Vodacom 3G , a big scam

It has now over three years since Vodacom introduced 3G data services in the market but their service is very pathetic to say the least, Why can't they introduce 3 months window period for data recharge, recharging my prepaid account is a pain, all because of their greed to steal my unused data bundle, This is a shame for a company making super profits while stealing from their clients. In fact I am surprised they have not being sued for this scam.

Malose Mokgohloa

By purchasing the bundles, you accept the terms & conditions of the product:

Unused in-bundle data expires 30 days from date of purchase.

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It is therefore not "stealing" since you agreed to it.

You can always write a letter of complaint if you feel they are doing something illegal...

Dude, wait till you try MTN......at least i can buy a new bundle -the moment- my existing bundle is depleted [on vodacom]..MTN does not even understand the concept.

Of all the providers i've tried, i must admit, Vodacom is the only one actually improving their services. MTN has done -nothing- in the last 3+ years about their service. Virgin/Cell-C does not even feature.

PS: By service i mean the flexibility of managing,viewing and paying for your data. The hardware/network side of the things is another story . [Latency on MTN still better] .

Mokgohd said:

It has now over three years since Vodacom introduced 3G data services in the market but their service is very pathetic to say the least, Why can't they introduce 3 months window period for data recharge, recharging my prepaid account is a pain, all because of their greed to steal my unused data bundle, This is a shame for a company making super profits while stealing from their clients. In fact I am surprised they have not being sued for this scam.

Malose Mokgohloa

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I agree. It is totally unfair for them to enforce this. I've paid for my data, they are taking it away from me because I didn't use it quick enough - that is stealing - and it should be illegal. Imagine filling up your car with petrol but being told that you will be checked up on in 2 days and if you haven't used it all we're taking it back, sorry, no you don't get your money back. Or buying prepaid electricity only to be told it 'expires' in 10 days! Yes, it is in the terms and conditions but that doesn't make it fair or right. Personally, if I win the lottery (yeah right) I WILL sue them, it is a unfair business practice and we, as consumers, have no choice. It's not like we can go to the network next door who don't have these restrictions. It's called collusion.

joelus said:

I agree. It is totally unfair for them to enforce this. I've paid for my data, they are taking it away from me because I didn't use it quick enough - that is stealing - and it should be illegal. Imagine filling up your car with petrol but being told that you will be checked up on in 2 days and if you haven't used it all we're taking it back, sorry, no you don't get your money back. Or buying prepaid electricity only to be told it 'expires' in 10 days! Yes, it is in the terms and conditions but that doesn't make it fair or right. Personally, if I win the lottery (yeah right) I WILL sue them, it is a unfair business practice and we, as consumers, have no choice. It's not like we can go to the network next door who don't have these restrictions. It's called collusion.

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So why don't you start by suing Telkom and then there is also iBurst, MWeb and MTN who have exactly the same use it or loose it policy.

joelus said:

I agree. It is totally unfair for them to enforce this. I've paid for my data, they are taking it away from me because I didn't use it quick enough - that is stealing - and it should be illegal. Imagine filling up your car with petrol but being told that you will be checked up on in 2 days and if you haven't used it all we're taking it back, sorry, no you don't get your money back. Or buying prepaid electricity only to be told it 'expires' in 10 days! Yes, it is in the terms and conditions but that doesn't make it fair or right. Personally, if I win the lottery (yeah right) I WILL sue them, it is a unfair business practice and we, as consumers, have no choice. It's not like we can go to the network next door who don't have these restrictions. It's called collusion.

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It would be illegal if they were contractually obligated to carry over the data or refund you for it, but since it's clear in their terms and conditions that the data is valid for a period of 30 days only, you really don't have any grounds to take legal action.

It's not unfair business practice, but more a tactical move to make money and increase profits. afaik, they rely on the fact that not everyone is going to use up their entire bundle which means they can effectively oversell cap and increase profit margins.

IMO, you should be complaining about the poor product offering which doesn't allow for carrying over unused cap and the lack of regulations which could be used in favour to force providers to carry over unused cap.

morkhans said:

So why don't you start by suing Telkom and then there is also iBurst, MWeb and MTN who have exactly the same use it or loose it policy.

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Well, because I don't use Telkom, iBurst, MWeb and MTN
Yes, that is why it is called collusion.

zamrg said:

It would be illegal if they were contractually obligated to carry over the data or refund you for it, but since it's clear in their terms and conditions that the data is valid for a period of 30 days only, you really don't have any grounds to take legal action.

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I think it is illegal. My uneducated opinion. Just because it is in their terms and conditions and has never been challenged doesn't automatically make it legal. Sometimes things need to be taken to court to ascertain whether it is legal or not.

It's not unfair business practice, but more a tactical move to make money and increase profits. afaik, they rely on the fact that not everyone is going to use up their entire bundle which means they can effectively oversell cap and increase profit margins.

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Whatever you call it, it is unfair. I've paid for a full bundle it is MY bundle, as far as I'm concerned. And the only reason they get away with it is cause consumers like you think it's a 'fair' business practice.

IMO, you should be complaining about the poor product offering which doesn't allow for carrying over unused cap and the lack of regulations which could be used in favour to force providers to carry over unused cap.

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I agree, it is a lack of regulations. I AM complaining about the poor product offering which doesn't allow for carrying over unused cap

joelus said:

I think it is illegal. My uneducated opinion. Just because it is in their terms and conditions and has never been challenged doesn't automatically make it legal. Sometimes things need to be taken to court to ascertain whether it is legal or not.

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It would be illegal if the contractual terms contradicted legislation but afaik, there's nothing in the Electronic Communications Act or other act for that matter which would deem this an illegal act. You're obviously still able to take the matter to court, but it would be expensive and IMO a pretty stupid move since you're fighting a losing battle here. The fact that it's never been challenged in court means there's no former case or precedent to use to determine the outcome of this case. This means that it's left to legislation, acts, constitution etc, which AFAIK, do not deem this an illegal activity.

If you don't want to lose YOUR bundle, dont buy it.

Its your own fault if you have unused data left. I can think of many ways just to get rid of a few gigs of data before the month expires.

Hell, give it to me if you don't want to lose it, i will use it for you.

You have 30 days to use your cap(as per the terms and conditions), why you dont use your cap isn't Vodacom's problem.

Iam3G said:

If you don't want to lose YOUR bundle, dont buy it.

Its your own fault if you have unused data left. I can think of many ways just to get rid of a few gigs of data before the month expires.

Hell, give it to me if you don't want to lose it, i will use it for you.

You have 30 days to use your cap(as per the terms and conditions), why you dont use your cap isn't Vodacom's problem.

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I don't really have any choice, that's the problem. If there was another network that didn't steal my leftover data I would have choice. But anyway zamrg is right, it isn't illegal but it should be. I can't think of anything else that you can buy and then 'lose' if you don't use it within a certain time... It's unfair is all I'm saying...

Are you gonna sue simba chippies if your packet of chips expires?

If you are given a shopping voucher which states that it expires on 9th August 2008, are you gonna sue when you go shopping on the 10th and they reject your voucher?

It's obviously irritating from a practical sense and I'm sure it does feel that your cap is being stolen or taken away come month end. This is unfortunately common practice in the market here and we can only hope that a 'carry-over-cap' product is released in the future.

Keeper said:

Are you gonna sue simba chippies if your packet of chips expires?

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If simba chippies actually takes my packet of chips away from me because I didn't finish them before the expiry date - yes!

thats not the point, the point is, things expire... whether they take the sour milk away from you or you not deciding to drink it, things expire!

AFAIK V3G said it would take quite a large database or something for that to be available, which i can now quite understand through the time i have been on this forum.

zamrg said:

If you are given a shopping voucher which states that it expires on 9th August 2008, are you gonna sue when you go shopping on the 10th and they reject your voucher?

It's obviously irritating from a practical sense and I'm sure it does feel that your cap is being stolen or taken away come month end. This is unfortunately common practice in the market here and we can only hope that a 'carry-over-cap' product is released in the future.

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Shopping vouchers are different because you use them pretty much all in one go, but the major difference is that a shopping voucher is generally valid for at least 12 months from date of purchase, not 30 days!

But you're right, I'm converted.
I think everything should have an expiry date especially your money! Hey - if you don't spend it in the next 30 days you lose it! Now that is a brilliant idea

it does carry over some data i noticed not sure if its a % of the new voucher size that u have left or a %of old voucher.. Mine carried over a few months this month i noticed. ppdb

joelus said:

Well, because I don't use Telkom, iBurst, MWeb and MTN
Yes, that is why it is called collusion.

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The point is that the terms and conditions you agree to in order to use the service are quite clear. You might not like it but lobbying for change rather than suing is probably a better approach because you have no grounds on which to sue.

I also don't like the fact that data does not roll-over, after all if they can roll-over your contract minutes each month then they can very easily do the same for data. Or even better, disable the script that zeros your account after 30 days. I think it would be more work to implement a system to zero everything at the end of the month for contract users and after 30 days for PP than just leaving it till it's used up.

Vodacom are discounting bandwidth if you use a lot - the bigger bundles are cheaper per MB than the smaller ones, and if there was no expiry date, that would have the effect of levelling the price across all users - everyone would but 10GB at the best price, and use it as slowly as needed. Most companies allow their bigger customers a better price, and there is nothing wrong with that.

In addition to that, the unused but paid for bandwidth is a liability that must be accounted for on their books, and at some point they need to be able to decide what is still going to be used and what is going to remain unclaimed forever. Obviously we'd prefer that to be as long a time as possible, and Vodacom would prefer to keep it easily manageable.

Having said that, I'd personally prefer a 90 day window. However to do that and keep all other things equal, Vodacom would need to charge the same rate per MB for a 3GB bundle which lasts 90 days as they now do for a 1 GB bundle which lasts 30 days, so we wouldn't really be getting any breaks - we'd still be paying the same if we use the same. They allow us to accumulate free minutes on calls for 5 months, so data rollover is probably something that someone will come up with as a way of differentiating themselves sooner or later, and then everyone will be forced to follow suite.

The problem with the petrol analogy is that to be accurate, the petrol would be paid for up front and stored at the garage until you needed it - and obviously they are not going to keep it forever, at some point they will write your account off and close it.

You will always have an expiry date on your bandwidth - it's just a case of what is deemed reasonable. No-one would argue too seriously against a ten year expiry, and no-one would accept one day. People are buying with a 30 day expiry - that is the figure that the market has tolerance for. Even your employer has a cap on the amount of leave that you can accumulate - same principle - it's an accounting liability and the company's exposure to risk needs to be managed.

joelus said:

But you're right, I'm converted.
I think everything should have an expiry date especially your money! Hey - if you don't spend it in the next 30 days you lose it! Now that is a brilliant idea

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Move to Zimbabwe - their money expires much faster than 30 days....