Life is so full of issues. It's often said that what you don't know won't hurt you. Lies. Bury your head in the sand, may be. But, just because you do not know that someone is stealing from you does not mean that you are not suffering loss.
Since my foraging into the internet enterprise world I have come across an unbelievable crass dishonesty in the companies that promise to provide acceptable satisfying internet connection service.
Glo was the first I tried, a 24-hour monthly post-paid plan with a large deposit, supposed to be with unlimited data download. Lies. I discarded it within 3 months when it could not deliver and all I was doing was pay them more and more money every month.
Then, I bought Multilinks 24-hour pay-as-you-go plan which promised much, yet did not deliver again. However, I was glad to be able to determine how much they make from me, or did I? Most of the the time they were up-grading or down. And nobody ever gets back to you on the subscription money that they made you lose. The man at the other end of the phone always says they will tell Management about your complaint. And I always wondered if Management was always so self-centered that it did not see that subscribers had paid for services on such days as their system breaks down and that some remedy would be in place for them.
I tried another Glo pack when someone said they'd got better. But no, the night pack I bought was billed in the end as if I was on a 48-hour daily plan, if only there could be such a timing.
i prospected Viotel and finally bought a one off daily usage which i negotiated to obtain a 48-hour link. But the first 24-hour was wasted because their system was down. Lucky that I was given 48 for 24. None of these companies ever gives a refund or reimbursement.
Then, in an office 3 months ago, talking out loud about my search for an ISP that keeps its words and someone mentioned COBRANET.ORG. They were said to have a product called UGO which was in different plans and was said to be reliable. I was willing to try them. I called-up their contact man before I left the place. Within days I was connected and sincerely thought I had found a package I would stay with. I went for a limited 2GB monthly pack with free night browsing (00:00 - 06:00 hrs) supposedly not deducted from my data quota. Lies. The first month they cut me off 3 days before my account was due. The second month, this past June, they cut me off 7 days before i was due. Then I raised an alarm. They finally explained it away. OK, then I bought a scratch card and purposed to recharge during the free browsing time, which I did 2 nights ago. Guess what? COBRANET too is a liar. My usage during the supposed free browsing period was deducted. I was angry that a company would come so low as to rip people off. I logged in my complaint and discovery to the support center. By the break of day I received a call from them seeking again to explain. Of course, I wasn't going to go for that again; I asked them to correct it instead, and that I was not going to use the facility until they assure me that things were sorted out. They just hung up, and apparently did nothing to remedy the wrong deduction,as I discovered when I logged in again last night during the free browsing period. By the time I logged off 0:56:38 - 2:35:46, my available data volume had been knocked down to 1.99GB. I tried again to register this at the COBRANET support center and discovered they had disabled the tab. So much for quality customer service in Nigeria.
Internet Service Providers
My point in all I've said here is not to witch-hunt any brand or company, but to highlight how these companies are riding roughshod over customers and taking them for granted. You make a subscription for which they are unable to deliver and they never at least say they are sorry, let alone replace your lost airtime. I propose here that some regulatory organization should look into the way these ISPs are treating their customers. Strangely, I was browsing the web last night in hope of seeing an online broadband wireless (satellite) ISP which I might subscribe to, so I won't have to deal with the crooks who operate in the guise of companies here in Nigeria. Know what I found? I found that the highest package the Nigerian ISPs provide goes for as little as GBP5.00/monthly from their international counterpart which converts to less than N2000 here, yet these local companies charge as much N50,000 for the same pack and still do not deliver. All they care for is the money they extort from customers, just because we have no choice........just yet! I have not found one yet, but I will one day find an ISP that will service me from as far away as UK, USA, Germany, China, or India etc. And then the Nigerian crook companies would learn that truly the world is a global village and customer satisfaction is not to be trifled with!
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