From: CustomerDiscuss.Com (Visit Now)
There seems to be a widespread complaints that credits somehow vanish from customers of Airtel Ghana’s phone while they sleep or are busy eating. And unfortunately, when you place a call to Airtel over missing credits, you are served with one of their robotic messages.
According to A. Boateng, an Airtel customer, his life turned into hell when he mistakenly switched to Airtel Ghana–they incessantly stole his credits.
What even made it worse for him was the sort of customer service he received when he spent his precious time E-mailing and chasing Airtel Ghana over the credit thievery issue.
In fact, after reading the correspondence between Boateng and Airtel (below), you would perfectly understand his frustrations which were made worse by the fact that, he seems to have been served with a robotic; “We sincerely apologize for that” message.
Airtel Ghana couldn’t even mention his issue in their apology for him to feel as though a human being had indeed read his complaint. It looks like some just copied and pasted a reply to him.
Read Boateng’s Experience With Airtel’s Customer Service & the Spot the Robotism
Message to Airtel (Unedited):
I tried the Airtel because a friend told me about a TOO MUCH promo that I checked here http://africa.airtel.com/wps/wcm/connect/AfricaRevamp/Ghana/Home/Personal/promotions/too-much.
With vodafone, I get something less for the 20 cedis package so decided to try the Airtel.
When I subscribed. I checked three days later when I had not made any call and I had no credit. At that point I decided to drop the SIM since that was the likely reason my friend stopped using it.
Just when I was about giving my friend’s rejected SIM back to him, a Recharge Cards vendor mentioned the 477 promo to me and convinced me to try it.
I recharged 20 Cedis and checked my credit immediately after that and my credit was less than nineteen cedis. I turned off my data and added two cedis. I then subscribed to the 477 promo chosing the AUTO-RENEWAL (option 2) option. With this , without using this phone to make voice calls I was hopping that I was going to enjoy the data for 20 days. It was not up to 20 days when I had the prompt that I did not have enough credit to enjoy that promo.
I recharged 10 cedis and subscribed to the promo and in three days I got the prompt that I did not have enough credit to enjoy that promo.
On 30th December, I recharged 10 cedis and subscribed to the 477 choosing auto-renewal. Before the close of the day I had the prompt that I did not have enough credit to subscribe to the 477 promo. I don’t use this line for any serious browsing except whatsApping.
I called the customer care (?Kill) line 100 and through selections got connected to Stephanie who promised to get back to me in 6 hours (that was after I protested her lack of timeline) for an update. I waited till 31st December without hearing from her. I called on 31st December and got Suzanne, who promised getting back to me in 6 hours and she also did not get back to me.I have since spoken to Prosper, Akua, Joan all of whom justified the vanishing of my credits. At a point they told me to go to hell with my comlaint because their system was always right and I was always wrong.
Just when I was baout dumping that SIM, I decided to give it a last try yesterday 4th January 2016. I put off my data, recharged 10 cedis and subscribed to 477 choosing the AUTO-RENEWAL option. After that when I checked my remaining credit, I was left with 8 cedis. I called and spoke to Joan who rationalized what had happened blamming me that I did a double subscription of the 477 promo. Just after speaking with Joan, I called and spoke with Akua wanting to know the possibility of making that so-called double subscription and Akua said it was NOT possible to do that- a contadiction of what Joan told me.
Joan also rationalized the vanishing of my credit though I had chosen the AUTO-RENEWAL option saying the package expires by mid-night but can only renew from the time I did the subscription. When I asked Akua bout this she said,once I had enough credit by midnight, if I chose AUTO-RENEWAL, the system will renew the package for me 12:01am immediately the current one expires-Another contradiction of what Joan told me.
When Airtel’s system double subscribed me to the 477, it gave me 1500MB data and gave me na expiry date of midnight 5th January 2016. I have NOT browsed(I understand some apps may autodownload), and Today 5th January 2016,10:30, I got a prompt that I do not have enough credit to use the 477.
I checked my credit using 124 and I have nothing in my account. I checked the data using 125 and I have nothing in my account.I called 100 and got Joan and she continued her ROBOTISM, as if I was a nuisance to her.
In conclusion, the posture of ALL the frontliners I have spoken to was that of me going to hell for they don’t understand why there are beter Networks in Ghan and I decided to choose Airtel.
For me,they are RUDE, who are good at driving away subscribers probably because they think the company has more than enough clients than it can handle, and act like ROBOTS without treating each case based on all its merits. They have a one-fits-all answer to all questions you ask especially Joan.
I know of people who will not call the 100 line to make a complaint but will go about saying Airtel steals their credit.
I say MTN (with a very poor network) dominates the telcos space in Ghana because their competitors are POORER especially when it comes to resolving issues like this.
What I know for a fact is Airtel was once Zain in Ghana, so will not be surprised if Airtel changes to something else because of this attitude of especially their frontliners, and the question I ask is why keep just anybody at the frontline especially women? Of all the people I spoke to, only one was a man, and he gave me the ‘best’ response.
Reply from Airtel (Unedited):
Dear Agyenim
We sincerely apologize for that. We tried calling you but there was no answer. Kindly let us know when you would be available so we call you back.
Thank you for choosing Airtel
Best Regards,
Airtel Ghana Customer Care.
A. Boateng Writes Back to Airtel (Unedited):
From: A***** Boateng <boateng****@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 4:11 PM
To: CustomerCare Ghana <[email protected]>
There is no SINCERELITY in this apology if there is any opology to start with.
I call this ROBOTISM. Robotism lacks creativity/innovation. Robotism is about one-answer-for-all complaints.
Complaints are not treated case-by-case.
Airtel has done NOTHING wrong so no apology. The ‘apology’ infuriates me because the apology does not solve the problem.
When I asked Stephanie when to expect her/Airtel’s call, she sounded like it was INSANE on my part to ask for when she was updating me on the complaint I made. Probably, she thought my whole life was about that airtel line and I had no excuse not wait until when ever they had the update to give to me.
She grudginly gave me 6 hours that never came since 30th December 2015. Did I have to remind her of the time she gave to me? My life is NOT all about this Airtel line for me to standby the whole day because some is refusing to be investigative or someone is being a SHALLOW/PEDESTRIAN investigator. My business is NOT to spend my wjhole day on this issue.
When Stephanie asked for my alternate number and I asked what she needed that for, she told me in case she did not get me on the airtel line she was gonna call me on that alternate line. I gave that number out and it was not used as she claimed. What did she ask my alternate number for?
In my operations, I NEVER wait for a client to remind me of my responsibilities.
When I give a client an appointment, I never wait for the client to call back before I do what I agreed to do. A simple REMINDER/ORGANIZER on my phone will not let me forget any appointment I have. Is airtel not having this? I have been calling back to ask for updates on my complaints and anytime I do, I have to repeat myself because I mostly speak to ‘new’ people.
MTN is a poor network, but in the country of the blind, if you are one-eyed, you can easily become a king/queen.
Response from Airtel Ghana to ‘CustomerDiscuss.Com’ team
We are waiting to see if they will have anything reasonable to say to this…
About CustomerDiscuss.Com:
Customer service in Ghana and most parts of Africa is the crappiest we’ve ever come across; as if Ghanaians or Africans use mango leaves to pay for services. The broadband never works, the electricity is never on, the water never flows—and the waitress can keep you waiting for your food until hunger kills your buds.
The real pain is, you have no alternative to turn to—because, like a gang of fools, they are all the same.
Almost every service and product delivering company in Africa has it butt in the faces of customers, farting uncontrollably because the customer cannot really do anything. Mostly, if you quietly complain, they do nothing and if you are unlucky, they tell you to go f**k off.
Consumers have no voice, not even individual voices—let alone a collective one to force any sort of change.
So we’ve started this website-CustomerDiscuss.Com, supported by GhanaCelebrities.Com and other platforms, dedicated to corporate and public Africa, especially Ghana—-it’s time we shame some of these companies, tear down their lousy services, help them to lose customers and force them to do what’s right.
If you have a complaint about your telecom company, internet provider, a restaurant, your bank or even your church, shoot an email to us via; [email protected] or call/whatsapp 00447961817712.
When you go to a restaurant and you are served in a broken plate or on a dirty table, just take some photos and send them to us with the needed details.
Together, we can get these people to be accountable and importantly, do what’s expected of them.
Support this cause by sharing this article!