Consumers are demanding that their telecommunication service providers improve on their service delivery to give value for money.
Even though the industry has been compelled to provide dynamic solutions, these could have the least impact if they fail to satisfy key needs of clients.
Citi Business News has been interacting with some consumers on their assessment of the services they receive from telecom service providers and the responses are mixed.
One displeased consumer, Josephine who is livid over the data charging system, shared her frustration with Citi Business News.
“Recently, my telecom service provider took my ten cedis worth of credit, by the time I woke up, all my credit was gone. At least they should give us the option to choose whether we want to renew our bundle or convert to pay as you go or simply not use internet at all until we decide to do so. Because in Europe, it is not done like that; once your bundle is finished, that’s it, there’s no way the telecom provider will touch your cash credit that you have maybe allocated to make calls for the week or even for the month,” she lamented.
Unfortunately however, Josephine’s story of customer dissatisfaction with telecom operators is among many experiences suffered on a daily basis.
These frustrations range from poor network connections, claims of inadequate call credit even after bundling for a package, poor internet data link, among others.
Some other customers who spoke to Citi Business News also had their grievances to share,
“The problem I have with them is fraud; for example, I was using a particular network which I have never bundled with, yet they sent me a message telling me that a certain amount of money had been deducted from my credit because of a subscription I had done, meanwhile I have never subscribed to any internet bundle with that network”, said Kofi.
Another also complained saying, “They have been cheating us, for example when you buy twenty cedis worth of credit and you bundle ten cedis, when it is finished, you will not be notified before an automatic renewal is done and all your credit is gone”.
Josephine also tells Citi Business News that such occurrences are much more than a violation of her rights as they are likely to trigger the worse in the event of an emergency.
“Imagine someone is dying and I need to make a call in the middle of the night but unfortunately for me, my network provider used my credit without my permission, what do I do in such a situation?”
NCA steps in to resolve situation
The sector’s regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA) in an interview with Citi Business News, admitted to the customer concerns.
Such complaints include; automatic migration to pay as you go when bundle is exhausted without notification to consumers, automatic renewal of one time bundles, deceptive advertising of promotions , lack of proof of consent and retention of customers.
Director of Consumer and Corporate Affairs at the NCA, Nana Dufie Badu assured Citi Business News that the NCA is taking steps to ensure the telcos comply with industry standards.
“The NCA has a few plans in place to make sure that the telcos comply with. First of all, the NCA has acquired a Billing Verification System, which is a system that will give us the opportunity to stimulate consumer behavior and at the end of the period that we have set the system, it will tell us whether the system is accurate or inaccurate.”
Madame Dufie also explained that though the NCA has given the telcos an end of February ultimatum her outfit will possibly extend the grace period depending on the gravity of non-compliance by the end of the period.
“When we do quality of service monitoring which is done on the field, that will probably give us a longer time; probably about three months to be able to. Because NCA can tell the service provider that the quality of service is poor and you have to set up a system to improve communication, so with something like that the NCA can give them a month or two months to procure so the time for non-compliance will be determined on the gravity by the NCA,” she explained.
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By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana