A Harare woman has sued Econet Wireless Private Limited for $50 000 over misleading WhatsApp daily data bundles. Sihle Maxine Mabuda ha...
A Harare woman has sued Econet Wireless Private Limited for $50 000 over misleading WhatsApp daily data bundles.
Sihle Maxine Mabuda has since successfully obtained police clearance to hold a peaceful demonstration against Econet in Harare on November 25 this year. The woman said she purchased WhatsApp data bundles for 30 cents after learning from advertisements that she will enjoy the services for a full day.
It later turned out that the 30 cents only buys data rather than time, 20 megabytes of data which does not last for a day, as suggested in the advertisement. When she tried to call her daughter who is in South Africa through WhatsApp voice call, Ms Mabuda realised that the bundles were not even sufficient.
Ms Mabuda, in her declaration, contends that Econet was misrepresenting the duration of its data bundles as a marketing gimmick.
After checking with the Econet offices, Ms Mabuda said she was informed that the whole issue was a marketing gimmick to lure clients.
“After a protracted argument with the defendant’s customer care desk, officials through the phone, she (Ms Mabuda) was asked to go to the defendant’s Livingstone Avenue offices where she had a meeting with Econet’s manager for Chisipite branch and other officials.
“They told her that Econet Daily Bundle does not necessarily mean that it is supposed to last for 24 hours contrary to their message which is displayed on the phones and Potraz was aware of such a marketing strategy,” reads the declaration.
Econet Wireless is yet to respond.
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