Internet!!!!!!!!!!!!

[insulin]

The internet continued: Freedom of the Net...

I cannot argue with your point. But to be blunt I feel the internet must be a free public service because you as an individual have the right to information. You have the right to an education. The internet is a tool that can educate you. The internet can also inform you from your mobile phone or a 3g connection. The truth is that the internet is one of the most powerful tools we as individuals have.

Sadly large companies took notice and knew that the desirability of the internet can become a profitable industry. Thus we pay for every single Mb of information. Now if a small amount of let say 1 million people are indeed paying R2 for every Mb because they cannot afford a bundle! These companies are making 2 million every few minutes.

I am honest when I say that a lot more than 1 million people use the internet but again do the math and you will find that as the megabytes tick over so does their profits. The fact is that we the people are suffering because of this... How? By not being introduced to technology that can educate you! The truth is that innovation is power. We are not empowered thus we lose our ability to go forward.

By imprisoning the Internet, I as an individual am robbed from a technology that could have changed my life. With this in mind I stand by my statement. The internet must be regulated by the state and be made affordable for everyone! Unfortunately corruption is a norm in this part of the world so sadly we will probably never see a true beneficial system.

[pietpetoors]

Vodacom

Just follow some of the discussions at http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=103
and you will see that it is a general problem. A problem I believe the cell phone companies do not want to fix because they make millions from it. All they do is pull up their shoulders and say "sorry tjom, you were not supposed to use it when it was out of bundle"
They make millions this way and nobody does anything about it.

[Dave A]

They make millions this way and nobody does anything about it.

I do - I don't buy it
At least not the out-of-bundle stuff.

[insulin]

The internet Continued: The Million Rand bug.

Needless to say you are right. Companies do benefit from your mistakes. I tend to recall an m-web related story. A friend of mine’s dad is about sixty years old now about 10 years ago he called up m-web and asks them if they could cancel his subscription because he was not using it. Ten years later he decided to go through is bank statements. And behold! M-web was taking money from him for over 10 years without even sending him a single statement for the last 10 years. They were all too happy just to take his money and shut-up about it. I got into the picture and made sure it was cancelled this time. But they will take advantage from the elderly and never even tried to repay his money. Again the Consumer Council proved that they will REALLY benefit from training! Now the thing is; how did the old man not notice it sooner? Well to come up for him, he is still a working man and don’t get a lot of time to himself and again the amount that m-web was taking was not a lot so it didn’t seemed to be suspicious or jump out at him. But that still doesn’t explain the lack of statements now does it. After all and I stand to be corrected on this but South African law says that all subscription based account are legally required to send statements. Again the law seems useless to protect his people.

[Dave A]

And behold! M-web was taking money from him for over 10 years without even sending him a single statement for the last 10 years.

I don't recall ever getting a statement from M-Net/DSTv, come to think of it.

[twinscythe12332]

surely if you have some proof that the contract was terminated, he could mutilate them in court?

[insulin]

The internet continued: The m-web saga.

The old man claims that it was done telephonically, because his mail was not working at the time. And it was because of his mail that did not work that he cancelled his subscription. The thing is when I contacted m-web they told me that there was a NOTE on their system that a cancellation request was indeed made however m-web never in 10 years did a follow-up on the NOTE on their system.

Then when I phoned the second time around the NOTE on the system disappeared. So someone did some housekeeping. But again and I do want to point this out: If m-web did send him statements like they are required to do then the old man would have been informed that there was still an active account with m-web thus he would have taken action to cancel it again.

His post address never chanced for the last 20 years and I knew him all my life so I know he never moved and is still using the same phone number the same post address and stays in the same house for the last 20+ years.

If m-web wanted to make contact they could have done so with no problems what-so-ever! But m-web was happy just to shut-up and take money from an elderly person. That is really depraved actually... And m-web knows that statements are a must or so I was told by the Consumer Council but sadly the Consumer Council is really lacking training...

Sadly lawyers are expensive and I know from personal experience that advice do cost a lot of money. This is actually the reason why a big company gets away with everything. They know you don’t have the money to stand up for your rights.