[kictanet] Safaricom Internet Bundles and Expiry dates

Ali Hussein ali at hussein.me.ke
Mon Sep 10 16:00:34 EAT 2012 

Mark

Nice argument but what you (and Tom Makau's blog)  are really saying is that Telcos are (no..making!) ask customers to pay for their inefficiencies. 

In today's brave new world of Big Data and Analytics can't companies make use of these tools to anticipate demand and supply so as to optimize resources and be more efficient? Why should customers be penalized for their inefficiencies?

Today I got a call from a customer service rep from Safaricom who made two things clear:-

1. That if you don't top up after a month then your bundle expires! 

2. That the Night Shift Promotion expires after two weeks whether you use it or not. 

Now at least I can give Safaricom credit for picking up my complaint and addressing it with me directly. Whether the response is right or wrong is irrelevant at this point. I leave it to the court of public opinion to judge the wrong or right of it. 

Which brings me to the issue of senior leaders 'walking the talk'. Why for the life of me would someone say that the expiration of data bundles had been discontinued while in actual reality the practice still continues? 

We must hold ourselves accountable otherwise we continue to erode our country's competitiveness as shown in today's business 

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate+News/Mega+corporate+scandals+erode+Kenya+global+competitiveness+/-/539550/1500922/-/idnji4z/-/index.html

Maybe it's time for the consumer watchdog to take this issue up?

Ali Hussein

+254 773/713 601113

Sent from my iPhone®

On Sep 10, 2012, at 3:09 PM, Mark Mwangi <mwangy at gmail.com> wrote:

> @edith and @ali not everyone is on kictanet. Twitter is a more public platform and so I would think a better medium to engage the CEO and the company at large or is this an elitist list?
> 
> I found this post by one Tom Makau very informative on the reasons expiry dates exist in the first place and why they may not disappear the way we want them to. here it is for listers consumption. >> http://tommakau.com/2012/07/23/why-your-mobile-data-bundle-expires/
> 
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 10:49 AM, Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke> wrote:
> +1 Edith.
> 
> Safaricom is one of the most responsive companies on twitter. And I mean from a global perspective. So +1 to them on that. What we must ask them to do is that the traditional modes of communication are as critical. 
> 
> I can also confirm that I have been called by a Service Rep from Safaricom who confirms to me that the so called Night Shift Bundle DOES expire on the date quoted on the SMS I received. 
> 
> Can someone senior at Safaricom please confirm this. How is it possible that we are unable to resolve this issue 3 days after I raised it? 
> 
> 
> Ali Hussein
> 
> +254 773/713 601113
> 
> Sent from my iPhone®
> 
> On Sep 10, 2012, at 10:19 AM, Edith Adera <eadera at idrc.or.ke> wrote:
> 
>> Walu,
>> 
>> BC may want to link his twitter account to the list for purposes of responding to stakeholders. Not everyone is on twitter. We are raising important issues and would expect some clarification.
>> 
>> The point is that Safaricom has an obligation to clarify when issues of service provision are raised.
>> 
>> Edith 
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Walubengo J [jwalu at yahoo.com]
>> Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 10:18 AM
>> To: Edith Adera
>> Cc: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Safaricom Internet Bundles and Expiry dates
>> 
>> @Edith,
>> 
>> MJ was quick on email. But i discovered Bob C. was quicker on twitter. Its thier differnce in approach. Ping the guy @bobcollymore and he is likely to hit back :-)
>> 
>> walu.
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 9:35 AM AST (Arabian) Edith Adera wrote:
>> 
>>> Listers,
>>> 
>>> We would have expected a clarification from Safaricom by now! Atleast in the past we would get response even from the CEO himself.
>>> 
>>> what has changed?
>>> 
>>> Edith
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: kictanet [kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Ali Hussein [ali at hussein.me.ke]
>>> Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 8:47 AM
>>> To: Edith Adera
>>> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
>>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Safaricom Internet Bundles and Expiry dates
>>> 
>>> John
>>> 
>>> Managing expectations is one the most critical components of a CEO's job.
>>> 
>>> The fact that you are in Kapsabet and can get connectivity is good. And shows that Telcos are beginning to heed the demand for such services in the counties.
>>> 
>>> Ali Hussein
>>> 
>>> +254 773/713 601113
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone®
>>> 
>>> On Sep 10, 2012, at 8:08 AM, John Gitau <jgitau at gmail.com<mailto:jgitau at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> This is I suspect more of a technical issue than anything else. The other is communication and us  expecting promises to be kept.
>>> 
>>> Sometimes CEO's and I'm sure some of you do just that might underestimate the impact of a seemingly simple change on a system before making promises. I have been on the receiving end of this sort of thing severally.
>>> 
>>> While technical teams and vendors try to work day and night to fix it, you introduce a series of bugs that annoyingly seem to make things worse as we collectively hold the CEO responsible. This is fine, they should be, and good CEOs deal with it in stride.
>>> 
>>> What we probably need is an explanation on what's going on and maybe you/we give what would  look/sound like a proper remedy, which I see lots of suggestions. I still believe they have the best guys and systems to fix this. Also don't forget that in the end there really has been more improvement on their systems but as usual we want and expect more. We're paying consumers after all. (I'm at kapsabet and there is no chance of an ISP giving me the on demand service I'm getting from safaricom from here) .
>>> 
>>> Gitau
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>> 
>>> On 10 Sep 2012, at 07:36, Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke<mailto:ali at hussein.me.ke> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Yes James. I read that post last month which makes this issue even more annoying...
>>> 
>>> Is it that the CEO says something and doesn't follow through? Or is that there are too many silos in the company that information doesn't seep through?
>>> 
>>> I'm sure someone from Safaricom has read this thread by now and lets hope they will do something about it.
>>> 
>>> Or maybe CCK can tell us whether this is within the allowed Modus Operandi for Telcos?
>>> 
>>> Ali Hussein
>>> 
>>> +254 773/713 601113
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone®
>>> 
>>> On Sep 10, 2012, at 7:25 AM, James Muendo <timrick at gmail.com<mailto:timrick at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> @Ali,
>>> 
>>> You might as well as look at the same concerns that Erik Hersman raised on his post<http://whiteafrican.com/2012/07/18/how-safaricom-steals-your-internet-bundle/>.
>>> 
>>> On 7 September 2012 22:32, Edith Adera <eadera at idrc.or.ke<mailto:eadera at idrc.or.ke> wrote:
>>> Same experience I had today!
>>> 
>>> I thought I read an article stating that Safaricom CEO indicated that "expiring" bandwidth would not happen again? Was he misquoted like our "politicians"?
>>> 
>>> one of the messages I got indicated expiring date of 2031!!!, but on running the bundle balance it was ending 7th October 2012! Not acceptable!
>>> 
>>> While at it, Airtel should also not force subscribers to get unrequested promotions such as 500% bonus airtime, which expires before you use it!!
>>> 
>>> This industry runs as though it's not being regulated! CCK?
>>> 
>>> Edith
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: kictanet [kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:idrc.or.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke>] On Behalf Of Kivuva [Kivuva at transworldafrica.com<mailto:Kivuva at transworldafrica.com>]
>>> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 10:05 PM
>>> To: Edith Adera
>>> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
>>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Safaricom Internet Bundles and Expiry dates
>>> 
>>> Surprising Safaricom makes a non perishable commodity perish faster
>>> that tomatoes. It like Shell petroleum telling you if you don't
>>> consume that petrol, you will find your tank empty.
>>> 
>>> On the night shift data, well its FREE to loop you in, and keep you
>>> hooked to the network. That is what promotions are for.
>>> 
>>> On 07/09/2012, Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke<mailto:ali at hussein.me.ke> wrote:
>>>> Listers
>>>> 
>>>> I hate to gripe about these issues..We are now sounding like scratched LP
>>>> Records (for those on the right side of 40 you may remember LPs? :-) )...
>>>> 
>>>> While browsing at home I decided to check my Safaricom bundle balance and
>>>> this is the message I got from the SMS response:-
>>>> 
>>>> *Current Data Bundle: 1448.49MB, expiry 07-10-2012; Night Shift Data:
>>>> 750MB, expiry 14-09-2012.
>>>> 
>>>> *1. Why should my bundle even have an expiry date?? I thought Safaricom
>>>> assured us that this business of expiration dates for bundles bought was a
>>>> thing of the past?
>>>> 
>>>> 2. I know for certain that the so called 'Night Shift Data' promotion that
>>>> Safaricom has been running has an expiry date. Last week this bonus
>>>> mysteriously disappeared from  my modem number.
>>>> 
>>>> Now I know that this isn't right. Can someone from Safaricom resolve this
>>>> issue?
>>>> 
>>>> Unfortunately I am resolving to bring out my frustrations because Safaricom
>>>> is the only network that has 3G coverage at my residence. If I had a choice
>>>> I wouldn't even be writing this post. I gave up long ago on Orange, Airtel
>>>> and yu even coming close to giving us the kind of coverage that Safaricom
>>>> does. If only Safaricom can behave like a reasonable Corporate Citizen (Are
>>>> you listening Safaricom?)...
>>>> 
>>>> I appeal to Zuku to hasten their role out to my area then I can stop
>>>> writing these frustrating postings...
>>>> 
>>>> Disgruntled locked Safaricom customer
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> 
>>>> *Ali Hussein*
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>>>> 
>>>> Skype: abu-jomo
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> ______________________
>>> Mwendwa Kivuva
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>>> 
>>> --
>>> James M. Muendo
>>> 
>>> P.O Box 28016 - 00200,
>>> Nairobi.
>>> Mobile: +254720 100 547
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>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com
>> 
>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>> 
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 
> Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/mwangy%40gmail.com
> 
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
> 
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> 
> Mark Mwangi
> 
> markmwangi.me.ke
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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