What on earth??? This Cell-C vs Vodacom nonsense must the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen all week.

In case you’re wondering…

Vodacom launched their change to red campaign on 1 April with loads of fanfare. Advertisement, SMSes and MMSes to us lucky customers.

They just about threw everything but the kitchen sink into their attempts to inform us that their branding had changed from their usual blue, to Vodafone red.

Along came Cell-C and with their own advertisement, ridiculing Vodacom’s marketing efforts.

‘CEO’ Trevor Noah mentioned something about the colour change not meaning its the biggest cell phone network. Or something to that effect.

It didn’t sound all that convincing to me, regardless of what he said.

Especially since I thought Vodacom had a bigger customer base than Cell-c.

Vodacom took offence anyway and laid a complaint at ASA.

And for good measure served lawyers letters on all and sundry.

All and sundry includes someone who worked on Vodacom’s marketing campaign and was subsequently employed at Cell-C’s advertising company.

In my opinion Vodacom is adding fuel to an almost dead fire, especially since Cell-C’s campaign looked like amatuer hour on Youtubem

As is the case for other Vodacom customers, I received an sms just a few minutes ago informing me of their new branding.

I’m sure we Vodacom users are jumping for joy. NOT.

Anyway, they’ve gone from their usual blue to Vodafone red, because as their advert says, red is simpler.

Whatever!

Bring on cheaper cellphone call charges and especially data charges – then we’ll talk! Does anyone still SMS?

The changes were made to bring Vodacom in line with Vodafone, their international parent company.

Vodacom has already started rolling out their new marketing campaign on television, SMSes and billboards on major highways.

And they’re using their ‘old’ advertisement characters to do so.

As the saying goes: a change is as good as a holiday, but for customers of the major telecommunications companies the main changes we want to see are the ones to our pockets.

Not to mention real competition between the networks.

Vodacom is once again testing my last nerve.

Here’s the latest annoyance:

I bought 500MB of data for my cellphone on Saturday morning through FNB’s cellphone banking.  Nothing unusual.

Monday morning I woke up to one of Vodacom’s SMSes to tell me my bundle has expired!  What the hell are they joking?

I wondered if I had a 1 month nap and that it’s now April Fool’s day.  Fortunately not yet.

First thing Monday morning, I called Vodacom’s 111 number.  I might as well not have bothered, because Vodacom’s answering service will test the patience of a saint!

And I’m very far from a saint.

Next I sent an e-mail, thinking it would be easier.  And at least I would have a record of my complaint.

Vodacom claims they will have a consultant contact you within 12 -24 hours and true to their word I received contact from their consultant - telling me she will pass on my query to someone in a higher department.

So I’m wondering, do Vodacom hire people to just open their customer e-mails, reply that they have received an e-mail and do nothing else? 

Up until now, I have received no other correspondence from Vodacom, more than 24 hours after my initial complaint.

Not that we can expect anything better from our telecommunication companies in this country!

Despite their shoddy service at times, Vodacom really comes up with the good where their adverts are concerned.

Despite the Single Ladies Ads getting all the attention, my favourites at the moment are the Elton & Jan adverts!

Those two guys are too funny!  Love them!

Vodacom Player 23 – Elton & Jan – Hilarious Advert – Watch more amazing videos here

Vodacom have been doing some of the best advertisements on tv, advertising their internet data bundles.

The Single Ladies advert in particular received lots of praise and giggles from viewers and the Vodacom is Maklik adverts, though not as popular was at least noticeable.

Unlike MTN’s adverts which is pretty much unmemorable. Don’t even talk about Cell C for yourself!

Vodacom of course advertised free internet which actually means purchase bundles and receive 25mb free data.

Gauging by the speed of Vodacom’s internet these days, one can only believe their marketing campaign to be extremely successful.

Try logging onto the internet at any time after hours, especially weekends and sit and watch your web pages load at snail’s pace.

As one who’s been using Vodacom internet for quite a while, it’s become more and more frustrating when I need to connect immediately but instead have to watch the connecting icon time out.

That makes Vodacom internet both maklik and very very slow!

Here’s the hilarious Vodacom Single Ladies advert that everyone has been raving about. Well done to Vodacom for taking the Justin Timberlake Saturday Night Live spoof and making it even funnier.

From 1 June to 31 August 2009 Vodacom will give 25MB free data to all customers who purchase a data bundle. 

That includes contract, prepaid and Top up users.

So for instance if you purchase a 5MB bundle that costs around R9.00, you will receive 30 MB, of which 25MB is free of charge.

All bundles from 5mb – 275MB receive 25MB free.

From 500MB customers receive 10% more data. E.g. 500MB will receive 50MB free, 1024MB will receive 102.5MB free of charge.

For more information, check out Vodacom’s website.

I’m not one to take much notice of advertisements, but the Vodacom Maklik adverts have got my attention for some reasons.

Even though I’m not at all impressed with the Borat impersonation, obviously the marketing campaign works.

Last night I was half watching tv when I heard a woman mentioning something to the Borat character about Vodacom’s Advanced Broadband being maklik.

I missed much of what was said, but Googled Advanced Broadband.

After reading up, I found out that with Vodacom you can carry over unused data from your bundle for 60 days – mine barely lasts 20! So no advantage for me.

Here’s what I don’t understand: with Advanced broadband you pay R389 for 1Gig, whereas with the ordinary broadband you pay R289.

However, if you choose advanced,  the out of bundle rate is 38 cents compared with R1.85 on ordinary out of bundle rate.

This doesn’t seem all that maklik to me.

My head hurts!

Does this mean that I will just have to buy an Advanced Data bundle once and then pay 38 cents per MB forever?  That would be maklik.

Isn’t broadband supposed to becoming cheaping and faster though?

Seems like Vodacom’s offering is far from cheap for faster internet.  In actual fact paying R100 more doesn’t sit too well with me.

I don’t see myself trying Advanced Broadband, but if someone else does, I would like to hear if it’s worth it.

For more than two weeks now, I have been experiencing problems with my contract cellphone. The first and last time I will ever get a contract phone again!

It’s one of those really annoying problems that only the cellphone companies involved can fix and they’ve been nothing short of patronising.

The Nokia N series phone works fine for telephone calls and smses, but not internet (I get a “package data not available” message, followed by “simcard not registered”) – the problem only exists on the Vodacom network. Virgin Mobile works completely as does MTN – on the same phone.

Vodacom worked before I switched to Virgin Mobile a few months ago.

Between Autopage Cellular’s network technicians and Vodacom’s customer services line, I was told about 10 times to reset my internet settings – which I did about 100 times.

What followed was more calls and emails and more of the same advice. Eventually I was told to go to the Vodacom’s 3G store in Cavendish Square.

Much help that did on one of the hotest days in Cape Town!  The shop assistants were as uninterested as the ones on the phone.

They wanted to charge me R50 to put the settings (the same settings already on the phone) and then told me they couldn’t help and sent me on my merry way to Vodacare (what a misnomer!) in Greenpoint or Canal Walk.

Autopage was even worse than Vodacom (if that’s possible).  Their website query system is fast, if fast is the only thing you want.  There is no way to contact the person who replies to your first e-mail and addressing your complaint to management is as helpful as addressing it to cleaning staff.

Both Vodacom and Autopage suggested I take my phone to their technicians as “something is wrong with the phone”.

No one explained why I should go anywhere or what could be wrong with the phone.

No one looked or sounded like they knew what the problem was. They continuosly threw things out in the hope something would stick.

As someone who troubleshoots computer problems as part of my job, I am amazed at the lack of curiousity from both Vodacom and Autopage’s network technicians.  

No follow ups, no nothing.

The YeboYethu share offer closed on 11 September with double the amount of applicants than Vodacom expected, according to Business Day.