Vodacom contravening Consumer Protection Act.
In the past week or so there have been a few articles primarily on the fin24 website where consumers complain about exorbitant bills they receive for data. This has primarily to do with data charges for so called out of bundle data usage implemented by the telecom companies.
http://www.fin24.com/MyFin24/shocker...dacom-20161122
In some cases a monthly bill of R25,000 or even more is received where a consumer did something wrong, sometimes because they didnt know any better, or were slightly careless, or for some other reason that doesnt even always make sense. Sometimes it is as a direct result of incompetence by employees of the telco company, but many times the customer must just pay the bill or face legal action.
I have always believed that this business practice (out of bundle costs) by the cell phone companies is in the best case unfair and unethical, and in the worst case downright criminal. It is nothing more than theft. They are making money out of customers misfortune, by not checking their data usage continually, or perhaps making a silly mistake. And its not like the telcos have to do so as if there is no other solution as many will attempt to tell you. As they monitor your data usage anyway they can simply cut you off when you have used up your data bundle, and there would never be any out of bundle costs. At the moment this is exactly what happens if you use a topup method or a standalone SIM. So why cant they do the same for a contract user. Ill tell you why. They make a big fat load of money by doing it the way they are doing it now. And they will keep on doing it as long as nobody stops them.
This can be compared to a company selling houses on the slopes of an active volcano. They then give you tips for what you can do so not to have your house or yourself burn down. Some or other time someone will do something wrong, and they will get burned. This is wrong. The Consumer Protection Act should prevent the company from selling houses on the side of an active volcano in the first place. Then no-one will get burned, ever, no matter what they do, or dont do.
Well I can now say I have joined this club of people that get outrageous bills. Allow me to tell you my sad story.
On Sunday evening 20 Nov 2016 I did some browsing on my telephone. At that time I had something like 10 Gb left on my data bundle. Sometime during the night, while I was sleeping, around 3 am, I got some messages that my data was running out, and eventually that my data bundle had been depleted. When I woke up on Monday morning I saw this, and I also saw that I had run up a data bill of a few thousand rand (about R3,000). I thought this was very strange, but as I had to go out urgently for business, I would have to tend to this problem later. When I returned in the evening I saw that my bill had now risen to about R5,000. It was obvious that there was something seriously wrong. As it was too late to phone the Vodacom helpline, and my previous experience with this service was not very good, I decided to go the closest Vodashop the next morning to attempt to resolve the problem.
So the next morning I check my account again, and I see that my bill has now risen to R8,000. So I get in my car and drive the about 50 km (I live on a small farm) to Fourways Vodashop. After waiting for about an hour for service eventually I get to a technical representative that seemed to be so bored with doing nothing that he decided (well actually he was told by the consultant that eventually assisted me) that he should assist me. He seemed very annoyed with this, and as I tried to explain my problem to him, he kept on fiddling with his own phone, seeming listening with half an ear. When I was finished he took my phone, fiddled with it and then said something about WiFi and WiFi passcodes that I didn't really follow. He said I should not leave the mobile wifi hotspot function enabled, not that I knew that it was enabled in the first place, and even what to do with it if it was, or wasnt. He then gave me back my phone and dismissed me. I was utterly confused as I still didnt have any idea what the problem was, or if the problem was resolved I guessed it wasnt. The consultant that assisted me said that she would log something for me and that Vodacom would return some time later (perhaps never) and resolve the problem. She took down all my details including my email address. I then left the shop effectively empty handed, but as I checked my account it had now risen to about R10,000. Quite disgusted I drove home.
I must say at this time that Im not a sophisticated cellphone user. Many things that expert users would know, I dont know and is totally over my head. I dont even do Facebook and Twitter. So there was no way that I possibly could know if I did something wrong with the phone, what that something could be, and how to fix it. I am however quite certain that if the so-called tech expert at the Vodashop had just applied his mind, been a bit more dedicated, and did the job he was employed to do, and as was effectively presented as a service to me, he would have been able to find the problem right there and then, nipped it in the bud, and prevented me from now having a quite sizable problem.
Previously when I had problems with Vodacom, I used the Direct Chat feature, as well as the General email channel to resolve the problem, as I found that they worked better for me than the telephone helpline channel. When I got home I decided I would try these channels. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Vodacom had suspended these channels, and they were not available. Can you imagine this? The largest cellphone/telecoms company in the country, and they don't have an email channel? The mind boggles. Hello banana republic.
Anyway, so I had no choice in using my non preferred channel, the Vodacom helpline, where my slight hearing disorder would come into play, and I would have to continually ask that the person on the line to repeat what they said, up to the point that they sometimes get quite annoyed.
At this time my bill had run up to about R17,000. My phone was blocked and I couldn't use it to go online. I however also have a tablet, and this seemed to work fine.
After calling, and seemingly waiting forever, eventually I get connected to a consultant. I explain my problem to her. She seemed to be quite competent and to understand what I was saying, and even confirmed that she could see on her system that something had been logged I assume form the Vodashop visit earlier in the day. She tells me that she cant help me directly, but she will switch me over to an expert person that will be able to help me. I get switched over, I explain my problem again, and again this person seemed quite competent and understood the problem. She started to ask some relevant questions, and it seemed to me that we were moving to some better understanding and possible resolution of the problem, when BLAM, I was cut off.
So I phone again. Again after waiting for an eternity, I got connected again, and again I explain my problem. By this time my bill had risen to R21,000, and my tablet had also become locked. This time the consultant didnt seem to understand my problem, that I could detect from the irrelevant questions she kept on asking me. Eventually, after trying to explain over and over, she informs me that there is nothing she can do. She suggested that I call the following week, why that was better than phoning now I couldnt quite understand. Anyway it was clear that I was getting nowhere and the conversation was terminated.
Lets just consider this. I phone the helpline twice in short succession. Each time with exactly the same problem. One time it seems the problem was solvable, was it not for the fact that the connection was lost. The second time there seems to be no solution. The same problem, two totally different solutions. What does this tell you? Surely it can be expected that the same problem would have the same, if not similar solution. Well apparently not.
So here is a summary of my present situation. Both my telephone and tablet are blocked and unusable. Even my SMS isnt working, so I could be missing some important messages. Even after visiting the Vodashop and calling the help centre, twice, I still dont have the vaguest idea what the problem is, or was, and while this is going on my future expected bill keeps on rising. It seemed to have stopped now, stabilising at R46,000. Yes you read correctly, FORTY SIX THOUSAND RAND. The next day I had to go out to a Vodashop and buy a standalone SIM, and put some data on it, just so I could connect to the internet to see what the damage was.
So what now? Im a pensioner that subsist on a small and diminishing (due to inflation) pension, and I have to be quite careful how I spend money to make sure I dont run out, now Im about to receive a bill that would financially cripple me. Some time ago I had a small problem with out of bundle charges, but then it was only for R3,000, and again I didnt understand what exactly happened. I tried to take it up with Vodacom but got exactly nowhere. Vodacom just showed me a fat middle finger and I had to pay. I have no doubt that this time it would be the same, except the amount isnt R3,000, its R46,000. The other difference is that I simply do not have R46,000 available to pay this outrageous bill. Do I wait till they sue me, go to court and try and explain my situation to the judge? And what if the judge just happens to be a ********, as in my experience over some years I have found quite a few judges that are ********s. So lets face it. Im screwed.
In the past week or so there have been a few articles primarily on the fin24 website where consumers complain about exorbitant bills they receive for data. This has primarily to do with data charges for so called out of bundle data usage implemented by the telecom companies.
http://www.fin24.com/MyFin24/shocker...dacom-20161122
In some cases a monthly bill of R25,000 or even more is received where a consumer did something wrong, sometimes because they didnt know any better, or were slightly careless, or for some other reason that doesnt even always make sense. Sometimes it is as a direct result of incompetence by employees of the telco company, but many times the customer must just pay the bill or face legal action.
I have always believed that this business practice (out of bundle costs) by the cell phone companies is in the best case unfair and unethical, and in the worst case downright criminal. It is nothing more than theft. They are making money out of customers misfortune, by not checking their data usage continually, or perhaps making a silly mistake. And its not like the telcos have to do so as if there is no other solution as many will attempt to tell you. As they monitor your data usage anyway they can simply cut you off when you have used up your data bundle, and there would never be any out of bundle costs. At the moment this is exactly what happens if you use a topup method or a standalone SIM. So why cant they do the same for a contract user. Ill tell you why. They make a big fat load of money by doing it the way they are doing it now. And they will keep on doing it as long as nobody stops them.
This can be compared to a company selling houses on the slopes of an active volcano. They then give you tips for what you can do so not to have your house or yourself burn down. Some or other time someone will do something wrong, and they will get burned. This is wrong. The Consumer Protection Act should prevent the company from selling houses on the side of an active volcano in the first place. Then no-one will get burned, ever, no matter what they do, or dont do.
Well I can now say I have joined this club of people that get outrageous bills. Allow me to tell you my sad story.
On Sunday evening 20 Nov 2016 I did some browsing on my telephone. At that time I had something like 10 Gb left on my data bundle. Sometime during the night, while I was sleeping, around 3 am, I got some messages that my data was running out, and eventually that my data bundle had been depleted. When I woke up on Monday morning I saw this, and I also saw that I had run up a data bill of a few thousand rand (about R3,000). I thought this was very strange, but as I had to go out urgently for business, I would have to tend to this problem later. When I returned in the evening I saw that my bill had now risen to about R5,000. It was obvious that there was something seriously wrong. As it was too late to phone the Vodacom helpline, and my previous experience with this service was not very good, I decided to go the closest Vodashop the next morning to attempt to resolve the problem.
So the next morning I check my account again, and I see that my bill has now risen to R8,000. So I get in my car and drive the about 50 km (I live on a small farm) to Fourways Vodashop. After waiting for about an hour for service eventually I get to a technical representative that seemed to be so bored with doing nothing that he decided (well actually he was told by the consultant that eventually assisted me) that he should assist me. He seemed very annoyed with this, and as I tried to explain my problem to him, he kept on fiddling with his own phone, seeming listening with half an ear. When I was finished he took my phone, fiddled with it and then said something about WiFi and WiFi passcodes that I didn't really follow. He said I should not leave the mobile wifi hotspot function enabled, not that I knew that it was enabled in the first place, and even what to do with it if it was, or wasnt. He then gave me back my phone and dismissed me. I was utterly confused as I still didnt have any idea what the problem was, or if the problem was resolved I guessed it wasnt. The consultant that assisted me said that she would log something for me and that Vodacom would return some time later (perhaps never) and resolve the problem. She took down all my details including my email address. I then left the shop effectively empty handed, but as I checked my account it had now risen to about R10,000. Quite disgusted I drove home.
I must say at this time that Im not a sophisticated cellphone user. Many things that expert users would know, I dont know and is totally over my head. I dont even do Facebook and Twitter. So there was no way that I possibly could know if I did something wrong with the phone, what that something could be, and how to fix it. I am however quite certain that if the so-called tech expert at the Vodashop had just applied his mind, been a bit more dedicated, and did the job he was employed to do, and as was effectively presented as a service to me, he would have been able to find the problem right there and then, nipped it in the bud, and prevented me from now having a quite sizable problem.
Previously when I had problems with Vodacom, I used the Direct Chat feature, as well as the General email channel to resolve the problem, as I found that they worked better for me than the telephone helpline channel. When I got home I decided I would try these channels. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Vodacom had suspended these channels, and they were not available. Can you imagine this? The largest cellphone/telecoms company in the country, and they don't have an email channel? The mind boggles. Hello banana republic.
Anyway, so I had no choice in using my non preferred channel, the Vodacom helpline, where my slight hearing disorder would come into play, and I would have to continually ask that the person on the line to repeat what they said, up to the point that they sometimes get quite annoyed.
At this time my bill had run up to about R17,000. My phone was blocked and I couldn't use it to go online. I however also have a tablet, and this seemed to work fine.
After calling, and seemingly waiting forever, eventually I get connected to a consultant. I explain my problem to her. She seemed to be quite competent and to understand what I was saying, and even confirmed that she could see on her system that something had been logged I assume form the Vodashop visit earlier in the day. She tells me that she cant help me directly, but she will switch me over to an expert person that will be able to help me. I get switched over, I explain my problem again, and again this person seemed quite competent and understood the problem. She started to ask some relevant questions, and it seemed to me that we were moving to some better understanding and possible resolution of the problem, when BLAM, I was cut off.
So I phone again. Again after waiting for an eternity, I got connected again, and again I explain my problem. By this time my bill had risen to R21,000, and my tablet had also become locked. This time the consultant didnt seem to understand my problem, that I could detect from the irrelevant questions she kept on asking me. Eventually, after trying to explain over and over, she informs me that there is nothing she can do. She suggested that I call the following week, why that was better than phoning now I couldnt quite understand. Anyway it was clear that I was getting nowhere and the conversation was terminated.
Lets just consider this. I phone the helpline twice in short succession. Each time with exactly the same problem. One time it seems the problem was solvable, was it not for the fact that the connection was lost. The second time there seems to be no solution. The same problem, two totally different solutions. What does this tell you? Surely it can be expected that the same problem would have the same, if not similar solution. Well apparently not.
So here is a summary of my present situation. Both my telephone and tablet are blocked and unusable. Even my SMS isnt working, so I could be missing some important messages. Even after visiting the Vodashop and calling the help centre, twice, I still dont have the vaguest idea what the problem is, or was, and while this is going on my future expected bill keeps on rising. It seemed to have stopped now, stabilising at R46,000. Yes you read correctly, FORTY SIX THOUSAND RAND. The next day I had to go out to a Vodashop and buy a standalone SIM, and put some data on it, just so I could connect to the internet to see what the damage was.
So what now? Im a pensioner that subsist on a small and diminishing (due to inflation) pension, and I have to be quite careful how I spend money to make sure I dont run out, now Im about to receive a bill that would financially cripple me. Some time ago I had a small problem with out of bundle charges, but then it was only for R3,000, and again I didnt understand what exactly happened. I tried to take it up with Vodacom but got exactly nowhere. Vodacom just showed me a fat middle finger and I had to pay. I have no doubt that this time it would be the same, except the amount isnt R3,000, its R46,000. The other difference is that I simply do not have R46,000 available to pay this outrageous bill. Do I wait till they sue me, go to court and try and explain my situation to the judge? And what if the judge just happens to be a ********, as in my experience over some years I have found quite a few judges that are ********s. So lets face it. Im screwed.