How time flies, just 12 years ago, the telecommunications subscribers cum consumers have groaned in pains as a result of poor quality service of the telecommunications operating companies, so says the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS).
According to NATCOMS president, Deolu Ogunbanjo, in a 12
Sins of Mobile Operators in Nigeria as listed in his letter to the operators through
the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) seeking
compensation, he justified their demands, arguing that the N5000 per subscriber
as compensation for poor quality of service in the next 12 years, should be
free to be used across networks.
Some of the sins of mobile operators based on deficiencies,
he told ITRealms, include:
"1. Dialing a number between 5-10 times before getting
connected /not-connected
2. Dialing several times and still getting a ‘call failed’
message.
3. Moving from one place to the other in search of network
signal before receiving or making calls
4. When you dial and eventually connected, you will be a
lucky subscriber if both caller and recipient can hear each other without
voice-breaks. Often times, the caller /recipient may hear the recipient
/caller, while the caller /recipient cannot hear. Yet this incomplete call is
paid for.
5. Sometimes when both of you are connected and you can hear
each other, after talking for few minutes, one of you will not hear the other
again. The call has been terminated by one of the networks.
6. When you have tried to call through voice to no avail,
you want to try the SMS (Text Massage) alternative. After typing your SMS and
trying to send, it may not sail through, even after several trials as it gives
the usual ‘message sending failed’ on the screen. You must keep trying even if
it takes 15-30 minutes before a successful attempt.
7. When your Text Message (SMS) is successfully sent, and
the message is not delivered, the Subscriber is still charged.
8. When your mobile-phone credit gets exhausted and you try
to recharge in order to make an urgent call, you may not be able to recharge no
matter how many times you try at that particular time.
9. Sometimes, when you successfully recharge your phone
either for voice calls or data /internet browsing and the network operator
mistakenly remove Subscriber’s credit, and thereafter, Subscriber complains
through operator’s customer care line or goes physically to operator’s customer
care office, they deliberately keep posting Subscribers and not actually
resolving the complaint. And in view of the small amounts usually involved, the
Subscriber does not seek for compensation, even when he tries, the
customer-care officer is trained to tell stories that will eventually frustrate
the Subscriber.
10. When trying to complain to customer-care of a network
problem or over-scratched recharge card with some pin numbers not showing, they
will either direct you to their website or keep you waiting for between 30
minutes to 1-hour. If you are lucky to get attention and you are eventually
attended to, it takes 3-6 months before crediting the subscriber, after taking
the details.
11. When the Subscriber complains through network operator’s
customer care line, he /she will be told that it will be resolved in few
numbers of days to no avail. Even when the Subscriber physically goes to the
Customer Care Centre of the network operator, it is also promises of resolution
to no avail. Only 1 or 2 of every 100 cases are resolved satisfactorily.
12. When the operators run their promotions for profit
motives, they deliberately congest the network to the detriment of good service
quality which affects Subscribers."
Therefore, Ogunbanjo insisted that Nigerian telecom subscribers deserve to be compensated.
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