Updated below
I have recently experienced a massive loss while using Econet Wireless data bundles. This included around 200 Mb which disappeared in an hour for no apparent reason.
Apparently I am not the only one having trouble with Econet in this regard, as there seem to be a few more twitter complaints than usual.
We just received a detailed one, with screenshots included.
Morning good people.
This is a case about the “disappearing” Econet airtime and yah, it does disappear. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about this, myself included but usually I was taking note of the rate at which it was disappearing so I decided to carry out an experiment yesterday Dec 1, 2014. I recharged with 10mb of data bundles, and another $1 for calling airtime. Since my wifi hasn’t been up for a while, I’m subscribing to WhatsApp bundles, SMS bundles as well Opera Mini Bundles and yah, thanks to Econet for those bundles, life is supposed to be cheaper with those.
So, I use emails and “free” twitter mostly for communication and I haven’t called anyone in 3 days. I realized that somehow my airtime was being deducted when it’s supposed to be DATA only since no call was made.
I took screen shorts of the airtime balance at different time intervals and it seems $0.10 is being deducted as well when it’s supposed to be the data bundles being used up.
As evidence, I have three pics, 2 from last night and 1 from this morning. My airtime should be at least be just above a $1 but I’m now on $0.69.
Unfortunately I forgot to take screen shot of the initial balances but I hope these three make a case.
Have a nice day.
While I cannot be sure what the problem is, a helpful twitter follower told me that to activate the use of data bundles after purchase, you have to disable and re-enable cellular data.
I won’t bother forwarding this to Econet, as they never bother responding.
We just hope the issues will soon be resolved
Update 1: Someone from Econet gave me a call about this post and the issue herein. I have given his (Econet person) email to the complainant, to get in touch directly.
Update 2: The original complainant wrote in this morning.
The Econet guys got in touch and they had this to say:
“Our sincere apologies for the experience you have had on our network over the past 24hours. We have investigated the issue you raised about airtime disappearing on your mobile number. We have established that you are subscribed for a Sports News service, which charges $0.10 per SMS you receive. Kindly advise whether you have been receiving the Sports News from the shortcode 33334.”
I then informed them that I had never subscribed to any of their short code services. I then got a call from the guys at CyberCard Customer Service and they confirmed that they’d received my complaint from Econet and they had found out that there was some “error” of some sort, “syntax” if I remember well. So yah it somehow resulted in my number “appearing” under the subscribed list I guess.
So the guy apologized, asked if I was cool with a refund of the lost airtime. I was then refunded with a $1 and the Cybercard guy called to confirm if I had received my refund, apologized again and then asked if everything was now ok so that they can clear the complaint with Econet. That was all.
However, I think Twimbos need to keep track of what’s happening with their airtime else they experience the same or even worse situs. Thanks to Consumerizim for the good job. And yah, thanks to Econet for dealing with the issue.
Well done Econet for finally doing something positive. Keep it up.