Tracey Adams

Before buying the device that depends on coverage, it is important to ask questions about the coverage in areas where you are likely to be using the device.

Before you pay for a device that is dependent on some form of coverage – a 3G device or a hand-held TV – make very sure that the area in which you intend to use it has the necessary coverage.

Barely a week goes by without someone complaining to Consumer Watch that they’ve ended up with a device, and in some cases a contract to go with it, that they can’t use because lack of coverage.

Neil Ross of Langebaan was seduced by the Walka TV advert while holidaying in Joburg, and bought one from a Game store. But when he got back to Langebaan he found he had no coverage at all.

When he complained to Multichoice, he was told the advert stated “terms and conditions apply” and that at the bottom of the screen the words “check for DVB-H coverage” appeared during the advert.

Ross was referred to the website www.dstvmobile.com for coverage details but maintains these do not clearly state the true position. Which is: coverage is restricted to the major cities where DStv is licensed to offer this mobile TV service: Joburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Rustenburg, Mbombela, Polokwane, Bloemfontein and PE. And the signal can be patchy in parts of those major cities.

The fact that different technology and coverage areas applied to DStv’s mobile offering was not specifically revealed in the the DStv advert or by the retailer’s salesman, Ross says.

And it’s not included in the DStv Mobile website’s FAQ either.

Responding, a DStv Mobile spokesman said the product’s advertising “carries a clause which states that select coverage is available” but that the product came with a year’s warranty and Ross should return it.

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from Edwardine Naude, who lives in Milnerton and travels frequently to the towns of Vredenburg, Malmesbury, Springbok and Upington.

She took out a contract with Cell C in Century City in August, having been assured by a store employee that the network had coverage in those areas. (She’d previously had no coverage problems with another network.)

But Naude soon discovered she no coverage in those areas.

When she returned to the store, another employee looked up the signal coverage in those areas and confirmed the problem.

Given that the phone, and the contract, were not “fit for purpose”, Naude told Cell C she wished to cancel the contract in terms of the Consumer Protection Act. Staff at that Cell C store initially agreed and she returned the phone, in its box, and filled out the paperwork.

Then she was told that “the supplier” would not accept a broken box.

Naude insisted she’d handed everything back in perfect condition, but despite many calls to the network’s call centre, her contract remained in force.

“One call centre agent told me if I cancelled my contract early, I’d have to pay a penalty, but why should I have to pay for a service they can’t provide – and I no longer have the phone!” Naude said.

Consumer Watch took up the case with Cell C and the contract was cancelled without penalty.

“The store consultant was new at the time and has since left the post,” a spokesman said.

As I was writing this, I received an e-mail from someone who has two data contracts with a network. A few weeks ago, he moved from Sydenham in Joburg to an area of Germiston where that network apparently has little to no 3G signal.

I’ll be investigating the case, but it’s a tricky one, as clearly there were no coverage problems in the area he would have supplied as his address at the time the contracts were taken out.

Bottom line – don’t assume that there’ll be coverage in any area.

Ask specific questions about the areas you are likely to use the device in, and if there is no disclosure about lack of coverage, you’ll be in a strong position to back out of the deal, if you find you were misled in this respect.