[kictanet] Safaricom & Product Control

[robert yawe]

Want to know where I will be during the Jamhuri Day celebrations? 

http://quadrantshift.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/mast-climber.jpg


This is not for the fun or thrill of being 100 feet off the ground on a swaying pool but to buy data bundles for monitoring devices mounted at the top various masts.

Around the same time last year, or was it the year before, I raised an issue on this list about how Safaricom keeps launching and killing features without notification to those using the service, the bone of contention then was the ability to buy bundles from the credit on one phone to another.

The feature was reactivated and worked brilliantly until sometime 3 months ago when I noticed that it was down and I had to use the out of bundle rates for my remote monitoring equipment.  

It took Safaricom 2 months to actually realise that the service was not working and this only after making me jump through hops with instructions like remove SIM card then stand on one foot as you slide it back in, remove modem then reboot the computer (the device is 100 feet of the ground on a mast), reinstall software (my devices run linux & other proprietary operating systems but I would never mention that to customer service and more recently that my post paid service limit had been exhausted.

Over the years we complained about Telkom's (17,000 staff at one point) inefficiency and also the government (500,000 employees) but from the deteriorating service levels from Safaricom (3,500 employees) I believe our problem as members of the "nyele ngumu" race is being incapable of scaling, Safaricom was lean and mean now with its increasing size and staff count as it tries to scale the cracks are starting to show.  

My advice to Safaricom, please improve on your level of documentation as relates to features and functionalities you decide to bring to market.  Your business analysts need a better helicopter (no relation to a certain church) view if  you are to reduce the number of half baked products you keep spewing out. 

Back to the issue at hand, should I expect this feature to be reactivated or not, I need this information by the end of the week so that I know if I am leaving the Safaricom SIM cards plugged in up on the various masts I will be climbing over this long weekend or should I just drop them off?

Have a wonderful Jamhuri Day Celebration on solid ground and remember the Alcoblow should be out this weekend.
 
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya


Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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