Nic’s blog
I write about building businesses, failing and building a life, not a legacy.
Why Vodacom pisses me off
I recently took a business trip to Nairobi, Kenya. I should have known better, I should have thought it through, I should have bought a local sim card and I should have remembered the stories of horror from when I worked at Vodacom.Alas, I did not. I was stupid and I kept my roaming on. My network settings switched me from Vodacom, a Vodafone network, to Safaricom, a Vodafone network. Makes sense. My data bundle didn't switch with my location. I should have known that. They [Vodacom] charge massive, massive fees to data roam anywhere in the world. My mistake for even having it on. That's not what I'm angry about. I screwed that up and forgot to put it off.What I am angry about is the situation I found myself in AFTER the fact, because during the crime of browsing NO ONE called me, sms'd me or emailed me to say: "Hey Nic, you idiot, did you know that your bill is double, triple, quadruple, five times, six times, seven times, eight times, nine times and finally ten times what it has been on average for the past TEN years". I have been a customer of theirs for almost ten years at the top end of their package offers and have paid all of my bills on time and loyally so for that entire period.Vodacom didn't have the systems built in to give me a courtesy call to say that they have noticed unusually high activity. I received an SMS upon my return to Cape Town (2 days after my trip) that I had spent more than double my account. Then a phonecall the next day to say that it was ten times my normal account. TEN TIMES with no alerts.I feel screwed and not in the good way. I feel like Vodacom purposefully waited NOT to tell me while I was over there so that they could finish taking me and my account for all it was worth, then upon my return, they alerted me out of the goodness of their hearts that I had just been screwed.It's unacceptable to me that they let my account get that far out of hand (even though I acknowledge it was my mistake) without alerting a very long term, loyal and trusted customer of theirs to his error.I am very interested to know from anyone who does know, what the new CPA says about this sort of situation.I'm livid. I'm paying, figuratively and literally, for my insane lack of attention to my cellphone carrier screwing me on data costs while roaming. I am also paying for my blatant stupidity in this entire situation. It was my mistake to leave it on but honestly, what horrible customer loyalty service from a business that's been taking my money for ten years.I feel dirty (and not the good kind of dirty).
Moving in to mobile.
It has already been announced that I am leaving Zoopy at the end of May.I didn't really have anything solidified when I resigned from Zoopy so it is with great pleasure and pride that I can now say that I am moving to Vodacom as the Product Manager in the Social Networking Porfolio.My time at Zoopy was well spent, I learned alot regarding myself, what I want to do and what I am good at. I also figured out where I think the market is heading, what the industry is doing and where I should be positioning myself.Zoopy is doing fantastic things right now and are one of the online companies to watch this year.I am going to be working very closely with Vincent Maher, who is going to be my new boss. I've worked with Vincent before and feel that I can only learn more and get better at what I do working at Vodacom for Vince.If you haven't realised it yet, mobile is not the next big thing, it's the big thing.
Zoopy JHB covers its first event... almost live
Last night, instead of joining the thousand or so people partying at the iPhone 3G launch, I was slaving away at my laptop for almost 5 hours.This is not to say that I didn't have a blast, the VIP section was a treat as they always are.The event was one that was intended to be a tester for the Zoopy JHB crew. It was our first major live event that we covered.Terri Hayward and Klaus Bauer (the Zoopy crew) did a sterling job if I do say so myself. They proved that Zoopy can get the interviews, be on top of events and provide top class coverage as it happens, when it happens - to quote a great radio station.Some of highlights included speaking to Shameel Joosub, the MD of Vodacom, DJ Fresh from 5FM, the very first official Vodacom sold iPhone owner and Dot Field the Chief Communications Officer at Vodacom. We were taking photographs, doing interviews and uploading for almost the entire evening and it showed.Zoopy recorded some great stats yesterday and a great achievement for us was having our content shown on CNBC Africa over lunch and in a late afternoon show.So here's to many more events being covered, many more shows being seen and many more interviews being done.If you have an event coming up that you think could do with some almost live coverage, drop me a mail: nic at zoopy dot com.
Did Vodacom break their mobile internet?
I just received a very interesting email.Here it is:
Hi Nic,Thought this might of interest to you. If you access the Internet via yourmobile, and you are a Vodacom subscriber, I'm sure you've run into somedifficulty especially with sites like Twitter.The Internet Society of South Africa released a statement stronglycondemning Vodacom's actions. The full statement is below.Let me know if you need some additional info. ISOC-ZA's past chairman AlanLevin is the official spokesperson for ISOC-ZA on this, and his contactdetails are below if you want to chat with him.Hope you have a great weekend!Cheers,Sentient Communications CCISOC-ZA strongly condemns Vodacom behaviourOn Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Vodacom claimed to revolutionise Interneton the cellphone. They falsely claimed that millions of Vodacomcustomers now (effectively) have the same experience of the Interneton their cellphones as they do on a PC. In reality Vodacom have brokenthe Internet for these millions of customers. This came without anywarning and ISOC-ZA is united against this sort of behaviour.Various applications that include instant messaging, banking,specialised mobile applications such as email, Youtube, Twitter, Fringand at least a dozen others, are no longer working. In technical terms,Vodacom installed a proxy service that was not sufficiently tested.As one blogger so correctly pointed out: "Vodacom is essentially using thepublic as subjects for an alpha test of their technology" (Flint.za 25 June)The technology that Vodacom is using is not standards compliant and,considering Vodacom¹s position as a dominant ISP, it should behave in a moreresponsible fashion. Furthermore, some of our members have claimed thatVodacom block many applications that it feels may threaten its business.While we have no direct evidence of this, we appeal to Vodacom to disclosewhat it blocks and intercepts on its networks.Happily, some users have worked out how to bypass the new Vodacom changesand ISOC-ZA urges all mobile Internet users to make use of this should theytoo be unhappy with Vodacom¹s actions.There are a number of bypasses freely available on the Internet, and aresimple to affect.For example: If you use a Nokia phone then the following should work:Access:ToolsSettingsConnectionAccess pointsVodacomOptionsAdvanced SettingsRemove the Proxy server addressAbout ISOCThe Internet Society is a global not-for-profit membership organisationfounded in 1991 to provide leadership in the management of Internetrelated standards, educational, and policy development issues. It haschapters in over 90 countries around the world. Through its currentinitiatives in support of education and training, Internet standardsand protocol, and public policy, ISOC has played a critical role inensuring that the Internet has developed in a stable and open manner.It is the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force(IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the InternetEngineering Steering Group (IESG) and other Internet-related bodies.
I've removed names until I can do a bit more background research and chat to a few more people. But I just tried to access twitter mobile...it didn't work. This doesn't look promising for Vodacom and their mobile internet tactics.
Vodacom steals my time
I can never get back the time I have wasted at Sandton Vodacom trying to fix their rubbish.I hate Vodacom.
Vodacom and Samsung suck
It has been a meager 2 weeks, 14 days or 336 hours since I purchased the Samsung D900 and sang its praises. Now I must change my standpoint. My D900 decided to stop working today. I received a phone call and flipped the phone down and hey presto the screen went black. It stayed black, it's black now...for good.I decided to jump in my car and head to Sandton City to the Vodacare store. I knew what would happen. I would arrive, the 'lovely' person behind the counter would tell me that I didn't qualify to receive a new phone (even though it's only been 2 weeks, 14 days or 336 hours since I bought the damn thing). Then they would tell me that they were out of loan phones (which they were). Then I would bitch about that, they would stare at me as if they really wish someone would push them out of a 4 story building (that's how they all look).The only difference is that this time they made even bigger fools of themselves. Once I had given my brand spankingly new and stuffed up phone in to get repaired (reluctantly I might add), the 'lovely' women then told me that I would receive an SMS when my phone was ready. Prey tell me how on any creators Earth am I meant to receive and SMS from Vodacom when they have my phone AND THE DIDN'T PROVIDE ME WITH A LOAN PHONE... YOU IDIOTS.I hate Vodacom and I always will. I hate Samsung temporarily because I have a sneaking suspicion that they are in cahoots with the service provides so that their phones break exactly one week after the 7 day return period ends. You bastards.
Samsung D900
I am finally due for my phone upgrade on my vodacom talk 240 contract. It has been a long and happy two years with my Samsung D500. I have had no problems with it at all. So I am considering sticking with the Samsung range and will most probably going with the D900.
The D900 seems to be a great phone and has almost everything I am looking for. I was initially going to upgrade to the LG KG920 which has/had a 5 megapixel camera built in. Unfortunately Vodacom told me that they have discontinued the phone so I am unable to upgrade to it. I am a little bummed out about it but I think I can deal with D900 as a suitable replacement. Any suggestions let me know and I'll look in to it before I purchase the D900 tomorrow.