BlogIT_Naija
Abridging the DigITal Divide Between 3G World & "Africa's Eco-hub."
Monday 10 March 2008, 4:20 AM
NCC grasps at straws to save telecom consumers in limbo- Part 1
As at the latest count, about 20 million Nigerians are said to be subscribers to one phone network or another with interests varying from Globacom, Starcom, Multilink, to Celtel and so on. Without doubt, communication has become easier than before now and this has changed the way we do business. Rather unfortunately however, the network service providers’ customers are being fleeced. What is going on in the communications industry in Nigeria today is nothing but a great telephone scam. It is a rip off.
The reasons for this conclusion are not far-fetched. First, subscribers are at the mercy of the network with no intervention whatsoever by the National Communications Commission (NCC). There is no consumer body representing the interests of mobile phone service subscribers nor does any ombudsman exist to look into subscribers’ complaints against network providers. Sadly enough, the customer services of the various network providers are nothing to write home about. Not only are some of the staff rude, subscribers spend hours most times without the benefit of a response.
The operations of most of the mobile phone companies appear to have been masterfully orchestrated like the great train robbery. The manner in which some of them rip off their customers’ phone credits leaves very few people in doubt that a grand design to rob helpless, unprotected Nigerian subscribers is being secretly executed by most of these network providers. A number of cases will serve to buttress this claim.
On the 14th of October, this writer bought a Celtel SIM pack and a N500 recharge card. The several attempts I made to recharge my mobile phone to the tune of N55 ended in a fiasco, with messages like "network error", "this card has been used" popping up several times. Finally, I got the final message, "You have been banned from this network" as a response to my extra attempt to claim what is rightly mine. I immediately discarded the Celtel SIM pack and bought a Globacom (known as Glo) SIM pack and ended up in a debt trap.
Globacom is in no way better. Subscribers make calls without knowing the cost of the calls while the network provider rips them off. The network providers dictate the charges per minute or per second and decide what the subscribers balance is at the end of the day. The networks are ever busy since most of the networks are over-subscribed and have very little capacity to cope with the traffic on their networks. Often times, subscribers are frustrated and get little or no value for their money. Yet the NCC and the National Assembly members appear to have submitted the communication destiny of our dear nation to these dishonourable, rip off companies.
After several thousands of Naira out of pocket, I decided to buy a Starcom mobile landline handset in Abuja from one of the company’s staff in a team peddling the company’s phone during one of their numerous promotions. That turned out to be a nightmare. As opposed to the advertised functions of the Starcom network, the text message facility is non-existent. Every time one tries to send a text message, Starcom returns "Network error. Text message sending failed". Additionally, it is difficult for those trying to call the Stasrcom network to get through to subscribers.
Most ridiculous of all has been Starcom’s practice through its street agents of tricking customers into buying business lines without their knowledge and consent in a case akin to 419. This writer’s experience is quite illuminating and demonstrates the levity with which mobile telephone operators hold their Nigerian customers. Credits simply disappear after only a few minutes of calls. Periodically, subscribers receive text messages informing them of their balance without anything to show them how this was arrived at.
Investigations by this writer via a phone call to Starcom’s Customer Service on the evening of 4th December 2007 revealed that the mobile phone companies see themselves as conquering warlords to whom Nigerian subscribers owe obeisance. The Customer Service adviser who took this writer’s enquiry shockingly informed the writer that his mobile telephone landline is a business number from which the company deducts N70 per day!! Despite protestations by this writer to the effect that the company’s staff never gave any indications that the number was a business number from which money would be deducted by the company on a daily basis and that the company’s staff who sold the phone claimed that for every N500 spent by a subscriber, an equal amount is credited to the phone account, the customer service adviser said there was nothing she could do about it. A request to speak to any of the customer service Managers on the matter was met with the rudest response of all- the Starcom Customer Service adviser simply dropped the phone.
Without mincing words, what the mobile phone companies are engaged in is nothing but 419. While they are smiling all the way to their banks, subscribers are being ripped off and do not get value for money. Unfortunately, our law makers and officials of the NCC appear unruffled by the rip off being perpetrated against Nigerians by the mobile phone network operators. Such uncaring attitude on the part of those who should protect us from greedy mobile phone companies does not however come as a surprise considering the fact that our legislators enjoy free mobile phone service access from many of the mobile phone network service providers. The mobile phone industry in Nigeria stinks to high heavens and there is an urgent need for it to be sanitised. The EFCC should step in to save Nigerians from these scam communication companies.
(Story captured from businessdayonline: http://www.businessdayonline.com/analysis/comments/1645.html)
-Dis na Naija!
-doregos
Tributes:
BUSINESSDAY - http://businessdayonline.com
Previous
