The Mampara of the Year goes to Vodacom!

The Mampara of the Year goes to Vodacom!

If you use a HSDPA card for internet access and like me you recharge your voice number and then make an airtime transfer to your (pre-pay) HSDPA number, well errr... you have been sort of stuffed!

I used to recharge my voice number with R275 and then transfer around R180 to the HSDPA number.... Now and without notice (and complete and utter hogswash spoken by customer services) you can only transfer 50% of that airtime! That's about R135 and if you try to transfer say R140 you get told that you don't have enough credit to make a transfer (despite having a total airtime balance of around R400) so you now have to remove your SIM card from the HSDPA card, place it in another handset to replenish your airtime!

Bullshot of the week award of the week goes to Vodacom Customer Services for their:

1: Sustained level of contradiction between staff.
2: Lack of coherent English.
3: The one member of staff who said I couldn't transfer from 072 to 076 numbers because they are not the same network!
4: The one operative who asked if I wanted international roaming taken away!!! For this you may qualify for the "Smoke Screen Award" who knows?

Well done to all at Vodacom for taking one step forward and three backward!

The only question is WHY? Why can I no longer transfer any amount from my balance to another Vodacom number? Who's going to lose out? Are there to be more restrictions like on who we can call and for how long? Will we be told that we can't call out of network once we have exceeded 50% of our airtime balance?

I really look forward to returning my Huawei E220 with a worn out SIM holder!

Ahh, Stilbaai ... A bit more quiet there now I would imagine?

so you now have to remove your SIM card from the HSDPA card, place it in another handset to replenish your airtime!

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Why? If you are on Vodacom prepaid can't you just buy airtime via any online banking system [assuming you have internet to do that] ?

Although i need to remove my MTN sim to actually convert the newly added airtime into a bundle [need to go through a menu system via phone] , but getting the airtime on the sim i just go through ABSA [or any other online service] and recharge directly.

Yeah, it sucks. I won a couple of thousand in airtime a year ago and put some of it on a "spare" simcard just so that in case my phone gets stolen I won't lose it all in one shot. Now I find out I can only transfer half of the spare airtime to my main number.

diabolus said:

Why? If you are on Vodacom prepaid can't you just buy airtime via any online banking system [assuming you have internet to do that] ?

Although i need to remove my MTN sim to actually convert the newly added airtime into a bundle [need to go through a menu system via phone] , but getting the airtime on the sim i just go through ABSA [or any other online service] and recharge directly.

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If any of the South African banks would allow me to buy airtime with my UK Barclays Debit card, life would indeed be a dream. Why no South African bank? If you really need an answer... I keep my money does not vanish in charges when I'm not using it!

LandyMan said:

Ahh, Stilbaai ... A bit more quiet there now I would imagine?

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It's still crazy here until Saturday when the mass exodus begins!

The shops are bare!
The bottle stores are (bone) dry!
Half the sand has vanished from the beach!
Plus 7-11 only have single ply (sandpaper based) loo rolls left!

Eleven months of calm begins 6th January...

Hi Guys if you go to your FNB, Standard bank, ABSA or Nedbank ATM you will see that there is a button to send airtime to your pay as you go cell phone just a thought even for you U.K users

Wizzit cellphone banking enables you to send airtime to your own cellphone or to any other cellphone.

Anytime, Anywhere, instantly.

Bundy2005 said:

Hi Guys if you go to your FNB, Standard bank, ABSA or Nedbank ATM you will see that there is a button to send airtime to your pay as you go cell phone just a thought even for you U.K users

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There is indeed a button, it does not work on any UK debit or credit card!

i suspect this is an anti fraud measure. pretty stupid one tho.

GayTechie said:

i suspect this is an anti fraud measure. pretty stupid one tho.

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Its a bit daft! I can draw R8000 per day with my UK card, although SA banks will not serve up more that R3000 per hit. So its R3000 x 2 and a quick R2000 x 1 and I've got R8000 in cash.... I want to buy R110 airtime.... No! It just rejects the transaction!

JimM said:

Its a bit daft! I can draw R8000 per day with my UK card, although SA banks will not serve up more that R3000 per hit. So its R3000 x 2 and a quick R2000 x 1 and I've got R8000 in cash.... I want to buy R110 airtime.... No! It just rejects the transaction!

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Which ATM is that? Last time I tried (a little while ago), all Standard Bank ATMs seemed to be hard-coded to a limit of R2000 per withdrawal, regardless of any daily withdrawal limit there is on your account - forcing you to withdraw multiple times to get more than the ATM's hard-coded limit. I understand there is likely a physical limit to the amount of cash the ATM can dispense (thickness of the wad of money, et al) but R2k seems a bit min. I think it's a scam to charge you for the multiple withdrawals I would mind more, but I get 10 free ATM withdrawals per month on my account plan, and never come close to using all of them

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Oberon said:

Which ATM is that? Last time I tried (a little while ago), all Standard Bank ATMs seemed to be hard-coded to a limit of R2000 per withdrawal, regardless of any daily withdrawal limit there is on your account - forcing you to withdraw multiple times to get more than the ATM's hard-coded limit. I understand there is likely a physical limit to the amount of cash the ATM can dispense (thickness of the wad of money, et al) but R2k seems a bit min. I think it's a scam to charge you for the multiple withdrawals I would mind more, but I get 10 free ATM withdrawals per month on my account plan, and never come close to using all of them

Click to expand...

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I managed R2500 on a STD Bank ATM a few days ago ........

Using my Barclays UK debit card, I can use any SA ATM. I think Nedbank will cough up R3000, ABSA let me have R2500 per card session and FNB only R2000. No idea about Standard Bank, I'm too lazy to walk to the other side of the shopping centre! My UK limit per day is £500 so dependant on the exchange rate, R8000 is the total maximum for the day... I did draw R8000 about a year ago from Nedbank and got it all on R20 notes!

I did hope that now Barclays own ABSA that charges would start to drop! May be one day! Any private bank account in the UK has no charges provided the account is in credit. Banks there seem to make their money out of normal banking (i.e. loaning money) and not ripping customers off for simply paying in or withdrawing their own money! The last time I paid bank charges in the OK was 1985 if I recall correctly!

So, I can draw large amounts of cash but can't pop R110 onto my Pre-Pay HSDPA SIM card!

But there is good news, the limit on how much you can transfer from one pre-pay number to another seems to number specific and one of my numbers still allows me to top up my HSDPA SIM without me needing to remove the SIM and inset it into another handset.... Lets just see for how long...