" ITREALMS: Okada riders charge for calls on board

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Okada riders charge for calls on board

Market Intelligence:

Recently, Ejiofor was riding on a motorbike otherwise known as Okada when he got a call on his Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) phone and because the audio was not very clear, he simply requested the rider to stop for a while to enable him get the message correctly.

Unknown to him, the Okada man was busy checking the time that was probably wasted while Ejiofor answered his call.

The drama did not unfold until Ejiofor got to his destination and wanted to pay what was agreed before the journey began only for the Okada man to inform him that his fare has increased.

According to the Okada man, he spent an average of three to five minutes while Ejiofor was discussing his business on phone; he has to add some extra cash for time wasting.

Of course, that extra cash would not be less than N20.

At first, Ejiofor did not understand what was going on until after some intervals have been spent on argument on what was originally agreed and what the Okada man was demanding as charges.

For Ejiofor, it was incredible that even other Okada men stood firm behind their colleagues, because according to them, that was precious business hour that was wasted.

Few days later, another incident occurred at the popular Church Street in Oshodi, where an Okada man had parked to answer GSM call. While the man was responding to the call, his passengers, two teenage girls were fuming in anger that he was wasting their time.

The unfortunate incident was that the Okada man was not short changed at the end of the day by way of paying him less the agreed bargain.

However, the fact remains that in Lagos and other cities in the country, Okada passengers should be cautious of responding to phone calls on their mobiles because they could be charged extra for that, unless such a passenger may be ready to fight it out.

Otherwise the use of headset either wired or wireless for those afraid that their handset would fall off while motorbike is in motion is advisable.

This attitude does not in any way suggest a good customer and business relationship. Without waiting to be beaten twice, Ejiofor decided to avoid this particular Okada man, even when in a hurry, which has turned a bad business deal for the Okada man, anyway.

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