The WHY?
For too long mobile broadband providers have been taking advantage of their customers by profiteering off of their naivety, while others in some cases have intentionally created systems and procedures to trick their customers into going out of bundle. At up to R2/MB OOB rates, and new LTE technology, mobile broadband providers can now cost you R1000.00 every minute that you go out of bundle. A recent case shows a mobile broadband provider delaying their notifications by 6 days, and then making the consumer pay for their own problems. On the much vaunted LTE network, this would have cost up to R8 million. Yes, R8,000,000.00! You read that right!
The WHAT?
So what do I propose we do? Well, it seems that certain network providers refuse to fix their systems, having had over a decade to do so already. As has been pointed out, in that time a geek in the USA started a little site called Facebook and made billions. In an even longer time-frame, certain providers haven't been able to put together a simple real-time billing solution. It is clear that this is intentional, and the only thing likely to change their minds is to force their hand.
I propose a website where users can submit their OOB shock bill details, past, present, and future. This data will be publicly available, so that we can extrapolate what kind of revenue these companies are stealing from their customers by not implementing preventative systems in a timeous fashion. While it is not intended to single out specific providers, it will organically identify the main culprits while praising those who do look after their customers properly. The site will also double as an information portal to prevent users from going OOB, across all networks. We will also apply a scoring system to each network's preventative measurements.
The HOW?
What do I need your help with?
If you're not interested in contributing and feel that this endeavor is useless, then kindly back up your points of view with rational arguments - don't spam this thread with "OMG"s and "ROFLs".
Please PM me if you would like to contribute, help out, donate your time, sponsor the site in any way, or if you have suggestions that you'd prefer to keep private. Please ask your friends and family to help out here too. It's time that consumers take back control from these behemoths who claim that going out of bundle is your fault, and you must simply k@k en betaal...
For too long mobile broadband providers have been taking advantage of their customers by profiteering off of their naivety, while others in some cases have intentionally created systems and procedures to trick their customers into going out of bundle. At up to R2/MB OOB rates, and new LTE technology, mobile broadband providers can now cost you R1000.00 every minute that you go out of bundle. A recent case shows a mobile broadband provider delaying their notifications by 6 days, and then making the consumer pay for their own problems. On the much vaunted LTE network, this would have cost up to R8 million. Yes, R8,000,000.00! You read that right!
The WHAT?
So what do I propose we do? Well, it seems that certain network providers refuse to fix their systems, having had over a decade to do so already. As has been pointed out, in that time a geek in the USA started a little site called Facebook and made billions. In an even longer time-frame, certain providers haven't been able to put together a simple real-time billing solution. It is clear that this is intentional, and the only thing likely to change their minds is to force their hand.
I propose a website where users can submit their OOB shock bill details, past, present, and future. This data will be publicly available, so that we can extrapolate what kind of revenue these companies are stealing from their customers by not implementing preventative systems in a timeous fashion. While it is not intended to single out specific providers, it will organically identify the main culprits while praising those who do look after their customers properly. The site will also double as an information portal to prevent users from going OOB, across all networks. We will also apply a scoring system to each network's preventative measurements.
The HOW?
What do I need your help with?
- I have no web design experience, but I know that many of you have been bitten by the OOB shark and feel as strongly about this as I do. Consider your OOB payment to your servie provider as payment to this cause. Invest a little time and effort in putting together a simple web page and database where users can securely submit this data. It's a small investment to help consumers across the board, including your own friends and family.
- We need a hosting provider who will sponsor hosting facilities, domain registration and management, and will have the opportunity to outright sponsor from all pages and across all PR material that is sent out. Someone like Softdux-Rudi, perhaps? Or anyone else willing to contribute towards the cause. The marketing benefits are tremendous, as is the general CSR of it all.
- We need to get the message out. When the time is right, we'll need you to fire up your social media engines and strategically help to deliver the message of the site and the campaign.
- I also need suggestions from you. Anything you'd like to see on the site (and no, we're not consulting The Free State government for this); any suggestions as to what else we'll need to make this run more efficiently; and general input is welcome.
If you're not interested in contributing and feel that this endeavor is useless, then kindly back up your points of view with rational arguments - don't spam this thread with "OMG"s and "ROFLs".
Please PM me if you would like to contribute, help out, donate your time, sponsor the site in any way, or if you have suggestions that you'd prefer to keep private. Please ask your friends and family to help out here too. It's time that consumers take back control from these behemoths who claim that going out of bundle is your fault, and you must simply k@k en betaal...
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