Courts can bring cell networks into line
I’M STILL getting e-mails daily from consumers who are furious that the cellphone networks continue to force them to forfeit prepaid airtime and data not used within a few months, despite the fact that the Consumer Protection Act’s section 63 states that all prepaid vouchers must be redeemable, for their full value, for up to three years.
Vodacom’s take goes like this: “When customers purchase data bundles, funds are deducted from their airtime in return for access to data bundles. So they are deemed to have exchanged the value of their prepaid airtime for access to data bundles.”
As I said in my column of two weeks ago, that’s like trying to convince someone that unwrapping a bar of chocolate is the same thing as eating it.
From the start, the National Consumer Commission publicly disagreed with the cellphone industry’s interpretation, but that was about as far as its enforcement of section 63 went.
The commission’s latest vague statement to Consumer Watch on this issue offered little comfort to consumers. In short, it says that while it is still of the view that data and airtime credited to a consumer must be available for up to three years, some service providers have a different interpretation of section 63 and thus the tribunal or the courts “should be approached”.
I mentioned in that last column that the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) had applied to the commission for an exemption from section 63, arguing that “an unintended consequence” of it was that electronic communications service licensees would be restricted from recycling inactive prepaid SIM cards that still had credit, with the result that Icasa could run out of numbers earlier than anticipated.
The organisation did stress at the time – last July – that it was not in favour of consumers losing out on prepaid airtime and data, saying a way should be found to allow inactive numbers to be recycled while protecting unused credit.
Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka told Consumer Watch last week that the body had, after consultation, decided that section 63 did not constrain its ability to recycle numbers, and thus it was no longer seeking that exemption. Good to know. Desiree Mansfield is one of many readers incensed that the remaining value of data bundles bought online “expires” after a few months.
“Why can’t I use that data at my discretion?” Mansfield asked
“I have just checked my latest balance online on my account and I have 178.79MB left to use up by the end of October, or I lose it.
“Why are they getting away with this?” Good question. Shiraz Khan bought R70 airtime for a cellphone she gave to her elderly grandfather for use in emergencies. She has since been told by the network that the number has been recycled because he didn’t use it for seven months. And the unused airtime was forfeited.
Khan accepts the recycling of the number, but argues that the airtime should be credited to another cell number for her grandfather’s future use.
But that’s not going to happen, in spite of what the National Consumer Commission, Icasa and a bunch of unhappy subscribers say.