Are phone companies stealing from us?

I have had it with phone companies here is Tanzania, specifically the one I have used the most – and I am not afraid to say it – AIRTEL! Unexplained charges. Treating customers like second class citizens for claims rightfully made. Why do I have to pay for errors in your system? And why do they change services and terms without any form of notification to people that use them? What kind of operation are you people running? A rip off service? I want my money back!

I have been a loyal subscriber, and I don’t even have multiple phone lines stashed so I can call each person in the cheapest way possible. I have never been treated like this before. Calling for two days, being thrown from one person to the next, and no assistance or even a pleasant reply. I get it, I am just a poor customer with no say whatsoever to your monstrosity of a company. I am a NOBODY compared to you with your stable customer service job and status. My complaints can be silenced in a brink of an eye… I could even lose my life for this!!!! So you think you are actually cool by offering ringtones and bundles that don’t even work? Your marketing campaigns that cost millions of money, can’t I ask for simple things, good service, efficiency and maybe consistency? No I don’t want to buy this ringtone. And I don’t care much about your win-a-house draw. I just want to use my phone for what it was intended for, Communication. And I want my money accounted for. Is that too much to ask in return for all the money I spend with your company?

I don’t want to get ripped off!

This is not about the increased charges because of taxes, an innocent subscriber being punished because my not so brilliant tax collection agency cannot find a way to fairly tax these revenue giants that aren’t even in the top 20 large tax payers. This is about my 2,611 Tanzanian shillings Wednesday night.

The day was rather ordinary. I put in my yatosha subscription and left some change in my account. I didn’t know that when they say you get minutes to call any line, it doesn’t include landlines. Maybe they should have that in their fine prints. Anyway, I called a landline number and as I was put on hold to be transferred to another department, the line went dead. I had no balance! Surprise! Surprise!

But I wasn’t even annoyed. I just made a mental note to never subscribe to the daily call bundles if I intended to call landlines. USELESS kabisa! I dragged my tired feet to purchase a TZS 5000 voucher in order to avoid the embarrassment of the call being dropped in the middle of my attempts to make an impression of how serious a writer I was. It worked. By the end of the day I had about TSZ 3000 something left. I even praised my phone company for not charging me too much money. Of course I had talked for barely a minute, but I am not even going to complain about that.

Before these daily call bundles, I made do with daily internet bundles, 50 MBs to get me through the day. They lasted twenty four hours. I have used it in both my modem and my phone. So I decided I wasn’t going to call anyone, I subscribed the daily internet bundle that would just let me get emails, use whatsapp and other applications. Right after the subscription I went to bed. My balance at the time was TZS 2,300 something.

I woke up the next day, and did my morning ritual, check emails, check whatsapp, check messages, and my other social media updates. A few hours later I checked on my phone and called someone, but the call was dropped within two seconds. I blamed it on bad network, thought of climbing on the roof to get better reception even, I thought I still had some change in my account. Checking my balance, I had TZS 163 left! Imagine my shock! So sometime during the night, as I slept, my phone company decided to cut over 2000 shillings. I started wondering whether I had a sleepwalking habit that made calls without me knowing.

I called the 100 customer service number to ask how my money was spent, and received some super awful service. They should really hire me to teach them a thing or two about service. I explained my predicament to a lady that could care less, she said she’d escalate the matter to the department responsible and they’d send me a message in ten minutes. Why make promises you can’t meet? Three hours later I called in again. This time a gentleman answered. He was friendlier than the first one, and tried his best to tell me where my money went. He apologized for a possible error in the system that might not have picked my internet bundle subscription and charged me 2011 shillings for internet usage while I slept. He said they would have my money refunded in about three hours.

15 hours later, I called yet again. This time, I got a really nice lady that explained how the bundle subscription went to something else, pay as you go, a service I have never even heard of before. So whilst I got the message that I was successfully subscribed to a daily bundle that would last me until the next day, and being a millionth time I have used the service, knowing pretty well I had 24 hours, their system got absolutely nothing. How the hell did I get that message? They just cut my money for the bundle and they still charged me for internet uses overnight, and believe me, I don’t use my phone when I am asleep. This lady said their department wasn’t directly responsible, that is why she couldn’t give me an answer as to what will happen to my money. So I said thank you. She was actually the nicest person I have spoken to so far. I think she should be promoted.

A few minutes later I got a call from the department responsible. This is where I started feeling the ill treatment to the core. To this lady, I was nothing but a poor customer and she knew I could do nothing to their big company. At this time I was really frustrated. I don’t have a bank I could rob to pay for my phone services. And she treats me as though I am making up the story about the bundle. And then she comes up with a new story that the daily internet bundle lasts only until midnight! So now, not only am I a second class citizen, I am also a liar, making up stories about subscriptions! She then said, I cannot be refunded. So now I am paying for their faulty system, their lack of communication about their services, and their inconsistency. How unfair is that?

I just want my money back! They don’t even have to treat me nice; they don’t even have to care, because clearly this company cares nothing about their customers because it can do so well without them. I just want my money. 2611 Tanzanian shillings. And while they are at it they should pay for my inconvenience. Because I have the message of my subscription, I can take it to them. They have my history; they can trace how long the internet bundles lasted before. I know some people would say I am stingy to complain about measly 2000 shillings, but if I don’t, and nobody else does, imagine this same thing happening to about 1000 people, daily, for about a month. How much money can they make off of us? Whoever they are.

This is not an accusation of any sort, it is just a thought that I have been pondering since my predicament, are phone companies stealing our money? How often does it happen? I mean, suppose I had 2 shillings unaccounted for instead of 2000 shillings, and I didn’t realize, and suppose thousands of subscribers had the same issue, would we ever find out? Is the money in our accounts properly accounted for? Can we trust their systems, with faults and all? Who is there to check? I mean if the system can do this to me, can it do to more than one person?

Suppose I moved on to another company, will I be disappointed? Were they the lesser of communication evils out there? Or will I find someone that will care enough to treat me as a person, and not make me pay for their own systems mistakes? Is there anyone else that is better?

I could be paranoid, but I thought I’d ask the rest of ye Tanzanian cell users, do you ever get the feeling that you are being ripped off? And I wonder what government agency can assist a victim like me. Does someone ever audit their system to assure users that they are actually being charged fairly? All these promotions, are they even true? Are customers safe? Can we ever trust them? And most importantly, will I ever get my money back, all 2611 shillings?