You may be losing out on mobile data

“As a means of providing extra value to our customers...." When a sentence starts like this, you can be sure it'll usually be followed by a whole heap of BS. Both mtn and vodacom are guilty of this.
 
i can't remember who said it on here, but basically he said that vodacom's ceo buys a new milk on monday, opens it and uses that before continuing with the old milk from last week.

i liked the "Remember, when you're in contract you must first fulfill your contractual obligation. Thus we MUST first give you your monthly allocation before any rollover from the previous month can take place.

It's as simple as that. No need for complex conspiracy theories."

our comspiracies aren't complex. it's simple: vodacom only employs incompetent fools.
 
Easter Bunny said:
i can't remember who said it on here, but basically he said that vodacom's ceo buys a new milk on monday, opens it and uses that before continuing with the old milk from last week.
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That was Keeper:
Keeper said:
really? but thats robbery! once again the normal user who is clueless but has money to burn, gets shafted by Vodacom once again....

The Vodacom's CEO probably has a half a litre of milk left in his fridge - he buys another new 2 litre, and opens that one up first.....WTF?

THIEVES!!!!
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jannievanzyl said:
This has been discussed at lenght in the relevant forums where I've explained it numerous times.

If you guys (and the author) spend a few minutes thinking about the issue, it'll become clear that you HAVE to first allocate the new monthly bundle before allowing any unuse data from the previous month to be used.

The only thing that'll resolve this, it seems, is to follow the networks that do not offer this facility. That way no-one will be confused about how it works and why.
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Jannie, with all due respect, Vodacom needs to realise that the current rollover implementation pisses off customers who subsequently move to Cell C because Vodacom refuses to budge, that is the bottom line here.

Vodacom has a choice, continue to lose market share or rectify issues that piss off customers.
 
j4ck455 said:
Jannie, with all due respect, Vodacom needs to realise that the current rollover implementation pisses off customers who subsequently move to Cell C because Vodacom refuses to budge, that is the bottom line here.
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Cell-C's rollover policy is exactly the same as Vodacom's.

The only difference is they have data bundles that only expire after 365 days.
 
BGE said:
Just outta interest... which service providers apply this policy and which don't? From Jannie's answer it sounds like it's a legal/contractual obligation on the part of all SP's?
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The contractual obligation claim is quite clearly total rubbish. It's simply a double-talk excuse for cheating the customer.
 
Myself and Vodacom have a gentlemen's agreement, I've agreed not to use their mobile data in any way whatsover in exchange for them not to try & screw me over in any way whatsover.

Problem fixed.
 
Jannie said:
You're wrong, actually. Think a bit about it and it'll make sense.

You contract your SP to provide you with a fixed amount of data per month, say 250MB @ R99 per month. You pay the money and your SP must give you the data. That is the essence and the core of your contract.

The roll-over to the end of the next month is a value add. You buy a bundle to last 30-days, not 60.

So, by definition, you must (and will) always get what you contracted your SP first and then any possible 'freebies' will kick in.

Another way to look at it; if you did not get roll-over (like with some of the other operators), you would not have an issue, correct? But because you get this extra service, it now is somehow not correct?

Hope this clears it up for you.
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That's a horrible reason. Data isn't like some physical product that ages and hence devalues over time. The old data is just as good as the new. Your new data can be added as usual (getting what you paid for), but the system can be made to use the oldest data first. Nobody is going to jump up and down if they paid R99 for data that they can't use immediately because the system is prioritising using "older" data. There is no difference to the consumer! Other than carry-over data actually being useful if you don't use your full allocation.
 
Easter Bunny said:
if x is a floating point value and represents your data bundle remaining, why can't you say this at the end of the month:

- get the data owed to the customer (a)
- check if there is data left over and put it in a variable (b) and keep the total as is (a)
- add in the bundle to how much there is so that you have two variables: how much in total (a) and much carried over (b).
- subtract amount of data used from both variables until the one is 0 (b)
- if the carried over data variable (b) is 0, then start subtracting from the total only (a)
- if the total is 0, then bill the customer an arm and a leg.


how difficult will that be to implement? you're the leading cellular company in the country apparently, yet your developers can't do that?

i like how they now reckon: if you don't like having to burn through your new bundle before the carried over data is used, then you won't get any data carried over anymore. "f*** you all you bunch of lazy cheap pr*cks! you will give us your money, get screwed over and enjoy it!".
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Allocation = Minimum(3 x bundle,Unused + bundle) + top ups
 
I keep on topping up with 100Mb's of data (CellC).

So whenever it's depleted, I just top up with fresh data. So far, so good.
 
Originally Posted by jannievanzyl
If you guys (and the author) spend a few minutes thinking about the issue, it'll become clear that you HAVE to first allocate the new monthly bundle before allowing any unuse data from the previous month to be used.
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If this is contract related, then surely the contract is just to supply a minimum data amount per month that the customer bought. If some of the data comes from a previous data bundle, why should this be a legal issue. Service provider is holding up their end of the contract by supplying the amount of data that the customer bought and paid for. What am I missing?
 
As long as this high margin way of doing business continues there will be crap like this. There is no way that their networks cannot support a lower margin system. Face it people will just use more data and they will make the same money - currently I 'use' none of my 300mb a month, because the whole thing is just so distasteful for me - It is only there for my app updates :sick:

That's not really a service.
 
Amazing how contracts are open to interpretation, but only if it benefits the service provider!
 
ginggs said:
Cell-C's rollover policy is exactly the same as Vodacom's.

The only difference is they have data bundles that only expire after 365 days.
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I did not know that Cell C had any form of rollover, and that is the point: it's only Vodacom customers that need to rollover for a raping. Cell C's data pricing makes rollover irrelevant.
 
If the ads and contracts say that the data has a 60 day roll-over period then it is not a value add but something that is expected.

I've never seen a Vodacom ad mentioning that data can only be rolled over every second month. All they say is up to 60 days roll-over.
 
BGE said:
Then a further explanation of Jannies answer:

Originally Posted by Jannie
You're wrong, actually. Think a bit about it and it'll make sense.

You contract your SP to provide you with a fixed amount of data per month, say 250MB @ R99 per month. You pay the money and your SP must give you the data. That is the essence and the core of your contract.

The roll-over to the end of the next month is a value add. You buy a bundle to last 30-days, not 60.

So, by definition, you must (and will) always get what you contracted your SP first and then any possible 'freebies' will kick in.

Another way to look at it; if you did not get roll-over (like with some of the other operators), you would not have an issue, correct? But because you get this extra service, it now is somehow not correct?

Hope this clears it up for you.
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If Vodacom (or any SP for that matter) are contractually obligated to supply a predefined amount of data per month, surely then they are also obligated to either refund / roll over the amount that has already been paid for?

This is hardly an "extra service"- if you paid for said service, Vodacom are contractually obligated to provide it. Not sure who Jannie is trying to fool with that answer.
 
skimread said:
Vodacom does the exact same on voice on my weekender contract. Current month free minutes gets used first then something like 10 percent of leftover free minutes are forfeited instead of previous months free minutes being used up first. This did not always work like this so it isnt legacy system but rather something introduced by Vodacom to reduce free minutes faster.
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+1
 
kripstoe said:
Yip. Why can't they be different than the industry? Because shareholders are more important than the customer.
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To be fair, we've had a government-protected cartel in mobile for over a decade, so there has been little incentive to compete.
 
jannievanzyl said:
If you guys (and the author) spend a few minutes thinking about the issue, it'll become clear that you HAVE to first allocate the new monthly bundle before allowing any unuse data from the previous month to be used.
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Lol .. seriously? Is this answer for real?

If your programmers can cope with implementing those insanely convoluted T&C's on your "promotions", I'm sure they can cope with this.
 
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