Is this what Econet did after getting sued for 50k?

We decided to take a look at Econet’s website to see if there was any public information on what a data bundle is and how it works and we found something quite interesting.

There is a web page, DATA PORTFOLIO TERMS & CONDITIONS,  which lays out the terms and conditions for ALL of Econet’s data and social media bundle products detailing the types, prices, data provisions and validity periods for each.

We had never come across the page so out of interest we checked when it may have been created and last updated and according to our Google search method, it was on 22 November 2016. 

After adding a query to see when it was last updated in the past year, it showed one instance, 23 November 2016, which was the day after it may have been created.

The method we used may not be the most accurate so any web developers please verify and weigh in on the comment section. The method we used was:

Go to google.com and copy-paste the full URL of any web page in the search box with the inurl: operator (e.g. inurl:www.example.com). Hit enter.

Step 2. Now go to browser address bar (Ctrl+L in Firefox & Chrome or Alt+D in Internet Explorer) and copy-paste “&as_qdr=y15” at the end of the Google search URL

This makes us question whether Econet’s terms and conditions were ever made available to the public to understand what they are actually buying.

Econet’s timing also raises questions of whether this was in response to its pending lawsuit where a subscriber is suing the country’s largest mobile operator for what she alleges to be the unlawful representation of its WhatsApp daily bundle product after expecting it to last the full 24hrs but was shocked to have it run out after 20mb of use.

According to Ms Mabuda, she served Econet papers for the lawsuit on 8 November 2016 and we covered the story on the 17th a day after her first appearance in court.

Coincidence? Maybe.

Econet had not responded by the time of publishing, we will update as soon as they do.

Now read: This is what you really get when you buy Econet’s mobile data, WhatsApp or Facebook bundles  and  Here are some of Econet’s interesting Terms and Conditions for mobile data, WhatsApp and Facebook social media bundles