Why do we still pay for itemised billing?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fudzy
  • Start date Start date
ocleroux said:
No...Itemised Billing is a optional extra....and so is Caller Line Identity. If you dont want it...we wont charge you for it.
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Yip,noticed when you log into your personal Vodacom account on the website you can change your active services.
Glad they dropped the mandatory.
 
I raised a billing issue with Vodacom call centre. The call centre operator and his superior refused to look at the itemised billing to see whether I am correct or not. The supervisor went as far as telling me that the only way to prove whether I am right or wrong is to request and pay R23 for itemised billing(more because I do not pay for it monthly) to prove whether they are wrong. Since the dispute is only about R12 it would be absurd for me to pay that amount. I am now busy writing my email to Icasa, because this certainly goes against all business rules that the customer has to pay to prove a supplier wrong. The onus normally is with the supplier to prove that the amount due is correct before the customer has to pay. R12 sounds like a small amount but multiply it with a percentage of their customers and you can see how much they can get away with.
 
ernstn said:
I raised a billing issue with Vodacom call centre. The call centre operator and his superior refused to look at the itemised billing to see whether I am correct or not. The supervisor went as far as telling me that the only way to prove whether I am right or wrong is to request and pay R23 for itemised billing(more because I do not pay for it monthly) to prove whether they are wrong. Since the dispute is only about R12 it would be absurd for me to pay that amount. I am now busy writing my email to Icasa, because this certainly goes against all business rules that the customer has to pay to prove a supplier wrong. The onus normally is with the supplier to prove that the amount due is correct before the customer has to pay. R12 sounds like a small amount but multiply it with a percentage of their customers and you can see how much they can get away with.
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Can you describe the query a bit more? Perhaps I can assist you. What is is that you would like to see on the Itemised Billing?
 
Cell c charges me 20bucks odd for itemised billing, yet I only get 1page with the balance on it, followed by a section at the back that says itemised call list.... And it's just blank. For 6months now. And when I phone they tell me on the system it says 32pages. Yet mine for 6months just says page 1of2 and 2of2! ****ing ripping me off proper. Makes my blood boil.
 
I wonder how many contract owners out there are paying this? R20 x a couple million is quite staggering amount of money.
 
I have capped the account at R199. When I looked at it on the website it showed R205 odd, fair enough they cannot cap it at exact amount, but I assumed that the R205 would be the max. Looked a few days later and it increased to R218, which in my mind should not have happened. The more I tried to tell the call centre people that i would like to have an answer the more they threw their Ts & Cs at me. Eventually one relented and told me she will get someone to call back. Odf course that never happened, so a few days later the same argument happened again. But the argument is not the point, I admit that i may even be wrong, but i raised an issue. Surely they should prove to me that i am wrong, not me having to pay R22 to prove them wrong or not. This is as far as i am concerned a harmful business practice. I do not query them every day of my life and in my mind there is something wrong. I want to see how I went over the R199 cap.
 
ernstn said:
I have capped the account at R199. When I looked at it on the website it showed R205 odd, fair enough they cannot cap it at exact amount, but I assumed that the R205 would be the max. Looked a few days later and it increased to R218, which in my mind should not have happened. The more I tried to tell the call centre people that i would like to have an answer the more they threw their Ts & Cs at me. Eventually one relented and told me she will get someone to call back. Odf course that never happened, so a few days later the same argument happened again. But the argument is not the point, I admit that i may even be wrong, but i raised an issue. Surely they should prove to me that i am wrong, not me having to pay R22 to prove them wrong or not. This is as far as i am concerned a harmful business practice. I do not query them every day of my life and in my mind there is something wrong. I want to see how I went over the R199 cap.
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Please PM me the number concerned for the query and your contact number...I will then have a look at it when I am in the office tomorrow. It may not be first thing...bit hectic at the mo but will try as soon as I can to have a squiz at it.

OC
 
Thank you very much ocleroux for helping me with my problem. You are a star. It was very easy to determine that I was WRONG after looking at the information(took me 10 seconds) and that in fact there was only one transaction(data) that took me over the threshold.

However the question still remains, why did the call centre operators refuse to assist me and just quoted T&C's and why want to charge me and put the onus onto me to obtain the info that would have stopped about two hours wastage of both their and my time. Customers are not always right, but they deserve to be treated fairly and what the call centre suggested to me remains a harmful practice.
 
Qwikslver said:
Life's too short to worry about cap(airtime).
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if you know your call patterns, it is not difficult to recharge every week.

Fudzy said:
This. Though come to think of it, getting airtime HAS become a lot easier since the last time I was on prepaid (+/- 10 years ago)
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fnb and absa allow recharging via internet banking.

I've always used the contract to subsidise a new handset every two years.
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Assuming I have read these vodacom offers correctly. I can pay R5489 cash upfront or R264pm for the 1st iPhone 4S deal. If I finance that cash price on budget on a credit card (FNB Silver, 18%), the amount paid is R274.03. on a business contract the contract is about R60 cheaper. And on say a Talk500, the phone is free so the calculation becomes difficult. The drawback/pro with the credit card is that interest rates can move. so you might win or lose.

but i can honestly say that i am spending far less on my phone bills (probably R100 plus) since moving to prepaid. And I also am not losing airtime as its rollover period ends. and i was on a 100 or 120 contract with mtn. and this is why on business and high value packages they can give you the phone at a greater discount/free. because on average, customers will be losing rollover minutes that make up for the subsidised cost of the phone and more.

Aren't airtime rates more expensive than contract rates?
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when i switched from contract to prepaid at the end of last year, there wasn't a single contract package that met my needs which was cheaper than prepaid.

in short, i think contracts are ripping us off. especially seeing as i haven't heard of downward adjustments since the 6 or so months since i moved from contract to prepaid.

edit - for the more finance types, my calcs are here - http://www.4shared.com/office/ghxrh4IT/Phone_Cash_Cost_v_Monthly.html

edit 2 - bump that 18% to 20% on the credit card, then the contracts are R16 and R66 cheaper (R29 and R69 if you use 25%).
 
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