Telecommunications
giants, MTN is in the news, and once again for the wrong reasons.
The company, whose
second name is “rip-off”, is busy devising funny means to extort its large base
of subscribers across Nigeria. Recently, there have been loads of complaints
bothering on how MTN deducts money fraudulently for calls either made or not
made, or data either used or not used, or turned off. A subscriber recently
raised alarm when the N1,500 recharge value he loaded on an MTN line simply
vanished after he made a 15-second call. He quickly “ported” to Etisalat to
save himself the stress of constantly shouting himself hoarse.
As if that was not too
much, how would one explain a situation where subscribers who answered a
Customer Service Centre call from MTN only to hear recorded Bishop Oyedepo’s
voice instructing one to subscribe, and without pressing anything further, get
N200 deduction from their accounts?
A subscriber summarized
his situation like this…
“MTN called me, I paid
N200, I called I paid N1500 for 15 secs. There was a time MTN took over N3000,
it was explained away, at another time exactly N3000 disappeared on my iPad
without browsing for even minutes, only mails came in. My experience with
'empty hen' is too much that I have to stop drawing attention lest I be seen as
a complainer. When some companies catch fire or fold up, people won't know they
deserve to!”
There is a new trick in
town, courtesy MTN. For this one, subscribers are to dial *555*0000 with any
MTN number to be credited with N100 and then call 39 MTN numbers and earn
N10,000.
Whatever the intention
is, Beth
News views it as one of those many ways MTN devices to a mass income
the wrong way from its patrons. And we are sure it can only happen in Nigeria.
Over its one decade of
existence in the Nigerian market, consistently display its anti-people
postures. When it was first introduced in Nigeria it pegged its SIM card cost
to a minimum of N30,000 above the reach of the common man and its recharge
cards were only available from N1,500 denomination. What’s more, after seven
days on recharge, customers’ lines were suspended.
The one that broke the
camel’s back was its insistence on not providing per-second billing. Even its
then managing director had said it was not possible until an indigenous firm,
Globacom entered the scene and demystified their claims not only introducing
per-second billing system but also making the SIM cards available for Nigerians
absolutely free as it obtains elsewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment