Vodacom has no definitive answers for large billing

<p>I have had a ****le contract with Vodacom for a couple of years now. For the past year or so it has been costing me under R200 per month. Then in April I get an account for R2950. In May it is R4500. In June it was about R8000!!! I phoned them a number of times. When I spoke to their technical staff concerning my account they said the high charge could be for a number of reasons...</p> <p>1- someone was using my computer without me knowing about it (not likely as it is password protected and then there is a second password for the ****le plus there is no one at home to use it)</p> <p>2- it is a looping email in my email account (I checked and there were no looping emails)</p> <p>3- I am downloading too much (I only download my emails, and files on Dropbox that are pdf documents and are no where near the data they are suggesting)</p> <p>4- it is a virus (had my computer checked and they ran 3 different virus programs and none showed any virus on my laptop)(and then the gentleman denied speaking about viruses in our first phonecall)</p> <p>5- i am on the internet too much, I am not on the internet except for Facebook (mostly on my phone), an accounting program and dropbox. </p> <p>6- It is automatic updates (which have been turned off since I bought this laptop)</p> <p> </p> <p>What confused me was that i am a nurse and work 12hr shifts. On the day i used the most data (3-4 Gigs) I was working in the hospital, so Vodacom is saying I must have used that 3-4 G of data within an hour or two before or after my shift. I said that was not possible and they said it was possible.</p> <p>I am using the same programs I have been using for over a year and none of them have cost me so much before.</p> <p>I eventually got itemised billing to see where my data was going and it showed that it was mostly my emails. So i asked Vodacom which account in the emails or address or other computer is using the data through my emails. They said they could not give me the other computer using my email account, maybe its a virus. </p> <p>I feel quite angry about all of this. The answer from Vodacom is very vague. I checked everything they suggested and found nothing...</p> <p>Upon changing my "open account"to a limited account where it cuts off when having used the ****les data, I was told that I might be charged anyway because they dont work in real-time and my account might go over the limit until they can shut it off. </p> <p>Vodacom said they would not charge me for the last invoice which I am grateful for but I have already paid +/- R7000 more than I should have in just 2 months. I have no answer as to why I am paying Vodacom an extra R7000 and they cannot tell me either, just that it was my emails. </p> <p>I joked with the man on the phone from Vodacom and said what is stopping Vodacom from sending out their own virus and making peoples emails use up more data. It was really just a joke so dont go crazy out there all you conspiracy theorists. My thoughts are just how does an email account get so high that it uses up almost 3-4 gigs in such a short time? I am only sending very basic emails, no big attachments at all. So who or where is my data going? </p> <p>And why has it stopped all of a sudden? Yes, it has magically stopped. Nothing has changed, I have changed absolutely nothing!!!! But the problem has resolved itself somehow??????</p> <p>I have no answers and feel deeply unhappy that Vodacom is happy to charge me all this data but cannot tell me where it went.</p> <p>I would be exstatic if maybe someone from Vodacom came through and had a look at my laptop and my email account and ran some tests? But that was not offered. </p> <p>I have started asking around and this has seemed to happen to a couple of people in my area, big charges from Vodacom but no real answers.</p> <p>Do other cell phone companies do this? Who else has had problems like this with Vodacom?</p> <p> </p>