An attempt to get cellular operator Vodacom to pay for dropped calls was dismissed in the Johannesburg High Court on Friday.
”We lost … I stuck behind my guns, now I have to move away. The consumer must just carry on paying,” said Jason Blacklock, whose company Cell Check was attempting to recover R18 200 for Hilti SA.
”The judge ruled that [in a contract] it is not implied that they can’t charge for a whole minute if they can’t determine how the call was dropped during the minute,” Blacklock said after the judgement.
A dropped call is a call that ends abruptly without either party terminating the call.
Most cellular service providers charge a flat-rate for the first minute of a call and then per thirty seconds thereafter, he said.
”Thus, if the call is dropped mere seconds into the call, the caller is still charged for the full minute, and then pays again for the first minute …”
He believes this accounts for between 3% and 6% of cellphone charges for some users.
Blacklock said that he had successfully obtained refunds for himself from Vodacom and so started a business of obtaining refunds on behalf of others by examining the itemised billing.
He does not charge for the service, opting rather for a percentage. According to his website, this is 50% of the fee recovered. After calculating the amount for Hilti SA, Vodacom turned down a request to refund the company and the matter went to court.
Blacklock said that the fact that the company had a special number — 119 — for users who had just experienced a dropped call, meant that the company recognised the phenomenon.
Vodacom’s list of useful numbers promotes the 119 service as: ”If you drop a call, get it reconnected with the first minute free”.
But, adds Blacklock, the user has to first navigate a number of pre-recorded questions in which the company captures the possible reason for the dropped call before proceeding with the redial and the interrupted conversation.
The 119 first-minute offer does not apply to contract customers who have per-second billing, according to the message.
The judge has given the parties 30 days to make submissions before the judgement becomes final.
Blacklock has been campaigning on the matter for a long period and, with associates, also formed the Cellphone Complaints Authority of South Africa to register complaints about billing.
Vodacom spokesperson Dot Field said the company was going through the dismissal judgement but had no further comment.
Blacklock’s legal advisers were ”regrouping” and deciding how to proceed. — Sapa