MultiChoice Nigeria seems to be operating an advance fee fraud. They are in a partnership with Quickteller to collect payments online from Nigeria.
Several customers including a Herald Nigeria staff that pay for services on Quickteller, are yet to receive services paid for as of 72 hours later.
Yet, DSTV Nigeria, fully aware of the shoddy services it is providing Nigerians, takes no responsibility for troubleshooting the network.
Despite several communications to DSTV staff, customer service, self-help desk and on social media over a period of several days, nothing has been done by DSTV to solve this common problem that customers both in Nigeria and South Africa face.
DSTV expects its customers after paying sums as high as N17,000 for premium and extra view to reach again into their own pockets to find an installer to troubleshoot the problem. Some of these installers charge as high as N10,000.
After contacting an installer, the technician said the problem was from DSTV Nigeria and not from any connections.
Some persons working with DSTV Nigeria told The Herald anonymously, that the practice of frustrating customers is a deliberate ploy by the DSTV in order to get customers to pay before their subscriptions expire or pay several months in advance.
This allegation of sharp practice while not confirmed by The Herald seems to be a plausible explanation for why despite collecting huge sums of monies from its customers, DSTV does not provide the advertised service paid for by the consumer.
In South Africa, the solution became the boycott of DSTV which saw management improve its customer relations and service to customers.
Nigerians need to petition consumer advocacy bureaus and other regulators to shed a light on the 419 practices of MultiChoice with a view to ensuring that the consumer gets value for his money instead of outright theft of hard earned funds by MultiChoice Nigeria.