SA phone companies told to amend contracts

And also, will this be backdated to existing contracts or only apply to new contracts?
 
Can someone just highlight what part of these contracts is not correct according to the act?
 
New laws only apply going forward as a rule. Backdating causes chaos so is frowned upon.

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Great news and I am pretty sure all contracts signed after the deadline will fall into place :)
 
They should be fined already. They have known about this act for years and have had more than enough time to make changes...
 
Speedster said:
And also, will this be backdated to existing contracts or only apply to new contracts?
Click to expand...

It better be. The last few months the networks have been nagging us about the colossal waste of time that is RICA, saying it's the law, applies to exiting contracts as well, bla bla bla. So then the CPA should apply to existing contracts as well, if that's their argument?
 
Linky here: http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/phone-firms-told-to-amend-contracts-1.1100555

  • Companies will have to prove the financial benefit for the consumer of a bundled service, for example a package including a handset, data and a laptop, compared with the individual purchase of those items, which means being explicit about the cost of each item;
  • The pricing of services, such as call rates, must be adequately explained;
  • Consumers have the right to terminate their contract giving 20 days notice;
  • Automatic renewal of contracts by companies is no longer legal;
  • Contracts must specify a dispute resolution mechanism;
  • Consumers are entitled to unused minutes for up to three years and no longer six months as the companies stated; and
  • Consumers have a right to quality of service at all times.
Click to expand...
 
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Let's hope this is included for all existing contracts who feel they are getting raped by the cell networks.
 
Unused minutes will have to apply to Data as well in my opinion....
 
I can imagine the cellphone companies kicking hard against this...

I thought they were also supposed to clearly state which part is for the "free" handset and which part is for the contract/service. Now fine, if I buy a very expensive phone, they add an extra part on top which says "handset subsidy". But if I buy a cheap phone and it is "free", obviously part of my contract price is going towards that as well, right?

Luckily I'm upgrading end of July, so I'll let it hang for a bit and see if I can get a new contract. Want to wait for the iPhone 5 in any case.
 
Quite interested to know how this effects sms bundle roll over and data roll over...
 
ave said:
those are positive changes- especially the one that prohibits automatic renewal of contracts
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Were the cellphone companies doing this? As far as I know they only switched to a month-to-month contract after 24 months, which I prefer (to keep my number).
 
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