Jun 03 2008
Safaricom Customer Care, My Horror Story.
Three weeks ago, my butterfly connection started acting up more than usual so I decided to get the Safcom bambanet modem as a backup and the speeds just blew me away. I was getting 200KB/s while downloading Firefox and Opera and I could watch youtube videos in real time. In other words, I can download a 1mb file using safcom 3g in seconds or send/receive a whole bunch of mails in less than a minute, something that would take 10+ minutes using anything else available in the market, for the same price or anywhere near it.
So by the 24th of last month my mind was pretty much made up, I was ditching KDN’s Butterfly for Safcom’s 2GB bundle. I headed over to the Sarit care centre on Sunday at 10:00, with all the required docs(copies of PIN + ID) and was the first in line but spent 45 minutes at the desk filling in the order form and having it processed. Since it was a Sunday, the order could not be approved so I had to wait for a call from them to head back over, pay and pick up the sim card. I patiently waited for the rest of the week slowly eating up my ‘free’ 700MB. On Wednesday, they leave a message that I have to settle my post paid bill in full first then my order will be approved.
Thursday I headed over to the care centre at 4:30 and waited in line for 30 minutes. When I got the front, I explained to the rep that I had come for my data line and to settle my phone bill. She called some lady at head office(?) to get the order for the 2GB line approved and told me to wait five minutes. 10 minutes later the order was still not approved so she called back and was told to wait another five. 10 minutes later it was the same story so I told her I will wait till this week then come back. Meanwhile, people are waiting in the queue as we are playing the call back after 5 game. 45 minutes spent.
Today, I figured the line should be ready and got to the Sarit care centre at 3:30 to find 8 people in the queue ahead of me and only 3 reps serving us. I vumiliad in the queue for 1 hour before getting to the rep at 4:30. At first she could not find the order in the system but after speaking to the previous rep with whom I had made the order, she finds it. It still had not been approved and makes a call to the same lady that the previous rep was calling last Thursday and the wait five minutes for approval bs starts again. Me and the rep sat idle waiting for the approval while ~20 people are waiting in line. 20 minutes later she still could not find the approval and calls back and gets told that the 2GB bundle does not need approval and they can just process it at the care centre directly(!@#$@!). 5:15 the rep candidly informed me that even if I got the line today it will take forever, like in days or weeks, to get it activated. At this point I begun getting hints that she wanted me to leave and just come pick it up later. At first I could not quite understand why till I realized it was 5:30 i.e. end of the work day. I was determined to ignore any such ideas but 15 minutes later, after the rep really insisted that it could not be activated today and that I will not have to queue when I come pick it up, I gave in. I left 2hrs after I entered the place empty handed.
On the way home, stuck in traffic, I heard a safcom ad on Capital saying that Kenya is hot because its covered with the new Safaricom HotSpot product, 3G. I wish I could get some of that.
This is just completely unacceptable. I’ve spent 4hrs trying to get through what should be a very straight forward process. So I’m adding my safaricom stink on a new facebook group to publicize a problem that has gotten to a ridiculous level. So c’mon, show some pamojaness by joining the group and share your experiences, invite your friends to join, blog about the group, tweet the group whatever. In the end, if we make a big enough stink, Safcom might will act.
With that done, I’m also trying to figure out where in safcom to direct complaints. Any ideas?
06/06 EDITED TO ADD: So I finally got my data line today. A rep from the Sarit care centre called at 4:00pm and gave me some references numbers to use when paying(2,000/-). I got there at 5:40pm and there was no queue at all(phew) but I’d forgotten to carry the reference numbers with me. At the desk I just gave my names and she located the order, got the sim and I paid for it and left. 30 minutes total. Back home, at around 7:00pm, I tried the new line but it was not able to connect at all. Just when as I was about to tweet about the problem, I got a call from someone at safcom asking if the line was working and we spent 1:45hrs trying this and that before it finally worked.
Its taken 10 business days total to get the line and the whole experience was nasty. The people from safcom I’ve spoken with have been very apologetic about the whole thing and its cool but I hope safcom knows that this doesn’t seem to be an isolated occurence.
15/06 EDITED TO ADD: Ok safcom have really screwed me up. I found out that they put me in the 700MB bundle instead of the 2GB bundle! This might just be the last straw for me.
19/06 EDITED TO ADD: I’m tired of calling up customer care to follow up on the being put in the wrong bundle issue and I just don’t have the 2 hours to waste at their customer care centres. I’m completely stuck now. This is it, today I close the damned account, go back to Butterfly and wait for Wananchi to reach my area.
26/06 EDITED TO ADD: So on Monday, I got all my voicemail notifications for the past two weeks(!) and among them was one from Safcom on the 17th telling me that my line was ready and that all I had to do was pay for the 2GB. I did pay at lunch time Monday and till now the line is not active. Apparently they’ve somehow lost my payment and are trying to track it down. All I can say now is that something is terribly wrong at Safaricom. Terribly wrong.
27/06 EDITED TO ADD: For the past two weeks I have had to repeatedly call to have the wrong bundle issue sorted then Safcom lost the payment I made on Monday. I think my line is finally sorted but not before a blasting of the customer care reps + their supervisor to get this done *today*. I got a text saying “Your GPRS line 710608516 is now on the 2GB Bundle plan. Thank You”. Is this what it takes to get any service out of Safaricom? Either be jerked around for weeks or serve a tongue-lashing and get results within hours? Today marks exactly 4 weeks since I applied for the line and what I hope is the beginning of an event free relationship.
30/06 EDITED TO ADD: I spoke too soon, again. I had barely done 100MB on Friday only to get a text on Saturday telling me I was over my credit limit! All I could do at this point was burst into nervous laughter. I mean I have tried everything from patience to a fault, firmness in my requests, persistence and finally resorted to rant and rave but it seems nothing will get safaricom to act. So Saturday I didn’t even bother calling customer care and just headed to the Westgate ‘care’ centre and closed the account. So, for now its back to my Butterfly connection and as for broadband, I’m hoping Wananchi will be in my area soon. Irony is, I had initially intended for this post to be a howto use safariom 3g in Kenya.
Pole sana, I had my issues getting WAP on my phone way back when I was in Kenya so I can only imagine what you are dealing with which is what I had but on the nth level! I hope things change.
Your experience sounds very familiar to something I went through some time back when i took my phone under warranty for repairs. They promised it’d be done in about 3 weeks since it had to be sent to Nairobi and back to Mombasa where I stay.
I waited for that phone for 2 months. And every time I went the queues were always rivaling some that used to be at co-operative bank. After queuing I’d then be told bado and they’d make some numerous phone calls to Siemens Nairobi. I’d get depressed just thinking of going to Safaricom offices. To their credit, the phone was repaired successfully with no charge at all on my side.
Not to mention that their M-Pesa staff need some urgent training. Most of them are rude and uncooperative. The network is mostly low or this thing or the other. Or M-Pesa countrywide is not working. There seems to be a lot of issues with them. Again to their credit, when it works it really works. And it helps.
Safaricom offices in Mombasa sometimes people have to wait outside coz the inside is full!! They should use some of that 20B to build something big. Heck they can even afford to buy a whole building in town center!
Am sorry for wat u guys hav gone through. I have with celtel since 2002 n th storys i hear about safcom r jst crazy. Why does it take u more thm 2days to get a postpaid line in safcom? In celtel it takes 24hours at most. Safcom has good products like m-pesa n th 3G bt gettin th service is another issue. Giv celtel a chance n u wil notice th difference
Pole bana.
I get unlimited 3g here for 15 bucks a month
and its faster than 200K/s download
Pole sana !!
I am also with Celtel Edge, not a glitch since I joined, that is 2 years ago…
Sure it is not as fast as Safaricom 3G, but with Celtel I am sure not get the “Nairobian-Mass-Safcom-Deny-of-Service-Effect”.
Anyway, the Celtel Edge is more than enough for my use… Sure, if you want to watch YouTube and download lot of stuff, then there is only one option, Safaricom 3G.
@Fimbo >> Here ?? What is here ??
Peperuka (from there)
@Peperuka: Its not only about big downloads and youtube for me. In fact with a 2GB cap I’ll have to keep away from those. Its mostly about the pleasant browsing experience; pages just ‘pop up’.
@Wanjiku Unlimited: 2 months!! Mine isn’t really a horror story compared to yours. True, when things work but its really depressing to have to deal with the queues at the care centres only to get to the desk and walk away with nothing.
As for switching to celtel, the Huawei E220 modem (the bambanet modem) is unlocked and wouldn’t mind switching to them if and when they get 3G and I don’t have to wait 2 weeks for a line. As for voice, I can’t change number unfortunately. Too many people have it and in fact just yesterday, I got a call from someone I haven’t heard from in 3 years about a project I’m very interested in.
mine was just connected a few minutes ago after spending the entire week with them on the phone. i got the 2gb bundle, speed so far is good but the nightmare and amount of yelling and standing my ground it too to get it working is totally unfortunate. so disappointing!
was wondering, i have your feed on my google reader but it is not feeding me!
@31337 I might have left something out when I started using feedburner/did an update. Do you know which feed url you’re using? I’ve just tried subscribing and it looks ok…
i snagged it afresh, i wish i could feed all the comments too..will see how it holds up. i cant seem to configure the site comments rss. i prefer that one as it saves me from snagging comments post to post you see. i shall go sit in the corner now.
Wa!Wa!Wa!
This is indeed a horror story….I have nothing more to add…..
Wassup dude.
Really sorry about the experience, i joined your FB group…..mass action…..
how to connect to safaricom GPRS.PLEASE HELP
i am asking why some m-pesa agent charge toomuch when one goes to withdraw cash one have being send to you by sender. there is an agent in makerere university charging 6% on money send to student.
i wanted to know how much they are suppose to charge because the agent is charging to much. i think he should be investigated and chargein the court for for committing crime.
thank you
I empathise with you.I was torn between buying the celtel dial up modem and saf bambanet.After reading your story,i will opt for the celtel one.I think safcom should pull up their socks.Safcom after all ,I have sen is not the better option.
Safaricon as usual overpromise and underdeliver on service. I use Celtel edge not so fast but good enough for the basics- it works!
Dear Customer
I will get to the bottom of this. I am deeply sorry for the inconvenience caused.
safcom or celtel? is the celtel speed 256kbps? coz a guy is sayin it can download songs via limewire, ati 10songs in 30mins true or false, is there any celtel user who can support this. so is celtel installing 3G soon?
Well, the Celtel modem is not locked to its network alone. i’ve used in on safaricom and it registers speeds of about 9.6Mbps.
The modem when logged into the Celtel network, it shows a speed of 236.8Kbps. The rates at Celtel are cheap at 0.01/= per MB. however, i use the unlimited plan and its served me well.
As for Celtel installing 3G, no idea but hope the Zain group will act fast.
thanks, so i will go for the celtel. let me rant about the celtel website and some of the local sites. they do not updated their website. i have gone through the whole celtel kenya site and i found no info about their their data service and the way we have many web designers in kenya, the celtel company can not hire someone to update their website. its a shame…………
I am on both celtel and safaricom postpaid plans and I prefer Celtel coz its available most of the time and cheap (unlimited usage for Ksh 2995.00 per month). Safaricom on the other hand is ON/OFF and charges Ksh 2000.00 for 700Mb which I exhaust in 4days. I agree with you that Celtel website is down most of the time and not updated. I have written to them about this hope they will act.
I got hold of saf edge modem does any one know how to optimize it coz it slow and connection breaks constantly
Safcom have innovative ideas but they really need to get their act together and build some more customer care centres in Nai! Their queues are worse than Co-op lines and their service leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I had gone to replace my lost sim card which took about 30 minutes so went away happy that I didn’t spend 2 hours. Was told to give the line 6 hours to be activated but 6 days later, after calling severally and being asked for another 6 hours, they discover they gave me a replacement of the 0722 series instead of the 0723 series and that’s after I started blasting them on phone! Am headed there now and hoping to be home by 11pm (its 5pm now….)
Hi
Dont worry you not alone in your horror with safcom. Have had more than my share of problems and am switching to celtel.
Initially had the samba, it got spoilt a month to the warranty but they refused to honor saying their was a small slit on the side and someone has tried to open it. Bought another and got it working was having the 300mb option those days. Few months down they brought the 700mb optiion, was tould my line couldn’t be transfered to the 700mb option and had no other option but to get the bambanet.
More money, letters to change the subscription of the other line….
Now have the 700mb option but it seems like you always tend to use more, previous month got a 3500 bill, this month an 8500 bill. Have paid though havent got the actual bill yet. The bill comes in after reminders by safcom to pay. There are months didn’t get bills. For one of the months the bill is not even on the net. We should all move to celtel and teach the people a lesson on taking care of the customers.
By the way, opened the old samba modem, can’t be closed so don’t know what they were talking about. just a false statement about warranty. One thing for sure, most of their customer care reps in 200 are well trained, have to give tham that.
Tc
Hey guys,
I saw some mention in these comments about the Safaricom-branded Huawei E220 being unlocked, is that verified? I’ve got the Safaricom modem and I was thinking of switching to Celtel/Zain if the data rates were cheaper or get cheaper in the future. Also, what’s the process of signing up for data with Celtel/Zain if I want to pre-pay?. Is it as simple as buying a line and activating data usage?
I use my modem under Linux so it’s a bit more manual than you Windows guys, but all you really need is the APN (which is on the Celtel website’s FAQ).
Thanks,
Alan
@Alan I got the modem back in June and it is unlocked. I can’t say for sure what’s happening with the current modems though. Just confirm when purchasing.
As for Zain data prepaid, yeah just get a sim and activate data but they charge 20/- per MB on prepaid!
I got the zain uhurunet unlimited net but its very slow. It takes about 15 minutes to download an MP3 and im usin a download a download accelerator! Zain please introduce 3G. thats where you have a real chance of killing safcom
Pliz i need to activate my Nokia 7370 website.pliz do help me.
What tha @¤*¿?ths safcom guys must b kidgng us,ata kama ni 3G BANA,1000 worth airtime gets exhaustd in les than a day,bwana they gats 2 reduce dem rates,i wndr why i rushd in2 gtng that damnd modem,am seling,any1 intrstd?
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I am very suprised to read this nightmare story. iIgot prepaid hotspot about three months ago. A Safaricom sales lady came to our office looking for sales and i bought it. That evening i was surfing! Looks like its best for one to go prepaid rather than post paid.