Vodacom's dodgy profit making practice

C

cjimme

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Took out a data contract last year for 12 months at R149 per month.

I've just noticed that the contract expired and they are now billing me R349 per month. They didn't let me know the contract was expiring last month and they didn't warn me that I'd be billed this higher amount.

They did put all of this in the initial contract though so it makes everything legal.

I'm just questioning the ethics of this?
 
Is it ethical? Ethics don't come into it, it's legal

Is it a business practise that will encourage you to continue doing business with them? Probably not

Do they care? LOL - not one bit
 
I think the bigger question that has to be answered is: why are you taking a data contact with Vodacom?
 
ngwe23 said:
I think the bigger question that has to be answered is: why are you taking a data contact with Vodacom?
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Good question :). I took it 12 months ago when they launched the special which was good at the time.

But I'm slowly moving all my accounts over. Just waiting for all the contracts to expire - some I catch in time, some I don't (like this one).
 
MickeyD said:
So it is in the contract?

Then how can it be unethical?
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Sorry that logic doesn't hold.

There are tons of unethical things that people put into contracts. Ethics and what is legal are not synonymous, the two words have a very different definition.
 
cjimme said:
Sorry that logic doesn't hold.

There are tons of unethical things that people put into contracts. Ethics and what is legal are not synonymous, the two words have a very different definition.
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Surely the onus was on you (as per the contract) to cancel 30 days prior to the final date? How can that be unethical? it would appear that you forgot.
 
An SMS telling me that my contract is about to expire would have been nice.

Yes I forgot and it is totally my fault but it's a dodgy way to make extra money.

It leaves a bad taste in the mouth so for me it's morally questionable.

Not illegal but it's not a nice thing to do.
 
The CPA specifically forbids automatic renewal of contracts, but VC and others take no notice whatsoever. I would just cancel asap. Neotel tried to do this with me (renew a contract) and claimed for 15 months that they had not received my notice of discontinuance. I had my registered letter, proof of delivery with a copy of the signature of the person who signed for it. I am still awaiting a refund of the R 17000 they debited my account.
 
chrisc4290 said:
The CPA specifically forbids automatic renewal of contracts, but VC and others take no notice whatsoever.
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Vodacom do not automatically renew contracts, in other words, you do not automatically get signed up for another two year contract.
Your contract simply turns into a month to month post-paid account which you can cancel with only 30 days' notice.
 
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