Massive mobile broadband bill?

What I want to know is why they make the credit limit that high!!??? Why would anyone need R30 000? Make it R5000 or something...
 
Did anyone bother to ask the person if they were outside South Africa and roaming using their 3G Data card? Cause at R100 per Meg while you roaming could very well contribute to the huge bill...
 
Well mine was averaging R700 then in December it shot to R1500 and in Jan it was R2500. You think these guys can tell you what it was..??? err no!!! But then if you dont pay they simply cut you off.....
 
This problem (out of bundle rates, and no hard cap) isn't going to be fixed be the networks any time soon. Why? Because they're profiteering scum that will suck the consumer dry thanks to their "legal" monopoly on spectrum. Icasa should have intervened long ago, but they're too incompetent to realise that there's a problem and too toothless to do anything about it.

The networks get away with murder in SA, like this issue and Vodacom re-introducing their (slightly modified) illegal lottery. This is expected from corporates worldwide, but in the first world, government would quickly intervene to protect the consumer.
 
keep complaining until they fix it.
 
Ouch. So MTN doesn't even have a bandwidth usage monitor program for you? Damn, Sounds like riding a car without knowing how much petrol you have :/

Wonder how many people will just pay up without knowing they were raped. Of course MTN leaves the onus on the user to query the bill and doesn't proactively contact its customers to inform them they were overbilled cause of a bug.
 
I still feel that, (while I don't believe the networks should be held responsible for a customer's high account IF it is genuine normal, high or irresponsible usage, we should all take some responsibility for our actions), the networks should definately introduce some form of cap on a data account.
Nobody, not the consumer or network, wins when an account spins out of control and runs up huge amounts.
Isn't there something about the new credit act, that should prohibit suppliers from allowing a consumer to run up more debt that he can afford?

I would like to see a cap on data accounts, where (its on by default, user has to choose not to have it) if the data bill goes over a certain amount (lets say double normal contract cost, eg. R500 on 500Mb contract) then the connection is blocked, and you have to contact the service provider to lift the block, and then monitor yourself for the rest of the month.
Nashua Mobile has a (optional) 3 x contract value cap, but most other service providers seems to not be interested in that.
I know all too well how easy data accounts can run into R1000s if the user is not very good at contstant monitoring of the usage, especially a shared, unmonitored modem on a network...
 
It sounds like MTN is using the same accounting system as the City of Tshwane.

These ****ers are notorious for sending out statements with grossly inflated figures for water & electricity usage, and then cutting you off at 01H30 one evening if you did not pay it.

This has been going on for several years now and no-one there seems to be concerned about fixing this - why would they if this brings in more money into the Metro's pockets, albeit illegally?

As long as their huge salaries are being paid on time every month, they are happy with life. :rolleyes:
 
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December 2007 Vodacom billed me R10 000 it was later dropped to R5000, normally the bill was around R1000.

Btw I didn't even hit my cap for that month, they said I did and had gone over by a couple of gigs!

At the end of the day they made me sign some bogus statement that claimed the fault was mine. I signed it because it was the only way to bring it down from R10 000 to R5000.

I had thought about suing but I got advised not to waste my time!
 
CeeBee said:
Isn't there something about the new credit act, that should prohibit suppliers from allowing a consumer to run up more debt that he can afford?
Click to expand...

Interesting question.

I absolutely refuse to get any form of mobile broadband until such time that I can impose a hard cap on data usage. Hear that MTN/Vodacom/CellC ??
And I bet I am not alone.
 
This is why I bought my own modem and am on prepaid. I log onto Std Bank, recharge my prepaid account, buy a bundle and thats it. I have never had a billing issue since using prepaid, where as when I was on contract, I was phoning Autopage every single month with issues.
 
What is it with the mobile operators not wanting to implement a hardcap by default?

Come on guys, do all of us a favour, and implement a hardcap for contract users.

If a prepaid user gets hardcapped when out of airtime, then surely the same can apply to contract users?
 
hehe... yes, pre-paid seems to be the only way to prevent nasty surprises at month end.... BUT, on pre-paid you don't get itemised billing, and my experiences last few months is that u NEED to check usage (voice and data) to make sure you don't get screwed over.
That is another issue altogether! :D
 
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