Airtel Nigeria cashiered a system generated message to me: “Dear Valued customer, your data bundle will expire in 2days. To stay connected to the internet on your device, kindly ensure you have sufficient airtime for renewal.”
And again; “Dear Valued customer, your data bundle will expire tomorrow. Don’t miss that important email, social network update and more, kindly ensure you have sufficient airtime for renewal.”
Finally: “Dear subscriber, you have been deactivated. You no longer have an active data plan. Dial *141# to buy a bundle OR *424# to browse at PAYG rates of 5 kobo/KB.”
And so in order not to, ” ….miss that important email,” I had to fund my account with “sufficient airtime” and subscribed for a new data bundle after which, I got this “Your Airtel Unlimited Plan was successful. Your Airtel Unlimited plan is active. Re-insert your battery. This plan is usable on Blackberry devices and other device type. You have successfully subscribed to BB Unlimited Monthly plan. Please restart your phone to get this service running. Visit www.onetouch.ng for more details. Dear subscriber, your current Airtel Unlimited Monthly service expires on Thu 7 Jan,2016. To disable auto renewal, please send stopautorenew to 440.”
That was on Tuesday, December 8 but I couldn’t browse immediately after doing the needful as I was supposed to and I got this feedback after numerous efforts,”unable to connect to the internet, please try again later. If the problem persists please contact your service provider.” It persisted, so I called online customer care agent (call center 111) to complain after which I got a text message “Dear Valued Customer, Thank you for contacting Airtel. Your Case ID is ANG20151208006963825. We will notify you once issue is resolved.”
With the status quo, on Thursday December 10, I called customer care again and care agent said,”I can see you logged this complaint on December 8, we are still working on your line.” Then I reminded the agent that for more than six months running I have had to call care agents to connect me to the internet after having paid for subscription for a service that was advertised to be efficient, provided to folks on the go. Even when all settings are on the default mode on my phone with no problem from my end but theirs and it took (takes) three days or more to resolve complaints, worse from the day I subscribed, the system automatically assign my expiration day for internet service and it doesn’t matter if there was down time ‘forever’ from Airtel’s end from the get-go. That day can’t be negotiated.
“We are so sorry. We will notify you as soon as possible. Thank you for choosing Airtel.” I hear this oft repeated platitude always from care agents. They thank me for choosing Airtel (I wish they could see the puckered brow I wear when I call care agents) even when my complaints hadn’t,been resolved. Does Airtel have a one call resolution policy? Has Airtel coached online care agents the LAST principle in customer service?
Listen, Apologize, Solve problem and Thank. You haven’t solved my challenge and yet, you thank me. For what?
By default on the day I subscribed for this current service I was reminded:”Dear subscriber, your current Airtel Unlimited Monthly service expires on Thu 7 Jan,2016.”
And on that day if the Almighty Creator permits, I will call care agents again and again after subscription to hook me up. Trust me! I have gone through same circuitous nightmare for more than six months.
And I will most likely hear, “We are working on your line,” guess it might be for fraternal eternity again.
Need I tell you? Then I will surely “miss that important email, social network update and more”, even when I “kindly ensured that I had sufficient airtime for renewal.”
I had to visit the Airtel service center in GRA Port Harcourt on December 11,for this particular issue, and was assigned another case identity number: “Your Case ID is ANG20151211007442988, before my internet challenge was resolved. From 8 to 11 December. Airtel deserves commendation for gross inefficiency in service delivery.
Simon Abah
Port Harcourt
Rivers State