Vodacom are ******* and *****es

For the last 10 years I have been a loyal @Vodacom client. Over this period, I have had 3 phones and took out 3 pre-paid contacts which cost me between R350 – R450 a month. A certain amount like R50 for the headset and the rest (R300) for airtime. And in all this time I always saved whatever airtime I had left at the end of the month (unused airtime accrued). It was like a ‘airtime’ savings account for me. Building it up over all this time to nearly R2000 worth of airtime today. Today I contacted Vodacom to say that when this contact ends at the end of the month I do not want to do a contract anymore or have debit orders. My handset is still good, and I have R2000 worth of airtime accrued that will last me a very long time. I would like to go onto pre-paid for now to try and save some money until such time I need another headset or the R2000 airtime is depleted. Vodacom then informed me that if I wish to move over to pre-paid that I will forfeit the whole R2000 worth of airtime! When I asked why, they said it’s because I did not purchase the airtime like with prepaid and only prepaid airtime can be transferred. This then made me beg to ask the question again…. why??? What is the difference between me going to a shop and purchasing pre-paid airtime OR paying for airtime via a debit order every month? Surely it is better business for Vodacom to have customers on debit orders which is a definite income every month, rather than wait for customers to purchase small airtime bundles when they needed too. Surely as a debit order customer I was more valuable to Vodacom. And why is there a difference between pre-paid airtime purchase and contractual airtime purchase. Airtime is airtime. The only difference is the method of payment. But this is not how Vodacom sees it. In my minds eye Vodacom and probably all large cellular providers are ******* and ******. It is unfathomable that they can get away with such **************** and that we as consumers just continue to support them. Its madness!!!! We are all mad!!!......and stupid sheep to allow this status quo to continue! Personally, I say enough is enough. Vodacom can go F itself. And if anyone reading this has any savvy…then they would do the same. Currently @Telkom has some great handset deal…. they offer free phone calls and their data prices are very reasonable. Plus, they are a SEO and thus a company owned by the people of SA. Its better to support them.