Can you imagine the inconvenience that comes with having limited time outside your work and school schedule to do the necessary everyday errands of life only for NETWORK to be your foe and stumbling block.
I have a regular routine of paying for my YAKA at a
certain point in the month like clockwork and I usually do not have an issue.
However this month was quite the exception and it was an extremely frustrating
process. After failing to pay for YAKA for 3 days, on the Iddi public holiday
when I had ample time I decided to do Payway machine hopping to a point of
nearly stalking the store owners. All this was in a bid to make sure my power
does not run out.
I know a few of you are wondering why I did not
attempt to use mobile money to effect payment for my power but MR. NETWORK had
been doing his thing during the same period of time. So when I found a Payway
machine that did not give me the usual NO NETWORK display on the screen I was
thrilled. Yes thrilled but also cautious, so I decided to only purchase YAKA
worth 20,000 which is not my usual monthly allocation. I smiled at the machine
as I pulled out my receipt only to see these words in fine print,
‘Unable to
retrieve TOKEN Number. The Token will be sent to you via SMS. If you do not
receive it within 2 hours please call our support centre on 0800 20 30 20.’
So much as I was sad, I decided to have some faith and
give the service providers a chance and after 2 and a half hours, I made a
follow up call. The conversation with the lady from customer support went
something like this,
Customer
Support Lady: ‘Good afternoon, this is Jane how may I help you?’
(I am using Jane to save the poor lady from being warned or fired.)
Me:
‘Hello, I am calling about my YAKA – UMEME payment issue.’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘Yes, what is the problem?’
Me:
‘I have been trying to pay for YAKA for about 3 days and was only able to today
using a Payway device at Acacia Mall. However, when I received my receipt it
did not have a TOKEN number.’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘Okay, where did you pay from?’
Me:
‘Acacia Mall’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘What time?’
Me: ‘2 and a half hours ago.’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘What number did you enter as customer number and
what is your transaction number?’
I quickly passed on this information hoping that this
would aid her in assisting me to sort out this mix up.
Customer
Support Lady: ‘Okay allow me to call you back.’
Me:
‘I beg your pardon?’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘But have you tried to use mobile money to pay.’
I was rather shocked as this was this lady was from
the Payway customer support department so I was wondering why she would openly
recommend a competitor instead of sorting out a customer's’ issue to ensure I remain
a valued customer. All that aside, this was my response.
Me:
‘Yes i have and the system was down as well and I do not want to risk using it
now and losing money without getting any service as was the case with your
device today. Besides are you sure that the system is working properly?’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘Sometimes it is working sometimes it is not because
I am also getting calls from people who used mobile money and have not been
successful.’
Me:
‘Okay so what next.’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘Allow me to
call you back.’
Now dear readers that was the last time I heard from
her and every time I called her back her line was busy or she made it busy and
that went on for hours. So I eventually got the hint and alternated between
calling her and UMEME customer care line and the latter call eventually went
through.
Customer
Support Lady: ‘Hello, this is UMEME customer care how may I help
you?’
I repeated the entire account I had given the lady
from Payway customer support until we got to this point.
Customer
Support Lady: ‘Okay so what is your account number?’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘So this is your reference number.’
Me:
‘Uhhm, excuse me why am I getting a reference number?
Customer
Support Lady: ‘So that you can follow up on your complaint lodged
if you still do not have your TOKEN number within 2 hours.’
Me:
‘Well it is now a total of 5 hours since I effected payment and since I have
been trying to pay for the last 3 days that means my power will probably go off
tonight.’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘Sorry to hear that but our IT team is working
tirelessly to rectify the issue.’
Me:
‘So in other words, I should go home and wait in the dark until your IT team
sorts out the issue. When will that be?’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘I don’t know.’
Me:
‘From past experience, can you say that it will be back today or tomorrow? When
will I have power again that is the real question?’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘I cannot say it will be tonight or tomorrow. Maybe
it will be back later on but I am not sure’
Me:
‘So as you are not sure I wait without power.’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘You can pay with mobile money.’
Me:
‘I already tried mobile money, the system is also down and what about the
payment I just issued. What about that?’
Customer
Support Lady: ‘I am sorry but our IT team is doing everything to
sort out this issue. Kindly use the reference number when you call back next
time.’
Me:
‘So I will remain in the dark with your reference number. Thank you very much,’
I said as i politely hung up.
I then took to Twitter and within 30 minutes I had a
response from the UMEME team online. This is the trail of feedback I received
from them from that night until I finally received my TOKEN.
The moral of the story is, we have 2 systems for
payment and if they are down dear customer sort yourself out by pulling out
your candle stand or TADOBA (hurricane lamp which is fuelled with Kerosene).
1 DAY LATER
For God and my country.
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