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For a communication service provider, Vodafone can be
so uncommunicative that it gets really nauseating to have to be a subscriber. It
brags about giving power to the subscriber, yet it only makes the latter
helpless, and frustrated. Instead of service, we get broad day-light robbery.
It has just taken me three days to re-bundle my Vodafone X package, because the
same system that informs me that I have exhausted my data and should top does
not automatically reactivate the account when I top the data. Vodafone operates
a very selective automatic system that allows it to rob subscribers
Woe betides a subscriber if for an emergency s/he
decides to access the 24-hour or 48-hour service. The service is very specific
yet once utilized, until one’s data is exhausted, Vodafone’s system will renew
the service every morning. One agent told me that they assume the subscriber
will use the service again, so they save her/him the trouble. Yet, when it
comes to the monthly bundle a subscriber gets short-changed.
On the evening of September1, my Internet service was
cut off since I had exhausted my data, so I topped up. The system that had cut
off my Internet service would not automatically reactivate my account. Five
months ago, when I had assumed that the system automatically renewed itself, it
used my bundled data in less than twenty-four hours. When I inquired from the
helpline, I was told that since it wasn’t my expiry date, the system could not
reactivate, so it used my data ordinarily. About two months ago, I called the
helpline for activation, immediately I topped up, but I was told that I did not
have enough data. When I insisted that I had just topped up, the agent informed
me that I should have turned off my data connection, but since I didn’t, the
system automatically began using the
data, therefore, I had to buy extra data in order to renew my account. With
that experience in mind, I turned off the data connection on September 1 before
I attempted the reactivation. It is a
good thing I did that, otherwise, I would have paid two- or three-fold or more for
the bundle.
Vodafone has added a new stripe of annoyance through a
very defective telephone help-line service. Usually Vodafone X subscribers dial
*5888 to access the service. This time, however, every time I dialled that
number, it would welcome me to the Vodafone service and promptly cut off. When
I turned to the toll free 100 number, the recorded prompt was even more
defective. Throughout September 1st and 2nd, the recorded
message would skip mobile service, accessed from 1 on the keypad. Subsequently,
the numbers mentioned did not co-ordinate with the steps I had to follow in
order to reactivate my account. The nauseous part is that twice uncouth agencies
on the helpline hung up on me when I tried to express my frustration at the
poor service I was receiving. The second one occurred on September 2, 2016, at
2.51pm. I was dumbfounded on both occasions. And that was not the first time
lopsided agencies from Vodafone had hung up on me.
What is most unfair is that each time I dialled, I was
forced to listen to the strangulated voice informing me that I might experience
delay, assuring me that my call was important to them. Considering the horrific
nature of the service, that information is nothing but cacophony. From
September 1st to 3rd, I had to suffer the hypocrisy, the
delays, systemic errors because I needed the service, all and I didn’t even
have the luxury of complaining.
At 9.45pm on September 2nd, an agent picked
my call, but he told me that he was on broadband helpline. He directed me to
dial 100 and select 1 for mobile services. I responded that I had been doing
that since the previous evening, but their system was not allowing me full
access. I was hoping that he would link me with the mobile service, but he
repeated that I had reached the wrong service, so I should try again. I thanked
him and we both hung up. I am still wondering whether he is just a lazy
employee or one that has not been trained by Vodafone. Elsewhere, I would have been
transferred to the section.
At 9.15am on
September 3rd, I tried again. My perseverance was rewarded, because there was
no skipping and one Rachel answered my call. When I summarised my dilemma, she
readily reactivated the account for me. You
are my Heroine, Rachel! It had taken me almost three days to reactivate an
account, way to go Vodafone.
When Vodafone wants to steal my money, it operates an
automatic system. However, when I stand to benefit, the monthly bundle I have
subscribed to does not activate automatically.
If that is not corporate broad daylight robbery, I don’t know what else
is.
Vodafone will dare not offer such lousy services in
the UK or Europe, but in Ghana, it trumpets shoddy services. My voice does not
go far; the National Communication’s Authority is not even aware of my
existence. The Minister of Information simply talks politics. There are
structures in place, but they do not work for the tax payer. Again, I howl: Who
speaks for the Ordinary Ghanaian?
