According to a story posted this morning by The Herald, Econet Zimbabwe has been sued by a Zimbabwean citizen, Ms. Sihle Maxine Mabuda, over what she claims to be the misrepresentation of WhatsApp bundles by Econet to her.
The plaintiff argues that the defendant, Econet, through its advertised “daily” WhatsApp bundles, is misleading the public by insinuating that the bundle lasts for a full 24 hrs where in fact it is capped at 20mb of data use.
The defendant claims that she purchased the $0,30 Whatsapp daily bundle with the belief that it would last her the full 24hrs but to her surprise, the bundle purchase was for data and not time as suggested in Econet advertisements.
The plaintiff argues that she underwent a protracted argument with Econet’s customer care to which they advised her that the daily bundle only offers data provision and not time and that the regulator, POTRAZ, was fully aware of their “marketing gimmick”.
The plaintiff is, therefore, suing Econet for $50,000 plus interest calculated at 5% from the date the summons was issued to the date judgment was passed. The plaintiff is also demanding that Econet covers all her legal costs.
The plaintiff has also been given the green light to hold a peaceful demonstration against the mobile network by the Harare Suburban Police District on the 25th of November from 10:00am until 15:30pm. The peaceful demonstration will be conducted from Samora Machel all the way to Econet’s headquarters in Msasa.
The practice of marketing social media bundles under time scales is something that has disgruntled many subscribers. It is not just Econet subscribers who feel hoodwinked but subscribers from all MNOs have voiced their complaints.
Not only are bundles misrepresented according to time but also according to data provisions. Unlimited, which any subscriber would rightfully assume were unlimited data bundles carry data capping which could see you run out of data before the end of the month.
This rampant misrepresentation has been allowed to go on under the watchful eye of the regulator, POTRAZ, who Econet Customer Care arrogantly claim are on their side on this one. The regulator, from what we understand, is there to regulate MNOs to ensure subscribers are protected from such practices.
Unless there is a regulation that defines daily and unlimited differently there is no reason POTRAZ shouldn’t penalize all the MNOs practicing this blatant false advertising.
Ms. Mabuda may have a real argument on her hands and could extend it to the Regulator and all licensed MNOs operating in Zimbabwe.
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24 comments
All along I thought daily bundles means the allocated data expires after one day not that you can use whatsapp for one day. It defeats the meaning of the term “fair usage policy”
Does potraz even work to protect the consumer?
Ok, she have put up a claim, now where is the evidence?
Unless this is politically driven(like most things in Zimbabwe), you can have valid claims but without proper real evidence your case will not stand.
She needs real evidence that she bought the said bundle and it finished at the time she is claiming. She also needs to compare the small prints, terms and conditions.
Potraz should be on her side helping her with the technical bits and forcing econet to provide logs of the said bundle. One issue she will have to prepare is wasted time, unless if her full time job becomes suing econet. Econet can easily throw money into this case until she gives up.
Im finding it hard to defend her, you buy $0.30 bundle then you go on to sue for $50K, this goes beyond greed! What loss have she incured to warrant such demand?
Im sensing dark forces behind the scenes who see $50k as small money for their effort.
Macd, companies like econet have been fleecing citizens and i do not understand why you are trying to defend the indefensible. Just look at how they have been stealing money/airtime from customers under the patently false claim that its because of automatic updates. What kind of nonsense is that, i have a contract line which i have not been using for some months now yet i find every month that they would have billed me for some non-existent calls. look at the bloody rip off that Econet’s ecocash has been. It costs a whooping $5..93 or 6 per cent to send $100 to my poor grandmother in Jotsholo. Where on earth have you ever heard of such exorbitant transactional costs. Worse, Econet knows that the worst affected by this blatant looting are the poor and vulnerable groups who do not have access to formal banking. Its really high time that the citizens of this country do something about this daylight robbery by wolves in ship’s clothes who have been feeding on our sweat and blood for too long.
why keep an active line, get them suspend or deactivate the line, playing wolf
the problem with us Zimbabweans is we are habitual lairs when have you ever sent $100 and charged $6 thandi get your mind corrected for $100 they charge $1.94. Lies will never help win you any case even if you send $500 the maximum they charge you is $3 so where do you get that 6% you are talking about, lies lies lies ladyz should not lie.
as for WhatsApp bundles they last use the word unlimited in august 2016 when potraz banned all promotions even if you check check your balance it tells you how much data is left and when it expires.
as for this lady it all depens on whether she is going to get enough evidence to argue the terms and conditions
The lady has a point, Many a time you buy data bundles and you get an 80% usage warning within a day. She has a point. I support her fully.
She might have a valid point, which l will also support if she have proper evidence and clearly have read and understood terms and conditions.
What is soiling the case is the amount she is claiming and l just read somewhere that she once sued Telecel for the same amount but different reasons
They have a culture of skinning us alive so much has happened for a long time,including airtime,with data bundles fully charged you still don’t have airtime lasting and you just wonder whether it is a service or a stealing setup
I don’t think the term daily bundle means the bundle is valid for 24hrs.THis term is used across all of africa by all netwrok service providers.Daily bundle can mean the bundle that you are buying should be used within that day.
So many questions here.
1.was the bundle unlimited or was it pegged at 20mb for a daily bundle.
The lady needs to be careful otherwise she might lose a lot of money for failing to understand simple English.
Somebody has already concluded that someone is in the flaw. Relax, get some coffee and watch from the terraces.
Daily bundle means the bundle should be used within a day not that it should last the whole day. Depending on how u use data the bundle may get exhausted within an hour or two. If this case succeeds then all networks are in for numerous cases of litigation.
keyword (unlimited) it explains it all
Vachaenda kuDEMO kwacho vanozopiwa here a cut of that $50 000? Or is it gonna be a one person protest coz zvekushandisana ndizvo zvatisingade ka…
Our challenge in Zim is a broke Govt dependent of the few remaining businesses for survival. That is where the poor citizens are going to suffer. Furthermore, I don’t think $50k is realistic to recover $0.30. The magistrate will laugh lungs out after asking how did you get to the figure and also verdict of another $50k Telecel suit. The lady represents her profession well, as a pathological liar.
For real thats a misrepresentation….. let em cum out clear n clean to sae their item z 20mb nt t lasts fr a day…… 20 mb cnt sustain a delay in diz daes whre whatsapp z nw omost al abt sendin pics, vids n audios … nt forgettn the newly born video calling… wit u miss kip it up u myt wake up 50k richer soon….. u gut a real tok… substance
So if you take a bath daily does it mean you spend 24hours bathing.
You buy a 20MB bundle and you want to use 1 gig from it.
The bundles are sold at 20mb for a daily bundle.They never said for a 24 hour bundle.Daily dictionary meaning is occurring every day and not occurring the whole day.
kkkkkk ndovaipedza pocket money ye term yese in one week. saka toti vabereki vainyepa here kuti ndeye term yese simply because waita makaro ukapedza mari yese term isati yapera
This is simple plain English inga ma Zimba munozviti makafunda zveshuwa munhu unga tadze kuziva kuti kana zvichinzi daily zvorevei.Yah this is just one attention seeking lady . . .
nxt its telecel with those never ending Spam msgs
This lady is well advised. When suing you consider many issues. Amount of suit will cause econet to take service provisions seriously. After losing the case Econet may plea for a reduced charge & thats all well calculated. Why do you calcuate amount sued at 0.30c against $50k. How long has this promotion been running & to how many subscribers. $50 000 divided by 0.30c is only 166 666 times yet Econet has well over 8 million subscribers who ve potentially been dubed. Only 166 666 subscribers need to buy 0.30c for econet to mak pe $50 000 & thats revenue Econet makes easily in a day. Netone whatsapp bundlescare tfuly unlimited as promised & thats why l swit hed long back to it. Econet is a fraud
Daily bread does not mean having a 24 hour meal. The bible used such a phrase – econet ndiyo yadii zvayo. But then again if its true that she has done it before then she’s probably onto something. Gona and gona wake!
This is why I switched 3 years back to netone!!!
It is the better of all 3 devils out there… Atleast u get value for ur money. We made econet wat it is today buying $100 lines and beaing cheated on every $1 I spent on that network. Now look where they are and they will milk every subscriber as much as they can. “Econet Wierles inspired to milk u more”
Econet is a hopeless case”
It is an informative post. I have learn more from this article.