Sign up with GoogleI just wanted to share a warning to other Vodacom users about a fairly common issue:
Summary:
- I twice experienced a full data and airtime drain of my phone - I lost everything (R110 and 350Mb) in a matter of hours.
- A technician at Vodacom turned off my 4G and changed my Settings as follows:
Settings: Cellular: Cellular Data Network: Cellular Data: APN to "internet" instead of "lte.vodacom.za”.
- He showed me how he himself didn't use the LTE network because of the problem, having had it occur to him too.
- Vodacom of course refuse to take responsibility and only gave me a partial refund along with some fairly sarcastic and rude customer service.
Details:
On the last Sunday of the month I found myself suddenly out of both data and airtime (having had approximately R60 and 100Mb left). I bought some extra and it too ran out almost instantly (20-30minutes). I only now received the notification SMS’s that I was out of data and would be charged out of bundle rates - now that it was all gone before I could even notice and do something about it. Realising there was a problem I went to the nearest Vodacom (Point Mall in Sea Point). They looked at all my settings thinking I had Updates or something silly on which was draining all my data. I of course didn’t as I am well aware of what uses data on a phone. All of the staff available looked at my phone and they reckoned everything should be fine so I topped up again with just R12 as a test. Within minutes my airtime had gone. Stumped they told me to see the technician at the waterfront branch which I planned to do the next morning. When I woke up I decided to check one more time and loaded R5. It didn’t move and used only the minimal usual amount when I used the internet. Everything seemed to inexplicably work again.
8 days later the same thing happened again but this time, as it is early in the month, it drained my entire contract. Again I received the messages well after both my data and all of my airtime had been used (uChoose Flexi 110 comes with R110 and 350Mb data which I had hardly touched so early in the month). This time I want to Claremont and spoke to a technician, Rashaad. He immediately recognised the problem and tried to explain it. Apparently it’s due to using Vodacom’s much advertised 4G network, but that there is a technical problem that occurs when it tries to reach the towers using the LTE network, and uses large chunks of data for nothing, just trying to make contact. When I say large chunks - it had used all of my 350Mb in a few hours (I had checked my balance the previous morning and it was almost untouched). It was hard to understand exactly how this works and why it only happened those two times, the technician didn’t seem to know, but had had the same problem himself. The solution was to change the settings and NOT USE the 4G network that Vodacom loves to advertise. He showed me how he himself didn’t use 4G, having had the same problem. At this point I was fairly annoyed that the product that they advertise so wildly has a technical fproblem that isn’t the consumers fault and has the ability to drain so much data/airtime. That it’s so bad that even they’re technicians don’t use the 4G network. However, he was trying to help so I accepted the settings changes as they won’t affect me that greatly. The technician also put in a report/request for me to get my airtime back given that it was not my fault it had drained.
The next morning I received the following SMS “Good Day Matthew, we would like to thank you for your enquiry. Please note that the charges that occurred is correct as you did not have an active data bundle. I will refund you as a gesture of Goodwill R157.94. Please note it is your responsibility to manage and monitor you usage not that of Vodacom. Kind Regards, Vodacom Customer Care Michael Van Wyk”. This came from one of Vodacom’s SMS numbers which one can’t reply to and had no contact number to follow up. In the context of my issue it was definitely not that I didn’t have an active data bundle that caused the problem. I did, and not only that but it used all my data and then my airtime before I was SMS’d because it went that quickly. In fact this response is incredibly sarcastic and rude given the fault that occurred and I found it very offensive. I’m well aware of data bundles and out of bundle rates and that was NOT the problem I had.
Given that I only got the warning SMS way after my phone had used all of it’s R110 for data, I also asked if there was a way to prevent one’s phone from switching to using the airtime as data once a data bundle had run out, there appeared to be no way according to the staff.
All of this makes it feel a lot like a scam as Vodacom have an inexplicable error which uses all of one’s data and then airtime as data BEFORE the warning SMS arrives. One then has to top up and spend more money with Vodacom. And even when the technician helped it was only to STOP using their advertised 4G/LTE service as a solution. My money was also then only partially refunded with a very sarcastic and rude SMS to which I can’t reply.
Follow up:
I took to a Vodacom forum to try and raise the issue. Pasting most of the above text.
http://community.vodacom.co.za/t5/Our-Network/4G-LTE-Data-drain/m-p/6690
I was again told "Hi Matthew. We understand the frustration and have looked into this for you. Ref Number S3-8AA3J-J3EAG was assigend and the consultant offered and provided the gesture as mentioned. However, the usage is correct as it did originate on that device and it remains the users responsibility to manage the device and the data usage on that device.”
I responded, reminding them that their technician had told me about the fault being a network error and that he had said I hadn’t done anything wrong. They replied that they would then check with him, but again layed the blame on me. When I replied to this explaining that I was offended and irate that they kept laying the blame on me when their technician had told me directly that it was not my fault- they moderated my comment and deleted it. When I questioned why they moderated my comment and deleted it they just deleted that as well. There was no reason for them to remove it as I was not using any foul language.
Summary:
- I twice experienced a full data and airtime drain of my phone - I lost everything (R110 and 350Mb) in a matter of hours.
- A technician at Vodacom turned off my 4G and changed my Settings as follows:
Settings: Cellular: Cellular Data Network: Cellular Data: APN to "internet" instead of "lte.vodacom.za”.
- He showed me how he himself didn't use the LTE network because of the problem, having had it occur to him too.
- Vodacom of course refuse to take responsibility and only gave me a partial refund along with some fairly sarcastic and rude customer service.
Details:
On the last Sunday of the month I found myself suddenly out of both data and airtime (having had approximately R60 and 100Mb left). I bought some extra and it too ran out almost instantly (20-30minutes). I only now received the notification SMS’s that I was out of data and would be charged out of bundle rates - now that it was all gone before I could even notice and do something about it. Realising there was a problem I went to the nearest Vodacom (Point Mall in Sea Point). They looked at all my settings thinking I had Updates or something silly on which was draining all my data. I of course didn’t as I am well aware of what uses data on a phone. All of the staff available looked at my phone and they reckoned everything should be fine so I topped up again with just R12 as a test. Within minutes my airtime had gone. Stumped they told me to see the technician at the waterfront branch which I planned to do the next morning. When I woke up I decided to check one more time and loaded R5. It didn’t move and used only the minimal usual amount when I used the internet. Everything seemed to inexplicably work again.
8 days later the same thing happened again but this time, as it is early in the month, it drained my entire contract. Again I received the messages well after both my data and all of my airtime had been used (uChoose Flexi 110 comes with R110 and 350Mb data which I had hardly touched so early in the month). This time I want to Claremont and spoke to a technician, Rashaad. He immediately recognised the problem and tried to explain it. Apparently it’s due to using Vodacom’s much advertised 4G network, but that there is a technical problem that occurs when it tries to reach the towers using the LTE network, and uses large chunks of data for nothing, just trying to make contact. When I say large chunks - it had used all of my 350Mb in a few hours (I had checked my balance the previous morning and it was almost untouched). It was hard to understand exactly how this works and why it only happened those two times, the technician didn’t seem to know, but had had the same problem himself. The solution was to change the settings and NOT USE the 4G network that Vodacom loves to advertise. He showed me how he himself didn’t use 4G, having had the same problem. At this point I was fairly annoyed that the product that they advertise so wildly has a technical fproblem that isn’t the consumers fault and has the ability to drain so much data/airtime. That it’s so bad that even they’re technicians don’t use the 4G network. However, he was trying to help so I accepted the settings changes as they won’t affect me that greatly. The technician also put in a report/request for me to get my airtime back given that it was not my fault it had drained.
The next morning I received the following SMS “Good Day Matthew, we would like to thank you for your enquiry. Please note that the charges that occurred is correct as you did not have an active data bundle. I will refund you as a gesture of Goodwill R157.94. Please note it is your responsibility to manage and monitor you usage not that of Vodacom. Kind Regards, Vodacom Customer Care Michael Van Wyk”. This came from one of Vodacom’s SMS numbers which one can’t reply to and had no contact number to follow up. In the context of my issue it was definitely not that I didn’t have an active data bundle that caused the problem. I did, and not only that but it used all my data and then my airtime before I was SMS’d because it went that quickly. In fact this response is incredibly sarcastic and rude given the fault that occurred and I found it very offensive. I’m well aware of data bundles and out of bundle rates and that was NOT the problem I had.
Given that I only got the warning SMS way after my phone had used all of it’s R110 for data, I also asked if there was a way to prevent one’s phone from switching to using the airtime as data once a data bundle had run out, there appeared to be no way according to the staff.
All of this makes it feel a lot like a scam as Vodacom have an inexplicable error which uses all of one’s data and then airtime as data BEFORE the warning SMS arrives. One then has to top up and spend more money with Vodacom. And even when the technician helped it was only to STOP using their advertised 4G/LTE service as a solution. My money was also then only partially refunded with a very sarcastic and rude SMS to which I can’t reply.
Follow up:
I took to a Vodacom forum to try and raise the issue. Pasting most of the above text.
http://community.vodacom.co.za/t5/Our-Network/4G-LTE-Data-drain/m-p/6690
I was again told "Hi Matthew. We understand the frustration and have looked into this for you. Ref Number S3-8AA3J-J3EAG was assigend and the consultant offered and provided the gesture as mentioned. However, the usage is correct as it did originate on that device and it remains the users responsibility to manage the device and the data usage on that device.”
I responded, reminding them that their technician had told me about the fault being a network error and that he had said I hadn’t done anything wrong. They replied that they would then check with him, but again layed the blame on me. When I replied to this explaining that I was offended and irate that they kept laying the blame on me when their technician had told me directly that it was not my fault- they moderated my comment and deleted it. When I questioned why they moderated my comment and deleted it they just deleted that as well. There was no reason for them to remove it as I was not using any foul language.
