CTolls, VTolls and now MTolls!

Since the VToll debacle, I have seen numerous media reports citing the reasons behind the mobile operator’s mid-contract price increases.

From infrastructure costs to the Rand /Dollar exchange rate and everything in between.

That’s not it. Those are just the reasonable justifications for legally achieving more revenue!

That’s what this is all about – money and to be more concise, profits.

These three can talk whatever monkey they want , but the bottom line is – it’s the bottom line.

Profits.

Here’s how it went.

December 2014 – Cell C raises it’s prices…Vodacom and MTN watch from the shadows to see how the customers react.

“Hmm, not too bad..”says Vodacom , ” let’s try it with ours..”

They do. March 27th, they announce price increases on their most popular products.

Crowd goes bananas.

For a bit. Some backlash, but overall , nothing serious.

“Hmm,” says MTN,” our turn.”

And thus it was so that SA’s three largest  mobile providers ALL raised their prices MID CONTRACT within the space of a quarter.

Do you see a pattern here?

What would be the chances of 3 separate companies ALL doing exactly the SAME thing within 3 months of each other ? Under normal operational circumstances – none.

In fact, the odds are higher that Jacob Zuma will resign as president citing himself as a failure and his last act as president will be to repeal E tolls!

Want to know the real reason?

Go look in a mirror.

It’s our fault.

Yep- the reason that Cell C, Vodacom and MTN were able to do this is because of us! Their customers, whom they KNEW wouldn’t really put up a fight, and what little fight there was , would fade in a days, maybe a week.

Between the 3 of them I bet that the estimated income boost will be worth BILLIONS and for that all 3 are prepared to suffer a little bad press and some social media hammering.

But let’s face it , if you get that upset and cancel with Vodacom , where will you go? MTN? CELL C ? Telkom Mobile?

I am almost certain that Telkom will follow suite shortly as well.

Basically, not one of the big 3 is going to miss out on this chance to legally f*ck you over for more money and create massive profits for themselves. so that their bigwigs can walk away with massive bonuses when the Financial Year end results show huge increased profits.

Watch this space – I bet you will see Vodacom declaring increased profit in the next FY…thanks to us!

Don’t believe it’s our fault?

What did you really do?

After reading the first Vtolls post “Prepare for Vtolls”, what did you do? Rant and rave to your buddies? Pass on the link through social media? Post on the Vodacom Facebook page?

BIG WANK!

That means Jack Sh*t to any of them.

So you whinged, so you whined, big deal..

Did you cancel your contract? Did you write to the CEO of Vodacom? Did you complain to the Consumer Commission and Icasa?

I bet most of you did what most of you normally do.

You bitched, you moaned, you carried on.

If you actually did something , please go to our Facebook page here and post what you did. I want to see you put your collective c*cks on the block and publicly state what action you took.

And , if you were one of the people that DID TAKE ACTION , I salute you! Thank you and keep up the fight. Tell me what you did, I really want to know.

If you didn’t…well, I am not suprised.

This passive , rollover and get f*cked in the ass attitude is PRECISELY why our supermarkets get away with murder, why our petrol price is so high and why we pay a fortune in bank fees.

BECAUSE WE ARE THE LAZIEST MOST APATHETIC BUNCH OF CONSUMERS ON THIS PLANET!

In most places around the world, there would have been massive reaction to this..roads blocked, cell phones burned and left smouldering at the steps of the head office.

Not most of us.

If you did nothing , the next time you get you cellphone invoice and you have to pay more – just bend over and pay. You have no right to bitch, moan or complain , it’s too late now.

You missed your chance.

Through this site , I tried to galvanise as many people into taking some action and expressing their disgust in as many ways as possible – this is why I am asking you to go to our Facebook page  and tell me what you did.

It went half viral, I saw a huge spike in people coming to read that piece and then, after a day or two, that was it.

As for me, I wrote to the National Consumer Commission, Vodacom as well as have cancelled my upcoming renewal and, once my other contracts expire, I will move them to pre-paid or try and find a supplier that won’t change the rules when the feel like they need more profits.

And that’s the Joburg Truth.