Youth Boycotting on Data and airtime costs must fall!!!

Leading network Vodacom and MTN were grilled on the 21st Sept 2016, in parliament regarding their costing when it comes to the pricing on citizens. The youth as decided to take this matter on their hand by boycotting in Johannesburg on the 19th of September 2017 regarding product pricing compared to other countries

Herewith the average pricing of South African compared to other African Countries Data Plan:

· South Africa 1GB = R160

· Kenya & Ghana 1GB = R60

· Nigeria 1GB =R32

· Rwanda 1GB = R21

· India 1GB = R11

Now here is a "MUST FALL" campaign I wholeheartedly support. It is absolutely unbelievable how the telecommunications companies in this country and especially MTN and Vodacom held SA citizens to ransom with their high data and call costs, and the inter connecting costs.

Do an internet search on "Vodacom profit" or "MTN profit" and stand amazed at how they have their own mint, how they print their own money by many billions. They make more income than many countries make.

They can do this because they put a system in place that absolutely fleeces cell phone and data users. They absolutely annihilate users with their setup. The funniest part to me, is the word "airtime". And that is what it is, you pay for air, you pay for nothing. These companies found a way, to make you pay, for nothing, for air.

This must be the best business model in the world, to make billions, making you pay, for nothing, for air. To take something that should be free, and make you pay for it. The human is a very gullible creature, something does not have to be a good deal to be a good deal, a human being simply has to believe it is a good deal, to make it work, even if it is a terrible deal.

That is why MTN and Vodacom put hundreds of millions into advertising, which makes us believe, we get good deals. But far from it, compare with the rest of the world and you will see that these companies are milking us dry by the billions.

I personally never bought into this nonsense, and from the first cell phones, late nineties, to this day, I have never had a cell phone contract. I structured my life that I do not need it. There are many ways to live life, without them. But if you believe you cannot live without that new R12,000 smart phone, every two years, you can't live without many gigs of data a month, without Wi-Fi, you cannot live if you can't phone out R500 a month, then guess what, they are going to fleece you, don't complain then. They can only do this, because the public buys in on this, and allows them to dictate.

If all in SA stood together and fought this tooth and nail, all costs will come down by up to 80%. But SA will not do it, heck, they are too depended on being connected, and will die if they can't immediately see the twitter, Facebook, what’s app and whatever feeds.

The one things that these companies get away with, that amazes me the most, is this model where you get a specific amount of data or airtime allocated to you a month, and beginning next month, you lose it if you didn't use it. Or if you upgrade or downgrade, they simply take it. Or if you switch cell phone providers, they simply take it too.

Does this make sense? Let’s compare with some examples. You fill your car up on 1 September, on 1 October you car's tank is half full. Your filling station comes and visits you, and takes back the half tank petrol, because you did not use it up in the month, therefore you are not allowed to have it anymore. Would you allow this, no, but yet you allow it with the cell phone companies.

You go shopping at Pick and Pay, buy R5, 000 worth of groceries. Next month Pick and Pay send their people to come take back all the groceries that you did not use, because you HAVE to use it all in this month.You buy clothes at Edgars, next month Edgars comes and takes it back, because you did not wear it this month.

How on earth can a company get away to sell you something, and then simply take it away, because you did not use it, this month. Simple, they can because we, the public, allow them to do it, and do not fight or resist it. It is a great business model to make you pay every month for the same thing over and over again, even if you do not need it, or even used it. You are not allowed to use what you bought later, no, you have to use it, or lose it, and next month buy it again.

How on God’s green earth do people allow this to happen. It is easy explainable, it is a case that people are so easily fooled, and even if you tell them the truth, they do not care. People do not care to be taken to the cleaners, as long as they believe it is a good deal, and as long as they can get what they want. And even more, if they believe they got a special. People are willing to pay double, for something they did not need, just because they believe it to be a good deal.

People are like sheep, led around by the nose and basically forced into a way of life, by very clever marketing and strategies.

And the sad things with something like this is, you can only fight or resists this, if people stand together, and fight it. If all customers next month’s refuse to upgrade, refuse to pay their bills, because of this abuse, you will be amazed how quick these companies will lower their fees, because they are laughing to the bank, and laughing at us, the gullible public who are easily fooled.

People, these companies have clever people sitting in boardrooms and thinking out ways to make you spend more, that will make your head spin. No matter how much they get, they will find ways to make more, because it is never enough for them.

And the most funny is, all this is done just so that a few persons can make billions, at the cost of many millions of people.

So, if you are feeling the pinch because of high data and cell phone costs, don't complain, because you fell for it, you bought into it, you got what you wanted. You said to them, yes please abuse me, I want to be abused.

Even more outrageous is that these companies can lock you in for two years at a time, and the funniest part is that they say they give you the phone for free. Nothing is free people, ever.

It is hard to shed a tear for a company like MTN when they got that huge fine in Nigeria, as that is one time their arrogance caught them out big time, and they are put together of arrogance in the extreme. They care nothing about you, it is only about how much money they can make out of you. Try and resolve queries with these companies, very hard to do.

And no, I do not think parliament, or our politicians can do anything about it. Looking at the Vodacom and MTN representatives in parliament yesterday (21 Sept 2016), I think they find it hard to not burst out laughing, and keep a straight face, with parliaments attempts to grill them a bit. I can see them joining their palls in the high glass towers in the bar later that evening, and laughing their heads off at parliament thinking they can do anything.

There is only one way to bring these costs down, a combined refusal by the public to buy into it.