Vodacom tower switched off due to unpaid electricity bills

[Jamie McKane]

Vodacom tower switched off due to unpaid electricity bills

Vodacom customers in the Free State farming town of Frankfort were left without cellular connectivity for several days after the operator's tower in the area was turned off.

A resident of the neighbouring town of Reitz contacted MyBroadband claiming that agriculture company VKB (Vrystaatse Koöperasie Beperk) switched the tower off on Monday 30 November because Vodacom had failed to pay for its electricity usage for over two years.

 

[MightyQuin]

Two years ?!?!? Jirre I would have turned it off after 1 month.

 

[Apogee]

Putting pen to paper means nothing on this continent where honour and integrity has no meaning.

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

Vodascum

 

[Thor]

Vodascum.

 

[Synaesthesia]

Massive corporation tries to cheat little guy. Yeah MTN also didn't pay us for years, owed hundreds of thousands. We finally got them but also considered turning off their tower.

 

[RandomGeek]

2 YEARS of non-payment? Landlord was very lenient in my opinion...hope they paid up with interest. And it isn't like Vodacom is out of cash, someone low up in their hierarchy simply didn't do their job properly

Edit: I see only non-payment of electricity is mentioned, not non-payment of site rental. So probably 2 agreements or payment flows and someone stuffed up on the electricity side...time to implement some corporal punishment Shameel

 

[Flywheel]

2 YEARS of non-payment? Landlord was very lenient in my opinion...hope they paid up with interest. And it isn't like Vodacom is out of cash, someone low up in their hierarchy simply didn't do their job properly

Edit: I see only non-payment of electricity is mentioned, not non-payment of site rental. So probably 2 agreements or payment flows and someone stuffed up on the electricity side...time to implement some corporal punishment Shameel

Shameel probably has a MTN contract.

 

[rubber_otter]

lol, mooi!

I worked for an ISP, and a high site owner did the same thing. We had paid though.

The thing was, he was being paid by getting a free 10Mbit connection. Problem was that he constantly complained how slow it was. Logged into the router and I see that there are no less than 50 devices connected to the network.

 

[centurionguy]

Vodacom resolved the situation in an 'amicable manner'. With the Landlord, maybe, but not with the residents of Frankfort. I imagine that they are still thoroughly peed off with Vodacom.

 

[Johnvgb]

“We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused,” Vodacom said.

VKB told MyBroadband that the dispute had been resolved in an amicable manner.

“We don’t deem it necessary to further labour the incident in the public domain,” the company said.

The New Seth Efferican way........
1. Offer an apology for any inconvenience (always works, coz you can say anything, do anything - just say sorry and it's all good).
2. Tell the media it's all good. Sorted out amicably (word always used), Joe Schmo has to accept as he doesn't have the army of lawyers, and the deep pockets to fight the behmoth.
3. Issue an underhanded threat to all and sundry saying "shut up now", it's over.

 

[Flywheel]

“We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused,” Vodacom said.

VKB told MyBroadband that the dispute had been resolved in an amicable manner.

“We don’t deem it necessary to further labour the incident in the public domain,” the company said.

The New Seth Efferican way........
1. Offer an apology for any inconvenience (always works, coz you can say anything, do anything - just say sorry and it's all good).
2. Tell the media it's all good. Sorted out amicably (word always used), Joe Schmo has to accept as he doesn't have the army of lawyers, and the deep pockets to fight the behmoth.
3. Issue an underhanded threat to all and sundry saying "shut up now", it's over.

It's the mindset of senior management and directors at corporates. Offer an aoplogy, issue a media statement and koombaya all is well.

 

[DailyTech]

ftw ?

 

[epah]

lol, mooi!

I worked for an ISP, and a high site owner did the same thing. We had paid though.

The thing was, he was being paid by getting a free 10Mbit connection. Problem was that he constantly complained how slow it was. Logged into the router and I see that there are no less than 50 devices connected to the network.

I don’t see what’s wrong with that, it was his payment and what he did with it is his business. If you paid him with money and he decided to share the money with “no less than 50 people” would it still have been a problem then?

 

[cavedog]

“We don’t deem it necessary to further labour the incident in the public domain,” the company said.

Lol

 

[supersunbird]

I don’t see what’s wrong with that, it was his payment and what he did with it is his business. If you paid him with money and he decided to share the money with “no less than 50 people” would it still have been a problem then?

But he switched it off despite receiving the payment, because he was unhappy that "the payment" was slow, and it was slow because so many devices connected to it, which was his own doing.

 

[epah]

But he switched it off despite receiving the payment, because he was unhappy that "the payment" was slow, and it was slow because so many devices connected to it, which was his own doing).

I guess you are right. I missed that part

 

[marine1]

Despicable company

 

[Master Su]

Just imagine it's in the middag you a Delivery guy you need to make a parcel drop in the farming town Frankfort you depend on the GPS on the mobile you in the capital city of Toyota Hilux bakkies the heat is intense you can literally fry a frankfurter sausage on a rock....... then the Vodacom tower gets switched off ....... Oooooh jirre, bliksem.