system and it's real-time as the technologies are now available. But over the years the contract options became quite complex and it requires a completely new billing system to do this.

While this sound simple to do at face value, it's a massively complex process and have been ongoing for quite a while.

As I also point out in these conversations, it's one thing to build a system that server a few thousand users, completely a different matter when it gets into the 10's of millions. Not to say it can't be done. Just that's it's not something you do overnight.
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I think what you're trying to say is that it would make a dent in the billions of rands in profit on the balance sheet and wouldn't benefit your company, only some careless customers. So Vodacom makes them sign a disclaimer in case they get sued when the soft cap gets softer, like brain that's been soaked in alcohol a bit too long, right chap? (only joking)
 
vodacom3g said:
Was he talking about data? As above you can request a soft-lock but this has some latency on it and at 1.8Mb/s it can be painful.

Quick question: Do you need a cap to completely stop any more spend or are you trying to avoid OOB?
Click to expand...

Yup - he was talking data.

Luckily we never get the full 1.8mbps, eh? ;)

Yea I'm trying to avoid OOB ; I'd rather go to my other 3G contract as I hit my limit on this ...
 
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