[WASPs] How much do you think they make?

[riaan_pta]

I have mentioned before on this forum my dislike in SA WASPS such as Exact Mobile and Peach Mobile etc (list goes on).

These guys have been very opportunistic in milking the SA cellular market. The Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) was created in 2004 to act as the public watchdog (much good that did).

A few WASPS have been slapped on the wrist for questionable behavior – mostly for not telling users that they are being subscribed at e.g. R5 per week/image/ringtone to a service they will find quite difficult to unsubscribe from – or when they do, using the smallest sized font possible (at the bottom of the TV add).

I just watched the latest PeachMobile add on DSTV. R5 charged twice a week until you unsubscribe for some fake cape-coloured accent saying “Jou Ma!!!!” in new and ever increasinly innovative ways.

Funny thing I noticed – When you visit their website, they have a link to WASPA with the wrong address (.co.za vs .org.za) with some statement of linking through WASPA?!?

I could not help but wonder if this was deliberate or just a reflection on the quality of SA WASP’s in general – Opportunistic fly-by-nighters out to abuse the unaware mobile user in my humble opinion?

When will SA mobile users start to realise there is absolutely no content these guys can offer you that you cannot quite easily put on your cellphone for free yourself with a PC and access to the internet?

 

[nic777]

When will SA mobile users start to realise there is absolutely no content these guys can offer you that you cannot quite easily put on your cellphone for free yourself with a PC and access to the internet?

When most people in SA have access to the internet which most don't and therefore these guys have a good business.

 

[bwana]

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=50975 - along similar lines I think.

 

[riaan_pta]

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=50975 - along similar lines I think.

Yes, very similar. My personal run-in with these guys happned about 6-8 months ago.

I was repeatedly being offered the "hottest adult content" and asked to unsubscribe by SMS'ing "STOP" to a certain number (which neither stopped the SMS's or delayed their frequency). Only later did I notice I was charged R15.75 per "STOP" request. Six very heated phonecalls to Vodacom and the WASP (stinging insect in question) later only was the "subscription" stopped. I am to this day waiting for an explanation of how it was instituted in the first place!

 

[dominic]

riaan - make a formal complaint through waspa - in respect of the wrong hyperlink to the waspa site and anything else you feel aggrieved about

i can personallty vouch for the fact that waspa has done a lot to sort out the industry and has handed out far worse than slaps on the wrist - of late some provider has had their access to the networks suspended and there have been some very large fines

make the complaint